Business Proposal Concept & Strategy
fiftyfour
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Business proposal
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Circle of death 3
fiftyfour
Introduction
fiftyfourcards.com This was never just going to be an assignment. We wanted to make something that would live on from MESH, that could be a side earner for all of us in the future. From the start we all agreed that we wanted to make more games than just circle of death. This was always going to be the beginning. Because of this, we created the fiftyfour brand which operates above the card game. The fiftyfour brand is what you see in this document. It is classy and fresh. It allows us to operate in multiple areas in the future. Here is fiftyfour’s business plan for our circle of death cards...
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Business proposal
Contents
Problem Customer Solution Benefit Art direction SWOT Mission statement Distributions Marketing Revenue Start up needs Costs The Team The future
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SOCIAL MEDIA
IN SOCIAL SITUATIONS
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Business proposal
Problem
Problem If you were to walk into any student’s drinks on a Saturday night you would find a good proportion of them sitting on their phones either messaging other people or scrolling through Instagram pictures passing the time. Young people have forgotten about the importance of interacting in real life with each other, due to heavy reliance on social media. Additionally, often when starting university, students are forced to say goodbye to their friends that they have made at high school when they move up to Auckland. These people have
not had to make new friends since the start of highschool, and statistically this is one of the hardest things about the uni experience. A recent AXA PPP poll found that 18-24 year olds are four times as likely to feel lonely. Sam Challis, information manager for mental health charity Mind, says this is dangerous: “Loneliness and a lack of friendships can contribute to mental health problems, such as anxiety and depression, so taking up opportunities to interact with people who have similar experiences can be invaluable.’
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Customer
Customer We are targeting 18 - 24 yr olds who are regular party goers, enjoy socializing but would be considered an introvert rather than an extrovert. An extrovert would quite easily breaks social barriers through conversing with new peers whereas an introvert would find that more challenging. Our cards are the perfect thing to break down these barriers. Our Ideal customer will be attending the Mesh Market as it is held at the university. Our ideal customers will be able to afford our cards as from our research we discovered the minimum and maximum amount a student would pay.
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We did a survey targeting our customers with 52 responses. In the quantitative survey we found that over 45% of the people we asked would pay $15 for our product and in the qualitative survey 75% said it’s because they can never remember the rules. In the survey we also asked what their favorite rules were to help us standardise our game, as there are many variations show Online.
Business proposal
Target Customer Profile
Paul, 18 Is from Napier and is in his first year of university in Auckland studying business and lives in the AUT student hostels. He is a fun and sociable person once he warms up to people but struggles to get past the initial ice breakers. Paul gets invited to parties from people he has met on his floor but gets awkward as he doesn’t know anyone and finds it hard to find common ground with his new peers. He gets a student allowance and a weekly allowance from his parents which enables him to live comfortably.
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Circle of Death Cards
Business proposal
Solution & Benefit
Solution Our solution is to create a pack of 54 beautifully designed cards that are splash resistant with the rules printed on each individual card. These cards are sized to the traditional poker sized playing cards and have the traditional suits and numbers on them. The cards are packaged in a cardboard box with the iconic fiftyfour branding so they are easily recognisable on a shelf or at a social event. Based from our market research we discovered that the printing of the rules on individual cards was the most important feature. Cost was also important for our ideal target market one of the key points was that a normal deck of cards can be purchased for two dollars. The cost also needed to be low as ideally the players would only typically play this game from the age of 18 to roughly 24, so cheap enough that's only going to be used in a limited time frame. Market research also suggested that players would often misplace cards so being able to cheaply replace them was an important key feature.
Benefit The current composition of the cards means that are more durable for game play, we have considered the likelihood of beverages being split on the cards. We have also factored in that game players may lose cards whilst playing or leave them behind so we have made sure that the price range of the cards is cheap enough so that they can be easily replaced. The cards are designed in contrasting colours with bold text to ensure that players can easily read the cards in low light situations which would commonly occur at parties and social events. The rules are simple and explanatory making game play fast paced and enjoyable. As the cards are printed with the rules there is no need for people to Google rules and right over which rules are correct. We have also designed the cards so the joker can allow game players to create their own rules and if they use a white-board marker it allows them to change it depending on who they are with.
