Jiaxin Entry #19

Last weekend, we participated in TERRA VILLAGE @ PARKLAND GREEN held at East Coast Park. The event organiser (terra village) were specifically looking for vendors who can offer workshops to educate the public. Since our DIY terrarium concept was a success, we thought that a workshop would be another platform worth trying. The organiser was very flexible, offering us extra tables and chairs and allowing us to choose how we want to position ourselves.

It was a refreshing experience as it was our first time participating in workshop sessions, letting customers do their terrariums from scratch – repotting and designing.

Location & Demographics

When we reached the location, we realised that we were the only external vendor apart from Terra Village, who were holding a few booths that were offering free of charge craft workshops. The event was part of "Weekends in the Park", a collaboration between Terra Village and the National Park Board (NParks).

There were a mix of dining (bars and cafes), recreation retail outlet and an open lawn in the vicinity.

Our booths were held at the walkway between Starbucks and the open lawn.

The people at Parkland Green were mostly there for sports activities – jogging, rollerblading and soccer while some were there for dining.

Hence, we would have to attract these group of people to gain sales for the day.

NEW Service- Terrarium Workshop

Process

For our workshop sessions, customers will:

Choose from a variety of succulent plants
Add gravel as the base layer, repot the plant into the glass container and add more soil to firm the plant up
Design their terrarium from the 14 colored sand / rocks available
Finish it up with figurines of their choice (either 2 small or 1 big)

Pricing

Each customized terrarium were sold at $15 each.

At SOTA, we offered both ready-made and DIY terrariums where customers can compare the prices before making their decision on which to purchase. With a focus on workshop in this event, there was no basis of comparison for customers on our prices as we did not explicitly sell our ready-made terrariums.

Hence, we felt that $15 will be a reasonable price for customers.

Customers (Day 1)

Our customers were all children and I have observed how they make and designed their terrarium. Many of our customers had both mother and child working together on their terrarium, which makes the making session a good platform for family bonding. I also got to see how kids display their creativity and I must admit that I am impressed with their creativity!

One of which was this ecosystem made by a boy, consisting of the earth and lady bugs.

Booth Positioning

As the booths were placed along a walkway, I noticed that many people choose to take the slope outside Starbucks or walk behind our booth instead of walking through the walk way. This could be because they do not know what event was going on. The FOC handicraft booths were also not decorated which might have dampen the atmosphere thus passerbys avoid walking through.

Hence, I suggested to my team that by shifting our table to face the lawn, it might be more attractive to the public. This is because there were many kids and family playing at the lawn and by facing their direction, they would be able to see our terrarium offerings. Thus, we sought permission from the organisers and were given the green light to go ahead.

The repositioning was proven to be effective as once we shifted, more customers came to us. However, it also came with some risks. We had to constantly keep a look out for our terrariums as soccer balls were often flying at all directions. Thankfully, nothing happened to our terrariums.

Summing up,

The sales went well for this event considering the high number of customers on Day 2 (Sunday). Offering workshop seems to be a viable service that we can tap into. That’s all for now! Looking forward to our next event in the coming weeks.

Till the next post!

Jia Xin

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