Your Venture's Unfair Advantage

Resources:

1. Drive
• Valuable: The way my drive is valuable to my concept is that without businesses don't flourish. Helping to maintain momentum is important every step of the way when trying to make something succeed. I think that my willingness to be dedicated to the concept and business is something that will help me succeed. 
• Rare: A lot of companies when they start out have great momentum but as the initial excitement starts to drift, people begin to shift their attitudes. I think that because I'm so invested into my concept, that it will help carry me through. 
• Inimitable: It's easy to get overwhelmed and feel strained but I've always had a very positive outlook on projects I take on and I like to do them by putting my best foot forward at all costs. 
• Non-substitutable: Without drive, I really do think businesses don't connect well with their customer base and that may lead them to be unsuccessful in their ventures. Drive is something that can't be left out when trying to run a business, I believe. 
2. Low Cost to Produce 
• Valuable: This is valuable for obvious reasons, but producing coffee cubes at a low cost results in a larger profit. 
• Rare: Coffee cubes are usually only sold in small coffee shops and usually at a high cost. If the cost was lower and they were thought of as a staple grocery list item then things could seriously change for coffee cubes. 
• Inimitable: Like I said, the only place I've ever seen them is at local coffee shops so the large market has yet to see them. 
• Non-substitutable: It would be hard to make them at a high cost anyway because it's so cheap just to begin with. 
3. Support Systems 
• Valuable: Support from larger companies that are already established in the coffee industry would be a great way to publicize coffee cubes as a brand rather than just one item. 
• Rare: It would be hard to have competition at that point if some of the most popular coffee brands were endorsing coffee cubes. 
• Inimitable: If it reached a point to where we had to patent the idea of coffee cubes then I suppose that could be an option.
• Non-substitutable: It's hard to get used to having something all the time and then going without it. If coffee cubes were in large coffee shops everywhere people would be accustomed to having them with their coffee all the time and miss them if they weren't available. 
4. Personal Relationship 
• Valuable: Having personal ties to something always makes it more worth while. I hope for coffee cubes that the packaging is something that makes me feel proud and something that the customers are happy to spend their time reading and looking at.
• Rare: i feel like a lot of times the packaging can be overlooked or overdone. I want it to be clear what the customer is buying but I also want them to have something that they can read that will make them feel good about purchasing. 
• Inimitable: It;s hard to recreate a personal feeling you have when you're buying something you like, and if I can make that possible whenever someone buys coffee cubes I want that to be the case. 
• Non-substitutable: If the packaging was sub-par, it wouldn't entice people to stop and look. If there was nothing but the name and the ingredients, customers wouldn't have a personal experience when buying the product and that thought wouldn't last in their mind. 
5. Variety 
• Valuable: Having multiple variations of coffee cubes is appealing because people love options. Also catering to everyone is something important to me, if we offer creamer cubes I want to be able to cater to those who may be dairy-free. 
• Rare: Since coffee cubes are already rare as it is, having different flavors and kinds of cubes will make them stand out even more. 
• Inimitable: There has never been a brand of coffee or creamer cubes before, so this would be the first of its kind. 
• Non-substitutable: people like to drink their coffee a certain way, so implementing something into their coffee routine that will make it last longer and taste better is non-substitutable. 
6. Lack of Competition 
• Valuable: I've only ever seen coffee cubes sold in local small coffee shops and never on a wild scale. I hope to turn them into a staple grocery list item. 
• Rare: Since not many people have been exposed to coffee cubes before, it'll make an entire brand of different flavors and kinds stand out even more. 
• Inimitable: Coffee cubes are easy to make and cost almost nothing to make, meaning it's an easy idea to attain, but still no one has ever done it. 
• Non-substitutable: The only other substitution for coffee cubes is normal ice and that is inferior. 
7. Popular 
• Valuable: Coffee is always a hot commodity, so another coffee product would fit right in to the already established market. 
• Rare: Coffee is everywhere and people are used to what they're used to. Introducing something new is exciting to people and they'll be intrigued to try something different. 
• Inimitable: You can't really duplicate the taste of coffee in anything else so it would be hard to imitate cubes made solely on coffee. 
• Non-substitutable: There is a pretty large divide among those that drink coffee and those that don't, so substituting it wouldn't be an option for my target audience.  
8. Easy to Make 
• Valuable: Having coffee cubes be so easy to make is a great selling point if they ended up in large scale coffee shops being made and sold in iced coffee drinks. 
• Rare: Most coffee shops don't offer coffee cubes for their iced coffee so it would be a unique addition. 
• Inimitable: The most efficient way to make them would be in large batches and that would all depend on how many iced coffee sales you made on average. 
• Non-substitutable: The other options are normal ice and as we've established that is what were trying to stay away from. 
9. Existing Customers 
• Valuable: Having such a large customer base already as it is, and coffee having such a cult following, it's a big advantage for my product. 
• Rare: It's rare to have a new idea and already have such a large audience that would be interested in it off the bat. I think that aspect of this idea will help me succeed and make them a more normalized item in people's daily coffee routines. 
• Inimitable: It's hard to get rid of customers you've had for forever, and people are always going to want a good cup of Joe. 
• Non-substitutable: The fan base for coffee has always been around and will continue on for years to come. Coffee cubes would fit right in to that market and audience. 
10. Lasting Market  
• Valuable: Having a sustainable environment to sell your products is always a plus. The coffee industry is huge and not going anywhere. With that being said, it'll be interesting to see how people take to an additional item being added into their routine, but since the market has been around for so long I think it's time for something new to be added to the mix. 
• Rare: The coffee industry is a great market to be apart of and there's not another one quite as large and as popular, where there are also adequate ways to give back. The places where the coffee is sourced from could be a great outlet for giving back, if the time came to where the business could do that. 
• Inimitable: The coffee market has no clear competitors other than within the industry, but for my product that wouldn't be a problem since they're so versatile they could fit into anyone's market and style. 
• Non-substitutable: It's not easy to recreate such a large following that quickly and successfully so going into an industry that is already established will be a great help. 

Top Resource: Lack of Competition 

This resource is the most important one I believe because it helps make the product stand out so much more. It's a solution to a problem that most iced coffee drinkers experience. Having no competition and a line of cubes to fit everyone's needs would be ideal and appealing.