Part 1: Ideas
1. Currently, the Outlets at Orange does have a website but it is not mobile friendly. My preference would be to create a mobile-first website because no one wants to download another app. The best example I can think of with similar features is the Disneyland Mobile App.
The following features will be included:
- Map with access to the user’s location (integrate Google Maps so you can easily have access to the GPS functionality so the user can navigate with the map in real-time)
- Group shops into categories (food, clothing, entertainment, etc.) to make it easier for users to find out what they can do
- View restaurant menus
- See current sales and discounts (remember this is an outlet mall so the sales are different from their actual brands!)
2. Reusable cloth bag vending machine/kiosk. With the recent passing of the California proposition banning the use of plastic bags, shoppers either have to pay $0.10 per bag or bring their own. Let’s be honest, not everyone brings their own bags. What the vending machine/kiosk does is allows shoppers to place a deposit as collateral to rent the bags. These machines will be placed throughout the plaza with the return kiosks located in the parking lots. Owners of the machine make money through shoppers who do not return the bags. Shoppers who returns the bag gets their money back. This idea helps fixes the pain of shoppers who forgets to bring their own bags but do not like buying them.
3. Have a large piece of artwork on display that will come to represent The Outlets at Orange. Visitors will get to take pictures and will post it on Instagram with geo-tags. It will increase foot traffic to the area thus increase business. (Examples: Coachella artworks, Heart in San Francisco) It is also possible to have a chalkboard that is accessible to any visitor. A vending machine selling chalk can be placed next to it to recuperate some of the cost. These type of artwork generates social media marketing and will be recurring. The social media marketing from the artwork has the potential to attract tourists and turn it into a tourist destination.
Extra Idea:
4. WDYBT (What Did You Buy Today?) – this is a play on “What did you wear today” where people post up pictures of what their outfit for the day. Have a large LCD screen where it is connected to a hashtag on Instagram. People can post up pictures of what they bought from the outlet mall and it will be randomly displayed on the screen for every shopper to see.
Part 2: Elaborate
I am choosing to go with Idea #2 of giving shoppers access to reusable canvas bags.
Option #1:
Introducing Instabag, the solution to shoppers who forgets to bring their own bags and don’t want to pay the 10 cents!
Shoppers pay a deposit for the number of bags they want. Upon returning the bag to the kiosk, their deposit gets returned to their credit card after a few days. There is a labor cost as it requires someone to check the quality of the bags and whether to return it back into rotation or throw it away if the bag is unusable. A solution could be the kiosk/machine scans bags that are returned and automatically checks the quality thus eliminating the need for an employee to check every bag. This kiosk can operate similar to how Red Box does it with their dvd rental services. As incentive for profits, ads can be sold and placed on the bags. Stores within this outlet mall can pay for the costs of the bags in return for their logo on the bag. This provides two incentives for the stores, first is the visibility/promotion of their store. Second, it increases the image of the store to show that they care about the environment and their shoppers by providing them free access to these bags. The issue I have so far is I am unsure who I should be pitching to (shoppers? businesses in the plaza? investors to get funding to start the business?)
Option 2:
My second option is called “Bag it Forward”. This is a spin of Little Free Library but instead this involves books. This model only works based on the honor system. The idea is if a shopper has extra reusable canvas bags, he or she will leave them in the kiosk area for others to use. If a shopper doesn’t have any bags, the person can grab one from this kiosk. Return kiosks will also be located in the parking lot in case the shopper doesn’t need to take the bags home. We can take it a step further and encourage custom decoration of the bags that way people get to use canvas bags with cool new designs made by a stranger. Stores can also donate reusable canvas bags with their logos on it to get extra visibility and show they care about sustainability.
Part 3: Final Project
I’ve made two versions. If possible, please download and view the keynote version for optimal animation.
Keynote | Powerpoint
Two words, yes please! Your idea is very realistic, there’s a real market and it holds so much potential. I saw your video and began to think of all sorts of possibilities. You could charge 10 cents, or you could charge a higher fee, maybe like $1 to get people to return the bags. The bags have all these cool designs, marketing companies and outlet brands would definitely jump on that. I like the sleek kiosk as opposed to a clunky vending machine. You could even charge more for bag designs that users can select from the kiosk app. I honestly think you should pitch this idea!
+1 to Felicia’s statement on the starting music. That’s the only thing that caught me off guard. I like the sleek, minimal, and fun pitch video. The colors you used, the textured background, and also how the letters were all lower cased. You even made the image animations in directions that related to the text. Great work, Steve!
Your video is very clear and I think your idea is great. This is something I struggle with a lot so this would be a good solution. An opportunity for improvement just in the logistics of your video: I’m not a huge fan of the music. I know that this is relatively minor but I felt that the first song was inappropriately sad and dramatic for the situation and that the second one sounded a little too upbeat for the solution. I badger this detail because I had a professor that kept badgering the music in a product video I made for a class and, because she kept pushing, we came up with very good music for the product video and in the end it dramatically improved our product pitch.
I also had another strategic question or issue to bring up. If the bags still only cost 10 cents, people may forget to bring them back and you may still end up losing them. Or they won’t bring them back for a while. Should you maybe increase the price to rent a bag at a kiosk so that more people are encouraged to bring their bags back?
Hi Steve! I love Insta Bag Idea! Your video explains so well, very easy to understand! I love this idea and presentation of the proposal as well. As Megan mentioned, I agree on talking to the businesses at the plaza! I believe Insta bag is very marketable and make sense to those potential clients! And they will definitely interest to increases the image of the store to show that they care about the environment, as environmental awareness can be a great selling point. Great Idea!
I really like option 1. Your video is really clean and clear. I am imagining that it would make the most sense to start by talking to the businesses at the plaza (the paying for advertising being your in). You could also get buy-in from the outlets themselves. They might be interested in putting up money since it would be an additional unique thing about that particular place.
For option 2, I’m not sure it will work as well as a library. I would think that people would be likely to forget to return the bag. I think an appeal of the library is exchanging a book that has been read with a book that hasn’t. Since books are always being traded, there is a probability that there will be a new book that hasn’t been read. Since bag aren’t different, I’m not sure the incentive to return will be there. (Just my opinion, maybe I need to have more faith in the honor system!)
Dude, your second idea is super awesome and I’m surprised it’s not a thing yet because it makes so much sense! My initial question was going to ask you how do you think customers would feel if they have to dole out 10 cents every time they go to the store. But then you solved this problem in a clever manner where customers who want to return the bags get their 10 cents back reimbursed. Such an environmentally friendly solution! One question I did have though was how would you make sure to take bag wear/breakdown into account? Would each bag have a limited amount of uses or would an employee have to sift through the bags at the end of the day and get rid of destroyed ones?
Talha, thanks for bringing up these concerns. I haven’t actually thought of it that far to flesh these problems out. I will have think about how viable is it economically to have someone check the bags at the end of the day versus having a bunch of bags enough to be used for a whole week then have an employee look at it.