Market Size
Based on the scope of our product, we believe the Total Addressable Market (TAM) can be estimated based on the percentage of the world population that uses social media. Since those users likely have access to a smartphone and are capable of using a mobile app and taking photos, they can be included in the TAM. This number is estimated to be 4.48 billion.
We narrowed down using age (18-34 years old) and geographic location (United States), our Serviceable Available Market (SAM) becomes 63.5 million. See calculations below.
If narrowed down even further, our Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM) was estimated to be 13.4 million. The target audience for our services is college students who have printed photos. See calculations below.
Calculations:
TAM
18-34 years old worldwide, has a smartphone
4.48 billion people currently use social media worldwide (https://backlinko.com/social-media-users)
SAM
18-34 in the US, uses social media
18-34: 75.6 million (https://www.marketingcharts.com/featured-30401)
Some 84% of adults ages 18 to 29 say they ever use any social media sites
75.6mil * 84% = 63.5 mil
SOM
College student in the US, and possesses printed pictures
15.9 million college students in the US
(https://www.bestcolleges.com/research/college-enrollment-statistics)
89% of millennials aged 25-34 admitted to possessing printed photos. That number dropped slightly in the 18-24 age group, with only 83% (https://www.lifestorage.com/blog/storage/american-sentimentality-research-2018/)
15.9 million * 83% = 13.4 mil
Interview Insights
I interviewed two members of the target market. Both provided new perspectives on the ideas and helped us better understand our target market and what would be the most useful to them when building a product.
Allen is a 25 year old who is a recent graduate. One memorable insight from Allen’s interview was that he pointed out that he “might like to try the app on vacations/special days, but not on a long-term basis”, especially with “mundane work life”. He mentioned that school and campus life was more exciting for him compared to his work life, so college students would probably want something more frequent. This brought up ideas about the most effective frequency of sending scrapbooks if this were a subscription service, and how it can be different based on what stage of life someone is in or their surrounding environments. It also raises questions of how to best structure user preferences of interacting with the service. Allen also raised privacy and data usage concerns. This shows that some users may be hesitant to use a service if they do not feel that their personal data is being protected, so it emphasizes that data and privacy is something to keep in mind while building the product. Allen also raised a point that looking at some old photos may bring up uncomfortable memories, so this suggests that there may be benefits in users knowing ahead of time what photos will be used in a scrapbook if they want to avoid the uncomfortable memories. He also suggested that he would be interested in a digital version of the scrapbook along with a physical version, which is another aspect of the product to consider.
Janelle is a 19 year old student at Stanford who is also a vlogger. She offers a unique perspective because she frequently records and edits videos for her vlog. This brings up the possibility that there are different mediums of recording memories, such as taking videos instead of photos. Perhaps there could be a way to incorporate videos into the product, such as including links in a scrapbook with link to a specific video, choosing meaningful moments from videos that users take to include as photos in a scrapbook, or including portions of audio clips as text that can be transferred to the scrapbook. There can be many possibilities when interacting with different mediums. Janelle mentioned that she usually doesn’t write about her personal life and prefers to vent orally. She also doesn’t see herself as someone who would sit down to make a scrapbook. This emphasizes that it is very important for the product to be as smooth, simple, and easy to use as possible to bring down barriers of user engagement. Janelle also suggested that the app should “not make prompts too long, or users will think it’s too much work”, further emphasizing the point of making the app easy to use. She also brought up points of frequency of a subscription based mode – she thinks a monthly scrapbook is too frequent and would prefer a biannual subscription. She also emphasized that the physical aspect of a scrapbook is special to her because “there’s something different about holding a memory in your hand”. As a sentimental person, she would be interested in such a product. She also mentioned that she uses keepsakes, such as a charm bracelet, to remember important events in her life. The physical nature of a product can bring meaning to users.
Notes from the interviews can be found here:
-Allen: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tEGgDStZPe9EkjSFzG_M_9W5hlm2JgMK3efRhfAPiog/edit?usp=sharing
-Janelle: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1FwniR6UWjhayS4JAHysfA7TEaFonPoNZBu33mV4DgkM/edit?usp=sharing
