One of the interesting categories in Uganda is that of Parents with school-going children. It’s also a category that has consumptive power, not just out of want, but usually out of necessity. If you visit any Ugandan school during the visitation day, you appreciate the combinative power of this category.
But to arrive at such a category, one would need to have started off with the bigger category of Ugandan parents. You say, look, we want to innovate a product that targets Ugandan parents. The next question becomes; what kind of parents? Are these single parents? Do they stay in urban or in rural areas? Are their children of school-going age?
The segmentation could lead one to a category of urban Ugandan parents with school-going children. You could further laser-focus it to ‘Urban Ugandan Parents with Primary-school-going children’. The next challenge for the innovator is to come up with the needs of these kinds of parents. Deep down, what are their pain points? What do they desire? What brings them pain? What brings them pleasure? Do you want a pain-relieving product? Or a pleasure-enhancing product? Where does this pain originate from?
With this kind of routing, one stands a better chance of innovating a product that will find love and loyalty from these parents. Here are some of the products one can innovate:
- An Educational App with Localized Content
Can you get the primary school syllabus onto an App? Can you have interactive lessons? Is it possible for the parent to remotely track progress on the App? And could you do it in such a way that also utilizes incentives. Imagine that when a student completes a tutorial, they earn points and they could use these points to cash out things from their parents. Can it also be gamified? Can you collaborate with other players, for example, a kid can use the points at a swimming pool or a bookstore?
- Commute Solution
Again, is there a way to make this commute solution less bearing on the children? Often kids that stay far away end up waking up earlier and spend time picking up other children along the way? How do you solve this dilemma? Is there a way to organize carpooling for parents?
- Extra-curricular Hub
Can you do a one stop-centre for urban parents? For example, something in Kiira or in Kiwatule where all children’s extra-curricular activities can be met on the weekends?
- Health Insurance Solution
Are you able to provide an affordable and excellent health insurance package for these Ugandan parents and their children?
- Snacking and Healthy feeding solution
Snacking is a daily puzzle for parents. Are you able to locate along the busy routes and sell well-planned snacks?
All these are just to trigger the innovator’s mind. But to also show that excellent product innovation often starts with excellent market segmentation. Let’s hear from you.
Photo by Skye Studios on Unsplash