GROUP PROJECT - BOTony

An MBA Project Report submitted to

Auro University, Surat (India)

In partial fulfillment for the award of the degree

Of

Master of Business Administration

By

Aayushi Agarwal

Aditya Agarwal

Prachi Makwana

Parshwa Mashruwala

Under the guidance of

Dr. Vipin Agarwal

New Product Development, School of Business

SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

AURO UNIVERSITY, SURAT (INDIA)

May 2022
INTRODUCTION 3
INDUSTRY BACKGROUND 4
Impact of Covid- 19 on Smart Vase Market 4
Competitors 5
Key Segments 5
Market Outlook 6
NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS 6
Idea Generation & Screening 6
Identify the major components 7
Synergy between the components 7
How can the information be communicated to a layman 8
Concept Development & Testing 8
The App Development: 8
User Interface (APP) 9
User Interface (POT) 9
Back-End Development 10
Product Details 11
Business Analysis 11
Marketing Strategy 13
Segmentation 13
Customer-Centric Approach 13
Societal Marketing 14
Marketing Mix 14
Promotion and Advertising 14
LAUNCH STRATEGIES 16
Original Video Content 16
Influencer Marketing 16
High-Value Content 16
Live Event Integration 17
Marketing Automation Tools 17
Existing Customer Remarketing 18
CONCLUSION & LIMITATIONS 19
INTRODUCTION
The growing adoption of gardening in residential places especially in urban cities has increased
the demand for its maintenance tools. The demand for the smart vase is more because nowadays
houses are becoming smart with many smart products and advanced automation systems. With
this trend, players can enhance their product portfolio to provide an automated solution to make
flower pots smart.

Also, the inclination of millennials towards the home plant drove the market of smart flower
vases during the forecast period. This interest of people encourages the players to add Wi-Fi,
Bluetooth connections in their product offering.

Plant owners often don’t know their plants are suffering until it’s too late: the leaves have turned
brown or fallen, a mysterious moss has taken over, a cactus has drowned. Even for green-
thumbed gardeners, maintaining healthy plants can be frustrating and time-consuming. Using
automated technology and IoT to monitor environmental conditions, users are taught how to be
more attentive plant owners.

This is where our smart plant pot “BOTony” comes into picture. BOTony uses smart sensors to
constantly monitor the health of the plant and its environment. When a high level of pollution is
detected, the device automatically brings it back to normal. It is connected to the Internet via a
built-in WiFi module, which allows you to track the plant’s condition in real time.

For instance, BOTony shows 15 animated emotions based on the plant feel. Also, let me know
what plants need to thrive. Sensors present in the vase show accurate emotion based on
temperature, soil's moisture and light exposure.

This vase is connected with the mobile application where users can select the type of plants and
also customized settings according to their local weather conditions. The vase displays different
emotions like if light exposure is not enough than vampire emotion will appear on the vase if the
user forgets to water the plant then thirsty animation takes over and so many other emotions
appear.

Such advanced features present in the smart flowerpot give the idea to other players to launch
such smart pots and also encourage users to purchase such smart products.
INDUSTRY BACKGROUND
The global gardening pots market size is expected to reach USD 2.5 billion by 2025, according
to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc., expanding at a CAGR of 5.6% over the forecast
period. Growing demand for public gardens and parks as a result of improved infrastructure of
various cities at the global level is expected to expand the market size for gardening pots.

Booming population and rapid urbanization have made residential places in the cities and towns
scanty, which is not enough to incorporate personal gardens. Thus, housing associations,
municipalities, and urban development societies are offering their residents a healthy lifestyle by
increasing spending on parks. These maintained parks have a variety of plants, flowers, and trees
planted in a certain fashion to create a visual appeal. Therefore, gardening pots find use in these
areas as they create aesthetic beauty.

