PROGRESS UPDATE - 11 MARCH 2019

This is the final post for this blog to conclude ET9135, tracking the progress of this business venture. Starting and running this business means a lot to me. For me, I take pride in the work I do, and choose to do things excellently. I also found that this was a good opportunity for me to try something - and the push I needed for my new year's goal, which was to start a business. We managed to stick to some parts of our business plan, kicking off with the art print section of the venture for our first vertical. While we had envisioned to expand into all verticals as suggested, the marketplace business is really not as easy. On top of pushing for products, it's also the struggle of making sales, and that is often dipping into our pockets to expand the business. Yet, without a product, we remain passive and unattractive.

While this might seem like a mini-reflection, my main problem that i encountered was the value of each purchase. I think there are so many aspects to business - like the value of data, the value of having a customer base, the value of acquiring a customer and so many things involved that I failed to see long term. While thankfully, it isn't too late to reposition and pivot the business, I think I failed to calculate the value of the acquiring a customer in relation to the profit margin of the product. With a constantly operating labour cost, I will continue to operate at a loss if I do not find the solution soon.

I think one of my achievements was being able to sell the product at the booth and see random strangers come by and walk away with something. In addition, someone came by to our booth and said that she has been following us online for a while and was excited to come by our booth. These are the little things that personally keep me going.

Lastly, out of all the things i'm thankful to have learnt in this process, I think understanding the market in the online and social sphere is interesting. We managed to push oLur instagram followers to nearly 500 in one month, and i'm very thankful for that.

Lastly, one of my key takeaways is: just because the business exists in the industry, it does not mean it is profitable. Wise decisions and assessments should be taken before choosing to model after another company.

That aside, i'll be continuing this business and carrying through expanding to other areas and other marketplace options to monetise the business - through areas like interior design, home styling, possible clothing line and what not!

PROGRESS UPDATE - 8 MARCH 2019

We had our booth! And managed to make sales of >$400 for the day Amrita and I were at the booth. It was interesting because we really pushed for sales, understanding how the customers react to discounts and impulse buys, and it was a really exciting time of understanding and talking them. (But it was also ridiculously warm and uncomfortable!)

We also sold our weekly planners as a special launch! Our next booth will be at Amber Ember, a cafe that is holding an art market. Managed to meet her and have a long chat. She shared some insights on her role as a home stylist and how Oh, Culture could be helpful in that area of helping find the right products for her business! It was also nice to know she wanted to support us.

PROGRESS UPDATE – 5 MARCH 2019

1. 9th and 10th March @ Katong Square

2. 16th and 17th March @ Amber Ember

Managed to get in touch with some of the owners of the cafes after a making a few cold calls. And it was really nice hearing some of the input that they had regarding our overall branding.

In addition, I have been working on a range of different posts and collaborations on the marketing end for an online push.

It has almost been a while since i've updated! But we've been working day in and day out on having this work well for our consumers and for the mass market in preparation for more to come.

One of the things we've been really excited about is on boarding a range of new merchants and products on a quick scale. One of the lessons that i've gained through some talks i've been attending is the importance of expanding a marketplace business as quick as I can, and how to be a sustainable business. Our current customer acquisition cost is very high, and it's also because we have not been using the art works effectively. As I was thinking about some areas that we can expand and move towards, I started to realise there is a very big area to move into with the artworks that we commission and own at the moment. It can be expanding into stationery of all sorts - notebooks, cups etc. and more to come. And that is how we can also increase the customer lifetime cost to be more effective and more sustainable.

Hence, we've been looking at having quite a few works placed on notebooks and cups. One of the ways that we're looking to test the market, much like what Roderick has been suggesting is by using pre-order basis or testing the market interest. We recognise that going into other products that requires more mass scale printing would mean having to invest in inventory. But not knowing the market and not having a clear problem might not be a good area to work on and so we have decided to mock up some works and test the market to see their comments.

I've also been working on marketing efforts to create and promote content adequately. One of the ways is through having actual content that is not just digitally produced. Hence, i've been creating content through photo shoots at home, spending about $10 on materials and borrowing equipment from school to save on costs.

Over the last few weeks as well, we've been working towards pushing our proper paid content - image and video wise after the consultation with Adrian and Roderick, that we need more content that brings the products and the people to life. Amrita is working on meeting artists to interview them so that we can have something added that might peak people's interests. On the other hand, I was working on creating photos such as the ones here.

