G-8 Industries, Inc.

[pic 1]

[pic 2]

Final Project Submission

Econ 9730

Professor Tracy Henry

1. Executive Summary

Our G-8 Industries, Inc. proposes bringing to market a new product, Counter Vand, that would entirely revolutionize the current process of glass vandalism protection and remediation. We are developing a window glazing technique that will protect window treatments and investments from the blight of graffiti and scratchiti vandalism throughout their entire lifetime. Traditionally, this process has been costly and labor intensive, with few options and vendors in the marketplace. In addition to vandalism protection, our glazing process would enhance window strength, increase insulation and reduce UV rays, thereby providing added disaster protection and environmental management.

Based on our research, we noted that as there are only a handful of similar firms located in New York City region, we would like to target NYC market as our entry point. Our target customers will consist of mainly the residential building owners, commercial building managers and government/private owned transportation systems. Finally, by creating an industry disruptor, we can offer significant cost savings and improved outcomes to our customers while also generating a healthy profit for our investors. It is truly a win-win scenario.  

II.        Introduction and General Description

Product Motivation

Our product name, Counter Vand, is derived from the two english words “counter” and “vandalism” with the sole objective of countering the glass vandalism and expanding the horizon of this industry to serve the needs of various market segments. We noted that glass vandalism is quite prevalent in the five boroughs of the New York City region in many forms mainly including, but not limited to, spray painting (graffiti) and etching or “scratchiti”, as it is more commonly called. Moreover, we noted that the prevalence of the glass vandalism in the City is adding unnecessary burden to our economy by damaging/destroying our properties including, but not limited to, subway car windows, seats; residential/commercial buildings; bus stations and traffic signs, to name a few.

We had a strong belief that these costs are 100% avoidable, and that belief served as a driving force and a primary motivating factor to the creation of our product, Counter Vand. In addition, we did a thorough research to figure out two key benefits that the City and our customers can have by utilizing Counter Vand.  We have outlined and described these benefits in the next paragraph. While studying the market, we noted that although we have a handful of companies supplying scratch resistant glass coatings in the national market, the existence of such suppliers in the New York City market is very limited which makes NYC a suitable market to launch our product as described in detail in “Market Analysis” section.

As noted above, the two key benefits that further motivated us in the creation of our product are described as follow:

1. Effective Utilization of Monetary Resources: We noted that New York City annually spends millions of dollars to fix the vandalism caused by graffitis/scratchitis. These costs eventually trickle down to affect the general public in one form or the other, for example - it could affect the public in the form of hike in public transportation fares; increase in taxes; increase in the maintenance costs/rent of the housing market, etc. With the usage of Counter Vand, not only these costs can be avoided, but it will allow our city government to be able to effectively utilize the freed up money in funding other projects that are currently being held up due to lack of funding.
2. Preservation of Aesthetics: The aesthetic value of any city is in direct proportion to its tourism industry. In other words, the more the aesthetic value of the city, more tourists the city will attract which in turn will bring greater revenue to the city’s economy. Statistically, it was noted that a total of 58.3 million people visited NYC in 2015 which in turn brought a revenue of $45 billion to the city. [i], [ii]. With that being said, it becomes very important for us to maintain the aesthetic value of our city and the outcome of glass vandalism puts a very detrimental impact on our tourism industry by spoiling the aesthetic value of the city. Therefore, with the launch of our product, we are putting our best foot forward to preserve the aesthetic value and aid city’s tourism industry to boom.

Product’s Introduction:

Counter Vand is a transparent self-adhesive polyester coating that can be applied over existing glazed surfaces that will relieve our customers from the problems of graffitis and scratchitis. One of the key distinctive features of our product is its high sustainability which not only means that it is manufactured from recycled materials but we have incorporated the best sustainable practices into every stage of the product development and gave special attention to the “cradle-to-grave” approach that makes the product very environmental friendly, thereby creating a positive externality in the market. We have also expanded the concept of sustainability to incorporate the human well-being into the design of the product which makes Counter Vand capable of eliminating 99.9% of UV rays. This feature of our product will consequentially reduce the cooling demand of the building in a hot climate which turn will reduce the operational costs of the HVAC system of the building.

Counter Vand is a scratch proof washable coating that is very easy to apply, comes in various sizes/tints, strengthens the substrate and can be easily cut into any shape as dictated by the requirement. The coating is very durable and resilient to all the weather conditions, wear and tear due to the cyclic weather changes. In addition, the coating is resistant to acid attacks and is fully washable with water or any other liquid based on the type of damage, as per our recommendations listed in our product guide.

III.      Market Analysis

Our Industry

The removal of graffiti is a large industry in most urban areas. Generally speaking, the majority of the work falls mostly on the government to maintain the public facets that are tarnished with graffiti. Here in New York City, graffiti has been a major problem in two main areas, buildings and the transportation system. While the local government spends a great a deal of effort in cleaning the city of graffiti, it continues to be a big problem largely due to the costs it brings to local businesses and the government.