Growing trend of the adoption of gardening among the millennials is expected to remain one of
the key trends. For instance, in 2018, more than 27 million i.e64% of the U.K. population can be
seen partaking in gardening. The trend showcases an interesting insight that even though
growing population and rapid urbanization is reducing the living space, gardening enthusiasts
have been working towards continuing their interest by creating small gardening pots in
balconies and kitchens. Growing interest in planting flowers, fruits, veggies, and herbs in various
sized containers and pots among common mass is a key factor driving the market

Impact of Covid- 19 on Smart Vase Market

The COVID-19 pandemic had three effects on the global economy: direct effects on production
and demand, supply chain and market disruption, and financial losses to enterprises. Prior to the
COVID-19 pandemic, global demand for smart devices was growing at a gradual pace. Major
worldwide markets have encountered major impacts as a result of the pandemic.

Major economies' supply chains, such as China's and the United States, have suffered large
decreases. There has been a drop in home building projects as well as the temporary closure of
many manufacturing facilities as a result of Covid 19.

Furthermore, the smart flowerpot business has been hampered by a lack of personnel in the field,
lower consumption, high production costs, and a scarcity of raw materials, among other factors.
Also, the changing consumer buying habit impacts the market growth.

Competitors
Some of the leading manufacturers and suppliers of smart flowerpots include
 ● Smart Pot.
● Indiegogo, Inc.
● FUNNYFISH DESIGN
● Xiaomi
● Autodesk, Inc.
● Room Professional Simplifi-er Store
● Meredith Corporation
● MXYZJCD Garden Store
● Amaranth Vases
● The Brandstätter Group, and many others.

Key Segments
● By Material Type:
○ Plastic
○ Metal
○ Ceramic
○ Stone
○ PVC
○ Others
● By Application:
○ Home
○ Offices
○ Hotels
○ Hospitals
○ Other
● By Shape:
○ Square
○ Rectangular
○ Trumpet
○ Amphora
○ Others
● By Distribution Channels:
○ Direct Sales
○ Hypermarkets/ Supermarkets
○ Online retailing, etc
Market Outlook
The most technologically advanced generations are thought to be the youngest ones. Because
these generations have witnessed several technological advancements, millennials expect firms
to supply a greater choice of items. The younger generation is captivated by smart products.
Millennials are the generation most interested in having smart technology in their homes.

They are also environmentally conscious and advocate for the usage of sustainable products.
Teenagers are enthusiastic about lowering their carbon impact and promoting long-term
sustainability. They are more likely to alter their behavior in order to lessen their carbon footprint
or to support eco-friendly businesses. Many players provide smart vases made with sustainable
raw materials and are chemical and toxic-free. And also have a good battery backup which does
not require a regular power connection. Such benefits attract the consumers to adapt to the
advanced smart pots in the United States & Canada.

Furthermore, people of the US and Canada have high aspirational values towards the latest new
up-to-date advanced technology. And all aged group people adopt facilities which have led to the
acceptance of the smart flowerpot in the regions.

NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PROCESS

Idea Generation & Screening

The idea for a smart plant pot came to use when we observed that the love for plants in the minds
of the youths are increasing but with little to no knowledge of how to take care of the plants. The
plants that these new anthophiles get, die after a few days or weeks. It is painful to watch them
die. While brainstorming within the team, one of us raised a question as to “How do the big
farms handle multiple hectares of land and bring out the best products?” During research we
found out that farms had a few automated systems and experienced personnel which advised
them about the current status and the needs of the plant. The smart farms included a system like
the image below. It included multiple sensors which kept a check on the current status and the
bugs around a particular area. They used a whole ecosystem which was accessible through a
smartphone and can manage a sprinkler system for regular water needs. It could easily detect the
need for pesticides or fertilizers needed at any point in time and the frequency.
After the identification of a possible ecosystem, the next question was to make it compact to fit
into a vase or a jar; and make it affordable. There were 3 components to be identified to make
this large-scale concept into a compact version:

1. Identify the major components

The major components used in these ecosystems are:

● Sensors
● Data Stations/Servers/Information Hubs
● Microchips
● A receiver

2. Synergy between the components

The components should match with the capabilities of its other components in the
ecosystem and should be able to share the information accurately. Each component
should enhance the features of the other components.
 3. How can the information be communicated to a layman

The data collected from these components should be able to transform in such a way that
it could be understood by everyone; from a child to an adult. We have identified that an
app could be the best option as it can be accessed remotely and can be viewed by every
member of the family.

