Have you ever found yourself a victim of misplacing a personal item?Discuss

The Opportunity:
Have you ever found yourself a victim of misplacing a personal item? The psychology of forgetting where you misplaced something is actually very unusual to psychologists around the world today. In fact our brain has multiple theories/reasoning as to why we forget things. Elizabeth Loftus, one of Psychology’s prime memory researchers, claims that we have 4 different major reasons (theories) for forgetting. The first reason is retrieval failure. This is where the brain follows a theory known as decay theory. This theory entails that as each new memory is formed, another fades/disappears. (Cherry, Web) The second theory is the Interference Theory which argues that different memories compete with others and cause us to forget based upon these actions. (Cherry, Web) The third theory is the failure to store which can better be described as forgetting a minor detail within an aspect. (Cherry, Web) Lastly, there is the Motivated Forgetting Theory as to why we forget things. This theory is when we forget situations such as traumatic/disturbing events and experiences. (Cherry, Web) Forgetting things is a continuously studied topic within the Psychology field because there are so many different theories and conflictions as to how and why the brain operates the way it does.
The brain is almost always susceptible to forgetting and even the most prestigious of Psychologists/Psychiatrists are unsure of why. Our Mobile Phone App, My Luxury App, aims to help consumers locate their most valuable of items. In human nature, we tend to constantly forget where our most prized possessions are located.
However, perhaps consumers haven’t misplaced their luxury items. What if more dangerously, their favorite luxury item has been stolen. A recent study across 5 countries, including the US and the UK, have reported a $47 billion worth of valuable items stolen every year. (Lost and Found Reports, Web) Regardless of whether you have simply lost your valuable items or were a victim of fraud, our Mobile App Software can provide the luxury goods market with a window of opportunity to help their consumers protect themselves against the inevitable, forgetting or the unthinkable, fraud.
In 2014, the global expenditure within the luxury goods sector amounted to $1 trillion. (McCarthy, Web) Each year the luxury good markets can guarantee clients typically with larger amounts of disposable income to buy their products. Due to this, we feel we can pitch our App Software to the larger luxury goods retailers/manufacturers to help solve the crisis of the inevitable forgetting/fraud.
The value of the Global luxury goods sector has been steadily increasing in years 1995-2014. (Value of the Global Luxury Market 1995-2014, Web)
http://www.statista.com/statistics/266503/value-of-the-personal-luxury-goods-market-worldwide/
http://www.ibisworld.com/industry/default.aspx?indid=1965
http://www.ibisworld.com/industry/sunglasses-stores.html
http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702304117904579501410168111866
http://www.formotus.com/14018/blog-mobility/figuring-the-costs-of-custom-mobile-business-app-development
http://www.shopliftingprevention.org/what-we-do/learning-resource-center/statistics/
http://mozy.com/about/news/reports/lost-and-found/
http://clients1.ibisworld.com/reports/us/industry/default.aspx?entid=5817

What is driving the need? MEGAN M.
What is the extent of the need?
Stats & Primary Data?

The Business Concept: CHRIS A.
Our Solution: My Luxury Location
Unique Value Proposition
Our appware technology can offer the luxury goods businesses a way to help their consumers stop fraud of high valued items.
Feasibility Analysis
Economic Model (4 elements)
Operating Leverage-
Revenue Drivers – Sunglasses (The manufacturer for Oakley and/or Rayban)
Handbags and designers (Louis V)
Winter Coats: Canada Goose
Watches/bands of watches: Swatch Group
Headphones: Beats or Bose
High Margins
Low Volumes-
Key Operational Issues

