25A- What's Next

Existing Market: As for what’s next for Gator Garnish I truly believe that networking is the way forward. On Twitter, you see it every day a young aspiring chef posting photos of his food in a post letting people know that they are available for catering services. I believe extend my cooking classes reach is what truly important. Spreading the word through social media, in conjunction with the real-life classes and the YouTube cooking video would truly create a viral product. Having a foot in every form of social media so you can get the most widespread demographic is my end goal with Gator Garnish. I spoke to three sophomores in my bio study group about the market and my product. I explained my product and all the parts of it and asked the first question “What should I be adding to my product?” Ana S. said, “Fun events like Taco Tuesdays and tender Thursdays.” She elaborated that by having these special events where we sell food, we can get more and more young adults into the class. Michael C. said, “A discord chat where all people can join and get updates about event and classes.”. Next, I asked the final question “What do you think people will want next?”, Frankie P. said “More volunteer work honestly, instead of only just feeding the less fortunate more volunteer opportunities like a soup kitchen or food drives would be a good addition.”, I walked away from my interviews with a good idea of how Gator Garnish should evolve with business.

New Market: A completely different market then the one that I am catering to would be to open a restaurant or deli. The reason why this would be the opposite of my product is, I deal with teaching people how to cook so they can be independent of restaurants. I believe that this information will be extremely valuable to my product because once people who are not remotely interested in cooking hear about the value and the opportunity to give back Gator Garnish provides; I think they will give it a second thought. On this note, I spoke to Lucas T. and Shania S. young adults who do not cook and have no desire to learn, and I explained what Gator Garnish was and what it offers. I also explained the community giveback day and using the feedback I received about my idea from the last set of interviewees, I also included the fact that we would also do food drives and soup kitchens. When I finished my presentation, I asked my first question “How do you think people

like you will receive my product?” Lucas said, “I honestly think it would make be people give cooking a second thought, when you explain how much they’re receiving for the price I think they would at least give it a shot once.”.  Finally, I asked, “What do you think I should add or change to reach the most people.” Shania said, “Personally I don’t think the patreon page should be exclusive to club members, you should have a separate twitter or Facebook page so people can always keep up with the club or its events.”, this surprised me because I had never considered this I thought that updating the club was all that matters but keeping a strong online presence is vital to keep the product afloat.             I am not very surprised by this new market because just as my main market the thing that will get the customer to purchase is convincing. If I can sell my product properly and relate it to the customer personally then my product will keep growing. My main market and opportunity have not changed as it coincides with this new market I have discovered. I need to take this information and cultivate Gator Garnish so it could be open to as many people as possible.