Concept Development & Testing

For concept development, we took into consideration some IoT and Plantation experts who work
in the field of App development, Machinery development, and Plant sellers. We got various
design and back-end needs that we must take into consideration for making this project viable.

The App Development:

1. Efficient Onboarding
For a layman to understand the product after its purchase, the first thing to lookout for is
that they can easily set up the machine and register the plant that they wish to sow. The
onboarding process includes a guide about how the app works and its qualities.
2. Real-Time Data Analysis
A returning user can review their plant's health analysis at any time of the day. The
analysis dashboard shows the overall health states of each plant using a very simple UI
interface.
3. Personalisation
Users can add the image of their plants and can see the healthy growth of their plants
throughout. They can also update their profiles and pictures. They can keep a log of how
much it has grown in a certain timeframe.
4. Minimalistic Design
The User Interface of this app has to be very minimal and intuitive. This would help users
to feel less occupied by the app and enjoy the whole user experience.
5. Notifications
The users can get notified each time the plant needs water and what the condition of the
plant is. If the plant is in dire conditions, it can notify the user to take precautions via its
database.

User Interface (APP)

The app would be entirely designed around simplicity and ease-of-use:

● Download the app & let the easy setup install it in less than no time.
● Choose your plant’s family, the exact type of plant or manually set your own preferred
thresholds

● Make the pot read the generated QR code and it’s all set!

User Interface (POT)

To make it extremely simple, we decided to use “Emotions” to be used via the app and
the vase so that the user can easily identify what is needed. 6 animations are directly
related to your plant’s health and overall well-being, while the 9 others give your plant a
spark of life.

The 6 Essential Emotions:

1. Thirsty: When soil moisture drops under the defined threshold, you need to water
your plant.
2. Sick: Too much water can kill your plant too, wait until Lua is thirsty to add water.
3. Vampire: After a few days Lua will turn into a vampire if exposure to light is not
sufficient.
4. Squint: Too much exposure to light can harm your plant, when Lua is squinting it’s
looking for shade.
5. Cold: When the temperature drops. Lua will sneeze the day after.
6. Hot: Lua is too hot.

Other Animations:

1. Happy: The plant is back to normal.

2. Puzzled: The pot couldn’t read your QR code.
3. Wink: You showed a QR code to the pot and it understood it.
4. Tired: It will go back to sleep when there’s no movement in front of it.
5. Wake-up: When it senses a movement.
6. Grumpy: Random animation. When there’s a chance of rain
7. Tongue sticking out: Random animation.

Back-End Development

The expert provided us with a small possible chart about how the data can be transmitted
from the sensors to a smartphone. This helped us understand how the back-end data
collection and interpretation happens while developing a system.
Product Details

The planter comes with a sub-irrigation water

reservoir. It means less frequent watering and your
plant gets all the water it needs.
 The pot will use 4 sensors to assist you in monitoring your plant’s well-being: Water level
sensor, light sensor, motion sensor and temperature sensor.

Dimensions: 15 cm x 16 cm - 5.9" x 6.3"

Inner dimensions: 12 cm x 10 cm - 4.7" x 3.9"
Weight: 500g
Screen: IPS LCD - 2.4" - 320x240px
Power supply: standard wireless QI power transfer

Business Analysis

SWOT analysis can be used to get an idea of the viability of the business and the opportunities
related to it

● Strengths
○ The product can be catered to a large market group
○ The plants delivered to the customer's home
○ Low expense to start the business
○ Can manage yourself
○ Regular and steady income
○ Most of the customers have unique concepts on how they want their spaces
decorated depending on their budget, color and preferences.
○ Widespread target market since indoor plants activities can be done kids and
adults.
○ The indoor plants are affordable and can be purchased by all social classes.

