BUSINESS MODEL REPORT
Katharina Elberti, Chris Koczak, Ofaa Nyanin, Drake Sacenti 363 Richland Ave, Athens, OH 45701 | utiliturf@gmail.com | 410-‐570-‐1755
UtiliTurf is a innovative alternative to traditional turf fields offered in the artificial turf industry. By integrating turf with embedded lighting technology, we allow our customers to change the lining of their field without the time and expense of paint. We believe that the versatility, efficiency, and precision offered by UtiliTurf will allow consumers to better utilize limited space, reduce costs, and maximize the profitability of their field activities. This idea was sparked in light of the 2016 NFL Hall of Fame game being canceled due to unsafe conditions caused by the paint used to line the field not drying properly. This creates risks of cancelled games, revenue loss, and reduced fan loyalty. UtiliTurf reduces these risks, increases field customizability, and increases the fields earning potential. After market research and discussion, we identified recreational centers and high schools as the best target segments for our early product. These institutions often have limited space and have fewer risks for adopting an early stage technological innovation. To effectively reach these segments we will use a push marketing strategy to build awareness and brand recognition. To complement the informational method we intend to use to appeal to our customers, we will use two primary channels of distribution. We will use our website to provide customers with information about the demonstration site and the various benefits offered by UtiliTurf. We will also use our team of sales representatives to provide customers with a personal, informative experience that will be customized to their needs. Since we are a growing company, we must keep our initial customers happy to create a positive reputation in the artificial grass industry. To best express the key activities required to build that foundation, we have divided them into 3 phases. Phase 1 consists of the activities related to building our executive team and MVP. Phase 2 initiates research and development, patent acquisition, and the implementation of our initial revenue model. The Phase 3 activities take UtiliTurf into broad commercialization through improving our prototype, building our sales team, and capitalizing on relationships built through our marketing and partnership strategies. Our key partners will be synthetic fiber manufacturers, a financial institution, and sporting goods stores. We have strategically picked these industries because companies within them will provide UtiliTurf and its customers with the high quality service we require for success. We will need high-‐grade turf fibers, customer financing opportunities, and visible promotional opportunities that are offered by companies well established in these industries to build UtiliTurf’s credibility. We have projected our profits through the end of year 6, and project our company to have positive profits by the end of year 3. The costs associated with the first two years are building the minimal viable product, hiring an agricultural technologist, hiring an engineer, installation, maintenance and research and development. Once we see profits in year 3, we will begin to reinvest back into UtiliTurf to improve our product, expand our geographic operational area, and provide returns to our investors.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Executive Summary
Page 5
Industry Overview Major Markets
Product
Page 6
The Problem UtiliTurf Competitive Advantage Customer Advantage Technology
Marketing Strategy
Page 7
Establishing the UtiliTurf Brand Demonstration Site Pamphlets
Market Segmentation
Page 8
Potential Segments Target Consumer Athletics Directors Youth Recreation Centers
Distribution Channels
Page 9
Website Sales Representatives
Key Activities
Page 10
Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3
Revenue Streams
Page 11
Initial Model Commercialization Model
Cost Strategies
Page 12
Cost Management Fixed and Variable Costs Work Force Patent Field Costs
Key Partners Synthetic Fiber Manufacturers Financial Institutions Sporting Goods Stores
Page 13
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Industry Analysis
Page 14
Competition Overview FieldTurf TruGreen
Projected Financial Performance
Page 15
Financial Projections
Resources
Page 16
Capital Resources Our Team
Conclusions and Aspirations
Page 17
Moving Forward
References
Page 18
Appendix
Page 19
TABLE OF CONTENTS (CONTINUED)
Competitors
Industry Overview
The artificial grass industry is most closely competed with by the appeal of natural grass field maintenance. The EPA estimates that up to 7 billion gallons of water is used for landscaping every day (1/3 of water consumption) and that lawn mowers can emit the same amount of pollution as 11-‐34 cars in one hour (ForestGrass, 2014). This benefit appeals to consumers in markets related to sports franchises and consumers in arid geographical areas. The release of information related to the eco-‐friendly benefits of artificial grass has increased the level of residential installations. Turf requires no pesticides or fertilizers and contains crumb rubber that is often manufactured from recycled tires (ForestGrass, 2014). These factors have contributed to increased sales growth in the artificial grass industry. Major Markets The artificial grass industry serves the following 4 broad categories:
Construction
Educational Services
Sports Franchises
Wealthy Private Customers
The construction segment is primarily comprised of projects for malls, airports, corporations and office buildings that require synthetic grass for landscaping purposes. Also airports using for greater color contrast for pilots and mitigation of dust and erosion. Educational institutions and Sports Franchises use turf in sports fields because of its higher level of shock absorption and lower instance of player injury. They are also implemented because of it lower water expenses. This market also includes recreation centers that use turf for indoor fields, domed or partially covered areas because there is normally insufficient light for growing natural grass. It also provides multi-‐purpose use. Private owners started installing synthetic grass in place of natural turf due to rising environmental awareness, product development, lower water expenses and tax rebates directed at homeowners. UtiliTurf will focus on segments within the educational institutions market because the needs of segments in this market are better aligned with the benefits offered by UtiliTurf. A detailed explanation of UtiliTurf’s offering and our targeted segments in this market can be found in the Product and Marketing Segmentation sections of this report.
