Micro Finance Challenge Report

MICROFINANCE CHALLENGE REPORT by Student’s Name Class/Course/Code Professor’s Name University/School City, State Date Microfinance Challenge Report The Business Idea The idea behind the DB Company business is to implement a new portion of the plant world, maybe plants that depict the university staff and environment. Out of pity for employees and to make your workspace aesthetically appealing, these products are branded as 'Desk Bud' or 'DB' to boost mental health and well-being. The team developed a product design with colourful pots, including playful characteristics like googly eyes, which provide whimsical qualities. This personalization aims to build a sense of camaraderie between the plants and their link to enhance a sense of 'friendship' within the workplace. The key market of the project is the people who work with their desks for a long time – usually university staff. With the rise of awareness regarding mental health, the team understood there was an opportunity for less costly, low-maintenance plants that could enhance the work environment and ultimately enhance employees' overall well-being. The products were competitively priced to ensure accessibility, as market research shows these customers are willing to pay around $15 per plant. Using this same pricing strategy, DB Company is positioning itself as a more cost-effective product than competing products sold at local retail stores. Also, the company relies on strong connections to the university community to draw on the campus's resources for production and marketing. For informal market research with roots in colleagues, the team found interest and further refined their offerings. The business plan also consists of pop-up sales events organized by the company on campus, especially during mental health awareness days. These events directly engage potential customers to sell products while promoting the products with well-being resources. Idea Development and the Ideation Process Development of the DB Company event was a descendant of several vital steps, considering the diverse capabilities of team members. The team started out identifying a market gap—prefabricated, low-maintenance plants that can improve workspace aesthetics and promote the mental well-being of their users, specifically in the university environment, where attention to mental health has risen in recent years (YANG, 2024). Each member in the brainstorming session brought in ideas based on their expertise. The accountant suggested budgeting and pricing things well and offered to those with an event management background that we had to host the pop-up events with our target audience to make an impact. We also discussed adding googly eyes to the pots to make the plants more personable. To validate their ideas, the team surveyed colleagues to see whether they were of interest and what would be acceptable price points, guiding them to a few elections of $15 or less. Additionally, they looked at similar products in the local retail, confirming that they would provide better value (Lange and Drews, 2020). Using this information, the team improved upon their design by choosing plants that are low maintenance, like succulents, for in-house use. They came up with the name 'Desk Bud', which related to their target audience, and they created the branding to represent the Gen Z demographic. The team chose to conduct pop-up sales events in high-traffic campus areas on major dates like "R U OK?" to align with mental health themes. They developed a marketing strategy for such promotion, which included setting up an Instagram account to curate product information and using UC chat to attract the attention of university staff. Team Composition and Skill set The DB Company consist...