● Weaknesses
○ Lack of proper regulatory body
○ No prior experience in the business
○ Need to have network with suppliers
○ A large number of people do not enjoy indoor gardening and décor.
○ Most of the people view indoor plants growing as a feminine activity thus
dividing the market.
○ The existing perceptions (notion) that indoor plants are for the upper social class
(rich) thus dividing the market.

● Opportunities
○ No large competitors
○ Growing demand for indoor plants
○ Indoor plants and gardening promote eco friendly behaviors thus it is encouraged.
 ○ Indoor plants gardening can be enjoyed by anyone thus giving an opportunity for
an expansive market.
○ One can update the styles depending on gardening décor trends.
○ Indoor plants are at the top of the market when compared to other forms of indoor
décor.

● Threats
○ Plant diseases and bugs
○ Economic downturn
○ Stiff competition from bigger companies who may even sell at cheaper prices.
○ Frequent changes in gardening trends, which lead to losses.

Feasibility of the Business Idea

In order to evaluate the feasibility of the business idea the important factors to be
considered are market, competition, financial requirement, and innovativeness of the idea,
key suppliers and others. And all of which have been discussed and harbingers to the
success of the proposed business idea. Along with it, the reason why the product will be a
big hit and popular in the Target Audience is due to its innovativeness, tech friendliness and
environmental sustainability. Furthermore, the Target Group is getting inclined these days
towards bringing a change in the environment, and this can be the little help they can do for
their planet earth.

Cost Structure

The top most cost for the business is towards:

● Cost of suppliers which is recurring in nature and one time tech cost.
● Administration and Marketing costs
● Website development and Social media costs
● Costs of human personnel such as customer support, delivery and others.
● Cost of R&D team working on circular supply chain economy
● Miscellaneous costs in terms of order return, breakage, or tech failure

Estimated product price

Competitors prices:
● Xiaomi - Rs. 11,200
● VegTrug Grow Care - Rs. 10,000
● Glowpear Self Watering Mini Rail Planter - Rs. 8,300
● FUNNYFISH DESIGN- CUBES - Rs. 3,000
● he CUBICO Cottage - Rs. 6,400
 ● Click & Grow - Rs. 11,400
● Lua pre order - Rs. 8,600

BOTony’s estimated price will be in the range of 3,000 to 11,000 so that we will be
competitively placed in the market.

Marketing Strategy
Marketing is the management of exchange relationships. It’s the business process of creating
relationships with and satisfying customers. It’s one of the primary components of business
management and commerce. Brand management includes Brand design, Brand name, and
Research & Development decisions.

Segmentation

By dividing the market into subgroups (Market segmentation) we could adjust prices,
advertisements and products based on the different markets. We divided the market into different
geographical areas and were so able to identify the differences. Market trends are the upward or
downward movement of a market, during a period of time.

Customer-Centric Approach

As the environment plays a big role in today’s politics, we believe our product matches this
trend. The market orientation is the most common orientation used in marketing. It is a
customer-centric approach that involves a firm basing its marketing program around products
that suit new consumer tastes. To fulfill the customer orientation market research is required to
be able to identify the prices willing to pay, the needs and wants and different trends.
Information from the marketing department is used to guide the actions of a company’s other
department. Our marketing strategy consists of different parts. We will have to make sure that
once we have estimated the demand, we will be able to produce enough products in the right
quantity at the right time. After this we created our product concept and started to think about
different ways of transforming our idea into a product.

