What is a research project?

'A research paper an original thesis, or purpose statement, about a topic and develops that thesis with information gathered from a variety of sources' when performing research the main goal is to solve a theory or statement to come to a conclusion on if it is true or not. Essentially, proving the theory right or wrong is the main reason for performing a research project.

There are multiple sections of content that can be added to a research project and depend on how in-depth you would like to go must be covered. One potential item of content would be a title page in which the title of the research paper is presented and who it is written by. There are two main data sources that must also be included in a research paper, Primary and Secondary which is research you either do yourself or data performed by other people that can be used as evidence to back up your arguments or as factual proof of points you have made. Other content that may be added to a research paper could be an introduction which is pretty self-explanatory, it introduces the topic which you will be talking about, why you have chosen to talk about the topic and what you hope to conclude from your finding. A conclusion will also need to be added to a research paper, this ties in together all of your findings to come to a final statement on what you have discovered through your project. Finally, a bibliography must be added to the back of your research paper, this gives a list of sources you have used for data findings and also quotes, this can be done using the Havard style technique.

Overall, a research project is a written document which presents a question or theory which you must then answer using different sources of information to find a finale conclusion.

Typography Project PT 2 - Six Week Plan

This Week Amy and I focused on creating a Six Week Action Plan in order to plan a clear direction of where our project was going over the course of this term, once agreeing on where we would like our plan to take us we set about creating an individual time table of goals and tasks to be completed in the six weeks we have been given. To ensure my plan was detailed enough I created a time table through google sheets, documenting where id like to be at half an hour intervals through the lesson time we have been given for this project. Hopefully I can stick to this plan as it is a timetable that is simple to follow and it allows enough time for me to help with production of the work and have all of my work in on time for the deadline.

Selling

As said previously, i will be focusing on a large realise party and invite influencers in hopes of more customers will come to our business.  We have decided to sell online as this will be easier for us to save money, cutting down our outgoings. Being online means that we can create our own website as well as proving to other suppliers such as amazon and Etsy.

Legal Obligations

When it came to ensuring that my business and its rights the claimed as a PLC Amy and I used the Gov.uk website as it gave us free, impartial, legal advice about the UK laws to follow. They guided us through the process of claiming and starting up our business, even educating us through what PLC meant prior to Amy and I decided that we would we settle for a PLC company. After researching the multiple varieties of business to own, Amy and I decided on the PLC as it suited our needs the best. A PLC is 'a company that is separately run by the people who own it, each individual gets an equal share of the company and slit of profit after tax' In order for us to run as a PLC we use these guidelines;

A suitable company name; LoAm LTD

An address for the company; The college Address to keep things mutual. 

• At least one director (those legally responsible for running the company); Both Amy and me.
• Details of the company's shares- at least one shareholder ( shareholders have certain rights, most companies are owned by shareholders, e.g directors may need shareholders to vote and agree to changes in the company) 
• To check what your SIC code is (standard industrial classification of economic activities, so a description your company's nature of business).

After discovering which form of business we'd be, we soon realised that all legal obligations or requirements could also be found on the website provided through a quick google search, which could benefit our questions in the future. 

Constraints On Production

There are two main potential constraints we may face in production, the first maybe the lack of quality we could experience when dealing with a mass produced item. The images or text we create maybe too much of a poor quality to be sold to the general public without complaint or the cases may not even get to us to give judgement on if they pass quality control as these cases will have to be shipped from their destination which is likely to be China thanks to their inexspenive prices and may break during this process which means that the company is at a lose, spending their money on product which they are unable to sell. Another could be our company finding its brand and fanship in a market that is highly saturated with cases already, we hope our unique but value for money cases sell themselves and stand out from the crowd.

Simplified Cash and Budget Flow

An estimate of how the year could go, if really successful;

Ways of getting the product out

Five P's of marketing

• Product (What are you selling?)
• Price (How will you market your price, research price ranges?)
• Promotion (Where, When, How and Why?)
• Place (Where?)
• People (Who will best fit your brand? Who will reach your target audience?)

I have three main ideas when considerating how I will get the phone cases out there, my first idea is to collaborate with the Artists who we feel reflect well with the brand's image, our idea is to collaborate with them on a few understate designs which the fans will feel is more intimate than a large portait image of their favourite artist, to go with this we will also ask the artist to promote these phone cases and be involved with the design aspect prior to the realise, the more of their fans who buy our cases the more we will succeed. Another way we may market our products is by having a launch party in which we intive other influencers such as youtubers and bloggers and gift them each a phone case which is not celebrity based in hopes they will feature it in a video or picture to really get across to new audiences and to show we do not just do celebrity phone cases. Finally, we would like to work with other brands to get our phone cases out there around Christmas, such as a gift set with the make up brand Barry M whereby we will collaborate with two brands to create gift boxes with one of our phone cases in and a Barry M nail polish both limited edtion for the Christmas period to reach new fans.

Production Techniques

When it came to the production of the phone cases Amy and I began by looking at Alibaba.com, In order to really set out how much money we would need to mass produce these phone cases for the lowest cost value per item. To begin with, we intended to buy multiple phone cases in a bulk buy to save money and shipping, through Alibaba we discovered that we could purchase anywhere up to 2999 cases of the plain variety, making them $0.47 per case. This could create use a lot of profit, however, we had to consider the fact that we needed to print on the cases afterwards, which would take a dig on our money margins. After coming to a stop when realising we would need to go to a third party to print on the phone cases, we searched for online stores would provide both services to us, after scrolling through and struggling for some companies to give us a straight-up quote, however, we found one website who did which was Custom Logo Cases who allowed the customer to bulk buy cases and send in designs for them to print off.