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Art Direction
Art Direction for Circle of Death cards It was clear from the beginning that we needed to make our cards iconic. Cards against humanity was one of the games we looked at when researching design styles. We liked how iconic and simple they were. They relied a lot on typography and their very limited colour scheme. We did however think that we wanted our game to be more ‘cheeky’. It had to have a really sassy personality that people could relate to. We chose the colours dark blue and yellow because the yellow was such a pop colour and the blue contrasted it well. They popping yellow meant that the cards
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are very easily identifiable and would be able to be seen in low light. The illustrations on the cards all relate to the actions of the different cards. We made these intentionally controversial as it would make a good talking point. “Oh is that the cards with the sex positions on it? I have a mate who has one as well.”
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Final Renders
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SWOT Analysis
SWOT Strengths
Weaknesses
As a team we are all designed focused. Makayla is a graphic designer and is talented at layout and composition. Fung is skilled in promotional sales, which will be a key aspect for selling The Circle of Death on market day. Matt is control of the digital side of things, setting up the website, managing the Online banking system and great at negotiating especially with suppliers. Camille is fantastic at the administrative side of things like note taking through meetings. We also have the additional strength of fantastic lecturers for example Karol has connections at printing companies which can benefit us in the future.
One of our main weaknesses was in the process of printing the cards as a team we had not initially printed cards before. Another one of our downfalls is that we have minimal connections in the production world. Also at this stage of the process we have very little following on social media, meaning we need to understand how to reach our ideal target market via social media if it is one of our main marketing techniques.
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Business proposal
SWOT Analysis
Opportunities
Threats
The AUT Mesh Market on the 10th of June 2016 is a fantastic opportunity for us as it will give our company exposure, to our ideal target market as referenced under the customer section. There are also a large amount of industry professionals attending the event, which could help us make those vital connections. Another opportunity which as a team have recently been notified about is the AUT Creative Entrepreneurship funding program. If we were successful in this we would gain five thousand dollar scholarship to start fiftyfour.
One of our main concerns is that potential at this stage in our business people could use the concept of our cards, as only the design of them is copy righted. Or additionally people could just right the rules on a normal deck of cards. In regards to the mesh market we will be competing against lots of stalls at the mesh market day, and there is the potential that people could spend their cash before they reach our stall.
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Message
Sparking social & eliminating ba between young
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Business proposal
Message
interaction arriers g people. Mission Statement Our aim is to spark social interaction and eliminate barriers between young people, many have lost social skills when growing up thanks to the Internet and social media. Our product will encourage people to converse and act as an icebreaker, making it easier to create new connections at social gatherings. We have found that often young people in social situations would rather be on their phones than interacting with the humans sitting next to them.
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Distribution
Distribution Our initial distribution plan is to have pre sales of our cards available via our Facebook shop account, before the launch at Mesh market. We have used Shopify that is a platform that manages Online inventory and payment processing, it’s an easy and cheap way to sell goods Online. It can connect and can sell directly to facebook, which no other platform can offer. It has the ability to store customer information and notify them their shipping and tracking information. In the future we can also create discount codes for customers. It comes at a small cost as mentioned in our cost section of this business plan. A fantastic attribute about Shopify is that It an app, multiple business owners can download and a notification is received every time a new order is placed, meaning that all group members have a certain responsibility to process the orders if they see one is unfilled and to act on this. At the mesh market we plan to do cash sales that we can also process through our Shopify account, Our marketing strategy is to promote Fiftyfour cards through our Facebook page to start word of mouth. Following this our second distribution will be at the mesh market selling them for $15 giving us face-to-face feedback from our customers. From gaining more knowledge of our consumers and judging general interest from the market we will then look at seeing if producing our cards on a synthetic plastic is viable. We currently believe making our cards more durable will increase the value of our product meaning we can charge more.
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Regarding shipping at this stage, we have just used courier bags from New Zealand post costing three Dollars each. We then recognised that we would need to also get tracking stickers which are an additional one dollar and fifty cents. Additional costs for postal supplies include bubble wrap, tape and also thank you cards which give a nice personalised message which adds to our brand identity. We have included a reduced shipping price on our Facebook website. In the future we would need to organize a courier company or a cheaper option for shipping. If mail orders need to be fulfilled from our Shopify account Makayla is managing this aspect. For the future there is the potential to create our own selling platform but it would be a similar cost as Shopify additionally we would still have to pay credit card processing fee. A solution to this would be to set up our Shopify account to our website domain name. After the mesh market we will start approaching retailers such as Liquor Land and Hallensteins to further our distribution of our product. We cant afford to pay any one commission to sell our cards to other stores based on the prices that we have got, as they will have to take a cut. We ourselves can create our own connections and sell our cards to stores as we are passionate about the FiftyFour brand. In the future there is the opportunity to design branded cards for alcohol companies such as Vodka Cruisers.
