Short Essay 1_GUO Jiawen (1155222617)

WEEK 4

Developing strategies for distribution of content is particularly challenging since the market is characterized by rapid technological change and great uncertainty of the significance and duration of technological standards, as well as customer demand. 

Valerine Feldmann notes that the hybrid structure of mobile Internet enabled the combination of virtual and the real world, visibly integrating the online and offline experience in various aspects of daily life. 

Within this context, customers gradually have limited acceptance and a short attention span when surfing the internet. Overwhelmed by information overload, they are more inclined to trust brands with which they have established a relationship. This presents significant challenges for marketers: How to cultivate strong connections with their targeted customers? How to seize, retain and exploit the market initiative within the media landscape?

Concerning these questions, being attractive and competitive seems to be a sensible response. Apart from that, seeking profitability must always be kept in focus as it is the driving force when it comes to capital. Therefore, observing market potential and differentiating from competitors has become an integral part of a successful marketing strategy. 

Porter’s five forces, as discussed in class, illuminates that the definition of competition extends far beyond today’s direct competitors, pointing out other four notable factors: customers, suppliers, potential entrants, and substitute products. Only when marketers wisely interpret all the five forces can they gain a comprehensive understanding of the nature of competitive interaction within the industry.

In view of the threat posed by new entrants, develop and highlight the company's unique selling propositions are the top priorities that enterprises should take, which will definitely form a solid barrier against potential rivals. In addition, brands are suggested to create compelling marketing campaigns that foster customer loyalty, making it arduous for new entrants to attract customers. These strategies also prove effective when confronted with the threat of substitutes.

Concerning the bargaining power of suppliers, one of the beneficial strategies involves diversifying the supply chain. By developing a wide range of products, services, or even technologies, instead of relying on a single product, companies are able to reduce their dependence on any single supplier. Xiaomi SU7, serves as an excellent example, utilizing their previous experiences and developed technologies in their mobile phone system, thereby effectively reducing costs through a production process. Moreover, strive to envision what additional value can be provided beyond the basic product or service, reducing the voice of suppliers in fixing a price.

When compared with substitute product or service, unique benefits is the winning formula. In virtue of that, educating customers by various means of communication, e.g. social media platforms, podcasts, workshops, webinars. Serving as a considerate and thoughtful counselor who always cater to target customers’ specific needs, help maximize engagement and effectiveness. 

The most afflicting force for business might be the rivalry among existing competitors, emphasizing the significance of being sensitive to new trends and innovative techniques that stand out from competitors. As we mentioned last week, numeral coopetition-based business models, such as partnerships with brands aiming to achieve win-win situation, exactly improve developing capacity of new audiences and provide mutual benefits through attractive co-marketing campaigns. 

Utilizing a theoretical model as an analytical framework, equipped with the integration of robust data, can enhance informed decision-making and support strategic planning. By integrating theoretical frameworks with real-world cases, the abilities to analyze complex situations effectively and holistic thinking will be significantly cultivated, which are essential skills for market analysts. 

Group Discussion Week 4 Post#1 Group 5

Group Member

ZHANG Han; WANG Andi; LI Yuwei; YE Yijia; XIANG Lushan; CHEN Yijie

Pinduoduo

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wRu7OG_VjAz0uBzxhEoP6UyjIfdw9_Nm

Create

• Group E-commerce: The new e-commerce model, the social group e-commerce model, also realizes users' rapid growth and fission through social relationships. It allows users to become the initiator and spreader of shopping, utilizes their social network and influence, realize slow-cost and high-efficiency user acquisition and conversion, and creates a new shopping culture, i.e., “cheaper to buy together.”
• Tens billions subsidies: through the official selection of a small number of authentic certified products (such as iPhone) and giving a direct large amount of discounts to promote the retention of consumers and continued consumption on the platform.
• Activities with social attributes:, such as “Cut a slice” to create user growth. And by placing cash rewards and other activities in line with people's wool-gathering mentality, users are encouraged to spontaneously forward to the people around them to obtain the corresponding rewards. We have achieved highly efficient user acquisition through this kind of activity with strong social attributes.
• Exploit the sinking market: targeting the sinking market ignored by traditional e-commerce through big data analysis and personalized recommendations to meet the needs of users in this part of the market for cost-effective commodities.
• Shopping games: Incorporating a large number of mini-games into the software provides users with more engaging interactions outside of shopping and is closely integrated with the shopping function to promote user conversion and retention.

