20A – Growing Your Social Capital

Domain Expert
1. Who they are, what their background is:
Sanjay is a pulmonologist from the local hospital from back home.
2. How this person is a “domain expert”:
A pulmonologist is a doctor that specializes in lung health , so I decided that he would be a great expert because the way that nicotine is usually ingested into the body is from smoking, so lung health overall would be affected, and I felt like he would be pretty familiar with the substance because of this.
3. How I found and contacted this person:
I found this doctor because my father is a financial advisor for strictly doctors and he has a good personal connection with his clients and told me to contact Sanjay.
4. Nature of Exchange:
I was given his personal phone number and proceeded to ask questions about the ramifications of smoking cigarettes and using JUULs, and how nicotine plays a role in having people continuously coming back to smoke more. He informed me with valuable information regarding this and personal experience he has had with patients addicted to nicotine.
5. How will including them enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity:
I feel like asking for the opinion of a pulmonologist would really help my case in exploiting my opportunity because if I got the verification from a doctor that my idea could potentially work, then more people would be more inclined to purchase it.

Market Expert
1. Who they are, what their background is:
Joe is a current student at UF, who is majoring in marketing and is currently in a Fraternity on campus.
2. How this person is a “market expert”:
He really encompasses a large portion of my market, that being college kids, and people who tend to party also are more likely to be exposed to more nicotine devices when going out.
3. How I found and contacted this person:
I met Joe in one of my classes and we became acquainted through a group project. I then decided to ask him if he would be okay with answering some questions.
4. Nature of Exchange:
I talked to him in class and asked if it was okay to give him a mini interview before class started. I proceeded to talk to him about the amount of nicotine usage that goes on at parties and such, as well as some other questions regarding the topic.
5. How will including them enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity:
Including him would enhance my ability to exploit my opportunity because he is around a lot more people who use nicotine devices than I am, so he knows their tendencies a little more than I do, and can give me an insight into that type of consumer. Also, he gave the feedback that the wearable device that I am aiming to produce might not be the coolest thing to wear in his opinion, but the effect of it would definitely help out some people that he knows.

Industry Supplier
1. Who they are, what their background is:
Kathy works at a CVS pharmacy back home and is a friend of my mother.
2. How this person is a “industry supplier”:
She is an industry supplier because she handles many different types of medicine and treatments that are either prescribed or can be bought off the shelf. I feel this is an important person to contact because one of the main places I want my product to be sold at are pharmacies and she would know if this type of product actually belongs there or not.
3. How I found and contacted this person:
I asked my mother if she knew anyone that worked in a pharmacy and she told me about her friend from her spinning class that actually works at a local CVS. She gave me Kathy's phone number and then I proceeded to contact her.
4. Nature of Exchange:
I first introduced myself and then gave a pitch of my idea to see if she would potentially stock something like that on her shelves. She told me that she personally didn't have the power to do it, but she said she could definitely see a product like this on the shelves of the pharmacy.
5. How will including them enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity:
It's very important to include Kathy in order to exploit my opportunity because if she didn't think that my opportunity was worth putting on the shelves then my idea wouldn't be able to move in the direction that I previously planned.

Reflection
Targeted marketing is definitely the most challenging part for me in terms of thinking about exploiting my opportunity. It took a long time tracking people down that would fit the certain criteria asked for, but I feel like this better prepares us for future opportunities when this type of networking is important. This will shape the way participate in future networking events because I learned that meeting as many different and unique people can open up many doors for you, even though they may not be apparent just yet. This kind of went differently than other networking experiences I've had because I normally don't target specific people when at certain events other than the normal big faces that everyone is trying to get a conversation with. After doing this assignment, I learned that networking for a purpose and that picking more unique people to talk to rather than just who everyone else is trying to talk to may be more beneficial for yourself and your opportunity. All in all, talking to the people discussed in the assignment was difficult because I had to track them down, and then when I proceeded to the interview I wasn't really prepared to speak about my product in such a specific way to appeal to these experts in my field because it was my first time. I gained a great deal of knowledge though about targeted marketing and I really think it helped better my mindset about my idea.