2. 1
Table of Contents
Executive Summary 2
Day in the Life 3 - 4
Situation Analysis 5-8
Whole Product Analysis 9
Beachhead 10
Go to Market Strategy 11
Unique Value Proposition 12
Why We Might Fail 13
Future Expansions 14
Sources 15
3. 2
Executive Summary
When packing for an outdoor music festival it is easy to forget a camping essential. In addition,
scrambling through your bag for something can be a hassle. The problem our group wishes to
solve is to alleviate the high costs spent on purchasing camping equipment and relieve the stress
of packing for a more enjoyable outdoor adventure.
Our proposed solution for solving the problem would be offering a rental service where
consumers are able to rent a camping equipment pack. We want to focus offering this service
towards consumers attending outdoor music festivals. Our goal is creating a simple process
where people attending music festivals can easily pick up their camping pack when arriving to
the music festival. Imagine a large food truck, our vision is to have a large truck where
consumers pick up/drop off of the camping pack. To create a lean and efficient process of
estimating how many camping packs to have available, customers have the option of pre-
ordering their camping pack online. The impact of this would be a simple process for the
customer so when they show up, all they have to do is pick up their camping pack. If they forget
a camping equipment, consumers also have the option of renting whatever it is they forgot.
According to a Nielsen Music report from 2014, 32 million people in the U.S attend music
festivals. Of the 32 million, 46% are in the age range of 18-34. Millennials are a huge driving
force for attendance and the music festival industry has shown consistent growth over the past
decade. We found that a person attending a music festival travels on average 903 miles to attend
a music festival according to Nielsen Music. In addition, the amount of money an average person
spends on a music festival is high; a 3-day pass can range anywhere from $185-$450. Factoring
the costs of tickets, travel, food, the last thing someone would want to do is spend more money
on camping equipment and also travel with it. Based on the statistics and consistent growth in the
industry, there is definitely a customer need. The revenue stream from this service would come
from the rentals, damage fees, and lost/stolen equipment.
4. 3
Day in the Life
A Day in the Life (Before)
Situation Scene: Taylor, a music festival goer has finally arrived to the campsite only to
realize he forgot to pack a tent. Feeling frustrated about finding a sleeping solution after
traveling 190 miles, he takes a look around to see many people are also on the same boat
forgetting some camping essential. Taylor feels uncomfortable sharing a tent with friends
and the only solution that came to his mind is traveling to the nearest convenience store
that sells tents, that’s 50 miles away!
Desired Outcome: Taylor’s thought process was that he’ll just drive to the nearest
convenience store to buy a tent.
Attempted Approach: Taylor finally decides to go buy a tent and quickly learns that this
was a huge mistake. Getting out of the venue was hectic with all of the people arriving.
Taylor has major FOMO (fear of missing out) when driving 50 miles to go buy a tent.
Interfering Factors: When Taylor got to the nearest convenience store, he notices his
tent options are low and the cheapest one was $50. Being a college student and low on
funds that could be used for food and entertainment towards the music festival, Taylor
experiences buyer’s remorse immediately after purchasing the tent. Finally, after a total
of two hours driving there and back, it’s getting dark and getting back into the campsite
became a nightmare. All Taylor could think while waiting for all of the cars to get
checked in was how he wish he would’ve packed a tent.
tent options, tent prices, buying a tent that is used only once or twice
Economic Consequences: Gas, money, time, and stress are all factors that influence
Taylor’s economic consequences.
5. 4
A Day in the Life (After)
New Approach: Taylor finally makes it to the gorge. He has made it before his friends
because they decided to pack their own equipment. Taylor heads over to the Bento booth
and gets his reserved camp package. On his way back to the campsite his friends show up
and start to set up next to his site. Taylor’s friends notice that he has more room in his
small car for food and drink and was even able to bring his guitar and a few lawn games
using the room all the camping essentials would have otherwise reserved. Taylor takes
half the time setting up his campsite and has more time to relax and prepare for the
festival. On the last day of the festival Taylor and his friends decide to pack up early the
next morning. When morning comes along Taylor spends half the time tearing down his
campsite and takes his camping package back to the bento booth. Taylor grabs a coffee
for the road and by the time he gets back to his car his friends have finally finished
tearing down and are ready to get back on the road.