INDUSTRY ANALYSIS
The artificial grass industry is defined as firms that install artificial turf and synthetic grass. This includes installations completed by manufacturers and firms that install fields purchased from manufacturers (Stivaros, 2016). This industry has benefited from recent social, climate, and environmental changes. Artificial grass benefits customers by requiring less maintenance, and is significantly less affected by changes in weather than natural grass fields (ReportsandReports, 2015). As of 2012, 3 billion gallons of water have been saved by the usage of synthetic turf in North America (ForestGrass, 2014).
The Problem
The Solution: UtiliTurf UtiliTurf is a new turf field that provides users with an alternative to the out-‐of-‐date, rigid traditional paint field-‐lining model. This customizable turf experience allows users to change the lining on their field via an embedded lighting technology. The versatility provided by using one surface for numerous sporting events reduces the cost, time, and effort associated with field turnover, while increasing the flexibility of limited space. It provides recreational facilities that have limited space with a highly customizable turf field that enables them to expand beyond their physical limitations. Competitive Advantage
Technology
One of the most valuable advantages to UtiliTurf is its customizable features for field turnover for various sports. Our research indicates that a school that shares its field can spend up to 136 hours a year turning the field. With UtiliTurf, this is time that could be used to rent the field out to the public. Our turf provides customers with the ability to combine as few or as many sport field lines into their bundle as desired including but not limited to: football, soccer, lacrosse, field hockey and rugby. These bundle options provide versatility for the customers as a well as different price points for UtiliTurf to capitalize upon.
Turf is comprised of numerous layers. The turf fibers we see as grass are not individual fibers, but rather fibers clustered together at a central point. The best visual of this is to think of the conical cluster of a badminton birdie. Below the rubber bead infill layer that holds the turf fibers in place, there will be a layer of lighting. The lighting system layer will
Customer Advantage The customer will benefit from purchasing our product by solving their need of field space, and ultimately save them a lot of money and reduce risks associated with traditional field lining. By having this product, customers will have less injuries on the field from the result of poor field conditions. They will no longer need to purchase paint, lining machinery, or stencils. Each field will be able to host any and all sporting events within our 80,000 square foot area.
operate similarly to neon signs. Neon signs are electric signs lit by long, luminous, malleable gas discharge tubes that contain rarefied neon or other gases. These tubes will cover the entire length of the turf, positioned on the top slate layer directly below the rubber bead infill g and flush against the base of the conical turf fiber clusters. The lights will shine through the fibers’ base to illuminate turf strands in the desired color. Line's light colors are controlled remotely and can be altered based on the desired sport field needed.
PRODUCT
The 2016 NFL Hall of Fame game was cancelled due to unsafe field conditions as a result of wet paint from field lining. This resulted in $4 billion of lost revenue to the Hall of Fame organization (Rovell, 2016). Painting turf costs time, money, and reduces the earning potential of a turf field because of the risks related to drying time and scrubbing time.
Demonstration Site
For our marketing strategy we decided that, because of the high concentration of the market, a push strategy would benefit our company the most. A push marketing strategy places the product directly in front of potential customers, making sure that they are aware of its existence by using the hierarchy of awareness model (Avery J. & Teixeira, T.S. , 2016). Because of its high cost, a turf field is considered a durable good and therefore makes turf-‐seeking customers conscientious buyers. In light of the fact that our brand can not yet be described as an established and visible brand, the pull strategy -‐ waiting for customers to seek us out -‐ would not benefit us.