Last but not least, one of the main areas i've been focusing on is working with other distribution channels and finding offline retailers to sell our products. Hence, i've been speaking to a few cafe owners and shop owners such as Homeground coffee and Weekend Cheoks. Homeground Coffee was a contact from one of my friends who often showcase artists' works as a mural and frames up prints in the cafe. One of the artists there sells her works at about $80, and he shared that most of them are sold out. This made me realise how i might not be targeting the right market with the current marketing efforts I am employing. In order to target those individuals, like the example that he shared who walked into the cafe and bought $360 worth of art works (A3), we had to reach the current market that are interested in works like these. Hence, i've been talking to offline retailers to get it going.

PROGRESS UPDATE – 8 FEBRUARY 2019

We have launched!

We have been working on getting merchants on board, and currently have approximately 10 with us at the moment. That is a good thing as we slowly expand and market who we are, especially if our competitive advantage is to have creative entrepreneurs and be exclusive retailers for them. Since our meeting with Roderick on Saturday, we have also prioritised setting up content and visuals that are from our brand and Oh, Culture specific. Hence, we have scheduled the following deliverables to be executed by mid march.

Total Deliverables

1. Launch Video (30s to 40s) with model
2. Branding Photos with model
3. About our product
4. What we do video
5. “Meet Our Artists” shoot - One question / One-line description Interview clips of the artist

One of the concerns that i'm still deliberating with is having to push for an entire marketing campaign and make sales with the limited amount of time we have. Unfortunately, we had quite a few delays till December because of this big project which took a lot more fine-tuning that we had pre-empted. With that in mind, I have been working on organic marketing and after the video and photos are out and established, I will be backing it with paid media as suggested by the instructors during our consultation. Hence, we are working concurrently with pushing for sales whilst producing adequate content.

I have completed the two briefs for our launch video and about our product, and am currently working on producing visual content behind the scenes.

PROGRESS UPDATE – 22 January 2019

The past two weeks was an absolute hectic time for me, spearheading the business in getting merchants onboard and pushing to tie down many things for the business. At the moment, we are onboarding approximately 5 confirmed merchants, and have made trips down to the city whenever they are available to pitch the process to them. It has been good, with our merchants also giving us feedback and what they feel about the business.

In addition, Amrita and I actually went down to scout for merchants and managed to pitch to about 6 that day with an elevator pitch to peak their interest.

That aside, my roles for now include: website, social media, marketing, product management process, merchant pitching and design and copywriting for all collaterals offline and online. With the launch coming up very soon, here is a screenshot of one what is about to launch soon, with 9 products in place. We are looking to run an online promotion at 10% to spark interest.

Social media wise, I will be setting up a range of Instagram posts, and replicate it on Facebook for the slated release date of Monday (CNY week).

PROGRESS UPDATE – 22 January 2019

PROGRESS UPDATE – 14 January 2019

PROGRESS UPDATE – 7 January 2019

Been working a lot on trying to iron out the website and figure out the style and direction for the pre-launch page. I started to recognise that there is a need to look credible and professional, and it starts with educating our merchants on who we are so that we can onboard products as soon as possible.

This is the current state of our testing page, and I will run through our tech guy, Fahadh when we meet this week. This week, our goal is mostly to work on onboarding merchants, pitching and getting at least 10 products on our site. On the back-end, we are clamping down on our main printing supplier for our art prints.

I think my main struggle is figuring out how best to go about the website! So i'm setting this agenda:

1. Draft out landing page information and interface and website wire frame

2. Write down the timeline for January

3. Draft out more posts for social media traction online

4. Plan February's marketing plan and plan for that

PROGRESS UPDATE – 1 January 2019

It's a new year, and that means it's a fresh slate for us to start as well. As for the latest meeting that we managed to discuss, we ironed out the issues on what needed to be done with Aruna leaving. And that meant me having to take on the merchant on-boarding process and marketing fully.

With that in mind, my goals to expedite my progress for the month of January are the following, as I will be working on Oh, Culture for the next 2 weeks everyday to push for the launch by end Jan.

