Project: Merchandise
Basic Details
The PR team has designed merchandise for the AguaClara Team such as T-shirts, quarterzips, and even stickers. The merchandise is a way to help AguaClara spread its name on campus and help with recruitment of potential new members. The PR team had help from the AguaClara team who gave feedback and opinions on the merchandise, to make sure everyone is satisfied with the product. Once the order has been finalized, the distributor will give a secure link for payment. The payment will be through venmo to either one of the leads or to one of the PR members.
What Has Been Completed So Far
So far, the PR team has designed a couple preliminary designs that give the general idea of what the merchandise will look like. Members of the PR team have called custom clothing distributors and have asked for design help and arrangements for a large team purchase. Most distributors will only accept a purchase as long as there are more than 35+ of merchandise being bought. The PR team has more designs being completed and will expect to be done and ready to order late October. The survey to the team was sent out and the results are in. The survey allowed the PR team to organize everyone's response with their Name, NetID, and Size. As you can see in the figure below, the quarterzip and long sleeve shirt design has gotten the majority of the votes, and the Baseball Tee was last.
Below are the finalized design for the new Aguaclara merchandise. We got the results from the survey and sent out an order form to finalize the order to send to the distributor. We used www.houndstoothpress.com/, they helped with the design and helped expedite the order process. There must be a minimum order of 36 orders (for both the Long Sleeve and Quarterzips)which will make the Long sleeve $23 and a Quarterzip $38. Once the order is finalized, the amount due is sent out to all the members, who will then venmo one of the team leads or a member in PR. We aimed for the merchandise to arrive around December 3rd, but due to unexpected setbacks, we have the orders come in around December 12th. We created a spreadsheet of all the members who ordered, their size, quantity of clothing, and if they paid or not. This is not the new Logo for Aguaclara, this is just a design for the new merchandise. The order was payed by credit through a secure link.
Next Steps of the Project
After the surveys are sent out and the results come in, the PR team will finalize the design for the most voted on clothing. Then a member in the PR team will call the custom clothing distributor to check logistics (pricing, shipping fee, design layout, and quantity). After the logistics and design are finalized, the PR team will place an order for everyone in the AguaClara team that has ordered merchandise. The survey got 37 responses, which breaks most distributor's minimum of 35 orders. The PR team called several different distributors to compare logistics and designs (HoundstoothPress and CustomInk). To contact these distributors, the links are https://www.houndstoothpress.com/ and http://www.customink.com/. The finalized designs are still on the way and will be shown to the Aguaclara Team through another survey to choose the best design. The objective of the PR team is to be as transparent and as involved with the team as possible, by getting their opinions and ideas for the merchandise. In the survey, many team members expressed their interest in getting hats as well as stickers for merchandise, see figure below. The PR team needs to solidify the logistics for merchandise so that collecting money from the team members is a smooth transaction. Also, the PR team needs to order the merchandise before classes end for the Fall Semester.
Since the order is finalized, there is not much more to do. Our next step for merchandise is to start designing a new formal merchandise, like a polo. A proper project team apparel, where everyone has the same shirt. Some more merchandise that we will try to design are stickers and hats.
Any Problems Currently Being Faced
The PR team is having difficulty with putting the Cornell University Logo on the merchandise. AguaClara members want to represent Cornell as well as AguaClara. The PR will talk to the Cornell administration that is in charge of the branding of Cornell University. Another problem is that there needs to be more than 35+ orders to be able to place an order for the custom shirts. Members of AguaClara must know that the more we order in bulk, the cheaper it will be. Therefore, the PR team is giving the choice of one of three designs to choose from, in order to get the most amount of orders placed. The distributors are currently under a lot of pressure due to the demand for merchandise for universities all around the country. Therefore, the merchandise will have a slight setback on the arrival of the design as well as the order. The PR team approximate the arrival of shirts around mid-November.
The order was finalized after Thanksgiving break, so people were hard to reach. Many people did not send in their payment until after the break, so it delayed the order by a couple weeks. There needs to be a better way of having members pay on time and respond to emails.