Cheryl Entry #4

While researching on ornamental terrariums, I discovered that terrariums are really more than just following guides since every single component is a science in itself. Even though our team loved the idea of incorporating moss into terrariums, we were unable to proceed with this idea since Holland Moss uses a different soil than most succulents as it traps moisture while most succulents required fast draining soil. This is another reason why the first layer had to be pebbles or gravel, to act as a drainage layer for water to seep through. Furthermore, sphagnum moss or reindeer moss were rather unappealing to me as it seemed like unnecessary fillers and it doesn't enhance the beauty of the succulents, which are the focal points of the terrariums.

As per previous discussions our team had two main things to agree on:

• What is the USP for our business?
• Are we doing air plants, succulents or ornamental terrariums?

As such, I suggested having another skype discussion to finally agree upon these ideas and move forward with it since we were planning on attending an upcoming event on 17th November.

We did discuss several options in our whatsapp such as adding functionality into the terrariums or creating meaning with customers and we realized after a drawn out session that most of us steered towards the direction of creating meaning. This was the point that we started researching into having terrariums that tell a story, such that customers are able to relate to it on a more personal level.

Despite not being a huge Disney fan, when browsing through sites like Pinterest I tend to get interested in products that had Disney-inspired themes, such as a symbolism of Beauty and the Beast through a rose in a display jar, or a stopwatch along with Alice in Wonderland colour themes.

We then decided to proceed with stories being the main point of our terrariums where we will recreate fairy tale settings as well as landscapes in real life so customers can be drawn to our terrariums and think of it as more than just "a pretty thing".

On to the financial matters, I had been trying to calculate the unit cost of our terrarium for the longest time which was challenging because of several problems:

• Many suppliers don't give direct quotations on their websites
• I had to ask Shiju for help to contact the suppliers to ask whether there were bulk prices
• Comparing costs across different suppliers took up a very long time

Only when they started getting back to Shiju was I able to get these answers today and I was satisfied that our cost price was reasonable based on assumptions that we source from Taobao, including the shipping cost based on weight given for each item. The main cost drivers are the succulents itself as well as the glass, which means that we have to find cheaper ways to purchase these materials if we are to drive the cost down even further.