One of our biggest marketing platforms will be the demonstration site at Stony Brook University. This site will allow us to show potential customers the product and demonstrate its superior features before they commit to purchasing.
The high expense of turf fields and their durability indicate that UtiliTurf will have to appeal directly to the objective benefits that our turf offers our customers. Through the demonstration site, our website, and pamphlets we will publicize the value of our field technology. Once customers become aware of and have interest in our product we will use our sales staff to develop personal relationships with the centers who are intrigued by our product. After the potential customer and our company have developed a relationship, our sales staff will take them through the sales process to see how we can make sure our product will benefit them. We understand that not all recreational centers have issues with space, so we will make sure to target and create meaningful relationships with centers that do.
Inevitably, the demonstration site will enable UtiliTurf to form a better line of communication and promotion with customers. These simple education strategies are aimed at showing those potential customers what our paint-‐less turf is all about, comparing costs between UtiliTurf, traditional turf, and grass, and showing the advantages of our state of the art lighting system. Pamphlets We will also distribute pamphlets to our targeted customers and coordinate the display of UtiliTurf information in sporting goods stores. In our early stages, generating consumer awareness will be our most difficult hurdle to generate buzz before we commercialize our product.
MARKETING STRATEGY
Establishing the UtiliTurf Brand
Youth Athletics
Youth Centers
High School Athletics Directors
Colleges
Professional Sports
High Schools
We’ve identified youth centers, high schools, and colleges as the most accessible segments in the Educational Institutions Market. The segments are color coded by our preference for penetration. Although professional sports (in the Sports Franchise market) has the most funding allocated to field maintenance, early adoption of UtiliTurf has higher risks for this segment. Our offerings also appeal best to the needs of segments in youth athletics.
To approach High Schools we will build relationships with the individual sport teams, showing them how much our technology can help their field of play. Once we have these coaches/athletes on board, we can then establish a relationship with the Athletic Director, who will be the one making the final decision on whether to buy our product or not.
Target Consumer
Youth Center Managers
The main two segments we will be focusing on are high school athletics and recreation centers. If we are able to attain and retain our customers in these segments, we believe that they will not only continue to use our services but also give us business from other competitors in their segment. By doing an excellent job with the initial customers, our profits should continue to increase.
In youth centers, we will look to build and strengthen relationships by continuing to reach out to the center directors to show them how our product can help their revenues. By having this interaction, even if they do not buy immediately, we will increase our awareness as these directors will talk to other acquaintances and employees about our company.
Although High School athletics teams will be our users, we will need to appeal to a high school’s athletics director to negotiate sales. We have defined a few characteristics that indicate the high school segment and athletics directors can benefit from using UtiliTurf. For recreation centers UtiliTurf will have to appeal to the center’s manager. The following characteristics make youth centers an appealing target segment. Our research indicates that the best method of marketing in this industry is word-‐of-‐mouth. To effectively promote UtiliTurf, we will need to establish strong relationships with our customers in both of our target markets. Since we are only looking to penetrate two markets, we will only have two segments of customers, recreational centers and collegiate athletics.
MARKET SEGMENTATION
Potential Segments
Our website will be developed with our customers as the priority. Since this is a new technology, we will also have online customer chat as well as a detailed FAQ page. This will be crucial in conveying the value of UtiliTurf, which will have higher upfront costs when compared to the fields offered by our competitors in the natural grass and traditional turf industries. This will include a cost breakdown to demonstrate the savings generated by UtiliTurf over the 10 year life of the field. When looking at our competitor’s websites, most have testimonials from their clients. UtiliTurf will include comparable testimonies over time, but initially we will provide news related to the test site. By having this information on our website, we will effectively show the benefits and innovations provided exclusively by Utiliturf. Since our target audience is going to be primarily sporting venues, we will sell advertising to suppliers that sell sporting goods such as goals, benches, and portable stands.
Sales  Representative At the end of year 3, we ware going to hire three sales people to work in the New Jersey/New York area. This area was chosen because we know that there is a very limited amount of space at recreational centers and high schools in this area. Once we have developed an awareness of our brand in this area, we will increase our sales force and move our efforts down the eastern coast. These sales representatives will make outbound calls during their time at work as well as make visits to high schools and recreational centers. By going directly to the potential customers, they can begin to engage in face to face communication. This face to face communication will enable our customers to trust our company and more importantly want to work with us. These sales people will be making a base salary of $30,000 a year plus commissions on any sale. We would also like our sales people to go through sales trainings every year to ensure that they are using the best and most tactical practices when talking with potential clients.
