Customer & Marketing Base
Yuqian Ma
The interview with Miss Ma is brief overall. As a jewellery designer, Objectively speaking, she doesn’t know much about fur products, but the two opinions she talks about are worth taking into account. Diversification of products and expansion of product applications. Miss Ma’s first opinion, to a certain extent, can solve the problem of product positioning, diversified products can correspond to different markets, bio-synthetic fur is not simply a single product, instead, it can manufacture according to the price flexibly. In term of product application, Miss Ma inspired my confidence in cross-border and extended co-operation. Bio-synthetic fur, as a new material, can be used in various fields including but not limited to fabric industry, such as accessories and home furnishings. This point also extends my potential financing channels.
Mengyu Zhang
The conversation with Miss Zhang was based on the questionnaire questions. From an objective point of view, she is not an enthusiast and intensive user of fur products, her knowledge of fur mainly focuses on the use of her parents’ generation and media reports. This partly reflects the fact that at least in the Chinese Mainland market, fur consumers may be aging and marginalized. Regarding to the concept of bio-synthetic fur, Miss Zhang’s views are thought-provoking and she is very supportive of the attempts to synthesize fur, however, when alternatives will be successful as expected because they are totally identical to real thing, it is hard to avoid that some people will reverse-sell the real thing as a substitute due to it is as good or even better in trend as it gets. This potentially awkward dilemma has created a potential need for authentication system about bio-synthetic fur. Alongside the development of this material, it may be that in the future attention needs to be paid to the importance of promoting and controlling the authenticity of the material, i.e. traceability, and the importance of a strong endorsement. In term of the fur consumption declining, Miss Zhang pointed out that consumerism is an important addition, which in the future development of bio-synthetic fur, in addition to the consideration of moral opinion, should not pay more attention to the positioning and pricing close to the public’s perception of the trend, or to re-enforce its status as a symbol of wealth. Overall, Ms Zhang’s interview went well, and many of her views were objective and multi-faceted.
Lucy
Lucy, as a fashion compiler of a luxury company, seems to have a deeper understanding of fur and leather compared to the previous interviewees. She points out a few pioneering brands in the field of faux fur such as Stella Mccartney, etc., which, as practitioners and beneficiaries of the concepts of fashionable and environmentally friendly and sustainability, have a strong demonstration significance of bio-synthetic fur, and can even explore possibilities of co-operation and learning in the future development. Lucy herself is a firm leather and genuine fur user, she pointed out that the majority of leather and genuine fur in the fashion industry is essentially the residual value of the food industry, thus, there is no fundamental contradiction between demand and supply. In addition to the hazards of faux fur under the slogan of environmental protection, she is also abhorrent. It is true that Lucy’s point of view is indisputable in the eyes of fashion or professionals, but the winds of public opinion and the disadvantages of publicity have actually led to the misunderstanding and even aversion of the mass consumer to fur. Finally on the development of bio-synthetic fur, Lucy provides two ideas: one is to ensure the cost advantage of the product through the scale of the product, to control the whole market with the posture of universal technology products, and the other is to focus on the research of rare species of leather, to ensure that bio-synthetic fur’s high-end positioning and pricing advantage. These two different market strategies can be flexibly decided through the specific circumstances of the research and development process, and even the combination of the two strategies in order to develop different directions of the product is also a means of bio-synthetic fur can be used in the future.
Molly & Winey
Winey, as an famous influencer in China, is open to the concept of faux fur as a relatively low-cost alternative to real fur that can be styled in a variety of ways, but she has trouble accepting the price of real fur and scoffs at the idea of it being a symbol of wealth. Her acceptance of bio-synthetic fur is therefore very much dependent on how well the concept is advertised and priced.
As Molly is a fashion technology student, she has a natural affinity for new materials and is more receptive to them. However, as she is not a fur material user, she is unable to differentiate between natural and faux fur. Therefore she is also concerned about bio-synthetic fur publicity, as a good publicity can result in a significant premium for many preliminary consumers. One final piece of advice she gave was to look for an established benchmark for new products (Zhihe). In addition to cost-led pricing and positioning strategies, competitors can also be a good benchmark. Competitors is indeed for next stage as more indicators and reference, can ensure that the future of bio-synthetic fur become more certain and planned.