The Business Model:
How do we create value? What do we do?
From whom do you create value?
Market segmentation & target (support w/ research) CHRIS D.
Means of differentiation
Source of internal advantage? (What gives us competitive advantage)
How do you make money? (Economic Model & Breakeven Analysis)
What type of business are you?
We create an immeasurable amount of value when you put one of these chips into any item that you deem is valuable. Our product is intended to be used by the middle to upper class, more specifically in the high wealth areas throughout the US. We will be targeting our efforts to our consumers in major cities and states that have the disposable income to afford this and will also be able to understand how to use our product better. Those in generations X and Y are much more technologically savvy, and understand the ease of use of our product. Those in the older generation do not pay attention to the technological advances that occur year after year, so they would be less likely to buy into our product. Our microchips can be placed into anything from watches, keys, computers, phones, iPods, jewelry etc. and offer the ability of locating your items if they have been misplaced or even stolen. Along with this, you also have to ability to even put these chips into sentimental items if that is your desire, because some things are priceless and we offer a product that negates that worry for anyone in the future. We also have a cell phone app that could be downloaded onto other devices, that then registers you as a customer and activates the chip’s location detection system. Once you buy anything with our chip inside you download this app for free, and through this you can track any of your items 24/7. Being able to sell these microchips to major upscale retailers provides a huge market that has already been established as the more wealthy population. Those who typically shop and are loyal to these retailers understand the quality and worth of these items very well. They understand the importance of never losing those items or having them get stolen and never found. They also would be the most inclined to pay for this microchip because they have the disposable income to do so.
There are no known competitors in our industry because these microchips are not being used for every day items of the general population. The only known source of finding your lost items is through Apple and it is only used for their products which consist of phones, computers, Ipod and tablets. However, their platform is faulty because if your item is not on, or the service was not set up correctly, you cannot find that lost or stolen item. When it comes to our products, these microchips stay on at all times and will be linked to our servers as well so there is a backup plan to the average consumer having a problem locating their items.
Our company does not own any intellectual property or patents, because these microchips already exist so we are just simply performing a connection service to these manufacturers and the retailers of major consumer items in the US. We have the competitive advantage of being the first company to recognize this opportunity and being the first ones to tap into this market as well. Our marketing efforts and expenses will be minimal because we do not have to market ourselves directly to the consumer. We are initiating business between to already existing companies and helping them discover an opportunity within their own markets. Consumers already know what these products are because they are well known brand names and these companies already market themselves.
We are a business primarily focused on growth, with an open mind to selling off some of the share of the company later on to make us become a salary substitute firm. Initially we are growth-oriented because we recognize this monumental gap in the retailing industry where consumers lose items and never fully see the economic value that they invest in the beginning when they purchase it. We see the potential for huge growth of the microchips being manufactured in almost anything in the future. Having the ability to locate anything you need and never having to worry about that is something anyone will pay for If they have the ability to do so. The necessary funding that we require is not too substantial, given that we do not have to produce a product we are just the middleman between these manufacturers and retailers. The funding that we will require will come from any Venture capitalist or angel investor that have ties into these retailing companies. We would like to do it this way for multiple reasons, the first being the immediate market penetration that this investor would have. They could potentially be the only retailer who has this technology in their products and be the dawn of a new era. Along with this, they will pay initially higher for this service from us because when this proves successful, they can patent this idea into their own products and be the sole owners of the idea. Being funded by someone of this nature brings in extreme amounts of wisdom and also large amounts of cash willing to be invested. As our service becomes leveled off and the growth starts to settle we can then sell our portion off to the investor and they can be the sole owners.
We will also register as a Limited Liability Company (LLC) because it provides great tax incentives, as well as protection against litigation. These microchips are not ours and if something were to happen, we would not be responsible because we did not manufacture these items.

SWOT Analysis: MAHMOUD S.

Porter’s 5 Forces Industry Analysis: MAHMOUD S.

Type of Funding Best Fit:

WORKS CITED
Cherry, Kendra. “Reasons Why We Forget – 4 Explanations for Forgetting.” About Education. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.
“Lost and Found Reports.” Lost & Found – Data Loss Research – Mozy. Web, 2012. 26 Apr. 2015.
McCarthy, Niall. “How The Rich Spend Their Money: The Global Luxury Goods Market In 2014.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 25 Jan. 2015. Web. 25 Apr. 2015.
“Value of the Global Luxury Goods Market 1995-2014 | Statistic.” Statista. 2014. Web. 27 Apr. 2015.