summary of environmental scan
Project investigation phase 1:

environmental Scan

STEEP analysis
industry value chain analysis
industry most probable future
competitive benchmark
core customer segment characteristics and their key consumption drivers for related products/services
market opportunities and threats.

Environmental scan
Name of Student
Date of Submission

The trend and change that had occurred in murals.
A muralist is a specialist in artwork that does paintings on large-scale or pictures on big structures such as walls or ceilings as a canvas. The mural work has been done for a long time that started as early as the early 14th century. The execution of murals back in the middle age period was done on dry plaster. While the painting of frescos on wet plaster was reintroduced in Italy, circa 1300, there was the most important improvement in the quality of the mural artwork. Back then, the mural was done using several techniques which include:
• Fresco technique. In this technique, the mural was applied on a wet plaster of walls or ceilings.
• Fresco-secco technique which involved applying of the mural on dry plaster where the pigment needed a binding substance as glue to attach it to the wall.
• Mezzo-fresco technique where the mural was applied on almost dry plaster and was the technique used mostly in the 16th century.
Over the years, the mural artwork has taken a positive trend with the change in technology and the changing customer needs. The techniques used in mural work have been modernized, and the materials used made more attractive and more appealing to the customer (Zhang, Wang & Zhang, 2015). Murals nowadays are painted using ways such as oil media or water-based media with styles varying from abstract to “trompe-I’eoil” meaning trick the eyes.
Today, the mural paintings and photographic images are easily transferred to canvas or poster papers and can be painted on the ceiling and surface of the wall or ceiling which was not possible a couple of years ago (Tapete et al., 2014).This clearly shows that the artwork has taken a positive trend in its development to catch up with the currently developing technology and the changing customer needs. Unlike murals made in the middle age time when craft men made them for fun and to express themselves, today’s mural is made for other people based on what they want and not what the artist wants. Murals have so much changed over time from the ancient mural work to the current murals.
Mural Competitors
Indirect competitors are businesses that offer goods or services that are slightly different, but the targeted group of customers is the same while the goal of the products is to satisfy the same need. These businesses may also be considered to offer substitute goods and services. The mural business faces both direct and indirect competition from its competitor’s worldwide (Tapete et al., 2014). The muralist with his shop at Asheville North Carolina faces indirect competition from shops that offer slightly different art products and services but who’s targeted customers is similar to a similar target of satisfying the customer’s needs.
A mural shop uses techniques such as fresco, mosaic, encaustic, stained glass and photography. Mural work has a large variety of designs, and they come in different prizes. If a muralist is specialized in a given technique, then he is likely to face competition from other artists with different designs (Zhang, Wang& Zhang,2015). Muralist who provide cheap would offer adequate completion because their intention is widen their market for their work. Most client would prefer working with muralist who offer them discounts because painting the walls is tiresome and thus expensive

Indirect competitors
• Interior designers
• Renovators
• House/bridge painter

SOCIAL TREND
The first trend I found was the increasing revenue over the next 5 years. It is expected to rise at an annual rate of 4.4% per year which will result in an increased consumer spending. Another trend I found that fell into the social aspect was the cultural values in the Asheville community. Although it wasn’t one that has increased or decreased it did provide us with knowledge about what the community values the most. For example one of the studies showed that they wanted close and personal relationships with businesses and give back to the community while helping the needy. There are other results from the assessment but those were some they held to the highest value

Political/legal trend
The EPA has laws to protect the environmental from being polluted with toxic chemicals from paints, i.e. lead based paints. Lead paint has been banned in the US since 1978. The law requires contractors to get certified in lead-safe work practices if their work disturbs more than 6 square feet of paint on the interior or a 20-square-foot section on the exterior of a home built before 1978.

Common renovation activities like sanding, cutting and demolition can create hazardous lead dust and chips by disturbing lead-based paint, which can be harmful to adults and children. To protect against this risk, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule (RRP Rule) that became effective on April 22, 2010.

Federal law requires that individuals receive certain information before renovating more than six square feet of painted surfaces in a room for interior projects or more than twenty square feet of painted surfaces for exterior projects or window replacement or demolition in housing, child care facilities and schools built before 1978.

Leftover paints also have regulations: Dry unwanted latex paint outdoors, away from children and animals and discard with the household trash in a plastic lined box. Remove paint can lids so the trash removers can see that the cans are empty or the paint is dry. Add kitty litter to completely dry the paint out. Unwanted oil-based paint should be brought to your local Household Hazardous Waste collection event.

