Fine-tuning Spoons: Elizabeth Jia's Idea

Cooking for Rookies

QUESTIONS and ANSWERS:

1. How do you connect the three distinct parts? Videos/spoons/social networking?

The three parts would be integrated. There would be a video section on the website. The social-networking component is integrated into the entire website. Users log into the site in order to friend others, download recipes, and share their culinary experiences.

The spoons are the TANGIBLE aspect of the entire project. The spoons should be ordered/purchased via the website OR gotten through a promotional event (festival, weekend event..etc.)

2.Instructional cooking videos are hard to pull off. Especially for user generated content because of lighting etc.

The videos would be produced by the website staff AND any willing sponsors.

Producing all those spoons will be difficult-- who will pay for them? Will they be donated? Shipping and hand?

The spoons will be designed and produced by a utensil/kitchen ware company. Shipping and handling would be handled via the start-up funds of the website. Also, the promote the website, the initial stages of handing out the spoons will rely heavily on local events where "street teams" would be deployed to hand out the spoons.

Will people want to give their addresses out to you so you can send them the spoons?

People may feel safe if the website uses a safe/secure site like Paypal.

3. Ads on the videos would bring in money to pay for spoons and maybe sell logos on the spoons to companies to pay for the spoons. If users sign up to get spoons try to get them to opt in for email to try to sell email lists or solicit money that way or get advertisers or sell ads on emails that way.

Yes, the ads and user generated information would be good data for advertisers. So, Spoons would be able to provide this information to third-party advertisers.

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This is the one-stop-shop for those in search of a multimedia experience that will foster their culinary skills.

The main target audience is someone who wants to learn how to make a simple, tasty dish while eliminating the hassle of measuring things out. The focus is ENTIRELY on making this FUN.

Users of the site can order ONE FREE SET of measuring spoons and cups. These utensils are created with the website in mind. Each spoon will be a different color. The cups will also be designed with color-coded lines.

So the recipes on the site would read: "Add the thyme using the RED spoon. Fill water to the red line on the cup." Additional orders will cost a pre-determined amount.

Owners of this website can invite kitchen utensil companies to sponsor the design of these utensils.

The Multimedia Elements

With these measuring utensils, the audience can follow the easy recipes step-by-step. They can also WATCH video clips of sample dishes being made. There will be user-generated photos of food in a photo gallery. There will also be a news section on food-related/health articles, tip-of-the-day, and advice.

To PROMOTE the website, there will be multiple outings to area festivals, events, etc. to give away free sets of measuring spoons and cups. They are encouraged to visit the website and start cooking using the spoons and cups. These utensils will also have the website logo on them.

The cooking site will slowly expand to include different cuisines: American, Chinese, Italian, Greek, etc etc.

The site will also have a social-networking component. You can "friend" rookies, cooks, chefs, kitchen helper and any other titles that the public can choose to describe their level of culinary skills.