Project Resources + Merchandises

Answer

 Project Resources + Merchandises

Merchandising is a great opportunity to market products or brands. Therefore, I saw it as a great opportunity to help promote the university brand while also helping us students gain experience in the developing problem-solving and analytic skills to keep track of market trends as well as increasing as much sales and retails as possible.

However, every successful marketing business always have a rough startup story.  Especially those where there is literally no enough capital to help get the resources needed to set up the business. Acquiring resources to set up the business is quite tedious. In our case, given that we were merchandising the university clothing, we were more advantaged since we had to seek help from the university administration to help us in acquiring some of the items and resources to set up the business. By resources here, we mean the merchandises, video shooting equipment and models to showcase the brand of items. Each one of the group members was assigned a role they are supposed to be undertaking throughout the project set up. In my case, I was responsible for acquiring the merchandises and resources, recruiting models for the video shooting and assisting in editing of the videos to be posted on the school websites. Because there is a legal process to follow in borrowing university resources, I had to formally write a letter and email to the head of department explaining my project idea, how it would help market even the institution and how it would help improve our skills as students. I explained how marketing the university through merchandising its clothes and other products could help make the institution nationally and internationally recognized, especially for practical courses like marketing and even attract more students to register for their courses. After consultations with our head of department about our project idea, the head of department was well convinced, with the help of my project members and approved our projects thus sending our request to the dean of students to help us acquire the necessary equipment. The dean gave us a green light to acquire the university clothes without any charges as well as granting us access to shooting equipment like a camera, tripods, lightings and microphone equipment from the university store. We were given the permission letters stamped by the office of the dean to be allowed to take the university merchandise for use. This saved us a great deal and was a great boost for our merchandising project as it cut down our costs for acquiring these resources.   This project was a good start to even explore other marketing options like design, exhibitions and merchandising competitions.

The project needed models who were supposed to be strictly on-going students (as instructed by the head of department) who can volunteer to model using the clothing for the video shoots. In order to do so, I came up with several consent forms and distributed them across the faculties for the interested students to fill out. The form is shown below. By filling these forms, the students accepted to participate in this project as our models for marketing the brand. We managed to scout a good number of students to participate in the project who agreed through the consent forms and it was going to be a great experience for them. Some of the team members and I were also part of the modeling team. The models were well informed of their roles, duties and even trained for the modeling shoot. Shooting of the models were done in various entertainment events like fashion shows, dinners or just at random places within the institution. The models had to dedicate most of their time in the evenings and weekends for these video shoots. Together with some of the other team members, I also assisted in editing of the videos adding effects to make the model videos and pictures as appealing as possible. Photographs of the models with the item being marketed were also taken and posted to the website to reach as many potential buyers as possible. Software for editing videos and images were already available in the computer laboratories where fast internet for posting the videos was provided by the school through the network cables. This made it easy and fast to upload videos and post them to the school websites.  All the resources needed were availed and this ensured a smooth start and running of the business

CONSENT FORM

Student registration number: 

Faculty:

Course:

CONSENT FORM

Title of Project: UNIVERSITY PRODUCTS PROMOTION VIDEO SHOOT

Name of Project leader: MASOUD

Please initial all boxes

1. I confirm that I have read and fully understood the details and purpose for the above project. I have had the opportunity to consider the information, ask questions and have had these answered satisfactorily.
2. I fully understand that my participation in modeling and video shoot is voluntary and that I am free to withdraw at any time.
3. I agree to the administration of the institution being informed of my participation in the project.
4. I agree to take part in the above project as a model                        

Full name                                            Date                                        Signature                       

Name of Person                                  Date                                        Signature

taking consent.           

Consent form date of issue:                              

Potential Business Opportunities

Merchandising of these university items and products offers a great opportunity to the university at large as well as the participants of this project. First of all, it provides us managers of the project with a unique perspective on the competitive, consumer-driven marketplace. It helps us in the marketing field to predict and manage the consumer demands. 

For the institution, marketing of the merchandise would help them gain recognition all across the world for practicing business course works in the field, particularly marketing and this would attract more scholars to register for various courses with the institution. By viewing some of these videos of models, the practical marketing work done by the students in the field, this may even gain recognition and awards. Selling and showcasing of these brands also help the institution gain profit when people purchase their products or view the videos uploaded online. The number of website visits would increase thereby institution also gaining income.

For us students who are the origin of the project, merchandising these items has helped us develop good interpersonal skills to help the buyers of the product, respond to complaints and even manage the resources and models who help in showcasing these merchandises to the market. We also acquire good organizational skills to handle the daily operation of shooting videos, marketing and handling the marketing activities. These skills acquired may enable us be able to obtain a part-time sales position or even act as an internship to further our skills and gain experience int the business world. These positions are often stepping stones to higher-level positions

It has also helped in exploring other market fields like designing, exhibitions, merchandising and art competitions to help other upcoming artists and designers to showcase their talent to the world. It also enables the organizers and those helping in managing of the business get some income from the profit raised by selling the products.

As for the models who volunteered to shoot, model and showcase the items being advertised, this would be a great chance to explore and gain experience and even land a modelling career. They will be able to advertise and market themselves to the world as models thereby gaining fame when their pictures and videos that show how they model start trending online.

As the institution gain popularity for the products and items they are merchandising, the number of visits and views to the websites and videos respectively increase with as many as 200+ views every day. Therefore, this is a great platform for the models to market themselves when their showcases are published on the websites.

It also offers fashion show opportunities include like art and design, print design, stage design, promotions, hosting, and managing a fashion show which all may also help generate income by charging for tickets to attend the fashion shows. These special events may also be a good method of entertainment for the campus students, recognition and appreciation of good talents. With the camera, photo shoot services can be a good business as well people can be charged a given amount depending on the number of pictures taken. Photoshoot is a good source of generating profit as it requires very minimal skills and with the acquisition of the cameras, the only resource utilized is time.

This project also gives room for more sales by supplementing other merchandises that doesn’t require models to showcase like small electronics, bags and other accessories to increase the product base. This increases the customer base and subsequent profits. However, these are items that may not be provided for by the institution thus additional costs may be required to get them. Their pricing will vary depending on the number of items ordered for purchase.