Ball and Buck
Startup/business
Massachusetts,
United States
http://www.ballandbuck.com
We are working on creating a College Rep Program in the southeast, targeting large schools such as the University of Virginia and Wake Forest. Our Reps will be responsible for spreading our brand, selling our merchandise, and creating an exciting buzz around our company. We are also planning on having several launch parties at Wake Forest, Virginia Tech, and Babson College.
We are not only starting a clothing line, but also a lifestyle brand - and are demonstrating to our peers that it is possible to still dress and act in traditionally preppy ways, but to do so while being conscious of the environment and respecting nature.
Business model
Updated: September 10th,2008
Mark Bollman & Becca Eltzroth
Infrastructure
* Core capabilities:
Balland Buck’s core capabilities for starting and running this company are asfollows: managing our supply chain from the conception of the idea of eachpiece of clothing through to completion. We do so with exceptional designers, fabric manufacturers and clothingmanufacturers. Another necessity is our to our infrastructure is our dependablegroup of college reps who will be marketing, supporting and selling ourproduct. We depend heavily on ourretail space in Wellesley, MA as well as our office space in Natick, MA. Finally, a large necessity for thisbusiness is start-up capital that we need in order to produce samples, frontfor t-shirts, and remodel our store space and pop-up store.
*Partner network:
Balland Buck’s partners include suppliers, manufacturers, Non Profit Partners anddistributors. Our suppliers make100% organic cotton fabric and waxes, as well as t-shirts and polos. Our manufacturer makes the clothing.Our non-profit partners enable us to offset our carbon emission and help us toconserve land. Some of our Non-Profitpartners include the REP (Republicans for Environmental Protection), RealHunters Real Conservation, and Be Carbon Neutral.
Value configuration:
Inpurchasing our product, our customer is gaining value in their lives inmultiple ways. First, the productitself is of the highest quality possible with a Lifetime Quality Guarantee. Second, their purchasing experience istotally unique in that our employees have an invested interest in them and wantto get to know them on an individual and personal level. Finally, value is added with theknowledge that ever piece of clothing’s carbon is neutralized and a percentageof every sale goes towards helping preserve American land.
Thisvalue is translated to the business and its employees, because we are not onlyhelping sustain our cash flow and profitability but we are also helping to sustainthe nature that surrounds us.
Offering
Value Proposition:
Our Customers willbuy our products because they represent the environmental revolution they havebeen looking for but have been unable to find for a long time. By combining their conservative stylesthat they are comfortable wearing, quality they will grow to trust as lifelongand all organic fabrics, our customer will be wearing great looking clotheswhile helping sustain the great outdoors.
Ball and Buck offers three unique, yet interwoven, product lines, eachdesigned for a different consumer. The first line is our cornerstone collection, the backbone behind ourbrand - our “On Field Line”, which is all organic waxed cotton outerwear. Webelieve that wax cotton, which has been around for centuries, is the best allnatural weather-proof material and is the natural alternative to syntheticweather-proofers, like Gore-Tex. We are making organic waxed cotton blazers,peacoats and raincoats.
The secondline complements the first, and is the “Off The Field Line” and is a collectionof products that are intended to be worn under the "On Field" jacketsand coats. This line includestennis shirts, oxford shirts, khaki pants and other casual, traditionalclothing items. Their design andcolors are created to be worn in perfect conjunction with the different piecesof outerwear we make.
The thirdline is part of our marketing plan, and not one that we will be pushing toend-users as a Ball And Buck line. We will be making 100% organic cotton promotional t-shirts foruniversities and campus organizations in order to promote the importance oforganic clothing and market our brand through free t-shirts. This service includes all design work,so we are an incredibly easy solution for organizations to use - our t-shirtsonly run $.50 to $1 more per shirt than conventional cotton t-shirts.
While weare mainly a product driven company, by providing this product we are offeringour customers a rare and valuable service. Every time a consumer purchases a Ball & Buck product,they are receiving a unique experience. Due to our own production process, each piece of clothing we make isdistinctive and offers its own story to the purchaser. Additionally, the consumer can resteasy knowing that their garment is all organic which means that it is good fora. the environment and b. will be of extremely high quality and will last alifetime with the Ball and Buck Lifetime Guarantee.
Customers
Target customer:
If the Market is broken into different financial segments, we aretargeting the upper//upper middle class segment. Those with a disposable income who want to spend money onlifestyle products and sports. This segment of the market enjoys being outdoors during the summer,skiing in the winter, and more often than not owns at least two homes: their'real' home and a second, weekend or summer home. They value the time theyspend with their friends and family and value the traditions that make thistime and their relationships more valuable. This segment of the market is bursting with hard workers,who are in college or are college educated and who spend the week working hardin class or in high power positions & during the weekend want to maximizetheir free time and enjoy life to the fullest. Most importantly, this segment of the population understandswhat is going on with the environment, they see the global warming andunderstand the pollution problem. They want to help solve the problem but don't want the"hippie" or "liberal" stigma that goes a long with the"green" movement.
Withinthat market, our primary focus will be on the conservative Fraternitymember. College boys inFraternities have disposable income to spend on Dues every semester, they canspend money on new clothing. College kids are very aware of trends andbecoming trendy and wearing the latest thing. Fraternity boys are social. They are out on campus, at parties, they go to class. Statically membersof Greek Life are more involved on campus, they are more likely to finishcollege in 4 years and they are more likely to run fortune 500 companies andthe Government, than their non-Greek counter parts.
This population, until now, has not been targeted for organic clothing. To them, the green movement is a fluffy cause, that they are very awareof, but that only liberals are supposed to care about. However, they areoutdoorsy, they sail, hike, camp, play sports, they're active. They havean invested interest in nature. They understand the importance oftradition, of relationships.
