9A – Testing the Hypothesis Part 2

• Who: Through my interviews I was able to identify groups of people who fall outside of my product’s market audience, despite the fact they should have the unmet need I identified. These were mainly people who were already relatively conscious about healthy diets for their dogs. Four of my interviewees had already adopted health-conscious diets for their dogs. They all shared the early misconception that the dog foods sold in stores were the healthiest options for their pets. It was interesting to see that all of them had adopted healthier diets for their pets after they had done some form of research on their own part, rather than hearing it from their veterinarian or other pet owners.

•  What: The overall goal is to improve the quality of life for people’s pets but obstacles like cost and convenience are too great to make a 100% transition over to my proposed solution for this unmet need.

• Why: The need is not any different across the board, it just depends on people’s desire and ability to provide healthier options for their dogs.

                                   

                    Inside the Boundary                        Outside the Boundary

Who:
	·      Pet owners, primarily dog owners to begin with.	·      Anyone who does not own pet(s)
	·      Employees of pet clinics, pet stores
What:	·      Animal pounds
	·      To improve the quality of food provided for pets. ·      To put pets at less of a risk of diseases/health complications	·      To completely transition all dog food over to only freshly sourced and prepared ingredients.
Why:	·      Shortcuts are taken to produce food for people’s pets ·      There is less coverage on how animal food is created so that allows for cheaper methods and ingredients to be used without penalization.

Solving The Problem

As mentioned in my previous posts, the opportunity that I have identified is making fresh and nutritional dog food easily accessible for dog owners. Many pet owners are unaware of the fact that the dog food advertised to them in stores and on television is ultimately detrimental to their pet’s overall health so this opportunity shouldn’t be difficult to market, since most people want what is best for the pets. One challenge that I foresee is finding a way to raise people’s awareness and spread this information to pet owners. The solution/product is straightforward, in that, all that needs to be done is to provide freshly and properly prepared ingredients to pet owners. The food can be prepared in USDA certified kitchens and frozen without preservatives before it is shipped out to customers. This leaves customers with only having to pop the food in the refrigerator until they are ready to feed their dog!