Business proposal
Distribution
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Marketing
Marketing We recognise that we will need some marketing advice, to help promote fiftyfour. One of our main concerns is targeting companies to sell our products to. We will need to learn techniques on how to showcase our products to present to future retail stores.
When you are alone or bored on the bus. Our target market is on Facebook at the moment so it make sense for it to be our channel. In the future we can boost our Facebook page to connect with our ideal target demographic but this comes at a price.
We will be treating the mesh market day as a market validation opportunity and will be testing the price point of $15. It’s the perfect opportunity as it will have everyone who is in our target market. To reach more people ,Fong will be walking around on the day talking to people about the card game and as well as giving them a hand out which will also be an entry to the raffle we are running. The raffle will be a random selection pulled out by hat and the prize will be a bottle of absolute, this will encourage people to come by our stall.
Our idea was not to market in such a forceful way, we plan on using influencers via social media to promote our cards. We think that target audience responds well to influencers, trying to become part of the cool group and have the latest trends. We would offer these influencers goods and our cards to promote and spread the words on social media apps such Instagram. We would use influencers with a high following count, whose followers we see as our ideal target audience. Product placement is key as we can influence customers to purchase in the current situation.
We will also have posters on the display which do not reference price as we feel we want to create interest to get them to approach the stall before they are driven away and also a table cloth printed by Camille. If we sell out on the day we will start taking orders through our online page off one of our laptops and fulfill them within 10 business days. For our pre sales, our main promotion technique was word of mouth, talking to university students and selling them in person. Also starting or Facebook page has been vital to promoting online sales. Connecting with students via Facebook groups. We are not against social media. Social media has its place.
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A future idea is to create promotional merchandise such as a drinking vessel, cups and beer coasters that we can subconsciously enter the minds of our customers and also offer incentives for customers to purchase.
Business proposal
Facebook page
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Revenue At Mesh Market we are going to sell the cards for $15. Up until the Mesh Market we will be selling our cards via our Facebook website, this will increase the price as we need to factor in shipping costs and Online fees. These details will be considered under the cost section. We will be selling 46 packs out of our initial print run of 50. This means that our maximum revenue from market day and also pre sales will be $690.
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Revenue
Business proposal
Start Up Needs
Start up needs Money
Manufacturer
There is need for initial cash for the down payment to get our first batch of cards printed. We have all agreed to split these equally and will reap all of the rewards equally. Each team member has been issued 250 shares each, vested over 3 years. This is to ensure that if one more team member wants to leave, they do not take away a massive share of the company. In the future we will need to print a larger runs for the cost of the cards to decrease which will increase our margin on the cards. If in the future we need to invest more money into the business and one or more of the shareholders can not afford to, shares will be issued to the people adding more money into the venture, increasing their overall share percentage.
In the future, if we wanted a larger print run which would decrease the cost per item, we would need to consider other print manufactures. We may need to out source this to over seas to get a better price. During our research for our initial print run we found a few suitable printers that could do decks of cards for very cheap however this required us to print a large number and also we would need to pay for shipping.
Contacts
Marketing
We believe that contacts are extremely important at this stage of the start up. A vital component to helping get the fiftyfour company to the masses. Contacts are also helpful as they can give us advice and help us get special rates for things like manufacturing. These contacts we are hoping to make would be people in business, other entrepreneurs, manufacturers like printers, people in marketing and advertising and hopefully someone in a courier company.
We recognise that we will need some marketing advice, to help promote fiftyfour. One of our main concerns is targeting companies to sell our products to. We will need to learn techniques on how to showcase our products to present to future retail stores.
Our current manufacturer is called The Card Printing Company and they are a family business operating out of Silverdale, north of Auckland. They are setup so that as we scale they will scale with us, with a capacity of printing up to 1000 decks each day.
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Costs
Costs One Off Startup costs
Description
Cost
Total
$10.00
$10.00
Render Template Fixed costs (Monthly)
Website Name
$1.00
Shopify
$9.00
$10.00
Variable Costs (Per deck) at Market Day
Cards
$11.05
$11.05
Variable Costs (Per deck) Online
Cards
$11.05
Shipping (Tracked)
$4.50
Pay-pal fee
$1.06
Shopify Fee
$0.36
$16.97
Direct costs include, Salaries, materials, Supplies, equipment and travel.
