[Declined] NEAR VALENTINE SHOPPING

INTRODUCTION

Valentine Is Coming!!!

February 14th, Valentine’s Day, is almost here and needless to say, lovers will exchange tons of gifts amongst themselves. This presents an opportunity to engage people en masse, getting to them not only to open Near Wallets, but to use them for purchases!

This project is targeted at getting as many people as possible to transact using the Near token as a means of getting gifts for their loved ones during the season.

METHOD

The sales during this season is usually huge. Various goods and products will be displayed for Special Near Valentine’s Sales, and with 40% price slashes, we will incentivise people to buy using Near. This huge discount will be made available for purchases up to $50 and will include free shipping to any part of the country (Nigeria). This deal is irresistible! Clothes, perfumes, shoes, etc. are some of the items that will be on display.

PUBLICITY AND ADVERTISEMENT

An Instagram and a Facebook page will host sponsored advertisements with details on how to benefit from this Special Near Valentine’s Sales. The sponsored ads will include details on how to open a Near wallet.

EXPECTED IMPACT ON THE NEAR ECOSYSTEM

Without doubt, this project will increase the relatability of Near when people find that purchases can be actualised with it. This project will impact the foster the development of many more trade and business applications and collaborations on Near

MILESTONES AND TIMELINE

By February 14th, or latest 15th, sales should have ground to a halt.
A new Near wallet will be opened to receive transactions. To sellout all the items listed, I believe, is a good milestone to measure the success of the project (with up to 1000 {and in-use} wallets opened in two weeks).

BUDGET

Goods & Items
to be sold
$3500

Logistics, Sponsored advertisements (including fliers, etc.)
$1500

PS: Almost every package delivered will include a customised t-shirt bearing the Near Logo and website😍.

Total
$5000

Wallet id
Fabdab.Near

Great plan.

Is this part of a guild or an individual’s thing?

Who owns the goods to be sold? Is this about the customized NEAR shirts?

Are the funds for purchasing of these materials?

Yes, that’s my intention.

It’s about the people opening Near wallets and transacting with Near Protocol tokens. The shit intended for future passive publicity for Near.

How do you intend getting them to open these wallets?

I intend to run adverts on social medias platforms, this adverts will include informations on how to open Near wallets. But they can contact me for further enquiries on how to go about it if they have question. I will have an open line for enquiries.

I buy the goods and list them as goods available for sale on various social medium platforms. They goods I will buy, 2ill be goods that are usually on popular demands during Valentine seasons.

Do you have an intention of onboarding them or how do they get to have NEAR tokens to make purchase? Also, how often do you intend to do this?

If it’s a one time event, what happens to the funds gotten from the sales?

Hi @FabDab – your proposal shows a lot of creativity and passion for NEAR. I’m helping to advise the MarketingDAO on proposals, and I wanted to respond with a few thoughts:

  • The MarketingDAO exists to support marketing activities by community members, but in my point of view is not an entity that should fund basic costs of doing business, such as purchasing product inventory, capital improvements or the startup costs of a business.
  • I think your desire to spread the word about Near is great, but for funding to come from the MarketingDAO, I think the proposal needs to request funds specifically for marketing activities.
  • If you are seeking funding help for costs associated with a new entrepreneurial venture, then there might be opportunities available through the Near Fellowship Program.
  • On a logistical note, ~2 weeks is a very short timeline for launching a store/market, promoting it, developing the promotional materials, fulfilling purchases/sales through shipping or delivery and educating customers on how to set up, fund and use a Near wallet. I would like to see anyone endeavoring to do this have much more time to implement the project.

What would make a proposal stronger in the future:

  • Be able to show an established platform/social media presence that would allow you to market to intended audience effectively
  • More time
  • Proposing funding for activities associated with marketing, not cost of doing business
  • Details about what sales revenue will be used for
  • Details about how you will track success of marketing activities and report back to the MarketingDAO after project completion

I can see from your profile that you are a dedicated, active member of the community, and I am sure we will see great things from you in the future!

2 Likes

Hello, @so608

[10quote=“so608, post:10, topic:13906”]
your proposal shows a lot of creativity and passion for NEAR.
[/quote]

Thank you for your kind words.

“NEAR VALENTINE SHOPPING” is not a proposal to start a “business”. It’s a one-off initiative that intends to capitalise on a once-a -year special season to attract people to Near Protocol.

Also, isn’t it a bit counter-productive if the MarketingDAO which “…exists to support marketing activities by community members…” insists that it cannot “…fund basic costs of doing business, such as purchasing product inventory, capital improvements or the startup costs of a business.”… especially if Near will be a mutual benefactor in the business?

If the MarketingDAO cannot/should not:

…what then constitute marketing activities?
There are 4 or 5 elements that constitute marketing activities (the marketing mix). Product (gift items for Valentine), Place (internet stores, etc.), Promotion (Facebook and Instagram ads) are all parts of these basic marketing activities. And all these elements are present in my proposal.

