Reflection on our presentation and an incredible week!

Where do I begin?

As a result of all the hard work produced by the team this past week PIKA has stormed ahead and to quote Corrine, we are ‘on a roll’ and ‘on the money’.

When our team first got together it was through an interest in fashion, sports and wanting to improve people’s lives.  We then decided upon helping women cyclists.  At this stage the emphasis was on producing something bright and fashionable.  Much research followed which opened our eyes to the safety aspects of cycling, particularly studies that showed women are more likely to have accidents than men.  This was because they tend to lack confidence on the roads which makes them less visible to other road users.  So at this stage the team’s focus was on developing a high visibility garment made from reflective material.

I talked with a shop owner and discovered that women tend to buy the same products as men and that wearing high visibility cycling gear does not necessarily make them safer.  A confident attitude makes them safer.  The findings in a recent government report showed that women prefer to ‘hide’ and do not like to ride their bikes in a manner which draws attention to themselves.  Their predisposition to want to hide and not to draw attention is the very thing that makes them invisible to motorists, especially drivers of larger vehicles such as lorries.

The months of October and November have the highest numbers of road traffic casualties as motorists, cyclists and pedestrians struggle to adapt to the clocks going back an hour and subsequent darker afternoons.  Young people (aged 14-25) are particularly vulnerable road users.

We had originally considered designing cycling wear that was fashionable but had high visibility strips sewn in, the idea had been to present a desirable item which happened to have a safety element.  We then looked to see if there was a need for just high visibility clothing.  We talked to cyclists using empathy methods and developed three personas for our perceived market.  Cyndy produced some very good prototypes, at one point the team was considering making a high visibility belt.

Yoon and Christine observed cyclists at night around London in the rain.  Apart from discovering that half of the cyclists ignored traffic lights, they also found that many did not wear high visibility clothing; liked to pursue the dangerous habit of listening to their MP3 players while cycling and few had proper lights.  One team member watched a parent trying to get her teenage daughter to buy a high visibility vest with no success because it did not ‘look good’.

A cycling survey was produced and distributed to web-sites used by cyclists.  Originally the survey included a wide range of women as another report had shown that after a break from cycling women start to return to it in their forties.  Now we had more feedback it was becoming clearer that our target market could not be so wide and would focus on young women aged 14-25.  The survey would need to be adapted and modified.  (Magda and Christine have now done just that).

So, having spent the last weeks investigating the area of cycling for women and having considered the idea of developing a high visibility garment for its own sake, we had come full circle.  Now armed with our findings we knew that we had found the right target market, need and product.  We had ended up where our first thoughts had started (to produce a fashionable cycling garment for young women) but this time we had information to support our decision.

Friday’s presentation to our class was based upon our research and conclusions.

We stated the background to our team and our research including findings from recent government reports.  Our product would be fashionable, functional, waterproof made from eco-friendly materials.  Our market is 14-25 year olds wanting inexpensive products.  We talked about our competitors who are relatively few.  They make fashionable cycling wear that is comparatively expensive.  We can fill a niche for trendy cycling wear that is cheap to buy.  Our first product would be a waterproof cape that can be folded up and stored under the bike’s saddle.  Our company’s commodity will be a reflective and bright fabric.  This is being sourced.  We will have a pre-launch to generate interest in our product and will use social networking sites to promote the cape.  We will approach magazines with the aim of having our cape photographed on photo shoots.

That sums up the presentation.  Cyndy and Magda had put it together during the previous week and Cyndy had made a powerpoint to go with it.  My contribution would be to speak about the reports and statistics after Cyndy had spoken.  Unfortunately we did not keep to the running order, some confusion ensued and I gave the background information before ‘the Pitch’.  This certainly re-enforced the need to rehearse the delivery and not just plan the order in which people will speak.  (With a debate coming up soon this has been a valuable lesson and we will certainly allocate time to rehearse for that).

However, the presentation went well and we had some excellent feedback. The class seemed to grasp why we wanted to help young women cyclists and how our product would fill the need for ‘fashion that gives confidence’ – coined by our lecturer, Corrine.  I see it as a way of  ‘sneaking in’ a safety product under the guise of fashion.  If a young woman wears a cape believing it makes her fashionable and on trend it will make her happier to be seen, it will improve her confidence and combined with the high visibility reflective detailing her visibility to other road users will improve.  The cape certainly seems to fill many needs.

Clearly we would have to look more carefully at our personas and provide new ones to match the narrower age range: 14 – 25 year old women.  One student was worried about securing the cape to the cycle and avoiding it being stolen.  Again, this is an area that will require work but this should be achievable.  Cyndy explained that the capes could be small enough to fit into a handbag or be rolled up under the saddle.  One student mentioned bikes she had seen which have an attachment on the back with an additional wheel for transporting a child.  She was particularly worried about the safety aspects.  We all agreed on the dangers of the child not being seen but felt we should concentrate on our target market for now.

Our competitors were mentioned; how did we feel about them?  Again, pricing would be key to our success.  The capes would have to be cheap to be affordable to our target market, sourcing inexpensive material and  manufacturing would be crucial.  We were not competing with expensive designer bike wear retailing for hundreds of pounds.  Our product would be waterproof, fashionable, cheerful and cheap.  Corrine advised that we keep to five different styles of capes (i.e. five different patterns/prints) which would provide enough choice for our customers and keep down manufacturing costs.

Marketing would be so important for our venture.  I feel that we need a celebrity to endorse the cape and certainly Cyndy has contacts in the fashion and magazine industries that could give the cape valuable exposure.

Other things I took away from our Friday session:  a video showing a company using real flies to advertise itself at a conference – weird but effective.  This made me open to considering more unusual ways of advertising.  The need for a liability waiver – can a cape injure a person?  Could it get trapped in the spokes of the wheels?  I am not sure how this would happen, but we need to make sure we are not vulnerable to being held liable for any potential incidents.

There is a lot to do but the presentation clarified that we are on target.  Work needs to be done in prototyping, testing it on our market, re-prototyping and re-testing, marketing and moving the project forward.

My role now is much clearer as each team member is concentrating more on their defined roles.  In the early weeks we were all involved in researching and finding what we would be doing as a team in the area of cycling for women.  We are now much clearer about what we want to achieve.  We have identified a target market and a suitable product to address the needs of ‘fashion that improves confidence’ and aids safety.  I understand better our individual team members and have more confidence in leading the project and team.  My role is to make sure that each team member uses their skills to the best of their ability.

I am working on the feasibility study (Bright Eyes competition entry) and particularly how it will feed into the business plan.  With so much happening it becomes very important to keep everyone informed and on track.  There is excitement in the group and renewed enthusiasm.