DISTRIBUTION CHANNELS
Website
KEY ACTIVITIES
Phase 1 To best express our key activities, we have divided them into 3 phases. Phase 1 consists of the following activities: • • •
Building our team MVP generation Securing the location of the demonstration site
Currently we do not have all the skills required to create a prototype. The addition of team members with specialization in agricultural technology and engineering will be necessary to proceed to the MVP generation step of our product development. Phase 1 also includes defining and negotiating the location of the demonstration site. We have defined the New York and New Jersey region as an ideal test region for UtiliTurf. Specifically Stony Brook University has needs that can be fulfilled by the installation of a UtiliTurf field (Rodriguez, 2011). The completion of this first phase of activities will put UtiliTurf in position to generate revenue through the aforementioned Initial Revenue Model and generate word-‐of-‐mouth marketing before the creation of the final product for commercialization. Phase 2
Phase 3
Phase 2 activities include the following tasks:
Phase 3 contains the following activities:
• • • •
Installation of the demonstration site Prototype development Patent acquisition Initial Revenue Model implementation
The prototype development and installation of the demonstration site will require the knowledge and skill of an agricultural technologist and engineer. The completion of these activities will allow us to gain a deeper understanding of the many intricacies necessary to allow UtiliTurf to benefit our customers. The acquisition of a patent for UtiliTurf will protect us from firms that seek to implement our technology before we establish a foothold in the artificial grass industry. After this step we will use the demonstration site for rent revenue and tests simultaneously.
• • • • •
Marketing Strategy implementation Research and Development Sales staff recruitment Build relationships with key partners Broad commercialization
To launch a successful campaign, we must consider customer behavior when purchasing turf and our competitors activities. Since we are looking to show more value than our competitors, we must understand their business practices fully to capitalize on our marketing strategy. Creating a partnership with a financial institution and building equity in our company will be our next steps. The institution be the main contact for potential consumers when negotiating payment plans for the product. This research and development will be done at our test site. Once we have fixed any unforeseen problems, we will reduce the amount of resources allocated to this site. Our first sales team will consist of three employees trained to make outbound calls to schools and recreation centers who would benefit from our product.
To first get the company rolling, we will implement one single UtiliTurf demonstration site at Stony Brook University. This college has had problems hosting intramurals due to their lack of space, which gives our field a great advantage over any of our competitors (Rodriquez, 2011). By starting here, we are solving the campus recreation’s problem as well as increasing our brand awareness in surrounding locations. This will allows us to appeal through word-‐of-‐mouth via athletes and coaches who use our field. At this location, we will be renting out the field and using it as a test location for potential buyers and customers. By having this field to rent out, we believe we will increase our revenue generation so we can dedicate money to further research and development. We will also have the ability to make changes and improve our technology when problems arise. Commercialization Model For the commercialization model, we will begin taking orders for installation at sites outside of Stony Brook University. During this period we will not only use our sales force to attract customers, but direct our customers to our financial institutions partners. UtiliTurf will be working with American Express, on of the biggest financial institutions in the States to assist in financing plans for our clients. The added benefits of using American Express would be 100% financing, installment loans, repayment terms for up to 10 years and loan amounts of up to $100,000 (American Express, 2016). This connection will show that we are sensitive to our customers financing needs.
REVENUE STREAMS
Initial Model
Firms in the artificial grass industry either produce and install their turf materials or purchase the turf materials from another producer before installing it for their customers. We will start by purchasing our turf from established synthetic fiber manufacturers. This will reduce our capital expenditures during our formation. Fixed Costs and Variable Costs
Work Force
Our main fixed costs consist of:
Upfront we are in need to hire an agricultural technologist to be able to create our product. This type of job that requires a significant amount of skill and demands a salary of $125,000 per year.
Paying our sales force, where we plan to hire 3 people at $90,000 per year. Rent and utilities ranging from $30,000 to $40,000 per year. Research and Development will also be a fixed cost allocating $125,000.
We plan to hire 2 -‐ 3 sales people to go out and promote our product. Each will be paid $90,000 per year.
Our main variable cost consist of:
In year 2 we will need to hire an field engineer to give us insight to how the installation processes at a salary of $100,000.