• Set up social media pages and gain traction through establishing branding style and awareness
• Start approaching merchants and artists
  • Create landing page for information
  • Create on-boarding email for merchants to understand how the flow works
  • Meet them f2f to talk about what they are looking for and what they might expect
• Concurrently work with Brannon to firm up packaging and Oh, Culture's studio products
  • These products work to test the market on a pre-order basis as well
  • (We have also created a testing excel sheet to track the progress and what it means in terms of the results as we are working on the launch for February)
  • Establish branding with packaging and once confirmed, gift some products to influencers and possible marketing avenues

PROGRESS UPDATE – 20 December 2018

Throughout the month of December, things have gone a little tough, facing the problem of not being able to churn out things. A lot of us have also been away, myself included – having to shoot an overseas documentary in Guangzhou for my final year project which left me very tied down for the month of December. Thankfully, i've had the opportunity to work with people who I really do enjoy working with, who have helped me a lot.

Also just received news from Aruna that she is looking to pull out from this project due to personal reasons. I would say that that is one of the setbacks I am experiencing with this business – especially because she was such a partner and companion to me especially in ironing out marketing efforts and merchant on-boarding. At the moment, it has yet to be confirmed and we are looking to still keep her until the storm wears out.

PROGRESS UPDATE – 15 November 2018

It has been a lull period for us with busy schedules towards the end of the semester, unfortunately! With all our various dates, one of the things that we managed to tie down in the previous meeting was the on-boarding process for merchants. Hence, one of the things that I realised is the gap between pitching to potential merchants, and the process flow up to the point that it reaches our consumer.

Hence, managed to work yesterday to tie down on the entire process and what our individual roles were in the whole process of it. This helped break it up into different verticals and I will be sharing it with them tomorrow during our WIP meeting to discuss how it is!

PROGRESS UPDATE – 2 November 2018

Over the week, I finalised the merchant pitch so that we can start targeting artists and potential merchants to onboard. We are running on a tight timeline – considering the way we are planning to launch in December and it is currently already November.

I managed to work on the merchant flow, set KPI and targets for who we are going to approach. This was done on a separate merchant sheet, where we are tracking pitch process (with the mock message so that we can all quickly copy and paste) all the way to onboarding process.

KPI Targets - For the month of November, each person should list 10 potential merchants - Out of these potential merchants, each person should approach at least 5 merchants (so keep working at it until you get 5 at least) - Ensure that these merchants have product offerings and styles in line with what we are offering.

Through this, one of the things that I identified is the need to firm up the process between post-pitch and onboarding. If the artist / label agrees, what are some things that need to be done and what do we have to foresee could be possible questions or problems occurring during this process.

These are some questions/issues to think about (that I have voiced out on our slack channel)

1. How do we take product pictures of items if they cannot be mocked up? Eg. If it’s earrings / handmade pots etc. Do we have a supply chain/process flow for that part? @Brannon

2. Start on FAQ list that merchants might have and what our answer is for that @Aruna Anantha Sayanam

3. Think about what happens after the pitch and when they say okay (Structured onboarding process)

- What exactly do we need? Information wise? Do we pass them the website output list to fill in? Is there a form or exact procedural flow that is part of the onboarding process entirely.

- What is the timeline for the onboarding process? @Aruna Anantha Sayanam @Gabriela Lim @Brannon

- What forms and contracts do they need to sign? @Amrita Sridhar

Overall, we're getting a little packed and i'm not very sure if we can meet the stipulated launch date of December!

PROGRESS UPDATE – 26th October 2018

Based off the previous meeting we had on Saturday, Aruna and I came together separately on Thursday evening to work on the finalising our logo types, while I worked on the merchant pitch to our fellow artists. I personally really enjoy working with Aruna because she's really fast at executing and it really moves things along quickly.

Since then to Saturday, we managed to firm up the main foundations of everything and have sent over the information as we will be starting on the website and copy sheet, while concurrently pitching to potential merchants to onboard products!

PROGRESS UPDATE – 20th October 2018

After the business report submission and presentation in school, we came together and talked about our commitment levels and how we can properly work on managing our time in line with the goals and milestones we have set for Oh, Culture. I felt that it was important for us to be set on the same place and talk about our commitments to the business, and where we saw ourselves in this project. We individually shared our personal stake in this business, and how much we are willing to commit for that equal share in the business – all with the goal of succeeding. It was one of the more serious conversations we've had, giving feedback on how we have been performing as a team and individually, and how better we can take charge of our roles and work from there.

