IT Elective - Assignment 5

Given the chance to have your own techno business, discuss it's nature and target clients (3000 words).

Last meeting in our technopreneurship subject, we are tasked to present in the class regarding our business plan which is by group. We presented a business plan based upon our love, hate and irritants. Our business plan was all about operating an all-around shirt printing and customizing stuffs, although this kind of business was not new at all. As we discussed our business plan we came up with the idea to make the students, government institutions and the likes as our target clients. For the reason that students will always like the idea of having their shirts customized with their own designs.
We all know that our business plan was not that unique at all, but we tried to be different from the other existing ones.
But now, our facilitator gave us another situation, to have our own techno business and also to discuss our target clients and nature of business.
Given the chance to have my own techno business I would like to focus my techno business on mobile applications. Since almost everyone around the globe has their own mobile phone. My techno business centers on mobile security, due to the fact that this precious gadget is so easy to get stolen by anyone with the intention to steal along with your private data, contacts and your sensitive information e.g. bank pins/accounts. Most of the people with the experienced of having their mobile phones stolen always wanted to retrieve their data and as much as possible their hard earned mobile phones in which had became a part of their lives. Although it is very difficult to retrieve a stolen mobile phone, most of the people resort to the decision to permanently block their stolen mobile phones. But I believe that blocking a stolen mobile phone is not effective because there are many softwares that have the power to unblock a blocked mobile phone. All you have to do is google it or you can turn to some mobile phone technicians. Thus turning the idea to block a stolen mobile phones useless. In today’s technological advancement, virtually, there is nothing a man can’t do. The possibilities are endless. The core of my techno business is security. The following list will be the features of the mobile application that I will develop:
a. encrypts valuable and sensitive data (e.g. bank pins/accounts)
b. retrieves the encrypted data from the mobile phone
c. the mobile application will be hidden from the running task and processes and cannot be uninstalled without providing the security key.
d. capable of pinpointing the culprit using GPS.
I intend to integrate my mobile phone application into different mobile phone platforms. We all know that there is a vast platforms in mobile phones nowadays. The very common is Nokia’s proprietary platform the S40, this platform is the very common among Nokia mobile phones, I refer them as “dumbphones” because S40 does not support true multi-tasking and doesn’t have a native code API for third parties, its user interface may appear to be more responsive and faster than other Nokia platforms. This S40 platform is based on Java, in lieu with this; it can only accept mobile applications written in Java ME, with a file extension of .jar. S40 platform has its direct competitor, another proprietary platform made by Sony Ericsson, it can multitask applications which is a lack in Nokia’s S40 platform. Sony Ericsson’s proprietary platform also utilizes java applications. Nokia’s S60 on the other hand has the ability to multitask many applications. And its operating system is symbian, or much likely known as “smartphones”. The S60 Platform is a software platform for mobile phones that runs on Symbian OS. S60 is currently amongst the most-used smartphone platforms in the world. Nokia made the platform open source and contributed it to the Symbian Foundation. S60 is much complex than the S40 platform, able to handle .jar applications as well as its native applications with the .sis/sisx file extensions. Also, S60 looks like and feels like a mini computer, it needs a lot of processor power and memory or RAM in order of it to function well. This platform had gone through many iterations, from the oldest S60 1st edition, and now the latest iteration the symbian^3. There are a lot of mobile phone platform that is readily available to choose from.
Since there are a lot of platforms for mobile phones, In my business, I will cover all mobile platforms for greater support and integration. Covering all mobile platforms means that I will have a broad selection of clients, from ordinary people to more complex ones. I will also have to advertise my product and services by all means necessary.
It is also important to have a target market for the business. Targeting your market is simply defining who your primary customer will be. The market should be measurable, sufficiently large and reachable. Once your target market is defined through your knowledge of product appeals and market analysis, and can be measured, you should determine whether that target market is large enough to sustain your business on an ongoing basis. In addition, your target market needs to be reachable. There must be ways of talking to your target clients. A market is simply any group of actual or potential buyers of a product. There are three major types of markets. First is the consumer market: Individuals and households who buy goods for their own use or benefit are part of the consumer market. Drug and grocery items are the most common types of consumer products. Second is the industrial market. Individuals, groups or organizations that purchase your product or service for direct use in producing other products or for use in their day-to-day operations. And lastly the reseller market. Middlemen or intermediaries, such as wholesalers and retailers, who buy finished goods and resell them for a profit. Identifying your spot on the limelight is an edge for you. You’ll have the idea to where and whom and what sector you aim to. In this business, it is very important to have a link between the developers and the end users, so it is necessary to put up a dedicated webpage for the product. The webpage will contain essential information about the product as well as technical support and the BUY section. In order to market your product or service, it is imperative that you tailor your marketing and sales efforts to specifically reach the segment of population that will most likely buy your product or service. It is critical that you first determine or clearly identify your primary market. Your energies and funds then can be spent more efficiently.
