I still don’t have any experience in the
food industry and if we’re being completely honest, I’m the last person that
should be opening a café because I don’t like coffee or tea and the only times
I really visit cafes is when my friends suggest them as a place to meet up.
However, even in the small amount of time that I’ve spent in cafes I’ve been
able to identify my opportunity. My solution revolves around the problem of my
food always getting cold or warm too soon and my experience of eating a large
portion of my meals out of mugs and bowls. In regards to the food itself, my
limited cooking experience should be enough in the initial start of the café
and after a little time I could always look into hiring someone with more cooking
experience to branch out the menu.
My aspiration for Mugged is still to
become a unique café that provides a small town feel, even in a larger city
like Gainesville. I want it to become a place where people can go to have lunch
or a cup of coffee and just forget about everything else going on, if only for
a couple of minutes. One of my commenters suggested adding a small library in
my café in order to draw in more people and I love the idea. Beyond attracting
costumers, I think it would help my café embody the small town feel that I’m
going for by creating a cozy place to sit. If I were to start the business I realize that
I would have to play a large role in the beginning but I would hope that after
Mugged became an established café, I would be able to start stepping back and
playing less of a hands on role. However, once I retire from my profession, I
could see myself taking on a larger role in the store by doing something simple
like just walking around and talking with costumers.
With Mugged, I’m offering a unique twist
on a traditional café where everything will be served in mugs. Since everything
will be served in mugs, the food will remain cold or hot longer for a greater
period of time; which will allow people to have longer conversations before
their food becomes unappealing to eat. Mugged will also provide an atmosphere unlike
any of the cafes in Gainesville are currently offering.
Mugged is targeted at people between the
ages of 13 and 50 who enjoy eating at cafes, with a specific focus on college
students. I want to appeal to the majority of Gainesville residents and since a
little over seventy percent of residents are between fifteen and fifty-five,
they are my target group. In the beginning, Mugged would be focused on college
students because of the close proximity to campus as well as their willingness
to try new places. I would hope expend to my larger target group within a year,
after Mugged starts to gain a reputation. I want to provide a place that’s
great to grab lunch with friends but also a place where you can quietly enjoy a
good book as you drink your coffee. Above all, I want Mugged to embody the
atmosphere of a small town café as soon as you step in the doors. With diverse
food and drink options, Mugged should appeal to anyone that likes to eat or
drink.
The prices at Mugged are expected to be
extremely comparable to other coffee shops around the Gainesville area. When we
boil it down to the reason I want to serve everything in mugs, it’s because I
like to eat out of mugs and to a certain extent it will keep your food warmer or
colder longer. At Mugged people aren’t paying for a revolutionary technology
that will change how they do things, they’re paying for good food served in a
unique way as they enjoy a relaxing atmosphere. Mugged provides them a warm and
inviting place to visit instead of a sleek and cold atmosphere that you find in
most chain coffee shops.
The fact that everything will be served in
mugs sets my café apart from any other cafes that I’ve ever heard of. However,
people aren’t going to visit Mugged just to eat food out of a mug, they’re going
to visit Mugged for the comfort food and small town atmosphere which isn’t
currently being offered by many cafes in the Gainesville area. I want Mugged to
be a well-known place in Gainesville where if someone is passing through town
they just have to stop and try it.
I think all of the elements fit together
really well, which really comes down to the fact that I’m not doing anything
drastically different from a traditional café, I’m only adding one small twist.
My weakest point at the present time is still “why do they care” because I
never explicitly addressed it any of my pervious interviews. Most of the
replies I received during my last round of interviews when I asked each person
to react to my idea mainly revolved around my idea beginning “unique” and
“interesting”.
When I was revising my napkin idea I drew
from the comments that I received from my first napkin idea as well as both of
my elevator pitches. I changed some of the wording to reflect what I want
Mugged to serve. I don’t want to give anyone the impression that Mugged will
only be serving one type of food, warm food. One commenter pointed out that it
wouldn’t make sense to serve full meals in mugs and I addressed this in my
napkin idea by stating that I would start out with simple foods, things I can
cook, and if there is a positive reaction I would look into hiring someone who
has a talent for food creativity and would be able to come up with a logical
way of serving meals in mugs. The same commenter also suggested adding a small
library and I loved the idea so I added it in my description of my aspiration
for Mugged.
One commenter mentioned that he runs into
the same problem that I’m attempting to fix, he enjoys his food less toward the
end of a meal, which is reassuring that there are people out there that could
benefit from my solution because a large number of the people that I’ve talked
to about my idea only view my idea as “different” and don’t really see the
purpose beyond what I’m trying to do.
The last thing I took away from the comments I received is that my
target audience will mainly be college-aged people no matter how hard I try to
appeal to a larger demographic. I changed my description of who I’m targeting
in hopes to reflect that while my target audience is a small group I hope that
over time, after a reputation is established, older people would start to
venture into my café to see what all the hype is about.