Societal Marketing

Our aim is to develop as a company and not to stay on one level. To sell a product you need a
selling concept. Societal marketing is a concept that holds that a company should make
marketing decisions not only by considering consumers’ wants, the company’s requirements, but
also society’s long-term interests. Therefore, marketers must try to satisfy the needs and wants of
their target markets in ways that preserve and enhance the well-being of consumers and society
as a whole. It distinguishes between the consumer’s immediate satisfaction and longer-term
consumer and social benefits.

Marketing Mix

The marketing mis is a fundamental tool used to guide decision making in marketing. The
marketing mix represents the basic tools which we can use to bring our products to market. Our
Product is “BOTony” with high-innovative technological features that make it possible to have a
garden at home without all the time-consuming work normally related to keeping a garden in
touch. The second “P” is “Place” and is related to the method of distributing a product to the
customer. We focus secondary on sales offices and primary onto E-Commerce. We believe that
internet shopping is the future. Our price is based on the price willing to pay by the different
market segments and of course the prices of our competitors. Promotion plays the most
important role in promoting a product. To sum up, our marketing mix meets the customer needs,
achieves the marketing objectives, is balanced and consistent and creates a competitive
advantage for us.

Promotion and Advertising

Advertising is the paid, public, non-personal announcement of a persuasive message by an

identified sponsor. It’s the impersonal presentation of promotion by a firm of its products to its
existing and potential buyers. With the right advertisement/promotion strategy you can reach
your target market and accelerate the establishment in the market. There are different kinds of
advertisements such as Local Advertising and regional advertising.

● Advertising Program
We are planning an advertising program for our product ‘BOTony’ which considers Ad
Copy design, Media placement and of course the overall advertising effectiveness. An
effective ad campaign can help a company to outsell their competition, even if some
brands/products are not perfectly positioned relative to the needs of the customers. We
believe that high investments are needed for an effective advertising strategy to capture
as much market share as possible and specially to reach the potential customers. Before
we start designing our advertisement designs, we would review the needs and wants of
our target market. Detailed research ensures efficient, effective advertisements. We are
planning to place the benefits of our products into our adverts.

● Network Channel
 We will be present on multiple media and social network channels to reach our end-users.
Social media is an important tool to reach young people.We will try to make our
advertisement as suitable to young people as possible. Social Media has become over the
last few years the biggest platform to communicate visually with the consumer or the
customer. It has also opened new doors for marketing departments of companies: Social
Media and specified postings can increase the online advertising revenue and the profit.

● Time period
To be as effective as possible we need to know what the best time is to post content and
when our posts should be scheduled with free posts. The Working Memory plays an
important part in marketing. It’s part of the short-term memory which is concerned with
immediate conscious perceptual and linguistic processing. It is highest in the morning,
lowest in mid-afternoon and moderate in the evening. As a result, this also applies to the
consumer's desire to engage with social media. The time of the day affects the working
memory and inhibitory processes are activated to increase the working memory
efficiency. For this reason, the availability of the working memory in the morning makes
consumers more alert, less creative and less innovative. When the working memory
decreases, the human brain automatically activates inhibitory processes. The working
memory is the highest in the morning, when people are alert and during the day when
there are many tasks to fulfill and people are stressed the cortisol levels increase and
impair the working memory availability. All our postings and all our social media content
will follow straight rules to optimize our advertising performance. We believe this is a
very effective way of getting our product across.

LAUNCH STRATEGIES

Original Video Content

Video content as a marketing tool is becoming extremely prevalent with technology companies
to introduce their solutions. While someone might not have the time to go through a product or
company datasheet, almost everyone has the time to watch an entertaining, engaging two or
three-minute video about a solution that might be of value to them.
The main areas to focus on when producing video content to market the product:
 ● Great Stories
● Fun Videos
● Useful Content
● Client Testimonials
● Create Animated Infographics

Influencer Marketing
Business leaders and enterprise decision makers often look to others who are experts in their
field when evaluating new technologies to purchase and implement. Technology companies are
increasingly partnering with influencers to up their credibility and social media reach.
Four steps to begin developing influencer marketing program:
● Identify Target Buyers
● Determine Industry Influencers
● Build Social Credibility
● Bridge the Gap to In-Person