Raise

• Boost purchasing motivation
• Improve shopping efficiency
• Enhance user engagement and retention
• Enhance refund efficiency

Reduce

• Reduce traditional intermediate links (shorten the supply chain): Through the C2M (consumer-direct connection to manufacturer) model, Pinduoduo has eliminated multiple intermediate links in traditional retail, such as various levels of wholesalers and agents.
• Services and expenses: brand advertising fees, complex packaging fees, and traditional store rents.Simplify the cumbersome process of opening a store and reduce the cost of opening a store.
• Reduce users' decision-making time.Reduce the overall commodity price.
• Reduce logistics costs: Cooperating with low-cost logistics J&T Express has reduced logistics costs.

Eliminate

• Remove the shopping cart, Increase the likelihood of impulse spending and decrease the likelihood of user hesitation.
• Break the traditional e-commerce platform of a single independent shopping model.

Short Essay 1_GAO Yixin, Joy (1155217226)

-Freemuim-

As far as I know, the most successful freemium business is in Bilibili. The development of its freemium service is a huge psychological game, like the frog-boiling effect.

At the first step of Bilibili’s development, there were two highlights: totally free ACGN sources and a strict inbound qualification test. It is not similar to most websites in that people can register as users only with a phone number and get access to all resources by paying for a subscription, the user identification of Bilibili, which represents the eligibility to send bullet comments (danmu/danmaku) in videos and watch all animation works provided by Bilibili, can be got only after you finishing a One-hundred-questions test and getting over sixty questions correct. The questions were all about ACGN culture and needed to be answered within a limited time, which made it impossible to search them online one by one. In other words, only people who were ACGN geeks and shared the same faith with each other can enter this platform. Under these two policies, users’ trust was gradually constructed as this platform brought respect and superiority to users. They used niche inside-Bilibili terms and became a tightly tied community.

Even during the bubble economy period in the last century in Japan, the ACGN industry was barely affected by the economic environment and even started its international spread based on global fans’ demands and love. Similarly, this “free” step is the heart of Bilibili’s development which was rooted in ACGN fans’ power. Unites based on cash can be easily broken by cash, but communities rooted in faith and love can be considered as an iron wall. Moreover, Bilibili’s originator as well as an ACGN fan, Chen Yi, announced that Bilibili would never run any ads and would always offer a warm home and protection to every ACGN fan. When these users started to feel belonging on Bilibili and being connected with other users, they would be very hard to abandon this platform.

From 2011 to 2015, Bilibili successfully completed financing and formally started to purchase different animation copyrights to enrich the content on the platform. Compared with the former source-sharing model, Bilibili paid more attention to original content from uploaders. 

When frogs were in the pot, the fire under it silently rose. In the second step, based on the expanding financial demand, this platform which had promised never to run advertisements started to run advertisements. But Bilibili’s users easily forgave this platform because they understood that unprofitable mode can not support its operation and they didn’t want to lose their only home in which they wouldn’t be regarded as freaks. They still believed that the platform was on their side.

In 2017, Bilibili released a function that users could pay to watch the new season animation earlier than other users who didn’t spend money. In 2018, because of some “technological problems”, Bilibili pulled 37 Japanese animations off shelves. When these works were re-listed on shelves, users found that these animations, except their first episode, became only available to paid users. In the third step, the Free Era of Bilibili finally died, and the Freemium Era was born.

From this moment, frogs, or users, realised something had gone wrong. They posted negative comments to accuse Chen of losing his heart, but unsurprisingly, few of them chose to leave Bilibili. They already couldn’t leave the unique functions of Bilibili. Besides, the dense ACGN cultural atmosphere was also unreplicable no matter for a short or long time as ACGN was no longer as discriminated as before, so the new generation of ACGN fans, who just entered Bilibili in its Freemium Era, had no freemasonry feelings with each other anymore.

At the end, Bilibili successfully finished its commercialisation transformation, and amazingly performed a milestone achievement of the freemium utilisation. By 2024 quarter one, its monthly active users exceeded 341 million. 

