This chapter will detail how the initial Marketing Plan of Caffeinated Application and the Operation Plan of the company will be, including our Growth Strategy for future business expansion.
4.1 Marketing Plan Product Strategy
As Caffeinated Application is designed to be a platform to connect all coffee lovers around the town, our company aims to create an intuitive and user-friendly interface for anyone to create and share contents with ease.
Since our primary customers are Thais, the default language of our application will be in Thai language. At the same time of first version release, we will also enable English language interface if customers would like to use English as default language. All the entries submit by our users can be Thai, English or any language of choice as allowed by their mobile devices.
However, we will encourage all coffee houses to input their information in Thai as default settings to better connect with our primary customer group. Moreover, we also recommend the business owners to translate all information in English to further reach to our secondary customer group, who are foreigners in Thailand or those who prefer using English language as their main user interface.
In order to create such platform, it will heavily rely on the contents created by users – coffee houses and coffee drinkers. It needs to attract users to download and use our application without taking too much time to decide, so the application itself will be free to download from any available app store.
Our strategy breaks down into 2 parts; Standard Services and Premium Services.
Standard Services will be offered to any first time user, without going through the registration process. This non-complication practice will encourage more and more users to start joining our platform while this increasing traffic will also motivate more coffee houses to participate in our service program as well.
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As for the coffee houses, they will need to register and be validated as business owner by our staff first before they can start using our services. Since they will be the direct channel to update and maintain the database appearing in our application. This way, they can take total control of how they want to promote their stores in timely manner.
For Premium Services, we aim to attract our active customers with different features and special deals so that they can contribute in creating quality contents within this community.
Moreover, the local coffee houses can take advantage of this Premium Services to boost their marketing and communication to their target audiences.
Standard Services:
Search and View Database
Users can navigate through our collection of local coffee houses in Bangkok or use below search functions to narrow down the result that is closest to their requirements.
Our design is based on the consumer’s key factors impacting the choice of coffee houses.
Search by location/ Area – find coffee houses based on area selected
Search by nearest location – when user allows our application to access mobile device’s GPS information, it will search all coffee houses nearby and sort the results by nearest proximity first
Search by coffee bean – many consumers has strong preferences for specific origin of the bean, this will allow them to find places that serve their special blend
Search by coffee brewing method – the coffee houses all have different way to brew their coffee, some may use espresso machine and some may serve dripped coffee, for example. Each method will affect the coffee bean and its flavor in a different way. Users can search from this criteria to find their preferred brewing houses or discover a new way to drink their coffee
Search by facilities offered in the coffee houses – the next factor that will determine the user’s experience at local coffee houses is facilities provided at the location. As many will spend their leisure time to enjoy their coffee, they will consider facilities such as Wi-Fi internet access, power outlet, indoor / outdoor seating area and parking spaces.
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Search by price range – consumers can search for places that fit right within their budget
Search by size of coffee houses – customers may look for a cozy little place or they may search for a larger coffee house to enjoy coffee with a group of friends.
Search by special policy (kid-friendly or pet-friendly) – this is just an additional search criteria that could filter for a special places that may offer high chairs or a play-zone for kids, and places that allow pets.
Users can click any of the local coffee house result to view the content provided by that coffee shop
Exhibit 11: Key factors impacting the choice of coffee houses
Source: SCAA Quarterly Sector Report | Specialty Coffee Association of America
Add/Edit Database (Basic information)
For business owners who register as Basic Account, they will only have access to create their coffee shop’s profile with just the required essential information.
Name, Address of the coffee shop and its nearest transportation (MRT, bus stop)
One image to use as the cover photo of their business profile
Available coffee beans and their brewing methods
Facilities provided by the coffee shop
Minimum and maximum price of their drink menus
Maximum capacity that they can serve
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Facebook Page/ Website (if any)
View and Share Reviews
Any users can view or share informative reviews posted by registered users at any given time.
View Promotion
Promotions offered by any coffee houses can be viewed by any user, however, this promotion is only offered within our application. Only registered users will have the function to generate promotional code to use for that particular offer. If regular users wish to enjoy this benefit, they can easily do so by signing up on our online registration form within the application itself.
Premium Services:
Our Premium services will be available only to our registered users or the coffee house owners who registered as Premium Account in our platform. We offered different services to attract non-registered users to subscribe to our users’ database so that we can conduct future marketing campaigns to the right target group. On the other hand, we can charge service fees for the Premium services offering to the coffee house owners.
Add/Edit Database (Complete information)
For coffee houses owners that registered as Premium Account, they will have an authorization to add further information in order to attract more customers to their places.
Add unlimited images of their coffee houses – users will find it to be more attractive if the place offers different views around the coffee house so that they can see the overall ambience and what kind of vibe it gives out.
Add personal messages or greetings – a customized greeting message from the coffee houses can display the warmth and welcoming feelings to visitors of the page.
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Add description of direction to the coffee house – Basic Account can only insert the address and we will show the direction to get there by Google Maps. However, the Premium Account can choose to add clearer explanation of how to visit the coffee house, in order to give customers a distinct impression.
Write Reviews
Registered-users will have an authority to write the review after their visit. They can post either positive or negative reviews based on their evaluation of the experiences they receive there, as well as adding the photos taken on their mobile devices. After the review, they can also share it to their facebook wall to show it to their friends if they want to. Each review will be saved under their user profile management section, they can go back to view or edit their post any time. User’s review can be viewed by other users and coffee house owners, and they can comment on the user’s review as well. This way, we can encourage communication among members within the community.
