Bear It
A Bump on the Move
The Ask
Create an original small business from the ground up, complete with a full business canvas model, financial plan, marketing strategy, operational information, and company overview
THE PROCESS
Part One: Brainstorming the Identity of the Brand
When brainstorming for our brand, my teammates and I started by identifying a segment in the market that seemed untapped and/or needed improvement. Coming out of the pandemic, many women were emerging from quarantine pregnant and in need of proper athleisure wear. Additionally, in recent years the desire to buy more natural and sustainable apparel has propelled. This led us to develop “Bear It - a Bump on the Move”, a maternity athleisure clothing company that utilizes all-natural materials to produce comfortable, safe products for the mother and baby. Furthermore, we had to explain our blue ocean strategy and how our company differed from our competitors. We identified our problem statement, which was that the maternity wear segment severely lacked athleisure clothing that was naturally made, uplifting and fun in appearance, and secure/functional in its construction. Our solution to these problems was creating an apparel company that specializes in combining all of these demands from the maternity wear market and combining them in an organic, appealing way. Before solidifying our idea, we also had to identify the legal structure (LLC) of our company, as well as design our carefully throughout logo and mission statement.
The next step in developing our new company was identifying the profile of our brand, which included the target market, customer profiles, locations of our headquarters and pop, and building our business canvas model. When researching where to set up our headquarters and host our pop up shops, we used tools such as statista to research the cities in the U.S. with the highest fertility rates to strategically feature our travelling bus pop ups at. Futhermore, we used our preliminary research to determine that L.A. was the best place to house our headquarters/manufacturing facility, as it was in close asscoaition with ethical production processes and sustainable/organic materials. When honing in on our target market, I conducted in depth research on the needs and wants of expecting mother’s, as well as their shopping habbits, occupation, marital status, income, location, customer traits, and hobbies. To build our business canvas model, I used miro to map out aa range of factors including key partners, key activities, key resouces, key propositions, customer relationships, channels, customer segments, cost structures, and revenue streams.
Part Two: Identifying Brand Profile
The next step in building up our company was curating our carefully crafted product offerings. Before doing so, we had to conduct in-depth research on our potential mentor brands/competitors which we found were maternity wear brands Kindred Bravely, Bao Bei, and Ingrid & Isabel. When gathering information on our top competitor Kindred Bravely, I did a thorough analysis of the brand’s website, company history/overview, product offerings, brand values, and social media handle across all platforms. I applied this information to curate our brand image across all platforms including our social media handles, mobile website, and marketing campaign, as well as effectively and efficiently outline our product offerings to ensure we were meeting and exceeding the needs of our consumers as well as differentiating ourselves from our competitors.
Part Three: Curating the Products
A crucial element in creating any new business is the financial plan. My team and I put together a comprehensive Excel workbook for our company that contained all of the costs and financial data for our first year of operation. A year-one sales plan, year-one expenses, sales and gross profit projections, breakeven analysis, profit and loss statement, pre-opening capital spending plan, monthly sales plan, cash flow forecast, and opening inventory plan were all included in our financial plan. We thoroughly estimated average predicted revenues based on each of our promotional efforts for each month (signage, collaborations, etc.), pop-up bus calculations (renovations, cost of the bus, and cross-country tour), and other potential company expenses when creating our financial strategy.
Part Four: Developing a Financial Plan
Last but not least, we had to utilize all of the research we conducted on our consumer market, brand image, product lines, competitors, and financial calculations to cap off our marketing campaign efforts. I deliberately built our Bear It website to meet and surpass the expectations of our customers by drawing inspiration from our mentor businesses as well as the data we obtained on the mental health advantages of bright, cheery colors on pregnant women. Because we don't have a flagship store, we decided that for the first year of operation, it would be best for our new company to sell mainly through our pop-up bus tours and through our website. With this in mind, I utilized specific design principles and elements to clearly and concisely communicate our prominent brand values, company overview, and brand story to present a very visually appealing and user-friendly package.
Part Five: Building a Marketing Plan
THE OUTCOME
As one of the top-scoring groups in my entrepreneurship class, I learned how to effectively and efficiently collaborate in a team to properly build a new, original fashion company from the ground up. I was able to gain experience using practical business tools while building our brand, including creating a business canvas model and a detailed first-year financial plan. Additionally, I was able to apply my previous fashion knowledge in forecasting, designing, researching, and retail buying to perfect the brand.