The first step in identifying your target client is understanding what your products/services have to offer to a group of people or businesses. To do this, identify your product or service's features and benefits. A feature is a characteristic of a product/service that automatically comes with it. For example, if your product has encryption capabilities, that's a feature. The benefit to the customer, however, is security. While features are valuable and can certainly enhance your product, benefits motivate people to buy. Another example is anti-lock brakes; they are features on a car, but the benefit to the consumer is safety. By knowing what your product/service has to offer and what will make customers buy, you can begin to identify common characteristics of your potential market and clients. For example, there are many different clients who desire safety as a benefit when purchasing a car. Rather than targeting everyone in their promotional strategy, a car manufacturer may opt to target a specific group of consumers with similar characteristics, such as families with young children. This is an example of market segmentation. It is a natural instinct to want to target as many people and groups as possible. However, by doing this your promotional strategy will never talk specifically to any one group, and you will most likely turn many potential customers off. Your promotional budget will be much more cost effective if you promote to one type of customer and speak directly to them. This allows you to create a highly focused campaign that will directly meet the needs and desires of a specific group. Again, this is called market segmentation.
Market segmentation is the process of breaking down a larger target market into smaller segments with specific characteristics. Each group requires different promotional strategies and marketing mixes because each group has different wants and needs. Segmentation will help you customize a product/service or other parts of a marketing mix, such as advertising, to reach and meet the specific needs of a narrowly defined customer group.
After identifying and defining the possible segments within your target market, you must face the critical question of whether it would be profitable and feasible for you to pursue each identified segment, or choose one or two. To make this decision, you must answer the following questions:
What is the financial condition of my firm? If you have limited resources at this time, you may want to direct your marketing efforts to only one segment. A concentrated advertising campaign to reach one market segment is likely to be more effective than a diffuse campaign attempting to reach two.
What segments are my competitors covering? Are they ignoring smaller segments that I can possibly exploit? Is the market new to your firm? If so, it may be better for you to concentrate on one segment for now, and expand to others when your initial segment has been successfully penetrated. Developing new markets takes a greater commitment of time, money and energy.
Things to consider: If you pursue one segment of your target market and the demand for your product decreases, so will your financial strength. In essence, you are putting all your eggs in one basket. When your firm becomes well established in a particular market segment, it may be difficult for you to move to another segment. This may occur due to your market reputation or popularity.
After you have mastered one particular segment, you can then begin to develop another. Directing your firm's marketing efforts at more than one market segment by developing a marketing mix for each specific segment is known as multi-segment strategy. An example of a product that was traditionally targeted at women and is now being targeted with variations in strategy at men is hair coloring. The marketing mixes for multi-segment strategy may vary by product feature, price, promotional material and distribution methods. If product variations requires additional work, you may incur higher production costs. Additionally, different promotional plans and distribution efforts will result in higher marketing costs. Plan carefully, to make sure the costs don't outweigh the benefits. Now Think About All The Characteristics You Have Identified And Start Formulating The Promotional Campaign That Will Best Address This Specific Target Market. Start To Formulate A Picture Or Description Of Your Ideal Client. Make Sure Everything You Do, From Design, Price To Marketing, Addresses Your Market.
Having a software business that is centered on writing mobile applications nowadays is profitable, due to the fact that most of us have their own mobile phones disregarding their platform types. It is still important to secure every software from software crackers and you should provide a constant update to your products so that your clients will be satisfied. In a nutshell, my techno business focuses on software on mobile phones, this includes application, utilities and most of all security.
Considering the type of business that I will be handling, it will be of great help if I will try my luck and push it into a partnership business. A partnership is an arrangement where entities and/or individuals agree to cooperate to advance their interests. In the most frequent instance, a partnership is formed between one or more businesses in which partners (owners) co-labor to achieve and share profits or losses. Also Partnerships have widely varying results and can present partners with special challenges. Levels of give-and-take, areas of responsibility, lines of authority, and overarching goals of the partnership must all be negotiated. In addition, being in a partnership will boost my techno business, but keep in mind to work with your partner harmoniously to avoid conflicts and the likes.

As a whole, my techno business’ nature is software developing in mobile phones. And its type of business venture is partnership. Also, my target client ranges from ordinary mobile phone user up to the power user ones.