Consumer Branding

TASC sells packaged consumer goods to the big-box retail chains, primarily in Canada. The company's inception was initially just selling packaged flower bulbs, but has since grown to sell a wide range of lawn and garden products. Initially, the brand was "Bulbs Are Easy" and then expanded to include the brand "Seeds Are Easy" when a seed line was introduced. Both brands are owned by "TASC". As the company continues to scale, there are new product lines that don't technically fall under the categories of bulbs or seeds. There are currently three websites: bulbsareeasy.com; seedsareeasy.com; and tascllc.com. All three are in need of a complete overhaul. To complicate things further, we are expanding into online selling. Our customers (Walmart, Home Depot, Costco, etc.) are pushing for us to sell through their websites. We'd also like to sell under our own website, but are hesitant to do so because we would be in direct competition to our customers. Another consideration is that consumers who purchase bulbs also typically purchase seeds, we also limit any potential cross-sell opportunities if the websites are currently completely disconnected.

Bird Industry Market Entrance Research

TASC is the predominant supplier of flower bulbs, onion sets, and seed potatoes to the Canadian big-box retailers. While we have introduced some tangential related products, we have not yet made an attempt to enter the consumer birdfeed & feeder market. This appears like a logical next step, but our company does not have detailed information about the market. We require some assistance is assessing the landscape outside of our current territory. Some of the questions we are currently asking: 1. MARKET: What is the estimated size of the market? What are some of the market trends? Where are the greatest areas of growth? What are the primary drivers of growth/consolidation of the industry? What are the barriers to entry? What are some areas of opportunity? 2. COMPETITORS: Who are the primary competitors? Do they supply retailers and if so, which retailers? Do they sell direct to consumer? What has made that competitor successful? What are some of their weaknesses? How long have they been in the market? What portion of their business is seeds vs. feeders? 3. CONSUMERS: What are the consumer buying habits? What percent of the total population purchases bird feed? What are the characteristics of the average consumer (breakdowns by male/female, age buckets, ethnicities, income brackets, etc)? Are there regional preferences? Are there lifestyle characteristics? Are consumers typically loyal to one brand? 4. SUPPLIERS: Who are the primary suppliers? Chinese manufacturing vs. Domestic? 5. PRODUCTS & ASSORTMENT: What product lines are offered? What makes the current products unique? How do competitors differentiate their products? What are the list of products currently offered and what are the most popular varieties? CONCLUSIONS: Provide a recommendation to us with how we should enter the market and with what products.