My assignment 1
Snap Chat Inc
A. Background Information
For purposes of this assignment, I chose the company, Snap Chat Inc. Apparently, this company is a social media and technology company based in Venice, California. The primary reason that informed this choice is because the company provides a unique video messaging platform that offers businesses opportunities to advertise their products to their existing and potential clients. Apparently, this choice fits well with my career goals because my career goal is to be a highly sought social digital marketer across the world. This company provides a great platform for advertising campaigns, thus a great place to start.
Regarding the background of this company, it should be understood up front that Snap Chat Inc has no parent conglomerate because it is itself the main company. It was started in the year 2011 by former students of Stanford University. Originally, the company was known as Snap Chat Inc. However, by September 24, 2016, the company had rebranded to Snap Inc with the primary goal of including the Spectacles product under the single company.
The beginning of the company was not easy. In fact, two years after the application was lunched, in the year 2013, the company faced a major challenge because the application was hacked. The effect was that over 4.6 million phone numbers and usernames were stolen and leaked to the internet.
That same year, the company had hired a high-profile executive, Emily White, to the position of Chief Operating Officer, COO. White had previously worked with companies like Google, Facebook, and Instagram. However, her tenure ended with Snap Chat ended in the year 2015. Several companies including Facebook and Google have tried to acquire Snap Chat, but the CEO did not see it as an interesting proposition.
Starting September of the year 2015, Snap Inc acquired several companies including Looksery and Bitstrip before it finally confirmed its plans of going public in the year 2017.
The main products of Snap Inc include Snap Chat, and Spectacles, which is otherwise a pair of smart glasses. Apparently, Snap Chat is a multimedia mobile app that offers users the ability to do image messaging while Spectacles is a wearable camera that helps users to connect with their Snap Chat accounts while at the same time enabling them to take videos (Gelobter, Blank & George, 2015).
B. First Four Elements
Customer Segments
Free user segment
Apparently, the biggest and main target customer segment is the segment of free users. Obviously, this segment is target of the company and advertises because it makes the customer base on which advertising campaigns are targeted. The company offers free Snap Chat accounts to them so that they can continue using the great features of the Snap Chat application as an incentive to continue being users of the platform. In fact, this segment constitutes the primary business product of the company because they are they constitute the client base.
Obviously, this free customer segment constitutes customers aged between 13 and year old. Apparently, this is the largest and target audience for “Snap Chat video chatting” (Kalogeropoulos et al, 2016) among other features of the application because this group love the phenomenal speed of the communication and transaction. However, some 30+ year old have started using this service but the number is significantly lower than the 13-24-year-old targets.
Business customer segment
Another customer segment that the company is targeting is the business segment. These are using the business for purposes of advertising their businesses and products or services. This segment includes individual and business entities, which are in the platform to develop and set up marketing campaigns for their businesses and products.
Value Proposition (defining the brand)
Choosing target audience for messaging
One of the greatest value propositions for the target audience is that this audience has the capability to select their audience according to the target message. This value proposition is unique when compared to the same value provided by competitors in the social media industry. So, if a person wants to have a private chat they can do so without having their status updates getting to be seen by the public. Besides, they can have a personal video conversation to as many as 15of their friends who are the target of their messages. Besides, the chat is deleted automatically one can capture a specific moment through screenshots. It should however be understood that this value proposition is not generating any income.
Using medium communication depicting their message
Another value proposition for the users is that they can use a communication medium that depicts their target message. A user can use video call, or text message, or photo, or even voice call depending on the message that he or she wants to deliver. Besides, some factors such as convenience could dictate the communication medium the user would use to pass their message to a target audience.
Minimal time commitment
Apparently, the different media of communication minimize the time required to commit to the use of the platform. For instance, a person can use just a photo depending on the place they are or mood they are in to send a message to the target audient to depict their surrounding or mood. This is made simple by “use of local filters” (Anshari et al, 2015) for every mood and surrounding, thus little time is required to structure the message and sent it to the target audience.
Channels (distribution)
Apparently, the main channels of distribution of the Snap Chat app include app store and Google play. It should be understood up front that Snap Chat is a mobile platform such that if a user wants to use it, he or she would be required to download the platform from the two locations depending on the operating systems of their smart phones.
Obviously, all distribution is done online because the app is available for download from the said locations. It is through the app that the customers, irrespective of their segment, can access the features of the platform.
Customer Relationships
Close relationship
The company management understands the importance of keeping the platform users happy because “they constitute the product of the company” (Ascarza et al, 2017). In other words, it is the customers, especially the free users that constitute the customer base of the company. All ad campaigns will be directed to these users. To lure them into continuing using their platform, the company has developed a close relationship with the customers by providing high quality yet satisfying features so that they can keep them close in the event that when they market to them, they will not find a reason to discontinue using this platform. It is for this reason that the company has provided features such as lenses, Geo-filters, and stories.
References
Anshari, M., Alas, Y., Yunus, N., Sabtu, N. I., & Hamid, M. H. (2015). Social customer relationship management and student empowerment in online learning systems. International Journal of Electronic Customer Relationship Management, 9(2-3), 104-121.
Ascarza, E., Ebbes, P., Netzer, O., & Danielson, M. (2017). Beyond the Target Customer: Social Effects of Customer Relationship Management Campaigns. Journal of Marketing Research, 54(3), 347-363.
Gelobter, M., Blank, S. G., & George, C. (2015). Lean startups for social change: The revolutionary path to big impact.
Kalogeropoulos, A., Cherubini, F., Newman, N., & Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. (2016). The future of online news video.
magicman
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