But can the success of Bilibili be permanently maintained? As I mentioned, the core attractive points of Bilibili are the bullet comment function and its ACGN atmosphere. Nowadays, other platforms have also developed duplicate functions. Some video platforms even forestalled to monopolise the rights-to-broadcast of some popular animations. In this situation, might be because of Bilibili’s anxiety or just because of its greed, Bilibili invoked the short video function and added many blocks having no relation to ACGN. When scrolling short videos, ads appear every three to four videos. The platform even indulged some non-ACGN-related users to ruin the ecology of original users communities.

Maybe these situations are the labour pain of its target user transformation under the freemium model, but, when heart broken veteran users leave and the left users have low-loyalty, how long can Bilibili continue its thrive when it is gradually convergenting with other platforms?

Week 4 Group Discussion_Group 1

Group 1

Au Ka Chun, Thad

Chau Yee Ki, Joyce

Wong Ying Kit, Alpha

Lam Chak Fung, Alex

Ng Hio Tong, Toby

Lai Ka Yin, Rika

Duolingo

Competitive Rivalry: Moderate to high

There are quite a number of competitors for Duolingo. However, the Company provides various teaching methods and the learning schedule is flexible, which can accommodate the needs of different customers and offset the impacts of competitive industry to some extent. 

Supplier Bargaining Power: Moderate to high

The suppliers of Duolingo are the teachers, and they may need to be qualified with different professions. Thus, it might have a few numbers of suppliers which increases the bargaining power of suppliers. 

Nevertheless, Duolingo provides unique experiences to the users such as getting streak which acts as the peer-to-peer interaction.  

Buyer Bargaining Power: High

Since Duolingo is free of charge for the basic usage, the switching costs of users are also relatively low and there is no "commitment" (as known as money) to the Company. In addition, the user loyalty seems to be increased due to the personalised features.

Threat of Substitution: Low to moderate

Despite a number of substitutes in the market and the in-app purchases for upgrade functions of Duolingo, most of those companies are still more expensive than Duolingo which makes the threat of substitution lower.

Threat of New Entry: Low to moderate

The market of the language online learning platform is quite competitive and as for a mobile APP, the cost of research and development is high which might be the difficulties for new entry. 

Discussion of Week 4 _Group 4

 

Jiang Xiaobai

Wang Xin

Niu Yunyi

Shi Congshuang

Tan Xiangling

Liu Xinyi

Zhu Jiaqi

The ERRC grid

Eliminate:

Eliminate settled historical tradition: The brand history of Jiang Xiaobai is significantly shorter than other liquor brands (founded in 2012), which indicated that Jiang Xiaobai is an emerging young liquor brand.

Eliminate long maturing years: The traditional fermentation, distillation, and brewing processes are used by the Jiang Xiaobai company, with only a short period of brewing time remaining.

Reduce:

Jiang Xiaobai has reduced its high standards for taste flavor and brewing process. Traditional liquor focuses on craftsmanship and taste, and many brands emphasize brewing techniques and craftsmanship, which take up a large portion of the value. They also emphasized rich flavors, such as “saucy” and “fragrant”, which are the key competitiveness of many liquor brands. Jiang Xiaobai just uses natural fermentation and distillation to make ordinary, traditional sorghum spirits.

Raise:

Packaging Recognizability: Jiang Xiaobai raises its packaging recognizability by applying appealing, emotionally engaging and relatable contents to the packages of the bottles, attracting youths who seek a sense of belonging and hope to stand out from the others, instead of providing functional instructions for liquor on the bottles like many other traditional brands do.

For example, on a typical bottle of Jiang Xiaobai, words like “I out-drink everyone else just to privately talk with you.” are shown to customers. In this way, Jiang Xiaobai really resonates with young people.

Create:

In naming its brand, Jiang Xiaobai abandoned the traditional naming conventions of Chinese baijiu. Instead, it adopted a more personalized approach, creating a brand image that resonates with the characteristics of young people. By incorporating artistic elements, Jiang Xiaobai has struck a chord with its target clients (young people), providing a certain emotional value.

