9A – Testing the Hypothesis, Part 2

Interviews Summary:

 My product, being social media brand management for athletes and celebrities has a very niche market.  Apart from these types of people and corporations, there is no real need for an everyday person to utilize this service. My target market made it difficult to find interviewees who should have the unmet need, but do not. Most of my interviews were with people like myself, mostly college students, as I do not have the contact information of any athletes or celebrities, my primary target demographic. My interviews, for this reason, were not as beneficial to my research as they potentially could have been. From my interviews, however, I was able to draw conclusions for various areas of the who, what, and why. In terms of “who”, many of my interview subjects felt like there are many celebrities who would normally have use for my product, but for whatever reason, do not. Most referenced the types who do not often utilize social media, and one of my interview subjects, Luke, stated that some celebrities and athletes who already have massive followings and presence on social media may not have use for my service, as they may already do that themselves or through their agent. In terms of “what”, my interviews opened up separating the difference between people who want management through their social profiles, and people who want management that included social but went far beyond it. In terms of “why”, people outside the celebrity status bubble would have a different reason for pursuing this service. James pointed out that non-celebrities do not have a monetary incentive to use this service. Many celebrities get paid through advertisements on social media, which is an alternative reason a person could utilize my service. This was a point that was echoed by both Luke, and my other interview subject, Julia. Though the need for non-celebrities to utilize this service may be minuscule, Thomas pointed out that regular citizens may want to use it to expand their web presence, and to allow them to know how to properly post through social media to prevent any issue with any future employer. Social media management for regular people would be more of a “rules of the road” type of management that they could apply to their future usage. I want to avoid this type of service being given to our target demographic, however, as it would cannibalize our management.

            Despite my overall struggle with interviews, I was able to have one interview with an executive of a fortune 500 company. Unfortunately, that person asked that their name and company be kept anonymous, so, for the sake of simplicity, I will be referring to this person as John. John works for a B2B fortune company. Despite many companies utilizing social media to interact with customers, the executive stated that the lack of knowledge that the general public has about their company prevents them from pursuing higher brand recognition through their media platforms. They share a lot of common traits with companies and people who would utilize this service, but their lack of interaction with the public gets rid of the necessity. 

                          Inside the Boundary                                  Outside the Boundary

Who is in: Celebrities, Athletes, and Businesses with a large amount of interaction with the general public	Who is Not: Non-celebrities, celebrities and athletes who do not interact through social, and business to business corporations
What the Need Is: Creation, management and expansion of one’s brand through social media	What it is Not: General management or a disposable set of rules and regulations to be taught to target demographic customers.
Why the Need Exists: People who exist in the public eye are not normally trained on how to professionally use social media, and do not know the ways to use it to grow their brand	Alternative Explanations: People want to make money through social media.