During this class, we studied how consumers behave when making purchasing decisions and what factors influence the decisions that they make. We examined cultural, social, and psychological aspects that have a significant influence on the purchase decisions that consumers make. Diving further, we also learned what implications these behaviors when planning market strategies and segmenting markets.

For our semester-long project, our class was split into groups that were tasked with coming up with a new entrepreneurial idea and figuring out how to promote it to consumers in our target market. My group decided that we would open a Tropical Smoothie Cafe in one of the open storefronts directly across the street from our college campus where there was student housing and several other businesses that are frequented by Longwood University and Hampden Sydney College Students. In class, we conducted a thorough focus group from which we could design a survey that would be sent out to a larger sample of our student population. The purpose of both exercises was to find out if a Tropical Smoothie Cafe would be successful in our proposed location and what promotional features would first help draw students in and then would encourage repeat purchases. Unfortunately, before we could conduct our surveys, in-person classes were canceled for COVID-19 and our project was forced to change drastically. For our final portion of the project, our professor asked up to come up with three different promotional ideas that could be used to promote our entrepreneurial ideas. Below is a PowerPoint showcasing the three different ideas that I came up with to promote a new Tropical Smoothie Cafe.

By: Katelyn Housler ~~~ April 29, 2020