High-Value Content
The amount of digital content being generated today is astounding. And it ranges from high-
quality, unique content all the way down to content mills and “clickbait” that people don't
necessarily get much out of. The same is true for content in the B2B technology marketing space.
Five traits of high-value content:
● Tell Better Stories
● Personalize for Each Stakeholder
● Centralize Your Content Experience
● Deliver Real Value
● Make Content Extremely Unique

Live Event Integration

In a post-pandemic world, it might seem counterintuitive, but with so much emphasis being
placed on digital marketing, face-to-face interactions are becoming that much more important.
While much of the time enterprise solutions can build a case for themselves solely via digital
channels, many tech buyers want to get to know their partners in person to separate contenders
from pretenders.
Four reasons to integrate live events with digital marketing efforts, depending on core marketing
needs at any given time:
● Branding and Awareness
● Lead Generation
● Customer Engagement
● Education

Marketing Automation Tools

A critical part of staying on top of, contacting, and nurturing leads for enterprise tech companies
is employing a marketing automation tool. To build a sustainable and predictable revenue model,
you'll need to have automated systems for collecting leads, building a marketing pipeline,
segmenting contacts, and marketing to them on a consistent (and intelligent) basis.
Three of the most popular and effective marketing automation tools that to consider
implementing:

● Marketo
One of the most powerful and popular marketing automation systems on the market. If
you're currently using SalesForce.com for Customer Relationship Management (CRM),
then Marketo is almost a no-brainer due to its seamless integration. Marketo is great for
managing and segmenting lists, as well as delivering rapid-fire email content. However,
Marketo hits its limit and begins to slow down if your web page experiences high
amounts of web traffic, or leads in the database exceed 750k.

● Eloqua
Recently acquired by Oracle and now under their Marketing Cloud umbrella, Eloqua is a
robust B2B marketing automation platform that outperforms Marketo with large
databases. Eloqua also has what is considered the best customer and prospect insights
engine, giving marketers detailed and granular analysis of how users are reacting to
marketing emails they receive. The major downside to Eloqua is that it has so many
capabilities that the user interface is often non-intuitive and difficult to execute. Eloqua
can do more than 99% of marketing automation systems out there, but the learning curve
can be steep.

● SilverPop
 Now part of IBM's marketing cloud, SilverPop is a competitive enterprise marketing
automation solution that differentiates itself with more mobile, text and SMS marketing
capabilities than the competition. It has an intuitive UI (user interface), a user-friendly
database structure, and allows for relative ease of email creation. On the downside,
Silverpop doesn't have as many native integrations as Marketo and Eloqua, and tends to
slow down when processing large data sets.

Existing Customer Remarketing

One of the best and often most overlooked ways that enterprise technology companies can
increase revenue through marketing efforts is by targeting their current customers. By having
systems, processes, and programs in place to remarket to active customers, you'll be able to build
out an infrastructure that facilitates consistent retention, upsell and cross-sell of additional
products, features, and services.
Three of the main ways to remarket to increase the lifetime value of current customers:
● Customer Portals
● Nurturing Programs
● Customer Communities

CONCLUSION & LIMITATIONS

The critical risk & assumptions based on the present case of business, Some of the biggest risk
attributed towards the product is:

● Technological Risk - In case of tech failure, the product will not be in a position to
communicate with the customers, thus diluting the value proposition.
● Financial Risk - In case of sufficient funding or inability to secure the funding for
international market expansion, the product penetration becomes a big challenge.
● Operational Risk - The R&D team for the technology and the product development team
might fail to innovate in the stage of product development, which might be again a risk.
● Supply Chain Management Risk - Supply chain has to be robust and agile for this, and
must have infrastructure for the circular supply chain as well. In the absence of a well
formed infrastructure, the product will collapse.