Enabling factors: Bento makes it so you don't have to worry about packing camping
essentials because they are on site when you get there. You can either rent on site or
reserve a camping pack when you buy your ticket. Bento is also easy to use making set
up and tear down time quick and easy.
Economic rewards: Ease of mind on the trip up as well as the ability to really focus on
the main reason you are at the festival: the actual festival. Renting equipment is also
cheaper so customers can enjoy lower costs to an already expensive trip.
6. 5
Situation Analysis
SWOT
Buyer UtilityMap
1. Purchase 2. Delivery 3. Use 4. Supplements 5. Maintenance 6. Disposal
Customer
Productivity
X ✓ X X
Simplicity X✓ X✓ ✓ X X X
Convenience X✓ X✓ ✓ X X X
Risk X X X
Fun and Image X✓ X ✓ X X X
Environmental
Friendliness
✓ X
Strengths
Large Music Festival
Market
Simplicity and
Convenience
Affordable
Weaknesses
Triability
Ownership
Brand Awareness
Opportunities
New Market
Expand to Adjacent
Markets
Threats
Second Mover
Strategy
Outdoors Geek
7. 6
Porter’s Five Forces
Supplier Power
HIGH - The Bento service relies on its partnerships with both camping suppliers and the
Gorge venue in order to maintain a whole product solution.
Buyer Power
MED - While buyers can purchase their own equipment if they wanted to, Bento is the
only rental service that caters on site so options for customers are limited.
Barriers to Entry
MED - Start-up costs might give us problems but once we establish a foothold on the
market then we won't find many more barriers as we are the first to service this specific
market.
Threat of Substitutes
MED - As is with many services the threat of substitutes is always present. Whether it be
people scalping or renting out their own equipment at festivals.
Competitive Intensity
LOW - There are only a few different firms that we can look to as competitors. However,
their target markets and core products differ just slightly enough from Bento that we
could easily see ourselves as a first mover in this particular market.
Competitive
Rivalry
LOW
Threat of New
Entry
MEDIUM
BuyerPower
MEDIUM
Threat of
Substitution
MEDIUM
Supplier
Power
HIGH
8. 7
Competition
Outdoors Geek: http://www.outdoorsgeek.com/
Outdoors Geek is a service that allows you to rent, try, or buy camping gear. They have a
physical store located in Denver, Colorado and a website where customers are able to
order camping equipment. Outdoors Geek is one of our main competition however, what
differentiates Bento is the different music festivals and audience we are targeting.
Outdoors Geek’s pricing for camping packages at music festival ranges from $100 to
$700 depending on the number of people and type of music festival. While Bento is
targeting a younger demographic, we want to provide camping packages that are
affordable for our target market. Although we are targeting different types of music
festivals in different locations, Outdoors Geek is a potential threat because they already
have established their service to specific music festivals. Bento stands out from Outdoors
Geek by using second mover strategy and eliminating the services Outdoors Geek already
provides for their best customers such as renting, trying, and buying. Bento being much
more simplified than Outdoors Geek gives the opportunity to differentiate ourselves and
build a brand.
Rent-a-Tent Canada: http://www.rent-a-tent-canada.com/
Rent-a-Tent Canada is another potential competition. The company offers renting a tent
that is delivered to your home. Another service provided is renting a tent and having it set
up in specific camping locations in Canada. The service offers different camping
packages priced at a flat fee per day. While our main focus is to target music festivals at
the Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington, future opportunities would be expanding to other
states and possibly other countries which is why Rent-a-Tent Canada poses as a potential
threat.
Four Actions Framework
Eliminate
Ownership
Outdoors Geek services
such as rent, try, buy
Reduce
Packing
Quality
Raise
Convenience
Affordability
Environmental Awareness
Create
Spontaneity
Experience
9. 8
Strategy Canvas
Positioning Statement
For music festival attendees
Who are frustrated with carrying camping equipment
Bento is a camping rental service
That provides you with the ability of experiencing the music festival without the stress
that comes with packing for the event.
Unlike other camping rental services
We have created an affordable, simple, and convenient service that will cater to all of
music festival camping needs so you can fully enjoy the festival experience.
