Rootrainer Trees has diversified during the past financial year and has set up a new business strand called Ogawa Bonsai.  The decision to move away from the Rootrainer name was taken in an attempt to add an oriental and authentic facade to this business.  The idea was developed by Takeo Ogawa, who is the head of Rootrainer's 'South East Asian Division' which covers all operations in Japan, Thailand, Australia, India and Indonesia.  

Takeo has taken the horticultural expertise of the English growers within the company and merged it with the tradition and mystery of the Japanese bonsai culture.  The marketing strategy which will be used to target initially the western European and North American markets will bring an image of serenity and tranquility to every lounge, sitting room and office in these areas.  

In order to fulfil this marketing strategy, Takeo has initiated a study into the preferred styles and species of trees for these new market places.  Following the initial studies, Takeo plans to initiate the propagation of sufficient quantities of the selected species to enable a major Europe wide and North American launch of these new products.  The summary of this research is:

There would be a need for several of Takeo's multilingual Japanese arborealists and two consultant bonsai masters to visit the growers within the European and American divisions.  The aim of these workshops would be to introduce the following areas:

•	propagation techniques
•	root pruning
•	wiring
•	bonsai seasons

These workshops and demonstrations would be to all the designated employees of Rootrainer Trees who were assigned responsibility for the 'Ogawa Bonsai' sections of the business.  This instruction will of course include the selection of suitable material for growing good bonsai specimens.  All packaging and distribution will be using our existing Rootrainer Trees network, at least in the initial phases.

As can be seen from the survey results, there will need to be different growing and marketing strategies for each of the divisions, with the North American markets requiring more coniferous varieties and the European markets preferring more deciduous trees.  Some of the Acer species would appear to be the favourite deciduous varieties on both continents.  Unfortunately, this could lead to some time-related issues as some of the Acer species are very slow growing.  They do make superb traditional bonsai specimens but have a growth rate which makes the commercial cultivation and fast-track production needed to keep costs down very difficult.

Here are the costs:
Species	Variety	Europe	America	
Cycas	Revoluta	6	17	
Nandina	Domestica	12	20	
Carpinus	Turczaninovi	13	18	
Juniperus	Chinensis San Jose	20	55	

This may require an alternative business strategy to that originally proposed by Takeo.  One strategy might be a dual approach; in other words, maintaining the ideal of fast-track production with large volumes of trees produced, and a secondary, more labour intensive development of these slow-growing trees which would not net any profit for a number of years.  

The Information Systems team that manage the website have now finalised the stylesheet that will be used to set the corporate house styles.  This is an excerpt from it:

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li	{color: #ff0000; font-family: times, “times new roman”; font-size: smaller}

This would provide an alternative source of 'Premier' range trees for the 'more discerning customer' which after the initial market impact of the fast-track trees, may possibly open a secondary market. This secondary market must be seen as exclusive and to a degree be vastly overpriced, in order to cultivate a different client base.  

It is proposed to target specific areas for this new market and the initial trial is proposed for the Knightsbridge area of London in conjunction with a very large and exclusive department store.  This divergence from our usual marketing strategy should enable other aspects of our corporate development plan to grow.  Many of these new clients may be interested in our other new ventures.  The most popular trees from the European market research are:

In summary, this should be seen as an opportunity to open new markets, never before dreamed of by the traditional nurseries.  If successful, this should lead to increased and persistent company growth in the next few years.