SPROUT
The idea behind the Sprout product service system is to bring children back into contact with nature, combined with spending time together as parents and children. After ordering the subscription, the customer receives a starters kit with everything needed to grow his or her first plants. Then the seeds received with the starters kit can be planted and tracked by the scanning function of the app. Points can be received to the person that has the biggest plant in the competition. This competition can be done with friends. To get the biggest plant, there are tips & tricks in the app that will help with taking care of your plant. After the plant is fully grown it is possible to see how it has grown; a stop motion with all the progress can be seen.
TARGET GROUP
THE CHILDREN
Wishes
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Educate children about the origin of vegetables
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Educate children about the growing-process of vegetables
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Entertaining children
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Creating a bond between the parents and the children
Our Product Service System is aimed at children who want to learn in a playful way, who enjoy the diversity of outdoor and indoor and children who are
curious about the growth of nature.
During this project we have targeted children between six and twelve years old. These kids are attending elementary school and are excited to learn. Our target group is at an age where they are capable of learning better when the teaching is done in a playful way. Nowadays, even elementary students are owners of smartphones or tablets, and every day, less children are seen playing outside. Furthermore do they lack the knowledge of the origin of most of the food they eat.
THE PARENTS
Parents are stakeholders for our designed product service system.
The product service system is designed for families with children however, the parents are the ones who have to decide upon taking a subscription. Their children should be able to grow plants without much necessary help. The interaction between children and parents should be fun and bonding without it being a requisite for the children to grow their plants.
Wishes
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Information understandable for their children
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Information interesting for the parents
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Low effort for the parents in helping their children
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Interaction between parents and children must be fun and bonding
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Interaction should not be 100% required to grow plants.
The product service system should be designed to be fully accessible for children,
while being informative and helpful enough for the parents when they also grow
their own plants. The plant growing should stimulate quality time between children
and parents.
THE AGRICULTURE
Another stakeholder of our designed product service system is agriculture. Using agricultural companies, we would like them to invest in our box. This will help them create more brand awareness with parents and children and with their investments we can reduce the cost price of the starter kit. For agricultural companies to want to be involved, their wishes need to be explored. Their most important wishes are listed below.
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Wishes
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Brand should be visible in/on the box
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The box should have a good name
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The agricultural companies want more brand awareness so, their name should be visible; while maintaining a nice look. For companies to want to invest in this product service system, it should have a well-established name. A good investment for companies to help them create a more known and more respected name.
How
A company can invest in one box for one month and thereby sponsoring the whole box or part of it. Or a company can invest in a longer
line of boxes, a real collaboration. Depending on which they choose; their brand name or information about the brand can be shown more or less elaborately. Specific companies can sponsor in kind. This way they can directly distribute their products to our customers.
For example:
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Seed companies can sponsor seeds for our seed kits.
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Their branding can be on the seed packaging.
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Plant fertilizer brands such as ‘Pokon’ could sponsor fertiliser
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Their branding can be on fertiliser packaging
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Many of the parts send with the starter package can be sponsored in kind by companies that create these products. This is a low cost way
of investing in our company.
ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
Schools were taken into account as a stakeholder in the product service system, since that the product service system has a lot of educational purposes. However, schools state requirements on educational programs, these requirements have to be met. Certainly, the product service system is focussed on fun and competition.
Furthermore if schools want to participate, it would not be appealing to subscribe for single students. It would be more appealing to have subscription and packages based on groups, to take into account more educational aspects, such as teamwork and management. The whole product service system should therefore be redesigned and focussed on groups. Besides that, schools may be interested to acquire a garden to grow plants. If this occurs, the starter kit becomes unnecessary. The game and its educational aspects will still be interesting, therefore, the schools would still be interested to pay for the application. However the product services system will then be a service system.
To conclude it could be implemented in schools, however the game should be redesigned, to take into account more educational aspects and focus more on bigger groups.
OUR PROCESS
BRAINSTORM
The project started with a big brainstorm. Several ideas came from the brainstorm: renting music instruments, renting clothing, a festival subscription, etc. Three concepts were created.
Find my friend - A device that will help you find your friends at festivals, by giving their location in an easy way.
Automated spice dispenser - A spice dispenser that monitors the usage and automatically orders new spices when needed.
Indoor gardening subscription - A subscription in which you get supplies to plant your own plants with information on a monthly basis.
We decided to focus on having a garden kit for everyone. We want to focus on gardening since it is becoming more popular among people.
The first idea was to create an urban subscription box. As more people are living in the big cities and have less space for a garden, this would be a box for them. They get plants send to their house and can start filling up their balcony or living room in a smart space manner.