3
5
4
0
5
0
5 55
2
5 5
4 44 4
5
0
4
0
PRICE CONVENIENCE QUALITY TRIABILITY SERVICE OWNERSHIP SIMPLICITY SPONTANEITY
Bento Outdoors Geek Rent-a-Tent
10. 9
Whole Product Analysis
Generic Product
When consumers rent our products and services, they will be receiving any of our wide variety
of products ranging from tents and canopies to bare necessities such as sleeping bags and
flashlights. These pieces of merchandise will be offered online for pre-orders or on site at
festivals for last minute rentals. By creating this system of rentals, our goal is to create a simple
process where people attending music festivals can easily and affordably pick up their camping
equipment for a pleasurable and memorable experience.
Expected Product
In order to create the best experience possible for our customers, we plan to use our pre-order
system to accurately and efficiently fulfill the customer’s needs. The products that we will
provide will meet quality and experience expectations. In order to meet the customer's
expectations, we will be constantly listening to customer feedback and implementing new
process to meet our customer expectations.
Augmented Product
This service being offered will help raise environmental awareness for festival goers by helping
reduce the amount of waste being produced at the festival. Service rentals would accommodate
for customers who plan on using the service to cater to their experience or for those who forget
something and need it for the festival.
Developing Partnerships
In order to be successful it would be essential to develop a partnership with the gorge
amphitheater. This partnership would allow Bento to operate smoothly and efficiently on the
premises. Other important businesses to partner with would be camping companies that we could
purchase equipment from.
11. 10
Beachhead
Below is a thought map of possible beachheads. Highlighted are additional beachheads that we
can offer our service to.
The specific market we want to go after is millennials attending music festivals. Why? Because
according to Nielsen Music reports from 2014, 46% of 32 million attendees are millennials;
that’s 14,720,000. We also want to target millennials because we understand spending money on
camping equipment can add up quick. Overall, anyone attending a music festival can value from
our rental service by also not having to worry about packing a single camping equipment.
Camping traditionally calls for a lot of forward thinking and planning. If you are in the market
for new camping equipment most pragmatists will look to references to see which options are the
most ideal. Millennials tend to reference other millennials often because they think others in their
generation may share interests and know what is good for them and what isn’t. By focusing on
music festival goers we can assure adoption by building these much needed references and
establishing Bento as a standard in camping rentals.
Hyper focusing to just the Gorge helps us spread the word by focusing on those music festival
millennials that specifically attend gorge events like sasquatch and Paradiso. using word of
mouth communication as well as partnering with the venue to promote the Bento services will be
a key way to raise awareness of our product. Social media campaigns will also be key as
millennials continue to spend more and more time on digital platforms.
Bento is not only for millennials as not only millennials attend music festivals. However, our
initial beachhead is intended to cater to this otherwise unserved sector. Most camping services
focus on comfort and quality which caters to older generations who are less tolerant to being
miserable while camping. Bento caters to the millennial, focusing on price and convenience in
order to make it so you can spend less time worrying about your campsite and more time
12. 11
Go to Market Strategy
Place
The core product would be distributed at the Gorge Amphitheatre during each festival but
outside the venue we will have a warehouse headquarters in a city close by like Everett or
Ellensburg that Bento can use to maintain its corporate level business model. This warehouse
would also be where we would hold unused inventory.
Promotion
Bento will be using promotional tactics to target our specific beachhead of gorge festival goers.
We will work closely with both the Gorge and the festivals that use the gorge as a venue to help
promote this service to festival goers. Bento will also focus on social media promotion
campaigns as well as word of mouth strategies. To increase trialability, Bento will offer a one-
day free trial to new customers. In addition, advertising Bento’s service exclusively through
music festival sites builds brand awareness. Customer’s will also have the option of pre-ordering
their camping pack before a music festival event. In order for Bento to build trust with
customers, Bento can offer the incentive of a full refund and a one-day free camping package.
Price
We conducted a short survey on Qualtrics catered towards our target market (music festival
attendees ages 18-34) asking how much they would be willing to pay for a camping package.
Our findings showed that people who owned camping equipment were open to renting camping
equipment and people who didn’t own camping equipment were definitely interested in renting
camping equipment. This data shows that there is definitely a market out there. However, the
main focus of this survey was to see how much people within our target market was willing to
pay for a camping package. We got a variety of responses ranging anywhere from $30/day to
$100 for the whole music festival. This feedback allows Bento to see the average price a person
is willing to pay and also compare that to the prices of our competition helping us with what we
will set our prices at. Our goal is for Bento to be affordable especially with a younger
demographic as they are more sensitive to price.
