Hi Joni, hope you are doing great! One of the key aspects of creating interest around using these bags is how well you design and market the bags. Do you have pictures of the bags? On the other what is your marketing strategy?
you have a really innovative project!
cheers
Gaston
I really appreciate your feedback. I have posted an image of the bags that will now show alongside the project summary, and will take some other bag closeups soon. Your question made me think through our marketing strategy in more detail and helped me clarify our future plans. Thanks!
Marketing strategy is pretty grassroots right now. We set up a table at the San Ignacio market 2x as well as a table in the foyer of Galen University. In addition, international students and Rotary Club members of San Igancio ordered bags. I am bringing the new shipment of bags to Caye Caulker tomorrow and the youth there will set up their tables on Middle Street outside Chan's grocery.
Many international student volunteer groups come to help Caye Caulker Ocean Academy, and dive tours as well, so I'd like to market the bags to them as well as locals.
Your marketing query got me thinking a bit larger, and now I'm going to post images of the bags on the Ocean Academy website, and people can order them from abroad, with a surcharge for shipping.
We definitely want to have the bags accessible and affordable for local shoppers, but tourism is also a significant market for us to tap into as well. Tourists come to Belize primarily as an eco-destination, so the knowledge that their bag purchase is supporting local environmental projects and youth volunteerism is an excellent marketing strategy in itself, as well as the attractive and useful (I think) bag design.
What a great initiative! I'd love to hear more about your scaling goals... do you have specific sales targets in the months/years ahead? Geographic expansion?
Also, what feedback have you had to date from locals? Have you conducted any informal/formal surveys to date with consumers or potential consumers?
(Also, for tools/resources on scaling strategies and market research, be sure to check out Venturesource.org, a partner to the competition!)
I'm having trouble uploading photo to this site, but hopefully I.T. will resolve this problem and you can see the bags themselves, and the Belizean students too. I started with a very modest target of 50 bags and only on Caye Caulker. Then I expanded to San Ignacio on the mainland, as well as here on the island. The 50 bags sold quickly, as did the next 50, so now I'm thinking I could go bigger. Just getting off the water taxi last week I was mobbed by a group of tourists wanting to buy the bags I was transporting (they wanted them as beach bags, not for groceries, but it still gave me an opportuntiy to talk about the purpose of Shop Green in terms of sustainablity and the environment).
In terms of the locals, so far we've just done sales at the San Ignacio Market, and in the lobby of Galen University on the mainland in a region called Cayo. Here on Caye Caulker I'm meeting with the Ocean Academy students tomrrow to introduce my business idea, let them know that I'll be donating a percentage of sales to their beach cleanups, and see their response. We will be celebrating Lobster Fest in July and I plan to set up a sales table there. A previous comment got me thinking too about selling through our school website (www.cayecaulkerschool.com) for folks who want to support the school and the Belize's ecology, but can't travel here themselves.
We distributed surveys in both English and Spanish before our first sale 2 months ago - mostly to find out what prior knowledge and attitudes were out there about waste disposal problems with plastic bags, and also to determine a) if there was community support for such a small business and b) price point locals would be willing to pay c) features that would be important to them in terms of design functionality and aesthetics.
I'm going to check out the link you put in your message - thanks. I definitely appreciate your interst and comments.
Dear Joni
thanks a lot for your clarifications and comments! Know that this is really helpful.
Are you still having problems to upload the pictrues of your bags into the site? I can help you. Send me please the pictures that you would like to include on your entry in jpg or gif extension to my email address (see below) and I will be glad to do it!
all the best
Patricia Breuer Moreno
Projects Manager, Community Team
Ashoka's Changemakers pbreuer@ashoka.org
skype: patobreuer
Comments
Hi Joni, hope you are doing great! One of the key aspects of creating interest around using these bags is how well you design and market the bags. Do you have pictures of the bags? On the other what is your marketing strategy?
you have a really innovative project!
cheers
Gaston
Hi Gaston,
I really appreciate your feedback. I have posted an image of the bags that will now show alongside the project summary, and will take some other bag closeups soon. Your question made me think through our marketing strategy in more detail and helped me clarify our future plans. Thanks!
Marketing strategy is pretty grassroots right now. We set up a table at the San Ignacio market 2x as well as a table in the foyer of Galen University. In addition, international students and Rotary Club members of San Igancio ordered bags. I am bringing the new shipment of bags to Caye Caulker tomorrow and the youth there will set up their tables on Middle Street outside Chan's grocery.
Many international student volunteer groups come to help Caye Caulker Ocean Academy, and dive tours as well, so I'd like to market the bags to them as well as locals.
Your marketing query got me thinking a bit larger, and now I'm going to post images of the bags on the Ocean Academy website, and people can order them from abroad, with a surcharge for shipping.
We definitely want to have the bags accessible and affordable for local shoppers, but tourism is also a significant market for us to tap into as well. Tourists come to Belize primarily as an eco-destination, so the knowledge that their bag purchase is supporting local environmental projects and youth volunteerism is an excellent marketing strategy in itself, as well as the attractive and useful (I think) bag design.
Joni
thanks Joni! this is very useful!
cheers
Gaston
Hi Joni!
What a great initiative! I'd love to hear more about your scaling goals... do you have specific sales targets in the months/years ahead? Geographic expansion?
Also, what feedback have you had to date from locals? Have you conducted any informal/formal surveys to date with consumers or potential consumers?
(Also, for tools/resources on scaling strategies and market research, be sure to check out Venturesource.org, a partner to the competition!)
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Best,
Grant
Hi Grant,
I'm having trouble uploading photo to this site, but hopefully I.T. will resolve this problem and you can see the bags themselves, and the Belizean students too. I started with a very modest target of 50 bags and only on Caye Caulker. Then I expanded to San Ignacio on the mainland, as well as here on the island. The 50 bags sold quickly, as did the next 50, so now I'm thinking I could go bigger. Just getting off the water taxi last week I was mobbed by a group of tourists wanting to buy the bags I was transporting (they wanted them as beach bags, not for groceries, but it still gave me an opportuntiy to talk about the purpose of Shop Green in terms of sustainablity and the environment).
In terms of the locals, so far we've just done sales at the San Ignacio Market, and in the lobby of Galen University on the mainland in a region called Cayo. Here on Caye Caulker I'm meeting with the Ocean Academy students tomrrow to introduce my business idea, let them know that I'll be donating a percentage of sales to their beach cleanups, and see their response. We will be celebrating Lobster Fest in July and I plan to set up a sales table there. A previous comment got me thinking too about selling through our school website (www.cayecaulkerschool.com) for folks who want to support the school and the Belize's ecology, but can't travel here themselves.
We distributed surveys in both English and Spanish before our first sale 2 months ago - mostly to find out what prior knowledge and attitudes were out there about waste disposal problems with plastic bags, and also to determine a) if there was community support for such a small business and b) price point locals would be willing to pay c) features that would be important to them in terms of design functionality and aesthetics.
I'm going to check out the link you put in your message - thanks. I definitely appreciate your interst and comments.
Joni
Dear Joni
thanks a lot for your clarifications and comments! Know that this is really helpful.
Are you still having problems to upload the pictrues of your bags into the site? I can help you. Send me please the pictures that you would like to include on your entry in jpg or gif extension to my email address (see below) and I will be glad to do it!
all the best
Patricia Breuer Moreno
Projects Manager, Community Team
Ashoka's Changemakers
pbreuer@ashoka.org
skype: patobreuer