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1) My name is Emily Patton! I am a second year marketing student with a minor in Japanese and planning to join the MIB combined degree program next year. I am 20 years old, from South Florida, and Half Japanese/ Half American. My talents include dancing as I have trained since I was 5, excelling in school, acting as a mentor, and creating interpersonal relationships with others. I am skilled at generating new ideas, being compassionate to those around me, and adapting to new situations. Primarily, my aspirations for myself include making me and my parents proud. They are the reason I have gotten so far in life and my only goal is to give back to them. More specifically however, I would like to start working for a beauty or fashion company as a marketing specialist. I am pursuing the Master’s in International Business so I can connect two very important parts of who I am (being Japanese and American) through beauty and fashion. I believe its a way to help both understand the other more and quell some animosity or misunderstanding. In the past I have worked in the food business, spent two summers as an intern for a Law Office in South Florida, and last summer I interned at a Sephora exclusive make up company. I have traveled back and forth between America and Japan for most of my life and that experience has certainly shaped me. If I were to start this business it would play a very important role in my life. Although it isn’t apart of my plan, life happens while we plan. I would be devoted to doing my very best at marketing an appealing helmet to people to prevent injuries. 

2) The product I am offering to customers is the hat inspired helmet. However, the service would be that of the safety they lack while trying to conform to society. No one should choose not to protect themselves simply because they feel like they would be judged. Although it may seem rudimentary, bicycle and scooter accidents can lead to very serious accidents. 

3) Broadly, I am offering the hat inspired helmet to anyone and everyone who operates a bicycle, skateboard, or moped. But more realistically the product will perform best for the customers who feel pressured not to wear a helmet because it is “inconvenient” or “ugly”. I first noticed the issue at my own University, which includes a demographic of young adults, adult staff, and residents of Gainesville. I am positive it can be applied to a multitude of University campuses, as they do not largely differ and have the relatively same demographic and psychographic. Originally I included motorcyclists, however I have already made the decision they do not apply because the hat design would not cater to the level of protection they need going an upwards of 50-100 mph. The sheer speed at which they go, and the roads they take (highways, freeways, etc.) puts them at a level of risk that my helmets would not be able to provide, and therefore it would be unsafe for them to use in lieu of helmets. What my customers all have in common is: riding a bicycle, scooter, or skateboard to get where they are going and at the same time inevitably putting themselves at risk of getting hurt. 

4) I am sure that there are people who will disagree with my idea. Although it is meeting an unmet need, I know some do not think the need is unmet. There are already helmets, and they have served their purpose dutifully. Specifically, I think of the saying “If its not broken, don’t fix it.” But if this were always true innovation would not occur, and we wouldn’t have things like cars or smart phones. I wholeheartedly believe my product would prove valuable to someone and protect someone from getting hurt. There has to be a reason that so many people on the UF campus ride their bikes, scooters, and skateboards without a helmet on. Hopefully I reasoned correctly and the addition of my product to the market would fit what they need. And what they need is to feel confident and comfortable wearing protective headgear while they get from point A to point B.  

5) I believe what would set me apart from everyone else is my passion for fashion and keeping up with trends. One of the issues my customers face is feeling too embarrassed to wear a helmet. If I could create a helmet that utilized currently technology and safety methods to maximize protection with less bulk, I feel like I could really set myself apart. I do not think it would completely replace the helmet but act more as niche product that eventually spreads out to wider horizons. The styles of the hats, the designs, how we present them to the market would make us unique. 

The aspects of my business concept that appear to be weaker is first my ability to construct the design I have envisioned. It requires a lot of research and testing to get the material to be durable enough to provide the same amount of safety as a helmet does or more. Also I have been made aware that there are already hat-helmets on the market. However, the elements of my plan that come together are also those that set me apart from competitors. I am not looking at this through a manger or even an entrepreneurs perspective. Rather I am looking at it from a marketer’s perspective who has an interest in fashion and trends. Without even realizing it, I chose to solve an issue I saw occurring around me by trying to make it more appealing / fashionable so that people would actually start wearing their head gear.