EMBRACCE
The Art of Holding Someone Closely to One's Arms
Initially, this project became apparent in August as an opportunity to keep the ball rolling after finishing my undergraduate degree. I envisioned it as an opportunity to explore new possibilities, past lessons and interests in entrepreneurship, marketing, packaging design, branding, and customer experience. What started as a young interest for practicing flower design later turned into working at flower shops and eventually fed the idea of this Gift Basket/Box Shop.
The initial idea was to sell Christmas and end-of-the-year gift baskets to businesses wanting to celebrate and congratulate their employees and super clients and offer them another holiday present option for family, friends, and people in their cycle. The estimated demographic was mature, in charge of teams and businesses, or heavily involved in the community. The main selling tools were a website and social media channels - Facebook, Instagram and the least used of all, Twitter. Along with Google business accounts and physical advertisements around my neighbourhood to generate word of mouth. Additionally, private delivery was offered, and a shipping option was integrated later in the process.
PHASE 1:
I started officially in September 2021 and let go of it at the end of February 2022 [For later: January 2023]. I made two batches: a Christmas/end-of-year batch and a Valentine's batch.
Christmas 2021:
In the first batch, I assumed that the market was open to the idea of baskets since they were in high demand during the holidays at Flower Shops. However, a good percentage of the prospects I contacted ignored the possibility, ignored the budget, or were not team-oriented - meaning they weren't the right prospects. Regardless, the idea was well received and positively introduced. Indeed, the market was competitive as the concept is simple.
Valentines 2022:
In contrast, the second batch for Valentine's Day was more challenging. The market was very saturated for the occasion. This time, I had to deal with a different market because my previous market would be no longer interested in investing too soon or in their teams. I knew more prominent corporations would have a larger budget and team values. Still, my operations and funding needed to be larger, so I focused less on corporate relationships and businesses. For this holiday, I identified three market segments/messages. Firstly, the couple's love. Secondly, self-love, 'you matter, we love you,' and thirdly, friendship, 'let's celebrate friendship for the precious gift it is.' The first two are the leading and most saturated markets during Valentine's, so I gravitated towards the third one, which also left the possibility of corporative gifts open. This decision forced me to reduce the scale and price of the product by focusing more on chocolate and cookies and less on products for sharing. Thus, I saw this as an opportunity to implement shipping through Gift Boxes. Additionally, around this time, there were positive signals about loosening pandemic restrictions, which re-opened the possibility for lovers and friends to reunite and express their appreciation in other ways. Hence, constricting the initial and ideal market further.
Season 1 Vision:
I first found the raw materials and sources to build the product and package it during the first batch. I created a simple logo that looked elegant and allowed me the flexibility to iterate the face and voice of the brand organically, as I knew it would need to pivot indefinitely before finding itself and its rhythm in the market's calendar. Consequently, I used a slogan to convey the intention behind a brand that focused on re-thinking the act of giving as transformational as opposed to transactional. I wanted to evoke the act of giving that is intrinsic and transcends any market stimuli, so it all sounded and looked like this: 'EMBRACCE – The Art of Holding Someone Closely to One's Arms.' I wanted to trigger the true feeling of joy and pride we get when we genuinely give to others. The freedom attained when you are not looking for anything else in exchange but an outlet for gratefulness, and then the peaceful detachment that requires the understanding that we can only control our actions, never others'- that is transformative, secular, but transformative.
User/client experience:
Along with the product, I created a holiday greeting card to accompany the baskets. I wanted each product to have a physical stamp, so I handcrafted three stickers meant to accompany a small semi-natural arrangement of pine and artificial holly to bring a touch of nature and winter. As we commonly associate pine scent with the holidays, family and warmth, all products were subtly infused with pine essence to create a strong customer experience. I wanted people to feel special when they saw and opened the basket. I tried to evoke 'care' in each detail. (Call me Mrs. Claus, lol). Hopefully, they would later feel pride and gratefulness regardless of how they decided to enjoy the present- with others, slowly by themselves, or both. Ideally, this event sparked the inspiration to recreate these feelings for others, however appropriate for them.