The proposal details a one-time, one-off, opportunistic project targeted . It is not “a new entrepreneurial venture” to the intent of starting a new business. Even if it were, I believe it could still fall in the purview of the MarketingDAO.

On the contrary, these things don’t take as much time as you think. The whole of the internet is the store/market. The customer identifies whatever they wish to buy, they notify us, payment is arranged and concluded, we do the purchase and delivery to said customer. Delivery to any part of my country takes 2 days, at the latest. In my line of work, I get to do nationwide deliveries - it is definitely not a complex task. Again, setting up and funding a Near Wallet is not a complex task. All our sponsored ads will include short walk-throughs on how to open and fund a Near wallet.

Before I posted this proposal, I engaged a graphics designer and animation specialist and initiated discussions on designing premium adverts for the project - in 4 days, the ads will be ready

I stated in the proposal that sponsored ads will run to reach the intended audience. The intended market/audience is every Nigerian who uses Facebook, Instagram, etc. and is a potential Valentine’s shopper. I have over 3k friends on Facebook, who because of my years as a radio and TV presenter, (and many other reasons) will easily engage with my products and services.

I believe that this project is perfectly feasible, with goals that are completely achievable. Near is at its centre, with Near tokens as the fulcrum on which the entire project is balanced. I believe that initiatives that emphasize the relatability of Near, especially as a cryptoCURRENCY (emphasis on “currency” deliberate) should be encouraged.

Finally, like I stated in the proposal, funds from the sales will be deposited in a new wallet with full transparency. At the end of the sales, discussions will be opened with the MarketingDAO on what may be done with the funds.

@marketingdao-council

Hey,

Wonderful proposal, and creative use of NEAR, but:

  • I don’t think this sufficiently fits the scope of marketing
  • I believe that, for regulatory reasons, the MarketingDAO cannot support the use of NEAR as a currency (in that it replaces traditional fiat in a particular jurisdiction like this).
  • Similar to your previous funding request for the expansion of your restaurant, this seems like NEAR is being forced into something that was going to occur already in an effort to gather funding for personal business goals.

Although we appreciate the enthusiasm, the only posts from yourself on the forum, with the exception of one, have been made in an effort to receive NEAR.

Now, there’s nothing inherently wrong with this, people are, and should be, rewarded for their work. However, it does raise some red flags when Councils review proposals.

In this regard, I won’t be able to support this proposal.

1 Like

Hi @David_NEAR

Thank you for your prompt response.

I would appreciate it if you would tell me what the scope of marketing (and the MarketingDAO) is.

How many times will I get to say it that this project is a one-off initiative? I do not own a gift store. I did not plan to own one. I merely thought it would be a great opportunity to get more people aboard Near.

Noted.

Thank you for your time.

The Marketing DAO funds community-led marketing initiatives in the NEAR ecosystem. To that point, it enables projects, guilds, and individuals who are actively involved in the NEAR Community to achieve their marketing goals.

I do not believe this fits the scope because, essentially, it is the subsidising (and, by the looks of it, the actual purchase?!) of items for a store, whoever’s it might be, in an effort to turn over revenue.

Perhaps I’ve misunderstood, but someone (and someone’s business) is essentially applying to be subsidised here and has done so by forcing NEAR into it.

This does not constitute responsible distribution of NEAR, in my opinion.

Not so, @David_NEAR. I have made several non-funding related posts on this forum. As soon as I got into the forum, I looked everywhere for things I could do and how I could make myself useful. I retweeted a post not for the reward (the limit for those to be rewarded had already been exceeded - I did anyway). I participated in a survey too.

True, I have businesses that could use funding, but I continue to develop initiatives that can be mutually beneficial.

This is the only forum post you have made which isn’t, in some way, related to receiving funding:

I’m not trying to downplay your efforts, I’m sure you’re involved with the NEAR ecosystem as far as you’ve mentioned. However, I don’t think that those activities suffice when the Council (and community!) consider proposals on the scale of $5,000 (and almost $70,000 for your first).

I made this post on a Weekly report I read.

My bad, that’s two posts. Two forum replies and the funding requested throughout your threads has exceeded $75,000.

Although the rooting on of NEAR community members is welcome, I don’t think the forum activity has much weight.

1 Like

:grin::grin:
75k is a lot of money. I was being stupendously optimistic, I admit. And also unsure of the scope of funding available. But most importantly, I was convinced of the mutual benefit to Near that the projects held.

There is not a lot to do here since I came. And there are even fewer places to be active and get busy.

This looks a lot too much like a man’s world. And I’m a woman. I like to get things done.

By the way, you should have guided proposal, by telling me how much funding I could have instead of my 75,000😁