Tag: Evaluating options

I employed some rudimentary market research to compare the validity of the remaining two app concepts. I explored possible gaps in the market, with a view to identifying who is already doing something similar, pinpointing an untapped niche opportunity and the associated target market and formulate some semblance of a unique selling point to satisfy the needs and wants of that target market .

I looked at the mentor platform theme first and found that there are already quite a few platforms for matching mentors with mentees. Some are focused on a particular niche area, such as Mentor, for professional women, and iMentor for US students, but others, such as FindAMentor and Mentor City are more general, covering a wide range of mentoring opportunity.

I could have spent more time researching the market for mentoring, with the aim of identifying a niche to serve with a unique selling point, but decided to look at my cookery competition theme to see if I could spot any obvious opportunity there.

There are a LOT of recipe apps and websites. Too many to count. One of the most popular being “Yummly“, which carries more than 2 million recipes, and boasts a
worldwide membership base of over 30 million subscribers. There is clearly a huge appetite (pardon the pun) for recipe apps, which indicates that opportunity could well be present, if only I can find a fresh and unique angle that appeals to the market, whilst fulfilling the jam theme of “Guide”, “Restricted” and “Opponent”.

I then focused on cooking apps with a competitive/challenge element, and found surprisingly few. There is “Food Fu” and “Come Dine With Me”, which have (iOS only) apps that provide for holding a competition among your friends. And then there’s Reddit’s “52 weeks of cooking” challenge, which provides a theme each Monday, and encourages over 38 thousand subscribers to “cook something new”. There are also some small niche offerings, like “meatless Monday”.

I remembered seeing a Facebook group called “Rate my plate”, where members post pictures of what they are about to eat, for other members to judge and comment on, largely with derogatory, but playful, humour.

This group has a following of close to 2 million, which indicates that there are plenty of people that enjoy having their efforts judged (and even overtly ridiculed!) and plenty of people that are more than happy to oblige.

I suspect that this group (and other similar groups) grew out of the “Nailed it!” phenomenon that swept the internet, where people posted the amusing comparative results of their efforts to emulate culinary creations that they found in the internet:

With the current health-driven push for people to cook more fresh food at home (rather than rely on takeaway and convenience meals) and considering the popularity of recipe apps, and communal food judging, I believe that there is a strong USP to be found with a fusion of the 2 concepts. This is the concept that I will pursue.