The second idea is that you can subscribe for monthly packages containing a garden kit, that consists of seeds, breeding boxes and dry earth. Additional materials like a watering can can be included depending on the kind of subscription. The idea was to have it season bonded, so different kinds of kits are sent depending on what season it is.
The service will be done by an application that will provide information on how to breed plants. The idea came to have additional games for children to make them more aware of where their food comes from and how its grown.
The last idea is to create a Bee Box, which will help the Bee. It could be done only by donation or to provide the kinds of plants which will attract bees.
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GAME
The decision was made to implement a game in the application. The game provides the user with additional information and helps the user to remember to take care of the plant.
The idea of the game is to have a virtual farm. In the game you can grow plants and harvest them when finished. In order to keep the real plants interesting for the children, a combination of rewards between the game and the real-life plants is required. Therefore there was thought of a game cycle.
The process starts with the player/parents downloading the game and filling out the subscription. The player then can start playing the game and the first delivery is prepared. Within 3 to 5 workdays, the delivery arrives with the first seeds and tools.
The seeds are planted both in real-life and in-game. Both in real-life and in-game do the plants need taking care of. This consists of watering, fertilizing and harvesting.
After harvesting the in-game plant can be sold. This gives coins and with these, new plants can be bought.
In real-life, the player can scan their plant continuously. When the game measures a new stage, the user will be rewarded with coins. The connected in-game plants will now grow bigger and yield more, while still taking the same time to grow.
The in-game seeds are immediately available and the real-life seeds and box are prepared. Again, after three to five workdays, they are delivered.
The process is repeated and repeated until the player stops the deliveries. (payment has a minimum amount of months as to make up for the tools send with the initial delivery)
The player can have multiple fields in-game, each field meant for one plant-species. There will also be a shop where seeds can be bought, a home where the player can view his/her data and receive tips and tricks and lastly there will be a compost where the remains of harvested plants will be processed to fertilizer (for instance 50/1). Due to the fertilizer, the plant will grow twice as fast.
MIDTERM
This is the idea that was presented during the mid-term presentation. During the mid-term presentation, other groups had the opportunity to ask questions or give ideas. The question was asked what happens if all plants die. There should be a learning curve, so help the children to do it better the next time.
Also an idea was given to focus not on one child, but on a classroom to educate. So instead of having plants growing at home, let them grow plants in the classroom. The game can then become a competition between the children. When children like this they can continue taking care of plants at home. Since schools don’t have money, stakeholders need to be found in the seed business.
PROJECT PROPOSAL
This second idea was presented as project proposal. The feedback was given to look into management that people start at different moments, and the minimum subscription time. Also the advice was given to downsize the type of products, to use products that are not competitive and that have a fanbase, for example a citrus fruit.
After the project proposal the idea came to focus on children. The reason for this choice is that we want people to become more aware of the importance of nature. Since children are young and exploring the world, it is best to teach them how nature works, so they are more aware of it during their life. Also children are learning then where their food comes from.
AFTER MID-TERM
After the mid-term presentation we looked into collaborating with schools and companies. Looking for investors is riskful when looking at budget plans. The decision was made to focus on home. It will still be educative, but it is more relaxed. We do want to connect with the agricultural sector.
We changed the starterskit a bit. It will consist of a growing tray, some earth blocks, your first seeds, and a small booklet with information. After that you will receive new seeds with an information booklet on a monthly basis. This way the packages are less complicated.
When we sat together to talk about our business model and the added value of the product. We wanted to add the scan element with virtual reality. This way you get real life information about your plants.
Still, there were some struggles. There was no concrete product, some things just didn’t add up. That is why we had a conversation with Illaniet, one of the tutors, to see if she could help us. The conversation helped; we got a clearer view. The decision was made that the game should be left out, because there is no clear relation between the product and the game, plus it doesn’t really have an added value. Instead of the game, there will now be a competition. You can make groups with your friends and compete in having the best plants. Also options like showing your progression and an option to like someone's plants are incorporated.
COMPETITORS
COMPETITORS VS. SPROUT
The vision of Sprout is to create a consciousness of the importance of nature. Therefore Sprout wants to educate children about nature and acquire responsibility, patience and organizational skills. This is done in a fun and engaging way, to ensure persistent attention.
The AH moestuinjes is not available all year long. The app of AH moestuintjes keeps track of your plants and gives tips. The difference is that with Sprout virtual reality is
implemented that the app gives tips based on your real-life plant, using the camera of the phone or tablet.
The same goes for Sprinklr. They have an app that gives tips and tricks how to take care of the plants, but they don’t have virtual reality implemented.