Expert & Industry Base
Jason Zhou
This is my second conversation with Jason Zhou and it focuses on some exchanges about the progress of bio-synthetic and ideas for solutions to current problems.
I have to admit that the progress of the cooperation with Columbia University has been rather slow, the reasons for which I have analyzed through the conversation are the following two points, the first is the launch of the new semester, which leads to a certain degree of lack of energy input from the university parties involved in the bio-synthetic fur project, and the second is the problem of efficiency caused by the involvement of multiple departments. In response to the above problems, I feel that independent co-operation with the core departments on the basis of real-time follow-up may be a little more realistic and effective.
The second is the handling of animal blood samples in an experiment, which is the most sensitive part of the whole project at the ethical level, and also the most difficult step in communication and sample acquisition. Therefore, we decided to find a third party scientific research organization to help us solve the problem (reprogramming of progenitor cells into pluripotent stem cells), a stem cell science and technology company in mainland China with qualifications and capabilities, which, on the one hand, can eliminate the red tape of cooperating with the university to enhance the efficiency, on the other hand, it can avoid the moral risk of the project itself.
Finally, Dr Zhou also mentioned the issue of project funding, given the lack of funding and impact of the project, a segmented project model would be most appropriate. This is a good proposal, in this way, the project will not be completely stagnant due to the lack of funds, and also according to the constant changes, the project will have more windows and time for financing.
Investor Base
Will Medd
This was my second meeting with Will, throughout the meeting I described to him all the progress made in the bio-synthetic fur project since the summer holidays and the problems that exist now. Will gave me a lot of affirmation, and at the same time, also on the future progress of the project, he provided three aspects of constructive advice.
The first one is about intellectual property rights and patent protection. Will suggested me to apply for patents in regions other than mainland China at the same time. It is true that the application in China went smoothly and was relatively easy for me personally, but as the subsequent financing and promotion of the project will be centred on the UK and the US, it is more urgent and meaningful to apply in these countries. As Will said, the initial patent application in a country like the UK is not a very expensive affair and I will have a window of one to two years to raise the funding or get the approvals to set the stage for the high cost of maintaining the patent.
The second most important point of the conversation was that I had to give a clear and complete account of the business model for the bio-synthetic fur project, which is the key to transforming the project from an academic level to a business model. As my current materials do not clearly articulate the structure of the project such as mass production plans, R&D relationships, profitability of the project, etc., which will be important in the future financing process, I will add a section to my new pitching presentation and investment proposal dedicated to the model of the project. Overall, it is time to shift project materials to a completely commercialize narrative.
Lastly, Will hopes that we can communicate frequently about the progress of the project. As an investor who is very important for my project, communicating with him can help me understand the messages and ideas of the investor side, as well as help the project to commercialize more efficiently.
Dragon Den
Makumbe and Barker, the guests of Dragon Den, each gave their own advice.
Makumbe mainly talked about pricing and prospects, it is true that as a brand new product it is difficult to predict its cost, but uncontrollable cost may also be like some other ultra-new materials such as cannabis clothing because of the high price it is difficult to popularize and ultimately difficult to realize the original purpose of the creation. This is indeed a point to be aware of, but I always believe that fur material as a symbolic material, it is easier to be accepted by the consumers than the premium price of other materials, because it is a precious fabric in the first place. As for Makumbe’s concern about the difficulty of realization, I have to admit that this is a long lead time and full of uncertainty, but the professional team and the growing theoretical support have given me confidence in the final realization of bio-synthetic fur concept.
Barker was more critical of the process, advising me to be aware of the ethical risks of obtaining animal blood/hair samples during the process, which was an important reminder that as a project built on solving an existing ethical problem, it is important to avoid the creation of new ethical pain points. Therefore I need to communicate with the laboratory that more regulation and support is needed in animal experimentation to ensure the welfare of the animals as well as the transparency of the process.