SWOT Analysis

Above is a SWOT analysis of the project, which outlines all the risks, and potential strengths of the business plan. I though it was important to do this before setting out and completing the prject by going into business.

The Money

These are the important bits... The facts and figures regarding the business plan. The money and costs state that each unit will cost £4.70 to make. We will be selling the product at £8. This leaves for a potential profit of £3.30 per unit, and if all units are sold a total profit of £66. Our potential losses however could stand at £94 if we fail to sell any t-shirts, and i recognise that we must sell 12 t-shirts in order to break even from this project with i would regard as a very reasonable target.

More Designs

during the design process, something struck me, and i wondered whether everybody would be happy walking around with a picture of an owl on their t-shirt. And as this product is designed for teens up to 15 years old, i decided i wanted to look at a more stylish and mature way of promoting the iflm on the tshirt. I came up witha more sleek design which displays only the title of the film, in with black or white, printed on the the opposite negative colour t-shirt. You cna see form examples below what the t-shirts would look like. We will all(members of leap of faith group) be wearing these style t-shirts at the degree show, as well as selling them.

My designs

Now that i have sorted everything out nescessary for production methods, i decided ot take on the task fo designing some t-shirts ready for printing. i wanted to keep my designs very simple and colourful at the same time. I felt it was important ot have the title of the film displayed clearly, as well as an iconic image from the film displayed on the t-shirt, which is why i came up with these three designs below.

I am very happy with the designs, i feel they portray a good meaning to the film, and they all would look nice on the chest area of a t-shirt. I feel these would do a good job of catching people;s eyes, and drawing them to the title of the film. MY personal favourite, is the Owl design.

Howto do the printing

I thought it was nescessary to next find out methods of doing the printing. This would be very important as it would be make or break for the quality of my product.
I thought the best way to find this out was to look at examples on Youtube. Below are some of the videos i watched to help inform myself.

Research: Printing costs

I started to wonder the best way of printing my t-shirt designs, however i remembered that i had recently bought a new printer at home, which would be more than capiable of printing my needs. However looing at this from a business perspective, i eneded to find out costs of printing, so that i could assemble to price into the budget and cost analysis. I looked online and found the best quotes for cartridges that i would be needing, would be £17. As you can see from the images. This cartrige will easily allow me to print 20 designs at a very good quality ratio. This brings the costs of printing to 85pence per unit.

Researching: Paper

A lot of places that i looked at online had similar quotes for costs of iron-on printing paper, which in essence, allows me to print off my designs on to a piece of special paper, and then iron them on to the t-shirt using a standard household iron.
I looked at a few online shops, for example Amazon (above) and i can conclude that the aversage price i will be looking at for each design is around 50 pence per sheet of paper, so 50 pence per unit.

How am i going to go about this?

I have come to a decision, after looking at my research that i will be producing the t-shirts by bulk buying the t-shirts, and then using my own means to print the designs i make, on to the t-shirts.

The next stage is to look at ways of printing the designs on to the bulk-bought t-shirts.

Research: Target audience

Target audience is very important for this business. The film, is aimed at mainly 8-30 year olds, as this is the prime age people are likely to be disconcerted with faith and religion. The film in itself is a film about encouragment of faith, and to belive that even t your lowest point, you are able to overcome it, and be risen up again.

The target audience for the t-shirts however, i am lookign to aim at 6-15 year olds, as this would be the prime age for children to wear something. A teen any older than 15 is likely to be put off by the fact that the t-shirt is not branded, and maybe a little differnt to what you would find their friends wearing.

There is a strong possibility of rejection form this age group, if they do not like the idea, it will be easy to shun the idea, because as a young audience, they will be very picking in their choices.


UPDATE FROM FORMATIVE

The product is aimed at 6-15 year olds, however the real people who we are selling to are the parents and grandparents. We must realise that for a child to be wearing this product, the parent must also agree with its morals and ideas. So in reality, the product would be aimed at people above 30 years old, as these would be the people who make the executive desiciouns over whether or not they purchase the product for thier child.


I decided to go into some research about the development of christianity aroudn the world, and found that alot of young people are becoming christians, and at a very fast rate ( http://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/biblestudyandtheology/perspectives/colson020722.aspx). It is the fastest growing religion on earth, however, athists have grown by over 20% since the last census in the UK, so this group has also got to be taken into consideration.

Research: Buying from an online store

I went on to conduct some research on professionaly made designs, i was quoted £10.99 for one website, (TSHIRTSTUDIO) and £12 for another website. These prices would not be appropriate for what i am trying to achieve. In reality i would like to keep costs of making the t-shirt uned £5 in total, and although this method provides everything ready-made, it is far too expensive, and will only result in me making a loss.

There were options to buy the t-shirts from professionals in bulk, however the discount was only 10%, and for over 100+ t-shirts. I am only looking to produce 20 at most, so again this is very much not appropriate.

Research: Buying in Bulk

I have come to a decision after doing some research that i will be bulk-buying t-shirts, and printing on them myself, this is a far more cost effective method of producing the t-shirts.

Below is a picture of the price i was quoted for 20 t-shirts, at £57. i thought this was a very good price, and would work out a whole lot cheaper than buying t-shirts with my design on from a professional t-shirt maker, However, to be sure i will need to conduct some further research on the alternative methods available.

Research: T-shirts on the market

I wanted to start off the research by looking into what t-shirts were already on the market. Other than typical highstreet designer names, like Primark, and marks and spencer, i knew there was a huge amount of business going on online.
Customisable t-shirts are a big thing on the internet, and you are able to get your own design made on to a t-shirt at a relitivly good price these days. I started looking at some websites such as www.8ball.co.uk. An English t-shirt printing company, who sells a whole range of slogan and personalised t-shirts. I came to a quick decision that i had recognised there was a trend in the amrket. The prices along all the websites i looked at, were very similar. A t-shirt costing around £15-20 mark seemed a fair price. I also looked at childrens t-shirts of the same style, the price was set around £10-£12.

This research has given me some excellent insight to how much i should be charging for my t-shirt. I want my t-shirts to be very good value for moeny, and since they will not be professionally made, around the £8 price seems to be a fair price in my opinion.

My Role

I have been designated the business role of marketing manager.

I am very excited, as this means that i am responsible for coming up with an innovative product that can help us get people interested, whilst at the same time still having to stick to strict calculations to do with making profit. I see this as a challenge, and i am willing to give it my all.

My responsibilities are as follows;

“To produce an item which can be used to promote Leap Of Faith, whilst at the same time bringing a small profit to contribute to costs of degree show."

Schedule

I have produced a scheule in the form of a gant chart, to help me along with my project, and to ensure that i remain on task for the impending deadline of the degree show.