PROGRESS UPDATE – Pre-run-up to finalising idea

From the run-up of the previous few meetings and first meet up on the 28th of August, we have moved from having our own label of tote bags and enamel pins to an online retailer that sells a range of products – tapping on the already available market before selling our own label as a scalability measure.

We encountered various hiccups along the way, finding ourselves going in circles in working through the operations and logistics side of everything. One of the things I had already started on and completed prior to our pivoting was the brand book and artist pitch. This is because I had already started looking at different artists and speaking to them on what is needed for them to work with us.

While it was a bit of a struggle to pivot from an idea that we have already grown so attached to, taking personal responsibility on different parts of it, it was something I felt helped us in the way we pivoted to the second idea and knew how best to go about it. Perhaps in this vein, then the work up to this point did help us understand the market and our consumers – which was precisely why we pivoted in the first place. Hopefully, we will be able to learn from those mistakes and prior research and move on from there in targeting the right audiences with the right solutions!

PROGRESS UPDATE – IDEAS, IDEAS AND MORE IDEAS

We had come together twice to talk about why we needed to change and how we can go about changing. We pitched a few ideas here and there and on the final brainstorming meeting on the Monday before our report and presentation was due, I felt that it would be useful to pivot from the current progress that we had made. Hence, it was working off the research that we already had, and the product / supply flow that we did prior research on. One thing I have always personally felt was a problem in Singapore's art scene or even just home decor products was how there was no direct business-to-consumer avenue. As I am a consumer who loves buying products such as these, there is very little avenue to purchase these products. In other countries such as the US, brands such as Anthropologie, Society 6 and other niche curated stores have made their mark as people do love buying niche nitty gritty products for their homes. On the other side of this production flow is artists. As I am in close proximity with friends who are designers, artists and more importantly, just aspiring entrepreneurs (product-based), they have voiced out their troubles in finding the right platforms to sell their products. Where can they start off in the process of even understanding their consumer and gaining traction in its early stages, or even that beginning process of finding that one customer. Hence, Oh, Culture decided to pivot to this platform/retail store that could on board these artists and products into reaching the mass audience and consumer market! Hooray.

PROGRESS UPDATE – WE NEED TO PIVOT

I met Amrita that day to talk about what exactly our competitive advantage is. This was also based off the comments from the lecture the first time, where the ideas of good design tied with social cause was a struggle to pull together. If we focused on the social side, it would require a high cost of labour and time to educate our audience on what and who we are. In addition, what are we really pursuing based off our social cause? And what do we really need to do in order to call ourselves "social entrepreneurs". If we did go on the design-side, it would be a struggle to find an audience to buy our products based off aesthetic value, and without brand affiliation or affinity (which takes time to build), it is very tough to make this work.

It was a bit tough to try to work on pivoting or even changing the entire idea completely. To add on to that, I personally felt a bit jaded and needed a bit of time to think and ideate further. During that meeting itself, Amrita and I discussed the possibility of adopting a single brand voice that was strong enough to draw a growing consumer base over a period of time. Hence, one of the ideas that we came up with was the idea of integrating art into our everyday products, drawing reference from socio-cultural references and artists who used art as a way to voice out commentary on life. If that was the case, how can we integrate art into products as a form of saying something – but what is that something?

PROGRESS UPDATE – OH, CULTURE BRAND

(This is an archived brand identity as we have since pivoted from this)

I worked on the copy and overarching brand voice. What I wanted to evoke was tying in certain ideas and styles with our brand, considering one thing in mind – targeting our consumers in the right way.

Hence, one of the ways to gain the trust of our artist partners and also our consumers to support our brand was to tie in with a social cause.

About us

Unlocking change in the world is never easy, but that shouldn’t stop us from trying. Here at Oh, Culture, we partner with a handful of local artists to kickstart revolutionary conversations through strong visuals, empowering communities of readers, writers, artists and enthusiasts to make a difference in their everyday lives.

And it all starts with a chat.

Positioning statement

We believe you want everyday items that make a difference in our local community, create conversations and have an impact – simply because you (yes, you) could shape the world that we live in.

Mission

To catalyse change through conversations

Vision

Create a world where each individual is empowered to make a difference