The cost to install the field. Each field we sell will cost around $300,000 to $350,000 in base preparation and $4.5 per square foot in materials. Patent
Field Costs
After we penetrate the market with our product, there is going to be competitors who try and improve their turf like ours. We will need to get a patent to protect our technology and to ensure our longstanding. A patent for this type of product could run up to $30,000.
Each time a new field is purchased it takes around 3 months to complete. The cost for the base preparation is roughly $300,000. This does not include the money it takes to hire employees to help the process along.
Fixed Cost: Rent and Utilities Salaries Research and Development Variable Cost: Installation Materials (per square foot)
Also depending on the size of the field we will be spending on material costs.
Year 0
Year 1
Year 2
$40,000 $120,000 $125,000
$40,000 $300,000 $125,000
$40,000 $305,000 $125,000
$325,000 $4
$828,750 $3.45
$900,000 $3.45
COST STRATEGIES
Cost Strategy Overview
Our last partnership will be with a synthetic fiber manufacturing company. This partnership will ensure that our turf will always be high quality. This manufacturer will be able to make sure that our turf is at an optimal level where there is little chance of injury. We believe all of these partnerships will give our company many benefits with very few potential problems when compared to immediately producing our own synthetic fibers. These partnerships will help our business grow and hope to develop these partnerships throughout our company’s lifetime. We also plan to make sure we have individual contracts with each partner to show an under-‐ standing of what we expect of them and what they expect of us. For our last activity, we must get our products to our clients. To accomplish this, we will use our distributors to help us transport and ship the fields to each customer. By keeping this activity within our own services, we will save money and keep our company accountable to our customers. Financial Institutions The next key partner will be a financial institution that can finance loans and equity between our clients and our business. This will be a very important because we will be using financing that we and our customers are familiar with rather than an unestablished firm. We have selected American Express because they were recently ranked by business insider as the best financial institution to work for in America (Loudenback, T, Martin, E., & Pipia A., 2016 ). Since they treat their employees well, we know that their employees must also have excellent customer service when dealing with potential and current clients. Sporting Goods Stores The next partner will be with a sporting goods store. For this partnership, we would look to package their goods with the purchase of the turf. Partnership with stores like Dicks Sporting Goods, allowing us to receive a percentage of the revenue they are receiving from our clients will increase the recognition and validation of the UtiliTurf brand. Since many high school athletes and coaches shop at stores like Dick’s Sporting goods, these partnerships will increase the awareness for our brand. The partnerships will also provide UtiliTurf with increased visibility. Since there are many people who go to sporting good stores, audiences outside our target will see our brand name. For example, if private wealthy customers, who make up 12% of the market of buyers are exposed to the existence of Utiliturf, even though we are not actively marketing to them, our partnership with these stores will increase our recognition. At this store we also plan to have a pamphlet of our company so potential customers can see exactly how we can add value to their existing fields.
KEY PARTNERS
Synthetic Fiber Manufacturers
COMPETITORS
Competitors
UtiliTurf has more than 1,200 artificial turf competitors across the nation (Stivaros, 2016). Most of them lie east of the Mississippi and the rest are located near Arizona and California. The top three players in this industry are FieldTurf, Integrated Turf Solutions (ITS), and Textile Management Associates (TMA). They each own a turf company out of the state of Georgia and produce their own artificial turf in a manufacturing plant. ITS and TMA are currently looking to expand their companies by investing in technology advancements and increased installation processes. We have also considered that as an entrant in the artificial grass industry, we are also competing with firms that specialize in maintaining and promoting natural grass fields. In this field we have identified TruGreen as a model representative for the characteristics of successful firms in the landscaping industry. Although there are a large number of competitors in this market, UtiliTurf’s differentiator with the advanced technology we have, can quickly penetrate the market and rise above others. Even taking away .5% share of the leader will rank us top 5 in the industry and generate plenty of revenue to stay ahead of the fast growing market who is attempting to increase to our level of technology. TruGreen
FieldTurf
Owned by ServiceMaster, TruGreen is a typical lawn care specialist based out of Memphis, Tennessee. A recent purchase of Scotts Lawn Service and also being the official grass company of the PGA Tour has their financial figures up and 33% share of the industry (Sheffield, M., 2016).