Link to Survey: https://wwu.az1.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_ctDaXmr3bByj9Od
Qualtrics Survey Crosstabs Results
Would you be interested in renting camping equipment?
Yes No Maybe Total
Do you have camping equipment? Yes 9 14 17 40
No 3 0 1 4
Total 12 14 18 44
13. 12
Unique Value Proposition
Bento provides an exclusive rental experience for customers by prepackaging and fulfilling
whatever requirements customers need when attending a music festival. By offering a
prepackaged rental service where customers can pick up their customized package, Bento is able
to simplify the stress festival attendees experience while packing and attending a festival. This
process allows customers to affordably rent camping equipment without spending a large amount
of money to purchase it.
Bento is also unique in that it will have an onsite store where festival attendees can rent camping
equipment that may have been forgotten at home or may have broken in transport. By providing
this service, Bento will help festival attendees create unforgettable memories by removing
unnecessary inconveniences.
Unlike other comparable services, Bento rental services values the safety and wellbeing of the
community and its environment. By providing this rental service, Bento is able to responsibly
reduce the amount of waste left at venues by packing in and packing out all merchandise. Not
only is Bento concerned about the environment but also the community.
All of this…
…fits into this!
You just pick up/drop-off
off at music festival
14. 13
Why We Might Fail
Damaged or Stolen Equipment
Another key risk would be damaged and stolen camping equipment. The endowment effect
applies by people who lose something they don’t own are less sensitive to people who own
something. People are more likely to feel bad when they lose something they own as opposed to
something they rent. This affects why we might fail because people might feel less bad about
damaging or stealing our product which results in depreciation of product life. A solution to that
would be damage fees that would cover the value of the entire pack and having the customer sign
a liability form.
Second Mover Strategy
One of the risks we would face would be new competitors moving into our newly established
market and using a second mover strategy. Currently no other business model uses tactics that
the Bento rental services would like to apply. If new businesses began to create a similar service
as ours, then the market would begin to split and this could be a reason why Bento could fail. If
we are proactive and listen to our customer’s feedback, this idea could work.
Trusting a rental service
A lot of trust is being placed on Bento to provide the right products to the right customers when
they need to rent them. If any rental was accidentally forgotten and not shipped, then the
customer could potentially have issues and it could ruin the experience for them. In order to
create trust and succeed, Bento will have to accurately and efficiently ship and meet customer
orders so that it can build a good reputation. If Bento is unable to meet the requirements of its
customers and cannot build a good reputation, then this could be a reason why Bento potentially
fails. As mentioned before, in order to create trust, Bento would offer incentives such as if a
camping pack was forgotten or sold out, Bento will fully refund the customer’s money as well as
offer a one-day free camping package.
15. 14
Future Expansions
Adjacent Markets
Once Bento has established themselves at the Gorge as a prominent option for campers and
festival goers we can work on ways to look to adjacent markets. One way to do that is to stay
local and target a few other Festival venues such as Pemberton up in BC. It is important not to
expand too fast as we want to maintain our whole product solution and really set a foundation at
each new festival. Focusing on larger festivals is ideal to be able to use the already pricey ticket
to justify an affordable renting option.
Venue Expansion
There would be three major stages to expansion. From the gorge we would try to stay within the
Pacific Northwest. This is intended to continue targeting a specific sect of festival goers and to
keep travel and overhead costs low hoping to operate solely out of the flagship headquarters.
Once we establish ourselves in the Northwest we can then expand to other large music festivals
around the country, Namely those down in Vegas, Palm Springs, Austin and other major music
areas. And stage three would be the long term expansion to international markets.
Bento has the potential to be a huge success. With such success our 5-year vision could be to be
a standard in camping rentals for some of the largest music festivals such as Pemberton,
Coachella, lollapalooza, ‘what the festival.’ And in 10 years we can expand into other countries
and be the standard for camping rentals for the largest outdoor music festivals.
Other Services
Bento rental services will also offer unique products such as hydration packs that customers can
bring into the venue to stay hydrated. By doing this, Bento rental services will be able to reduce
the amount of health issues festival attendees may experience at a festival.