Jiang Xiaobai set up a Weibo-focused marketing strategy. It designed its products, publicity materials, and brand marketing campaigns according to Weibo’s platform feature, creating a sense of expression and engagement among Weibo’s users.

 

The Porter’s Five Forces

Competitive Rivalry:

Jiang Xiaobai competes primarily with Moutai and Wuliangye, but it differentiates itself by targeting lighter liquors and aiming at younger consumers, in contrast to traditional brands known for their strong flavors and emphasis on tradition. Jiang Xiaobai uses modern branding and digital marketing to appeal to this demographic. It benefits from maintaining unique production standards despite facing moderate supplier power. Purchasing power is high as young consumers have alternatives.

Supplier Power:

The main raw materials for Jiang Xiaobai are agricultural products such as sorghum. The bargaining power of suppliers is relatively weak because these raw materials are sufficiently available and have many substitutes. Due to Jiang Xiaobai’s certain brand recognition and its significant market share among young drinkers, the bargaining power of suppliers is reduced to some extant to achieve stable cooperation.

Buyer Power:

Jiang Xiaobai’s target consumers are mainly young people. According to reports released in recent years, the potential young alcohol-drinking population is as high as 490 million people, and the size of the young people’s alcohol-drinking market reaches 400 billion yuan.

According to Jiang Xiaobai’s brand definition, consumers are more likely to buy small quantities with several times rather than hoarding large quantities.

Young consumers are more sensitive to price, so Jiang Xiaobai needs to offer competitive prices while maintaining its brand image.

Young people are more willing to try new products, and there are many brands for young people to choose from in the alcohol market, so they have little brand loyalty and can easily switch to other brands.

Threat of Substitution:

There are many other types of alcoholic beverages such as beer, wine and cocktails that are also among the top choices for many young people. What’s more, fruit wines, European and American spirits are becoming the new favorites of young people. There are also a lot of affordable brands of these substitutes and they mostly possess the same or higher level of quality as of Jiang Xiaobai. Therefore, the threat of substitutes could be quite intense for Jiang Xiaobai.

Threat of New Entry:

Brand awareness and market share: Jiang Xiaobai has already established high brand awareness and market share among young consumers, which makes it difficult for new entrants to reach the same position in a short period of time.

Industry barriers to entry: The liquor industry has high barriers to entry, including investment in production technology, brand building, and distribution channels.

Week4 Group7 Discussion 1&2

Members:
ZHU Jingxian, Kimberly
GAO Yixin, Joy
Huang Yiting
WANG You

BeReal (from 2020)

"BeReal sends a notification at a random time to all of its users worldwide. After this notification is sent out, individuals have two minutes to photograph what they are doing using the back camera of their phones. At the same time, the app takes a picture using the individual’s front camera and posts the two photos overlaid on one another. The app also notes whether a user posted their BeReal on time — so everyone can see who is “lying” to them regarding the time they took the BeReal. There are no photo filters available, and the amount of times the photos are retaken is shared."

Let’s “Be Real” About BeReal - Business Review at Berkeley

 

ERRC

• Eliminate:
• Social media features
• Filter&editing
• Stranger interaction
• History saving
• Following
• Advertisement
• Reduce
• Flexibility to post (Bereal controls the time-to-post of users instead of letting users decide when to post by themselves; when posting photos, users can only take photos at that moment instead of picking photos from their albums)
• Information load
• Raise
• Privacy
• Easy to use
• Authenticity
• User Engagement
• Close relationship maintenance
• Create
• Novelty/Fun
• Participation requirement (users can't see friends' posts before posting on the day)
• Dual camera

 

Porter's Five Forces

• Competitive Rivalry
• Mainstream social media platforms (e.g., TikTok, Instagram) have released similar features
• Supplier Power
• Not applicable (only funded by various VC firms)
• Buyer Power
• Gen Z
• Threat of Substitution
• Other providers have launched similar features. In July 2022, Instagram launched a "Dual Camera" feature similar to BeReal, and in August 2022 it began testing a feature called "IG Candid Challenges", where users are prompted to post once a day within two minutes. As of September 2022, TikTok has also launched a feature called TikTok Now, following the same concept.
• Users have many options and they could quickly switch to other platforms if they like.
• Threat of New Entry
• May easily be taken place because BeReal's features can be easily copied, and there are barely strong entry barriers.