FieldTurf is owned by Tarkett Group, the leading company in the artificial grass industry. Tarkett Group has 7.4% of the market share (Stivaros, 2016) in the artificial grass industry. In 2016 Tarkett Group generated E1,298 million in net sales, 41% of which was earned in North America (Tarkett Group, 2016).
Their secondary focus is on sport field management where they have 25 years of experience (Sheffield, M. 2016). Although their installation price for a field is lower than prices for artificial grass fields, they’ve seen a decline in sales due to a switch to turf. Also the realization that grass fields aren’t as environmentally friendly as turf fields has had a negative impact on the consumer perception of natural fields.
Field Turf's fields have similar preparation, maintenance and material costs to UtiliTurf’s fields. However, their firm benefits from vast capital resources, experience with current customers, and proven quality since their founding in 1988 (FieldTurf, 2016). Although Tarkett Group is the leader in sports fields, they also are involved with numerous other sectors. They have recently invested in acquisitions, purchasing 12 other companies over the last 5 years (Tarkett Group, 2016).
In 2017, we will be focused on creating our minimum viable product. Our estimations indicate that this will cost roughly $330,000. 2018 will be our first year of testing. We project that we will earn $45,000 in revenue from renting out our test site at Stony Brook University. Since we will still be in the process of developing our prototype, we will not have any other income. We anticipate that we will incurr $494,000 in expenses during this year. These expenses are primarily related to maintenance, research and development, and salary costs. We are projecting at maintenance costs at $3,571.43, our research and development at $252,000 and our salaries and wages of $300,000. During operations in 2019, we are projecting $835,900 in revenue before taxes. This revenue is from selling one field and our rental fees at an assumed 2% growth. Our expenses are expected to be $1,550,963 with earnings of $63,531. These expenses are related to material expenses of $232,000, wages of $23,595, shipping of $6,900, salaries of $150,000, a total cost of supplies at $50,643.84, and the same first year expenses. We also anticipate that in this year that we will have the knowledge required to produce or fields at roughly 85% of the cost of our first prototype. In 2020, we expect to make $870,855 in net profit before taxes. We will have $2,42,818 in revenue from selling three fields, maintenance of our prior sold field, as well as another 2% growth in our rental fees. Our expenses are expected to be $1,550,963. The increase in expenses is coming from the addition of building two fields as well as an increase in salaries and wages due to the growth of our company. These financials assume we sell UtiliTurf at a flat rate of $790,000 and begin maintanence activities one year after purchase. We also anticipate the ability to rent our demonstration site at a rate of $125 per hour. The initial volume is based on 60% (our negotiated split with Stony Brook) of the average rental time per year estimated by the director of a traditional turf field .Because of the high cost of our product and our estimated viable profit margins, we do not need to make a large quantity of sales to break even or generate profit. However, as the UtiliTurf staff expands and consumers begin to adopt our fields, we have a goal of regularly installing a minimum of 4 fields a year.
PROJECTED FINANCIAL PERFORMANCE
Projected  Financials
To get the business started, we are each investing $25,000 each for a total of $100,000. This $100,000 will go towards beginning to create our minimal viable product. To continue building our MVP, we are asking investors for a $250,000 convertible loan. This loan would go to finishing our minimal viable product and talent acquisition. By having this loan, we have the ability to create the demonstration site that will allow us to simultaneously test and advertise our innovative redesign of traditional field lining techniques. Once the prototype is completed and functional at the demonstration site, we will generate revenue from renting the space. We are hopeful that once our product is seen, we will gain interest from around the country, especially in the New England states and the southeastern United States.
Our Team Our team is compromised of four current MBA students. Our CEO, Ofaa Nyanin, went to Ohio University where she was an accounting and business pre-‐law major. Ofaa will bring expertise on strategy and she has a strong vision for our company to have growth. Drake Sacenti, our CFO, went to the University of Nevada where he was an accounting and finance major. Drake brings skills in supply chain management as well as experience working with six figure budgets. Chris Koczak, our CFO, went to Heidelberg University, where he was a member of the soccer team. Chris has experience with financial documents and contracts. This will be very beneficial to solidify our partnerships and with clients. Our Marketing Director, Katharina Elberti, will create an initial marketing surge, as she has already published multiple press releases and created websites. This will be very important to our company’s growth due to the fact that we have an asset who can strategically market to potential new clients and customers. We are seeking to acquire an agricultural technologist and an engineer to focus on making sure our product is being use at an optimal level. Along with an agricultural technologist, the generation of our minimal viable product will require individuals with engineering skills to perfect the lighting technology required for UtiliTurf’s flexible field switching interface. Once we have these two assets, we know that we will be able to penetrate the market at a growing rate. Our team is made up of individuals with a strong work ethic and who are very passionate about our product. With the passion and drive, we know that our product will make a lasting impact on the field turf industry.
