Assignment 29-Venture Concept No. 2

The opportunity presented to me is the untapped potential of relatively inexpensive, personalized beauty products that are natural, organic, and delivered straight to your door. This opportunity has been created by consumers’ shifting preferences for naturals since “health from the inside out” and harmless beauty are becoming the new thing, and consumers want to be as sustainable as possible. This market is found pretty much everywhere, though would be concentrated more so in middle and upper classes, though the lower classes would be tapped due to the cheaper prices of the products I am presenting. Currently, consumers are satisfying this need with overpriced “natural” products sold in stores that still do not suffice for many consumers. They are finding that the products are not a perfect fit for them and it shows in their effectiveness. The opportunity is big here, as it encompasses this need for mass customization and in our fast-paced modern age where almost everyone prefers online ordering over the traditional brick-and-mortar approach. There is also the potential to partner with Amazon or other major online retailers to market this product and serve consumers. Because this is a growing trend having a lot to do with sustainability, the opportunity will be here for a long time until and unless another company swoops in on this.

My offering is an online platform where consumers have access to information about different ingredients in our products and how they may serve them (for example, Vitamin C in skincare products helps your skin rejuvenate and helps with dullness by giving it a glow). Once they are finished learning about different products, they may pick and choose what they’d like to include in their various products. This may look like a body lotion for sensitive skin, so in this case they would include coconut or avocado oil as a base with aloe to soothe dry skin, etc. This feature is available for all products on the website. Once consumers are done, they may add to their cart and have it delivered right to their door. They may save their recipe for future use, and there would even be a feature where consumers answer a few questions about their needs and receive a recommended product recipe that they are able to edit at their leisure to get exactly what they want. The base price for different products would vary (shampoos, lotions, moisturizers, deodorants, etc.), but the price would increase incrementally as they add more ingredients and depending on their ratio. I would also maybe incorporate optional, safe fragrances in the products for those who are not as sensitive to fragrances on their skin. There could also be advice about certain mixtures--for example, warnings that some ingredients together may smell weird, etc. 

I think consumers would switch to this because they love to have the freedom of picking what goes into their products. I, along with many other people I know, have done enough of my own research to know what I need to do to make my own products, but as an individual consumer I have been held back by the fact that these ingredients like green tea oil, etc. are not offered at low prices in small quantities. For this reason, I have never been able to get around to making it, aside from the fact that I haven’t found the time in my busy schedule, which I’m sure many consumers may relate to. As far as I know, there are no competitors in this specific arena right now. My business concept would be defined by the cheaper prices because there is no storefront, no middlemen, decreased fixed costs, and many other factors. I would be able to offer prices lower than many consumers have been able to find for a product like this. Packaging would be simplistic, and consumers could even send in their old bottles for refills to get a discount on their order so that the company is more sustainable and this itself would decrease variable costs for each unit all while making consumers happy. I would also like to pick several charities supporting nature conservation efforts and similar causes that a portion of each purchase could be donated to. I would also like to emphasize this corporate responsibility by partnering with some charities like Salvation Army or something similar so that products from my company can be donated to those in need, or even allowing customers to choose at checkout if they would like to purchase another product to be donated to these charities. It would engage customers in this responsibility.

The website would pretty much be a culmination of every DIY recipe on the internet like this, with more in depth information about the benefits.

A lot of the feedback I got about this concept was very positive and my peers were very welcoming of the idea, noting that this is definitely a strong consumer trend at the moment. Because of this, I tweaked my idea a little bit to include social responsibility since it is something I, along with a lot of consumers, support and would like to help out with. It would definitely be a product more consumers would be interested in if they knew that they were helping out in some way.