EDN Smallgarden is focused on having technology take care of the plants, while Sprout wants children to learn by taking care of the plants themselves.
For a short overview of the competitors, click the image on the right.
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AH MOESTUINTJES
Approach to the market
AH is a big supermarket chain where lots of people go to on a daily basis. The AH always has an action, where one of those is the AH moestuintjes. They make their customers aware of the action in their shop. They also ask at the cash desk if you want some. This way, you keep being reminded of it. They also make use of advertising blocks on the television and advertising brochures.
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Weaknesses and strengths
A strength of AH moestuintjes is the idea behind the action, you will get the moestuintjes for free. You have to get a certain amount of money on groceries to get a moestuintje. This way AH still gets a profit, while customers have the impression that they get it for free. This way more people will go to the AH store instead of another supermarket.
A weakness is that it is only for a small period, with a small amount of different plants. The action comes back once in a while, but it keeps the same level. Children cannot grow in experience of growing plants with the moestuintjes.
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SPRINKLR
Approach to the market
Sprinklr is a company that uses their mission to emphasize their product. They want to make cities greener. They make use of magazines and social media posts to give information about using plants in the city.
Weaknesses and strengths
A strength of Sprinklr is that it uses information about growing plants in the city to get people enthusiastic and get inspiration for their own home, for example an article about why smaller pots are more sustainable.
A weakness is that they are not using a lot of different media to approach the market.
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EDN SMALLGARDEN/WALLGARDEN
Approach to the market
Since EDN Smallgarden is more focused on using technology to grow plants, they approach the market by being featured in magazines and well-known websites that are focused on technology. They also make use of advertising on social media.
Weaknesses and strengths
A strength is that they approach the market in the technology branche, since that is what they specialize in with their product. Due to this, they are less focused on the plant industry. That is their weakness.
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HOW CAN WE IMPROVE UPON THE CONMETITION'S APPROACH
To improve upon the competition’s approach, it is good to look at their weaknesses. For AH moestuintjes that is that it is only for a small period of time available. So we have to make sure to keep the subscription available throughout the year. For Sprinklr the weakness is the diversity of promoting. To improve upon that, we need to use different platforms that are used by families, for example a television and social media. The weakness of EDN is that there focus on the market was more on technology than plants. It is important to keep in mind that the focus is on plants.
VALUE PROPOSITION
PROBLEM
For parents it can seem like their children are disconnected with nature. Their children miss out on the feeling of getting their hands dirty, of growing and creating something just by themselves starting with just a seed.
SOLUTION
Sprout wants that to change, get children back in touch with nature. By gardening and growing the received plants, children start to be more conscious of the world around them. Think a little more about how special nature is and we hope eventually let this person think more about the environment. Because they grow their own plants; they will realize how vulnerable it is and that it takes careful care to keep.
BENEFITS
Research (Miller, 2007) shows that gardening is beneficial for children. This research is based on slightly younger children but states the following benefits:
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Sharing their knowledge about the world to other people;
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Conveying (and learning to process and manage) emotions;
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Developing important skills (initiative, self-confidence, responsibility, literacy, math, science skills);
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Understand more about healthy eating says (Ratcliffe, Merrigan, Rogers, & Goldberg, 2009)
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And also get children enthusiastic about nature. It is an easy system that helps guide the child to create their own small garden and help them maintain it. The seeds and the tools to create this garden, delivered right to their doorstep.
PATENTS
Since the augmented reality is realized to recognize plants, and it is one of our selling points, it might be wise to ask a patent for this, so we are the only ones to use that technology for plants. Though there also are some disadvantages to have a patent. First of all it is very expensive. For the Netherlands, it will cost around 7000 euros for 10 years. Next to that it is your own responsibility to detect infringement and to start procedures when needed. So, it costs a lot of money and time. It is not realistic to make a decision if we need to have a patent or not, since the augmented reality is not developed yet.
RECOMMENDATION
During the time of this project a lot of thought was put in the game. It is currently not the best idea to add it to the product, but it might be something to consider to add later on or to have it as an addition for the children.
Somewhere in the middle of the project there was looked into making the product suitable for schools. The decision was made not to focus on it, this was mostly because it is hard to find stakeholders in the seed business. But when this product is on the market, it is also suitable for schools. Then they can play the competition in teams of four people to see who is the best of the school.
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The average woman in the Netherlands has 2.1 children in her life. Parents might want both children to receive plants, therefore it is advisable to create the option to choose during the order if they want the subscription for one, two, three or more people. Then, each child can grow their own plant.
Before the product goes on the market, a privacy policy should be written.
The augmented reality should be developed.