RESOURCES
Capital Resources
The artificial grass industry has grown by being a less expensive, more eco-‐friendly alternative to the maintenance of natural grass fields. However, the traditional field lining model that requires turf to be painted creates risks even at the professional level. UtiliTurf is the next step in improving the maintanence, customizability, and profitability of fields across the United States. Given our diverse team of executives and the skills acquired by hiring an agricultural technologist and an engineer, we believe that our turf will not only penetrate the market but initiate change in a growing industry. When we begin to sell, we will broaden or sales staff to not only focus on the north east, but also starting to move south along the east coast. We will also be open to creating offerings for private customers. UtiliTurf technology can be applied to lighting front yards, lighting around garden spaces, and even night time golf. The possibilities are endless after we establish our brand and inform the public of our benefits. As we continue to expand, will also have to increase the size of our company. If we get to a point in sales where we simply can not handle the inquiries, our team would consider selling our company to one of our top competitors, Tarkett Group, who has 9% of the market. We would be very attractive to them because they could benefit from acquiring our technology, gaining our patent in the acquisition.
CONCLUSIONS AND ASPIRATIONS
Moving Forward
Avery J. & Teixeira, T.S. (2016). Harvard Business Review. Marketing Communications. Retrieved December 1, 2016 from https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/reader/?product_id=8186-‐EPB-‐ ENG&user=6a3c2f74-‐07cb-‐48d8-‐a66e-‐26244c134945&tr=2871867#!/page/2 FieldTurf (2016). About FieldTurf. The Company Retrieved December 1, 2016 from http://www.fieldturf.com/en/artificial-‐turf/about-‐fieldturf Forest Grass (2014). Artificial Grass. Worldwide Trends in the Artificial Grass Market. Retrieved December 1, 2016 from http://www.forestgrass.com/worldwide-‐trends-‐in-‐the-‐artificial-‐grass-‐market Loudenback, T, Martin, E., & Pipia A. (2016). Business Insider. The 9 best finance companies to work for in America. Retrieved November 30, 2016 from http://www.businessinsider.com/best-‐finance-‐ companies-‐to-‐work-‐for-‐in-‐america-‐2016-‐5/#1-‐american-‐express-‐9 ReportsandReports (2015). PR Newswire. Sports Turf Market Growth to Exceed 11% by 2019 Driven by Artificial Turf Sales. Retrieved December 1, 2016 from http://www.prnewswire.com/news-‐ releases/sports-‐turf-‐market-‐growth-‐to-‐exceed-‐11-‐by-‐2019-‐driven-‐by-‐artificial-‐turf-‐sales-‐ 562606951.html Rodriguez R. (2011). The Statesman. There is not enough field space for students. Retrieved October 4, 2016 from https://www.sbstatesman.com/2011/10/10/there-‐is-‐not-‐enough-‐field-‐space-‐for-‐students/ Rovell, D. (2016). ABC News. Only refund for canceled Hall of Fame Game will be for ticket itself. Retrieved November 15, 2016 from http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/refund-‐canceled-‐hall-‐fame-‐game-‐ ticket/story?id=41238040 Sheffield, M. (2016). Memphis Business Journal. CEO sees lawn care merger growing entire industry. Retrieved December 1, 2016 from http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/blog/2016/04/ceo-‐sees-‐ lawn-‐care-‐merger-‐growing-‐entire-‐industry.html Stivaros, C. (2016). IBISWorld Industry Report OD4871. Artificial Grass Turf Installation in the US. Retrieved December 1, 2016 from IBISWorld database. Tarkett Group (2016). Financial Results. Retrieved December 1, 2016 from http://www.tarkett.com/sites/default/files/Investors/Tarkett%20H1%202016%20results_ANALYSTS_FI NAL.pdf
REFERENCES
References
APPENDIX
APPENDIX
Appendix A: Industry Analysis Supplemental Infographics
APPENDIX
Appendix B: UtiliTurf Technology
Hierarchy of Awareness
APPENDIX
Appendix C: Marketing Strategy Supplemental Infographics