Date : 29th June - 1st July 2016
Venue : Outside Koufu
Time : 10:30AM - 3:30PM
Preparation
We
had been planning for our roadshow 3 weeks before the actual event. Our
team had 2 OICs - Vanessa and Claudia, 2 Logistic ICs - Li Ling and
Roxanne, 2 A&P ICs - Phyu and Liyan and 2 Finance ICs - Arinah and
Yong Jie. Over the past 3 weeks, our preparation encompassed of planning
the theme, setting the dates and number of days of our roadshow and
sourcing for potential vendors whereby we were faced with several
rejections.
(Our team went on a field trip to source for vendors)
After
identifying Crusty Oven as one of our potential vendors, we visited
Crusty Oven to have a look at the tarts, cakes and cookies offered at
the store. Once we had tasted the tarts for ourselves, we decided they
were delicious and decided to bring in Crusty Oven as one of our
vendors!
(Our team visiting Crusty Oven)
Finally,
we were able to successfully secure 2 vendors, Arizona Tea and Crusty
Oven, which sells delicious brewed tea in cans and freshly baked tarts
and cookies respectively. We then started out on our advertising and
promotional materials to publicize our event!
(Flyers for our pre-order event and cutting “sweet treats” from the styrofoam board)
(Our hardworking team members working on the A&P materials!)
Pre-Orders
Days
before the actual event, we wanted to spread the news! Our team left
our work spaces and combed every corner within the campus! Distributing
pre-order forms and offering samples of the yummy cookies which we were
selling to passers-by. We left a smile on their faces as they kept
coming back for more.
Early
birds get the freshest out of the oven and best deals! We gave a
promotion with every 2 jars of cookies bought and offered free delivery.
Naturally, the sales achieved over the pre-order period was amazing. We
were very close from hitting half of the sales target!
(Samples of the cookies were provided from our vendor!)
During Event
Day 1 - 29th June 2016
It
is finally the first day of our mini roadshow! We were excited about
running our very first event in EMRS. We reported at 8.30am to commence
setting up our booth outside Koufu. We took down our props, including
the Arizona Can mascot and cookie mascot, from the EMRS room. According
to the manpower allocation, we took the equipment we needed from the
Logistics Room, set up the A&P at our booth and collected goods from
our vendors, Crusty Oven and Arizona cans from Foodgle.
Team members setting up the booth!
(We finished setting up our booth)
The
Crusty Oven team sorted out the preorder goods to be delivered and the
mobile selling teams went on to deliver them to our customers before
commencing our mobile sales while the booth team got ready to start
sales at the booth. We started sales at 10.30am.
(There is already a crowd!)
We
targeted Staff for mobile selling for Crusty Oven products while for
Arizona we went to various TEP centres and canteens to hard sell. We
found that mobile selling for Crusty Oven’s individual cookies were more
efficient.
The
turnover for Arizona cans were faster than Crusty Oven’s cookies,
slices of cake and cinnamon egg tarts. The most popular Arizona drinks
flavours were Green Tea with Ginseng and Honey and Half Iced Tea Half
Lemonade. We had to make a trip back to Foodgle to restock the Arizona
drinks as they ran out faster than expected. We also collected more ice
from Foodgle to ensure that our drinks are kept chilled for our
customers.
It
was more challenging to sell the jar cookies as compared to individual
cookies as it is more expensive and many customers had already
pre-ordered the jars. We targeted students for our individual cookies as
we thought it will fit better with any budget they might have.
At
3.30pm, we started packing up and bringing our props and leftover
cookie packets, jars and Arizona cans back to the EMRS room for stock
count. We also returned the equipment we took from the Logistics Room.
We decided to pack the pre-ordered goods to be delivered the next day so
that delivery will be more efficient on our second day.
(Sorting out the pre-ordered goods for our 2nd day)
Day 2 - 30th June 2016
On the second day of our roadshow, we also arrived at 8.30am to start our set up. As we have already familiarised ourselves with the setting up process, we took a shorter period of time to set up the A&P at our booth as compared to the first day.
Even
though the human traffic was lesser compared to the day one, the
turnover for Arizona Can drinks were pretty fast. Similarly to day one,
we had to return to Foodgle a few times to collect more Arizona Cans and
ice.
(Where we stored our Arizona Cans)
Our
non-consignment goods: individual cookies, Cinnamon Egg tarts and Pound
cakes also ran out fast and were sold out by 12.30pm as we brought in
lesser quantities. We also sold out all of our packets of cookies by
3.30pm.
At
3.30pm, we started packing up and bringing our props and leftover
cookie jars and Arizona cans back to the EMRS room for stock count.
Concurrently, part of the team returned the equipment we took from the
Logistics Room back to their designated areas. We could not prepare the
pre-ordered goods to be delivered the next day as we did not have any
packets of cookies left.
Day 3 - 1st July 2016
On
the last day of our roadshow, there were repeating customers from day 1
or 2 who dropped by our booth to get cookies again. The crowd was
better as compared to day 1 and 2 and surprisingly, the popularity of
Arizona Tea did not die down although it was already the third day of
our roadshow! This time round, our team collected a larger quantity of
stocks from Foodgle as compared to day 1 and 2 and managed to sell all
of them before the end of our roadshow.
On
top of that, Cinnamon Egg tarts and Pound cakes also ran out fast and
were sold out within a few hours as soon as we opened our booth. This
could also be possibly due to the lesser amount of quantities which we
have brought in. Subsequently, our team members proceeded with the
mobile selling of the cookies to lecturers and students in the campus.
Post Event
By
3.30pm, we had finished selling all our goods from Crusty Oven and
Arizona Can drinks, hence we proceeded to dismantle the booth with our
Supervisor, Ms Winnie’s permission. Yay!
(Duct tape was pasted over the menu for products which were sold out!)
We
threw away our Arizona Can mascot, cookie mascot and booth decorations.
We returned the poles to its original condition by tearing off the duct
tape we pasted to secure the poles to the table. We brought the
remaining props, the fairy lights, back to the EMRS room and returned
the equipment we took from the Logistics Room. We cleaned up the water
around the area where our Arizona Cans were stored and returned the
booth area to its original condition.
Conclusion
On
the whole, through the preparation and execution of this mini roadshow,
we believe EMRS have led us all to be more outspoken and demonstrative
individuals. As a team, we have learnt to communicate and work together
efficiently after all our time together.
We
have developed both our marketing and creativity skills in the visual
marketing and direct marketing departments. In addition, we have learnt
to budget when it comes to managing costs and money in general, coming
up with our sales target and deciding on how we would distribute our
Advertising & Promotion allowance. We have also gone through the
entire process of event planning, such as discussing as a team, looking
for vendors, thinking of possible advertising, promoting the event and
actually executing the event. Our team then came together at the end of
the event to come up with the AAR (After Action Review). Our team has
honed important lifelong and operational skills such as forging
friendships and coming up with a floorplan respectively.
In
conclusion, the mini roadshow was a great experience for all of us. We
managed to hit our sales target of $2,000 and even exceeded it! We
worked well as a team and it was a meaningful time for all of us as our
team became more bonded through this roadshow. Because of the time spent
in EMRS, we have an even more in-depth understanding the various
aspects which we have to consider when organising an event. We will like
to thank Ms Winnie Quek for giving us much support and advice
throughout the planning and execution of the roadshow.
