Forming an Opportunity Belief

My Beginning Point

I believe that there are many opportunities that exist that can be exploited for further development, innovation or a new idea all together. The opportunity that I am going to focus on, however, concerns that of public safety against sexual violence.

"Every 92 seconds an American is sexually assaulted."

My Belief

• The unmet need that I would like to focus on is that “one in five women and one in 71 men will be raped at some point in their lives” according to the NSVRC: The National Sexual Violence Resource Center. 
• The people who have this need in their day-to-day lives are primarily young women but exists as a need to everyone [Inmates, Children, the General Public and Military].
• This has always been a problem, in fact, it was more so in the early 1990s and has decreased by 63% since 1993, according to rainn.org overtime (1). That is until about 2013 when the ‘reported forcible rape rate in the US’ began to rapidly increase (2). And though it has decreased exponentially, still "every 92 seconds an American is sexually assaulted (1)."



People Affected by This (1)



Rape Rate Statistic (2)

• According to rewire.org four of the main things out there to prevent sexual assault are (3):

• Athena - "This will call loved ones or emergency officials to come to the rescue during a dangerous and possible life-threatening situation (1)."
• Undercover Colors - "This product is a nail polish line that detects date rape drugs such as Rohypnol, Ketamine, Ecstasy, and other roofies by changing colors when a finger is dipped into a drink to “discreetly” stir (1)."
• Disguised Pepper Spray - A can of pepper spray that looks like lipstick.
• Wild Kat Keychain - "This keychain can clip right onto your backpack and can be used as a kind of brass knuckles that can help in defending yourself (1)."
• I am 95% sure that this not only opportunity exists but open to many possibilities of development and something that most people care about. 

Reflection

Being a twenty-year-old female college student, this ‘opportunity’ has been very present in my mind especially the last two or three years. I had talked to a few different college students on campus at the University of Florida, my own co-workers and heard a personal testament from a Sunday-School teacher a First Baptist of Jacksonville, regarding this opportunity. Having done so I believe that this opportunity is something that most people have felt the prevalence of in most of their lives. “I shouldn’t be scared to take the trash out after my shift;” my co-worker said that she would, run out of the back ally where the dumpster is because she felt so unsafe out of the lights of the surrounding stores. And having asked some students about this topic, 9 out of 10 women I spoke to had at least one of the following: pepper-spray, brass knuckles or flashlight. The sheer amount of people who carried these things with them at all times is shocking. The men that I spoke to on campus said that they know it’s a problem but did not, themselves, feel threatened by it. Finally, I spoke to a Sunday-school teacher who has actually experienced an occurrence of sexual assault. The main points that I took out from speaking to her were that, she “never had even feared the possibility” of being victim to an act of sexual violence. It is something that stays with you forever and, she says that she still deals with today.

Summary

I am more sure now, after having talked to all of these people, that this opportunity is real and present in so many people's lives. 

Customer feedback is a great tool because it tells you from the source, of who you are selling to, what they want. However, there is a give-and-take between adapting to customer feedback and staying firm. You have to be able to recognize the outliers within your feedback. If you took into account what every person said, you would not be very successful. You should narrow down your target audience because not everyone thinks the same way. For this, for example, though sexual violence can affect everyone, my target audience would be women between the ages 15 and 30. Yes, men do also experience sexual violence, however, I wouldn’t include them I my target because the vast majority do not feel threatened by it and would therefore be less likely to [purchase a product to prevent it. Additionally, although the women I spoke to who was victim to sexual assault was in her early 50s, but the occurrence happened when she was 17. You have to be able to identify the right customers because though this opportunity can affect everyone, of the general population, the people who feel most at risk are younger to middle-aged women.

Citations:

(1) https://www.rainn.org/statistics/scope-problem

(2)  https://www.statista.com/statistics/191226/reported-forcible-rape-rate-in-the-us-since-1990/

(3) https://www.rewire.org/our-future/five-tools-prevent-sexual-assault/