Team Blog
4th August, MiE B50 Business Showcase
Wow, it is finally here!!! It has been a long journey with many ups and downs but it was all worth the experience, network and the skills picked-up. This venture has given all of us insights to an entrepreneur's life where fighting fire is essential to be successful and sustainable. We've learnt that through first-hand experience by handling the various obstacles that has come our way in this journey. It was so surreal to see ourselves and the other B50 teams present the developed start-ups especially when a couple of months ago we were all just ideating and coming up with business proposals. It felt like we were all fighting against the world then but today we all can clearly say that we have fought well and have successfully come this far. The journey surely wasn't easy and it is true that only the fastest and strongest can survive in this fast paced entrepreneurial realm. Nonetheless the experience and friendship gained from this venture was truly insightful and one of a kind.
This surely doesn't mark the end of HYDRA or the Mulan series, instead, it is only the beginning. HYDRA will be continuing its operation by changing its current operational system and adding new products into its current Mulan product line. Thus, do stay tuned to HYDRA's instagram page for our progress as this blog will soon be locked as the minor is coming to an end.
Stay empowered with HYDRA!
-Sarath
16th July, Pre-Orders Open
With all the marketing materials ready, we are set to collect pre-orders and validate our ideas. While Jia Hui had the website done, Kar Aik have the bracelet and packaging orders settled as well as the pre-order form created and Sarath have the posters ready too. Time to make some sales and get this business going :-)
-Kar Aik
9th July, Photo Shoot
Chris! Sarath's friend from ADM (Art, Design and Media, NTU) agreed to help us take product shot! However, that morning, Sarath's girlfriend, who was suppose to model for us had a allergic reaction, hence we lacked models for our bracelet for the photoshoot. Hence, 4 of us, including Chris met at MBS on a Sunday morning to shoot around places in MBS, such as the outdoor space at the top level of MBS etc... It was a day for us to really showcase our creativity and curate different types of shot using different environment and structures as background and prop. We managed to take more than 100 shots and Chris went an extra mile for us to filter and edit those photos! Kudos to Chris :)
Now we have enough content for our social media. It's time for us to make more posters and get pre-orders :)
-Kar Aik
30th June, The Next Phase
The samples are finally here! The 3 of us met up at Ang Mo Kio Hub to distribute the samples and discuss the next phase of our project. Our next priority is photo shoot to generate content for marketing on social media and creation of website. This will allow us to quickly get pre-orders and do a proof of concept. We will try to get the bracelet engraved and get the photos out this week to get pre-orders ASAP. This is because we will be providing free engraving as our unique selling point.
We will also do a campaign on Instagram for more engagement and to gain traction as well. Since this series is about empowering females, the campaign will revolve around getting them to describe a trait that they believe in the most, tag us and share on their insta story. Also, to keep our instagram active, we will post events, facts or books related to mental health and empowerment etc...
Hopefully we will be able to progress quickly and get all the sufficient pre-orders soon!
-Kar Aik
Our Hydra Logo Mulan Edition
4 Chinese Character
9th June 2019, The Plan
We had our meeting with Adrian and Roderick yesterday and there were quite a number of questions for us in terms of the product and the marketing campaign. We were able to answer most of the questions in terms of the product, however, that was not the case for the marketing campaign. With that said, the questions asked by them during the consultation session was a good start for us to think of how we wanted to market HYDRA and its product line. Thus, we planned for a meeting today and we got a rough idea on the narrative.
We will be going ahead with the brand name HYDRA but with the original "H" logo to represent us. On top of that, we will also introduce a product series named Mulan and change our current tagline to something which encompasses empowerment, immortality and legacy. This would also allow us to align our HYDRA brand name to the whole narrative as Hydra is a strong and immortal creature. We would also be going ahead with the product line which mainly centers around female empowerment, thus, the usage of Mulan.
In the coming week we will be starting our marketing campaign and we have also split the upcoming tasks amongst us.
Godspeed!
-Sarath
7th June 2019, Final Push Before Orders
After the crafting of our survey, and analysis of 76 responses, we have finalize our decision on which design to produce. We are also able to attain insights of the price they are willing to pay for the bracelet and the factors that are of most importance to them when making purchase. The quotation we got will be for 100 MOQ which will take a total of a month to produce and deliver. Meanwhile the sample will require another month as well. Hence, we have decided to get sales via pre-orders using the sample while waiting for the bulk order to come in, in order to minimize the risk of bulk purchasing bracelets of inferior quality. To prepare for our launch, we've created the Facebook and Instagram as well as finalizing the design for our logo. With all this, we shall consult Roderick tomorrow and proceed on accordingly.
Kar Aik
24th May 2019, Change for the better
As we moved from Charging bracelet to personalize bracelet, we realize the initial logo would not be suitable for our current plan so we decided to stick to the 'HYDRA' word logo than the initial 'H' logo. With that we would engrave the HYDRA on our bracelet as initial design.
-Jiahui
Initial Logo
Current Logo
23rd May 2019, Moving Forward
Moving forward, we shortlisted a few design that would fit our company and the designs being extracted would then be used to conduct a market survey. By conducting market survey of the designs being extracted, we could find out the designs which are most liked by our target audience. The designs which are most be our target audience would then be listed in HYDRA for sales and the supplier would be contacted for bulk purchase. Most of the designs extract are simple and chic that will be suitable for engraving which is HYDRA unique selling point which allows user to personalise their own unique personalised bracelet. We decided to provide free engraving services for our clients, as we did went to do our marketing research we realize engraving services are not provided for clients from other company. With that we do marketing survey, updating HYDRA and aliasing with supplier.
-Jiahui
21st May 2019, Change is the way forward.
We had a skeletal huddle session earlier today where we concluded to fall on plan B as we have already exhausted our previous options namely:
- Metal USB Bracelet
- Leather-finish USB Bracelet
- Pure Leather Bracelet with Metal Add-Ons
Plan B is to move into the predesigned bracelets territory where we would start by shortlisting a number of designs from the supplier and then conduct a market survey using those shortlisted designs. The designs which are most liked by our target audience would then be settled as the product for sales and the supplier would be contacted for bulk purchase. The unique selling point of these bracelets would be the HYDRA branding and the personalisation which would be done through the means of engraving. This also means that we would be moving into the pre-order model for our business and away from the original Kickstarter model.
With all this in mind, we have come up with a rough timeline to get HYDRA back on track due to these changes.
Godspeed!
-Sarath
15th May 2019
We had our second meeting after Kar Aik has gotten replies from the manufacturers. As of now, Sarath has came up with the logo and a few designs of the bracelet, which requires some minor tweaks. We then discussed about the color scheme for the bracelet, and came up with a few combinations, such as full silver, black cable with gold connector, and lastly brown cable with rose gold connector. Lastly, we decided that if things does not go well with the designs and what we want, we will sell normal bracelet instead as a backup plan. The images includes some of the designs came up by Sarath and Kar Aik's template for procurement.
-Kar Aik
10th May 2019, First Team Blog Entry
First Skype meeting after Finals was very focus and task oriented. We discussed about the features (waterproof etc...)of the charging bracelet to differentiate ourselves and discussed the practicality as well. We thought about the back up plan in the event the suppliers aren't able to manufacture our design as well. Till then, Kar Aik is going to contact the suppliers and will expect a reply by the following Monday. Meanwhile Sarath is going to try to render some designs. Lastly, each of us will take turns to update the team blog!
Until then,
Kar Aik