Group Discussion Week 4 Post#2 Group 5

Group Member

ZHANG Han; WANG Andi; LI Yuwei; YE Yijia; XIANG Lushan; CHEN Yijie

Porter's Five Forces Worksheet——Focus on Pinduoduo

1. Bargain power of Suppliers:

1. There are many suppliers

2. Their products and services are not that unique

3. Easy to switch at a low cost

2. Bargain power of Customers:

1. There are many customers

2. They have many choices

3. Their orders are big because of their unique purchasing mechanism and the huge demand from each customer

4. There is no cost for the customer to switch

5. Did not depend on a few customers

3. Threat of Substitution:

1. There are very few close substitutes, maybe 1688 can be one

2. The price of 1688 is lower compared to Pinduoduo

3. The quality of 1688 is in tie with Pinduoduo

4. The threat of new Entry:

1. The loyalty is low as buyers only choose depending on the price

2. The buyer can easily switch to a different APP

3. The entering requirement depends on the scale of business, from individual merchants to phenomenal giant companies.

4. The regulation of government depends on how serious the business is gonna be, but generally speaking it is getting more and more restricted

5. It is hard to gain access to the distribution channel as Pinduoduo is developed upon the cooperation with various popular media platform

6. It is rather easy for new staff to acquire the necessary skills to do the work

5. Existing Rivalry:

1. A few oligopolies such as Taobao and Jingdong exist in this industry

2. The size of competitors is giant

3. The competitors offer goods with better quality

0924discussion Group3

Case: Stanley

ERRC

Eliminate：the reliance on lightweight, low-cost designs

Stanley eliminated the reliance on lightweight, low-cost designs, opting instead for high quality and classic durability. The Stanley bottle does not focus on being lightweight but on long-term use value and sturdiness.

Reduce：

Reduced target customers：appealing to users who value brand heritage and durability.

Reduced usage scenarios：Because it's large and not as portable as a regular cup, it's only suitable for placing in a car or on a desk, making it difficult to carry around. The straw might also pose hygiene issues and can be hard to clean.

Raise：

Quality: Elevated the level of insulation performance and durability, making its products suitable for extreme outdoor conditions and long-lasting usage.

Raised personalized customization； There are various styles and colors to choose from, and customers can also customize exclusive words to attach to their Stanley bottles

Create：Social attributes

Stanley can enhance its social attributes by encouraging users to share their personal stories with the brand, creating a community for outdoor enthusiasts and eco-conscious consumers. Utilizing brand hashtags (e.g., #StanleyAdventures), Stanley can promote user-generated content (UGC) and engage in social challenges, fostering deeper connections and increasing brand visibility across social platforms. By offering rewards for creative posts, Stanley incentivizes engagement and builds a strong sense of belonging among its fans.

Porter's Five Forces 

Threat of New Entrants: Moderate

The threat of new entrants in the water bottle industry is moderate. While the barrier to entry in terms of manufacturing and distribution is relatively low, creating a strong brand like Stanley, with its rich heritage and reputation for durable products, is difficult. New entrants would struggle to match Stanley’s brand loyalty, quality perception, and customer trust.

Buyer power: moderate to high

The bargaining power of buyers is moderate to high. Consumers have access to a wide range of alternatives in the market, from low-cost brands to other high-end brands like Hydro Flask and Yeti. Additionally, with easy online shopping, customers can compare prices and features across multiple brands.

Supplier power: relatively low

The bargaining power of suppliers is relatively low in this industry. Materials for producing water bottles, such as stainless steel, are widely available and can be sourced from numerous suppliers. There are limited unique components that give suppliers leverage over Stanley.

Threat of Substitution: high

The threat of substitutes is high in the water bottle industry. Alternatives such as cheaper, non-branded bottles, reusable plastic bottles, or insulated containers from competing brands pose a direct threat. In addition, disposable bottles or other hydration solutions (such as hydration backpacks) could also substitute for water bottles.

Competitive rivalry: high

Rivalry among competitors in the water bottle industry is high. Brands like Starbucks, Costa, and Thermos offer competitive alternatives. Many of these brands emphasize functionality, design, or sustainability, which can draw away some of Stanley’s customers.