Wanaka YES
We got to hear about something going on in Wanaka around the same time SADD was running a competition to design an air freshener of our own. So Roger got in touch with Meg who is the CEO of EMOTI, once the dust had settled, to hear a little about what they were doing and how they did it.
Roger: Hi Meg, thanks for agreeing to share your experiences for a SADD blog. Once we heard about your work, we wanted to know more about your YES group, how you got your project off the ground and eventually what it was like having the product (car air fresheners) in your hands!
Roger: Tell me a little about your yourself and your group, how and why you got started.
Meg: “We are a group of 5 year 13 students from Mount Aspiring College who have all taken the subject Enterprise. Through the Young Enterprise Scheme, we have to come up with a business, completing challenges throughout the year and hopefully, by the end of it all, generate a profit. Our team EMOTI consists of Tom, Guy, Tessa, Georgia and me, Meg.”
Roger: How did the idea to produce car air fresheners come about? What kicked it off?
Meg: “When we were originally brainstorming what we could create as a product, we were thinking about challenges and problems in our local area of Central Otago. One thing that we identified is the horrific number of teen car crashes that happened over the past few years. The members of our group had multiple mutuals who had been seriously injured, or killed, behind the wheel. We wanted to do something about this and hence EMOTI was born. Then with a little more thought, the idea of producing car air fresheners got thrown into the mix. We all had one in our car, and knew almost all of our friends did, so it was a no-brainer.”
Roger: What did you see as the benefit of choosing this medium (as opposed to using social media for example)?
Meg: “Having something tangible, a product which our customers could put their hands on was super important. We all see our car air fresheners every day, as soon as we get into our car and every time we look in our rear-view mirror so we knew we could spread our message through this medium, and ensure that our messages are always seen, as we believe it is really important.”
Roger: Tell us about the problem you were solving and if this influenced how you designed your product?
Meg: “I have mentioned about the huge issue of teen car crashes, we like to think we are playing a small part in helping make an impact. There are three aspects of our car air fresheners which tackle this issue.
Firstly, the impactful messaging. We have two different designs consisting of the sayings “someone loves you drive safe” and “your whānau wants you home”. We tested these in our target market and these two sayings were the most popular. We wanted our car air fresheners to be a physical reminder of driving safely and also create a second guess within the driver when they get behind the wheel.
Secondly, we used the scents citrus and jasmine on each air freshener. These scents are scientifically proven to stimulate the cortex and lead to a more alert state and increased hand eye coordination. Therefore, by incorporating these into our product we are trying to help drivers stay alert and hopefully reduce car crash risk.
Thirdly, we donated to you guys, SADD. This was fundamental to us and another no brainer. We know that there is only so much we can do with air fresheners. By donating 10% of our profits to you we are able to help fund education for young drivers and tackle the issue of teen car crashes from the get-go.”
Roger: You needed a bit of money to get you started – how did you raise it?
Meg: “There is a rule at our school with enterprise that each member of our group is only allowed to put in $25 of their own money towards the company. Therefore, we did not start with much! We were thinking of how we could generate more money to start up, and then the good old sausage sizzle idea came about. We were outside Mitre 10 for three Sunday mornings selling sausages. We ended up with enough money to get us on our feet.”
Roger: When you started communicating with the printers – did all go according to plan? What happened, how did you sort it out and what have you learned?
Meg: “We put a lot of research into where we wanted our air fresheners to come from. We were juggling a lot of balls, from quality to price and sustainability. We ended up finding a company offshore in California which was affordable and, also, sustainable (25% of our product is made from recycled diapers!!). With all of the post being disrupted right now it took a little while to get to us but in the end we had our product. All pretty much did go to plan, apart from some of our designs were slightly offset during the printing process. This however was not a major issue, and we were able to carry on.”
Roger: What would you do differently next time?
Meg: “I think firstly, get going sooner. Like I said we put a lot of research into the supplier, but this also took a lot of time. I think if we got going sooner we would have been able to possibly produce more designs with different slogans or even do some of the ideas our team was throwing around such as offsetting our carbon emissions from getting our product offshore.”
Roger: Tell us about any background you and your group have with SADD and why you wanted to donate proceeds from your air freshener sales to us.
Meg: “We have a SADD group at our school, Mount Aspiring College, that organise multiple things throughout the year. One thing that is very memorable is that they re-enact a car crash and get the local fire brigade to dismantle the car and use the jaws of life. I remember watching this in year 7 and it has had a huge impact on me now that I am able to drive, and I can see the consequences if we do not do so safely. We know that you guys do amazing work specifically with students (the name kind of gives it away!!) and that is the group that we wanted to help reach. We wanted to empower young kiwis to use positive road behaviours and you are the people who do that so helping you along your journey meant a lot to us.”
We love hearing stories of young people bringing road safety messages in creative and innovative ways. There are endless ways for you to be challenging your peers and whānau to stay safe on the roads. Great mahi to the Emoti team from Wanaka, and a big thanks to Meg for sharing some of the behind the scenes info!