7A

1.       The opportunity I have decided to pursue is the emergence of E-Cigarettes, and their opportunity to take over the tobacco industry.

a.       The Who: The Electronic Cigarette industry versus the Tobacco industry

b.      The What: With so many cancer-related deaths every year, more and more citizens are switching to electronic cigarettes, because it is perceived as a healthier option

c.       The why: A change in consumer demand is paving the way for electronic cigarette companies to make some money

2.       I believe that with the change in demand that has come on so prominently with E-Cigarettes, I believe there is a huge unmet consumer need for them.

a.       Testing the who: Other than the two industries competing for consumer demand, people who currently smoke tobacco have a huge unmet need for E-Cigarettes. It could prolong their lives by drastically improving their health.

b.      Testing the what: Would this demand also apply to people who smoke non-tobacco products like marijuana and hookah? Would this be mainly for older citizens, or a conglomerate of ages?

c.       Testing the why: I believe the why I have identified should hold for most of the people who smoke tobacco products. Tobacco has been proven to harm people’s lives, while greatly increasing the risk of cancer. Assuming that most humans are rational beings, the why should thus hold for most of these people?

3.       For my five interviews, I tried to get a mixture of people to ensure that I got the most out of my time. For example, I interviewed three smokers, and two nonsmokers. Among the three smokers, I asked a college smoker, a middle-aged smoker, and an older smoker. This way I could get the most out of my results. From the answers I received in my interviews, it seems that even though tobacco has been proven to negatively affect your life, the people who smoked that I interviewed were not so easy to give it up for E-Cigarettes. Some of the reasons I received is that it helped them relieve stress at work, it was something they have been doing for so long it would be hard to stop, societal pressure, etc. This wasn’t what I expected to hear from the smoking group. However, both of the nonsmokers agreed heavily that the emergence of the E-Cigarette market is a huge gain for society. This will give people the chance to improve their health and their lives, they both stated. So, these interviews really changed what I know about this opportunity. It seems that many smokers may not actually support the emergence of electronic cigarettes because it goes against everything they know. This is an opportunity I would have to do much more research on to get a true conclusion.