Indirect costs include equipment, rent, employee benefits, labor and general administrative costs.
Equipment Our main equipment that we would use is the computers to design on, Printers to test print, A camera to photograph. These things are vital for ensuring that the business will run successfully, currently we have used our own supplies. If the business did grow we could potentially invest in a computer for the company, yet that is in a far future.
Administrative costs Our materials for the cards will be outsourced to another company. Our general administrative costs include the fixed monthly costs as listed in the graph. Other materials include postage materials as mentioned in distribution. Additional information on Shopify under the distribution heading. Shopfiy organise’s the majority of our administrative side in one component.
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Costs
Labour Regarding labour payments, as it is a university project we have not factored in labour payments for certain inividuals as we see that we would be doing this work un paid regardless of if we made a profit. Depending on the reaction frim MESH market, we will keep our funds in a bank account if it goes sussecfully to use it to invest in creating more cards and if the outcome is not so desiarable we will split the money equally. In the future I think there is room to explore how much each idvidial gets paid on what their role is in the company. How we value each member will be the difficult part.
Overheads We dont have overhead costs as such, because once the cards where designed we outsource the maufaction of them to another company. The only space we would need id one to store the stock in and process the orders. As we have only done a limited small run this means it has been easy to store in Matts car, which is also handy for transportation of stock. In the future if we did order a large run of say one thiusand plus we would need to consider storage space and the ocst of it, hopefully this is where connections could come in handy and we could use someones garage space.
Regular @ $15 Each
Plastic @ $15 Each Regular @ $10 Each
Balance
$0
Plastic @ $10 Each
-$552.58
-$776.25
0
50
Cards
Break even chart To start with we looked at how much the cards themselves were going to cost us and weather we could afford to do waterproof ones or just splash resistant ones. In the end for the mesh market, we picked the regular cards and priced them at fifteen dollars, so that we could break even if we sold them all.
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Team Members
TEAM MEMBERS
Matt Ellwood, Bachelor of Design majoring in Advertising.
Makayla Ashby, Bachelor of Design majoring in Graphic Design
Matt likes to get things done and does not believe on meetings for the sake of meetings. He is organised and likes to lead. He is digitally savvy so is in charge of setting up the fiftyfour store inside of our Facebook page. He has previous experience in an advertising agency so will bring his business know how to the team, as well as his creative ideas.
Makayla enjoys the creative side of things, layout and the aesthetics of the brand. She believes that the small details is what is important. Works well under pressure and loves time restraints. Involved in the designing of the Circle of Death Cards and also designing the publications. She loves doodling and coming up with new card concept ideas.
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Business proposal
Team Members
Camille Richards, Bachelor of Fashion
FungTing Ng, Bachelor of Design majoring in Advertising.
Camille always has a positive attitude and encourages others to meet up for meetings and setting deadlines. She has an eye for detail, picking up on details in the design and rules of the cards. An excellent researcher and documenter, she plays a critical part in the fiftyfour company. She has a creative mind and is excellent at coming up with display ideas for the mesh market.
FungTing is a great multi-tasker under pressure and is confident is what she does. She likes to speak her mind and is good with confrontation but is also very respectful and understanding of others. FungTing has a good knowledge of marketing and how to communicate effectively to specific audiences, she enjoys face to face interaction and is involved with the promoting of cards at the Mesh Market.
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The Future
The Future Going forward we will need to factor in GST to our pricing if we plan to sell over $65k worth of sales. There is the potential to sell our cards to youth aimed brands as previously mentioned, meaning that if we do, they will to take a cut from RRP. The other future potential we see with the circle of death card game is that we could create customised cards for drinking companies or festivals such as Rhythm and Vines. In terms of the fiftyfour business we have a significant amount of card game concepts that we are wanting to try out, some that lots of people know about like circle of death and some originals. We will need to get lawyers in to draft up shareholders agreements and get an accountant to make sure we comply with relevant tax laws.
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International is another way we can expand, and we have plans to launch our Circle of Death card game in the Australian market before the end of the year. We are still coming up with our launch strategy for this, as New Zealand will be used as the testing ground.
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The future
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Circle of death 31
ARDN702_2016_01 Creative Entrepreneurial Project Sem 1, 2016