Idea Analysis Blog 4

In this entry, I will look at homeowner-personalized decor as addressed by my competitors and as well as by my own venture. decorateITonline uses a questionnaire, styleFinder, to get photos of the room and the customer's thoughts and ideas, then uses their style experts to create a custom decorating plan. RoomDesignOnline offers a more structured system, with 10 preset styles ranging from 'beach cottage' to 'tuscan villa' as well as the option for a custom style. Clicking any of the presets allows the customer to choose colors from a palette and therefore provide a method of customization without having to make every decision. RoomDesignOnline then proceeds to the questionnaire and photos aspect that decorateITonline also has, and concludes with a phone consultation. For my venture, I will include the questionnaire and photos as a given. As for color and palette options, my venture will feature the complete palette customization option and around 10 preset styles, PLUS an extra template varying on the individual expert (perhaps one of their past designs that is particularly favored). This way, buyers will be able to select extra styles that depend on a particular home decor expert, and experts may be able to charge a premium if they have a particular template that is desirable. I will limit the extra template to one so that not every expert will copy a successful expert's template to gain more customers. After the palette, questionnaire, and photo uploads, there will be an optional phone or video chat consultation. Some customers may need extra assurances about every detail, while others may just want their proposed plan drawn up as quickly as possible. I believe decorateITonline does not give enough freedom with only a small survey of the customers' inputs, while RoomDesignOnline's methods may be too in depth for those who have less time on their hands. By falling in the middle with an optional phone/video consultation, I believe my venture will provide more flexibility to accommodate a larger customer base.

Another aspect of the venture I would like to set up is that of providing physical consultations. The customer and home decor expert will both provide their addresses on their profiles and can choose to feature them publicly. If both are within the same region and have featured their areas, they may be eligible for a physical consultation. Customers will be able to filter agents by geographic region and perhaps gain more insights with a face-to-face meeting if they so desire.