Technology Trend
1. The Cloud- Businesses are moving to using cloud data storage for ease of access from any location, and it is saves money. It helps drive down cost by using third party companies. Instead of purchasing and having to upgrade software a business just pays a monthly fee instead of upfront cost.
2. Going Mobile- According from an article from the Huffington Post more than 1/5 of transactions today happen on mobile devices. What does this mean for your business? It would be best to make sure your website is mobile friendly. This means that your site displays properly on a mobile device and customers can easily navigate through it.

Technology is always advancing and it has become an important factor to any businesses. It is important that a business stay on top of advancing technology trends in order to maintain a competitive advantage. However, it must fit within your businesses best interest.
Economic trend
Although your specific business you have is different from the average painter it would still be classified into this industry. So in order to gather a lot of data on this industry we used the NAICS code. This allows us to gather data relevant to this specific industry.
Using the code we found relevant data on IBISWORLD.com. This data shows just how this industry is doing economically.
This industry revenue has been expected to grow 4.4% annually from 2012 to 2015 to eventually $31.8 billion annually. It will also have a profit of $1.8 billion, the majority of this will come from commercial projects.
Customer segment characteristics and their key consumption drivers for related products/services

Commercial companies that have used Renovate with Color’s services are:

Acropolis Pizza
Dick’s Sporting Goods
Mellow Mushroom – multiple locations
Hair salon(s) in Asheville – company name unknown
Green Man Brewery
Paint company – name unknown

Renovate with Color has also done work for residential clients whose names are unknown.

Acropolis Pizza, Green Man Brewery, the hair salon(s), and the paint company are all located North Carolina, centered around the Asheville area.

It is shown that many different types of companies have used Renovate with Color’s services. For example; Acropolis Pizza, Mellow Mushroom, and Green Man Brewery are all restaurants, with Green Man Brewery concentrating more towards just beer and offering beer tastings. All of these companies have used Renovate for Color specially to decorate the inside of their establishments. Mellow Mushroom used Renovate for Color to work a designer to create their trademark “groovy” artwork that covers the walls. Acropolis Pizza used Renovate with Color to create a mural of a gondola in Venice. Green Man Brewery is currently using Renovate with Color to decorate their walls with the names of their most popular beers.

The hair salon, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and the paint company used Renovate with Color to make the outside of their establishment more interesting. The hair salon had vines painted all around the outside of their establishment, with the paint company adding a large paintbrush and blocks of color to draw more attention. Dick’s Sporting Goods used Renovate with Color to decorate the outside of their establishment with both a bicyclist and a runner, with a wave of color going through them.

The residential customers used Renovate with Color for many different services, most of the work being murals either inside or outside the homes.
Local Economy

In looking at the economy we wanted to also look locally at Asheville. This would be a better indicator of the feasibility of expansion into local commercial businesses rather than the national economy. To do this we looked at Ashevillechamber.org/economic-development, which gave some good information.
In looking at this data it shows that the economy is doing rather well in Asheville. This could indicate that people and businesses can afford to spend extra money on renovations.
Direct Competitors
The paint industry in general has low barriers to entry. This means it doesn’t take a whole lot of capital investment to start up a company. It also does not take much experience. This means competition can arise fast.
Direct Competition
Your business is one of a kind in terms of the services you offer. So in order to analyze your competition we must look at others who offer services that could replace yours.
This is a screen shot of the companies that come up when people search for painters in Asheville. Without knowing your business and the services you offer customers may not know what to look for. These companies have paid for their websites to be the first to show up in Google. In this case Certapro would be a big competitor for your industry. Other competitors would be the freelance artist in Asheville. They can do the same work as your business but do not own a business themselves.

Other competitors could be online businesses. For example the following is what shows up when someone searches for “Murals” in google

These are companies that offer mural wallpaper which could infringe on your business.

Value Chain
A value chain can be simplified in saying that it is a way of analyzing what brings a business money. The key is to look at what brings in money for a business, these things are called economic drivers.
Economic Drivers
IBISWORLD.com lists out the economic drivers for the industry.
1. New houses- This is work generated by new home construction.
2. Commercial construction- This driver is generates a great deal of revenue for this industry
3. State and local government- This is contracted work for government projects
4. Home improvement- Work created by people spending money on home renovations.
Knowing what the economic drivers are for your industry can help you know where to focus your attention.
Market Threats:
• Growing freelance competitors
• Increase in advertising with social media tools

Opportunities:
• The community prefers uniqueness and creativity in art rather than a basic look
• They support local businesses
• Want a close and personal relationship with businesses