0.Distribution channel:
We want to tightly control our brand image and market targeting atfirst, so we will be our own distributors on the wholesale level. We will decide who carries our line,how much they carry, when they carry it and how it is merchandised in theirstores.
Retailers: Besidesinitially selling through trunk shows and through our own business front andtransportable Pop Up Store, we are going to be selling through small boutiquesup and down the East Coast. Wewant to target summer communities during the months of June, July & Augustin Maine, Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, CT, MD, NC, VA, etc. During the school year we willalso want to be featured in stores in large metropolitan areas like Boston, NewYork City, DC and Atlanta.
Anothereffective distribution channel will be our network of College Reps at collegesand universities. First, we willtarget Southeastern schools and then expand nationally.
0.Customer relationship:
Ourcustomer relationship will be based largely on our College Rep program. We are going to be relying heavily onour College Reps to market and sell our product in a positive light. Our generation values authenticity andhigh quality products, as well as a personal and individual buyingexperiences. Through our collegerep program, we will be able to provide our customer with both. We are going to educate and prep eachcollege rep so that they are well equipped to deal with any and every questionand concern sent their way. Ourcustomer wants to trust the product and the sales associate and this way, theywill be able to, because they’re buying our product through a friend.
Additionally,several policies and warranties have been put in place to ensure that ourcustomer is always satisfied. Wehave a Lifetime Quality Policy, Clothing Recycling Program and Guaranteed LandConservation. The Lifetime QualityPolicy insures that our customers will never be dis-satisfied with our product,our recycling program enables them to return clothing they no longer want andthe Land Conservation program ensures that a percentage of all revenue goestowards keeping the American landscape intact and naturally beautiful.
Competitive advantage
Competitive Advantage
Balland Buck’s Competitive Advantage is our product and market differentiation. We are creating anew market, targeting a group of people who have yet to be attracted to thebooming green industry. We are not only providing them with a great product butchanging their mindset about their consuming and wasting habits. Our competitive advantage lies in thefact that we are targeting conservative college age Americans that enjoy beingoutside and noticed the damages that we have, as a race, have procured onto ournatural habitat. Until Ball andBuck, the organic and green industry has ignored this market, making them feelalienated. Ball and Buck wants tomake the environment an issue that surpasses politics, and make sure that noone feels alienated by their beliefs – be they conservative or liberal.
Besides attracting a new market, Ball and Buck’s competitiveadvantage also lies in our unique product offering. We have created a totally 100% organic waxed cotton – thefirst all natural weather proof alternative to synthetic material likeGore-Tex. Additionally, we aretaking organic cotton to create traditional conservative fabrics likeseersucker, madras, khaki and oxford cloth.
Management Bio
Rebecca Eltzroth. Becca Eltzroth graduated from BabsonCollege in May 2008 with a degree in Business Management, concentrating inRetail Management and Entrepreneurship. She brings her passion and vast experience working in the retail andfashion industry to the company, having worked in small boutique stores in theNorth East for the last six years. Additionally, she has interned at small clothing factories and has alarge network of professionals in the industry. While at Babson, Becca wasactively involved on campus, as a sister of Kappa Kappa Gamma, a leader in theGreek Council and the Outdoors Association, a Senator on Student Government andbeing involved with Campus Activities Board for all four years.
Mark Bollman. Mark Bollman is currently anundergraduate student at Babson College, with an expected graduation date ofMay 2010 with a degree in Business Management, concentrating inEntrepreneurship and Strategic Management. He brings several years of experience in serialentrepreneurship, having begun multiple businesses even before arriving at Babson. He currently holds top leadershippositions at Babson, in organizations ranging from Tau Kappa Epsilon, and GreekCouncil to Invenio, an organization of young entrepreneurial students.
Both Becca and Mark are alarmed by the damage that theirgeneration has caused to nature and are dedicated to Ball and Buck by bringingtheir energy, love for the great outdoors, creativity and passion to helpingthe environment.
Additionally, by being so active onBabson’s campus, Becca and Mark understand how to relate to college students,sell to undergraduates and engage them in the current environmentalcrisis.
Follow Ball and Buck on Vator.tv
--Yvon Chouinard
http://www.panna.org/documents/conventionalCotton.dv.html
"The problems with clothing production don’t stop in the field. During the conversion of conventional cotton into clothing, numerous toxic chemicals are added at each stage— silicone waxes, harsh petroleum scours, softeners, heavy metals, flame and soil retardants, ammonia, and formaldehyde— to name just a few."
--http://www.ecochoices.com/1/cotton_statistics.html
"T he average 100% cotton T-shirt contains only 73% cotton. The rest is made up of chemicals and resins that were used to grow and make it. Yet, we all think cotton is one of the most natural things around. The truth is, it's not as nice as we'd all like to think. "
--http://www.howies.co.uk/content.php?xId=1
"Studies have estimated the human impact from pesticides used on cotton to be as high as 20,000 people killed and 3 million poisoned every year (IISD/WWF 1997). In addition to direct contamination in fields, people are also affected through water runoff, drift of sprayed mist, the use of empty pesticide containers for other purposes, and inadequate or illegal disposal of expired or unused pesticides (Banuri 1999)."
--http://www.blessedearth.com.au/organic-information
Thanks for your input. Our outerwear line, is actually all organic waxed cotton blazers, raincoats and peacoats. Waxed Cotton is 100% water proof. All of our outwear pieces are fully lined, as well.
I will get you references for the conventional cotton soon.
Thanks for your interest in Ball and BUck!!
Thanks for checking us out!