Sprawl Tools:
Simultaneously, I needed to position the venture well, so I created a website to offer a strong value proposition that evoked trust despite my 'freshness' in the market. I started and developed social media channels, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, to create brand awareness and sell. On Instagram, the goal was to introduce a constant presence through a theme and look that allowed flexibility, consistency, and access to other marketing features. On Facebook, the main goal was to create brand and product awareness by sharing with and connecting with local groups, businesses, and the Facebook marketplace. In comparison, Twitter pended a clear goal and was the least used. [Currently, the social media's shop and web stores are closed]
Design:
Initially, the website had a Christmas/Holiday-themed solid red, crimson, and gold motif for the first batch. Later, I incorporated a gen-Z-inspired theme through a dynamic contrast of saturated teal/blue pastel and a darker saturated magenta pastel colour for the Valentine's collection.
The Second Message:
The new messages centred on close personal relationships, friendship, and romance, a new shipping option, and multiple market segments created the need for various greeting cards to accompany Valentine's gift baskets/boxes.
Retention Strategy:
Our retention strategy consisted of messages about the product, the business, a coupon for their next purchase, and ways they could reach and review. To this day, Embracce has access to shipping and can sell through its website, Facebook, Instagram, and Google.
Software:
I used Microsoft Word, Excel, Adobe Suit, Id, Ai, Ps, Ae, Pp. I learned WordPress, eCommerce, SEO principles, product photography and more.
Reflection:
I created every detail of this project. In retrospect, even though everything I made felt rushed because there were so many things in sight to do. I am proud of what I started, created, offered, and sold. However, I didn't expect an internal challenge: fear of other people's opinions and expectations about my career and project decisions. I've always considered myself brave in that aspect. I can recall many times when I dared to do things differently or at least not so close to the established 'narrative' for a bigger idea or purpose. However, whenever I shared something, I had to fight this fear harder and harder. Eventually, I realized that this fear was not only about other people's opinions and expectations of me – fear that I strongly discourage, as your life is yours only. It was the weight of my conscious and unconscious expectations for myself and my career. I felt slowly consumed by the project as tapping into the blind faith and motivation was harder. I instinctively knew I had to let it go or rethink it. Hence, by the end of February, I confronted the reality that the reasons that drove me to start this project were no longer there. Their absence was creating a giant hole in the sustainability of the project. Knowing when and what to let go of is essential to creating new space for growth and better endeavours.
I hope to take all these new experiences and lessons to other projects and explore the endless possibilities and interests closely aligned with communities, spaces, places, natural materials, processes, society, and more. The business is currently hibernating indefinitely, but the intention, new reflections, new personal relation practices and infinite lessons continue growing within.
This project was a healer. It cemented the value of teaming in my life. The opportunity to have and be part of a great team should not be taken for granted. In my undergrad, I had many teams incomparable to each other. Still, the idea of teams was a necessary constant that I never truly understood, so whenever I had the opportunity, I loved to work by myself to explore my interests my way. It worked during my undergrad because whatever project can last 'four' months max. However, business or intricate projects have a longer lifespan, sometimes not in clear sight along the horizon. After some months of arduous but motivating work, the tension and difficulty that can sometimes feel monolithic made me look around harder and emphasized the necessity of a great team. A team in which we all stand on equal ground, a team to run to when in doubt, knowing that all members are as committed to finding the solutions as I am. A team in which we share enough values to flow in the same waters and enough diversity to nourish creativity – a team present in the distance and fluid in the closeness. Thanks to this project, I cemented the idea that one doesn't only need a team. One needs a great team. A great team is required to do great things, and even when it's hard to keep this present in mind – a great team is one where all know that everyone's contributions are necessary and valuable. Beyond that, I confronted the reality that the first step to creating and being part of teams is connecting. Connecting is vital—practicing the art of knocking down internal and external walls to show yourself authentically and be recognized by yours. That is my new theory and commitment, perhaps not new for everyone but new and unique for my practice and life experience.
Winter 2022:
Last November, someone we gave a basket to contacted us expressing interest in purchasing some. This kicked off another season, but with a new twist. We teamed up with a baker and sourced all of our products locally. To showcase our new partnership, we created marketing content in video format and added a new social media platform. It's exciting to see how our ideas and projects continue to evolve over time.
Valentines 2023:
Embracce has evolved into a community and blog that generates content related to relational awareness. Additionally, you can now find us on YouTube and Twitter. Read our 14 relationships blog on our website!
January 2024:
Embracce is now offering creative services; check us out!