As you can see, the prices seem fair and the more phone cases you buy from them the higher the discount, which could really benefit a startup business like ours.

Evidence of scheduling and management.

For this section, Amy and I began researching potential ways to market these cases and where to do so, from my own experiences; I knew that I wanted to get into a market that I knew was focused on an audience like myself of female, of the 18-25 catagory and possibly a student. We focused on four main retailers who we acknowledged sold phone cases to understand what was being sold for value for money and what styles but also which iPhone case generations were being sold, which is a key aspect as we dont want to waste our time and money on cases for phones people may not use. The four retailers were; Tiger, Urban Outfitters, New Look and Etsy to get a variety of the independent sellers on Etsy to the mass produced for Urban Outfitters, we also wanted incorporate Tiger into our consideration because Tiger is unique in that it will buy art from the graphic designers themseleves and then produce the prints in multiple ways such as phone cases and stationary.

When looking at the Urban Outfitters website at the selection of phone cases on offer, I was moderately surprised that the price was so reasonable, ranging from £16-18 pounds depending on what was featured on the case and what it was made out of, for example; Pleather (plastic leather) rather than general acrilic. Another thing I noticed was the difference in price depending on if you were A) buying a case with a Brand on it or B) buying a different phone case for a different model of phone. For example; An iPhone case which had Addidas on the brand was more expensive and if you were buying a phone case for a Samsung 8, it was £10 instead of the £18 marketed at iPhone buyers. To me, this suggests that iPhone users are willing to buy a case at a higher Premium for the exclusivity of owning the iPhone.

Next up I looked at New Look, my first observation when looking that their selection of iPhone cases was just how little of selection there was. Only eight were on sale through their online store, in comparison with Urban Outfitters who had a much large selection, However, a positive of the New look was their prices were much lower with the most expensive being £9.99 in comparison to the prices seen on Urban Outfitters. The quality of the phone cases was also blatantly lacking, just from the pictures alone you could see the lacking weaknesses of selling phone cases on the lower end of the budget.

Evidence of Creative thinking.

As part of the brief, Steve wanted us to do a reflection piece on what we have learnt from the target audience, a creative piece. Due to this, I and other business creators allowed the time for a quick visit to Paris to reflect on what we have learnt, here is a picture of this which I feel like really encapsulates our time together;                                         

Overall all I feel like I need to change the direction of where I originally wanted to take my phone cases. I thought that I wanted to target a young, female audience.  However, after my research, I realised that there is a large audience to tap into with these iPhone cases in male consumers, as a larger percentage buy iPhones. On reflection, whilst weighing up my options with good company in Paris, including my business partner Amy I felt like I could not execute a strong grasp on the male audience, therefore I have decided to stick with my orignal plan of working to create female cases. Whilst conducting my research, Amy and I realised that there was a large market for music orientated cases with the use of lyrics and album covers incorporated into some of the best sellers on large selling sites such as Amazon.                                           

Pitch Reflection

On reflection, I feel like my presentation was a success. I was given a large amount of constructive criticism which I will ensure to incorporate into my next presentation, which I am sure will be next term. Before presenting, I wanted to only allow my key points to be conveyed through my slideshow and run with this so that the slideshow wasn't too overwhelming. The slideshow itself contained a brief history of the brand, its current audience, my ideas for what to do as part of a rebrand, concepts and visual ideas for marketing and design ideas. In terms of the physical presentation itself, I feel like the key thing that let me down the most was the visual aspect of my project, I had spent a lot of time on the marketing side of the visuals, which was noticed and complimented however when it came to executing the visuals for each design it I had set out to do, they were scruffy and not a true representation of my creative talent as I am doing a publishing course, if I was to do this project again I feel like the visual aspect is key, especially when presenting to people such as potential investors, so I would give myself more time to ensure that my design based work was up to a good level to really envision the product. Another point I feel like I could develop on for the next presentation I may do is talk about how Town and Country may benefit from the collaboration further than bringing in a new, younger audience. For example; more advertisements could really push a new and expanding customer base which is a really key selling point I didn't really think about when presenting, which I could have done. Another really key piece of feedback I received off of Matt, creator of the brand Rollasole was that I could have pushed the collaboration further and used the brands which the influencers I selected currently represent such as Rita Ora working with Rimmel London the make up brand or Cara Delavinge working with Addidas, I feel like this is a great idea and if I was to do this project again, something I would consider doing as I thought about doing it at the start of the project. A mix between Town and Country, Influencers and other brands could have really pushed my work to a new level which I had not thought about.

Overall, my presentation was complimented on how confident I was, my presentation was direct, captivating and a success in its own right, which has really given me the confidence in knowing I am heading down the career path for me in Public Relations in which I will talk to the public a lot. The fact I introduced myself at the beginning gave a more personal and relaxed feel to the presentation as it was less formal which really allowed me to flow through the presentation with an ease that meant I didn't need to read off of the board much or use notes allowing myself to give eye contact and free-flowing body movement. My feedback was really successful in terms of promotion and clear direction in terms of where I see the collaboration going, I had been informed that my marketing campaigns looked like they could be followed easily with appropriate action. Nick also fed back to me that my research could have been stronger in terms of primary research but my secondary research was really strong, which has really made me realise what I need to change about my research methods in terms of what I need to do in order to push my self for finale project grades. In conclusion to this all, I am really happy with the constructive criticism I was given. I will carry it with me as a reminder for future projects and also outside of college and in the work place.