Official Reviews from Caffeinated’s Staff
Reviews from our official account will be treated as highlighted news/reviews of the week. We will send our staff to visit your coffee house to write a full review article of your place. Our trained staff will do coffee tasting and will also try other products available at your store in order to give a fair review. Our staff will take care of all photo shootings and write review that will cover all aspect to best showcase the atmosphere and the quality of the coffee houses. We, however, will not be biased in our reviews and give the overrated review scores because you are our Premium Account. As we strive to keep our integrity and values high in the quality of our information sharing platform
Add Promotion
Premium accounts can create and promote their coffee house’s special offers within our application. Through this channel, they can save their money and efforts to reach their target customers. In our platform, all special offers will be highlighted in a separate section. So we are confident that any coffee house that participates in this program will have a higher change to attract potential customers to visit their places.
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Registered users can view and use any promotion offered by the coffee houses. To use, they just have to log-in to our application and go to the promotion that they would like to use. Once they find the desired promotion, they just have to press the button to request for promotional code. The promotional code is generated randomly by our program’s algorithm in order to identify and record which user’s request matching to which coffee house’s promotion. Once they request, our application will push request notification to that coffee house’s mobile device, they will have to accept the request to generate the promotional code back to the user.
Advertisement search function, our application will display the paid advertisement profile as the top search result as well.
Receive news/ update from App
Our registered users and our premium accounts will be the first ones to receive the latest update and special promotion from our application.
Exhibit 12: Available services provided for different segment of customers
Services
Coffee Drinkers Coffee Houses
Non-registered User
Registered
User Basic Account Premium Account
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(Complete information)
View Reviews * * * *
Write Reviews *
Share Reviews * * * *
Official Reviews from
App’s staffs *
Add Promotion *
View Promotion * * * *
Use Promotion *
Advertisement *
Receive news/ update
from App * *
Exhibit 13: Example of Coffee House Profile page (Basic Account)
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Exhibit 14: Example of Coffee House Profile page (Premium Account)
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Place/ Distribution Strategy
Caffeinated Application is a mobile application to be installed on mobile devices; hence we will need to look at the distribution channels for delivering our applications to customer. For the first stage, we will focus on publishing our application to Google Play (Android devices) and App Store (iOS devices) as these two are the leading markets for mobile applications.
Currently, Android devices hold a major market share. Therefore, our application shall be published for Google’s Android devices first. Then the application will be ported to another platform.
Google Play and App Store are the official distribution channels for Android and iOS devices, however, there are several independent appstores that can help distributing the mobile app and increase mobile app downloads. Even though those stores are taking small market shares
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of mobile app downloads, but the publication on those stores will not take up too much time and efforts so it is considered a small of time investment to widen our distribution channels.
Exhibit 15: A flow chart demonstrating how to distribute an app through the App Store Source: Apple Store
Exhibit 16: Thailand Smartphone Market Share
Source: GfK Retail and Technology (Thailand) – January 2013
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Exhibit 17: Worldwide market share of mobile applications stores in 4th quarter 2012 Source: Statista.com
Exhibit 18: List of distribution channels Source: mobyaffiliates.com
App Stores Platform
Google Play Android
Apple Store iOS
OpenAppMkt Android, iOS
GetJar Android, iOS
Handmark Android, iOS
Handster Android, iOS
WAC Android, iOS
PhoLoad Android, iOS
Mobango Android, iOS
Zeewee Android, iOS
Appolicious Android, iOS
Handango Android, iOS
Appia Android, iOS
Biskero Android, iOS
Opera Mobile App Store Android, iOS
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Since our business will rely on users’ traffic and user-generated reviews, we will not charge any fee to our customers who are coffee drinkers. As we aim to develop a platform that facilitates the communication among users and local coffee houses, we will also need to make a balance of number of coffee houses as well.
On the other hand, as number of users and reviews increase, this will attract of a lot of local businesses to gain access and exposure to this profiles’ database. Hence, our company will tab into this prospect to charge a reasonable fee to the local coffee houses in order to use our premium services to enrich their marketing campaign.
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Exhibit 19: Pricing table for different service
Services Coffee Houses
Basic Account Premium Account
Registration Fee Free 1,000 THB (~33 USD)
Search and View Database * *
Add/Edit Database
(Basic information) * *
Add/Edit Database
(Complete information) N/A *
View Reviews * *
Share Reviews * *
Official Reviews from App’s
staffs N/A * Additional charge of 5,000 THB
(~167 USD) per review
Add Promotion N/A
* Add promotion at any time
* With any promotional code generated, Caffeinated will receive 3% of each purchase
View Promotion * *
Advertisement N/A
* Free Advertisement for 1 Week
* 1 Day 500 THB (~17 USD)
The key objective is to attract both coffee drinkers and coffee houses to download and try our application. Active users who contribute in contents creation are crucial to keep participants engaged in our platform. Therefore, in initial stage, our staffs will lead in generating reviews and conversation.
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Within this age of information technology, there are multiple ways to reach to potential audiences. Below are some examples of how to obtain customers to try our product.
Facebook is an easy to use, and a good platform to promote the application due to its size of active users worldwide, there are over 1.35 billion monthly active Facebook users.
According to Zocial Inc, the company which monitors social media trends in Thailand reported back in May 2014 that Thailand has 28 million Facebook users, growing 53 percent faster than the previous year. That makes Thailand Facebook’s ninth biggest country worldwide. Thailand has 67 million people, so one-third of the population has a Facebook account.55 percent of Thailand’s Facebook users reside in Bangkok.
Hence Facebook is our primary channel to communicate with users, as Facebook can create a page and let users “Like” the page in order to follow any updates. Facebook page allows users to give feedback and suggestion regarding the App in their own environment.
Twitter is considered as one of the best communication tools among teenagers. As a short message of 140 characters communication channel, Twitter is responsive and real-time.
We can use this channel to address new update or special promotions to our users.
Twitter is the second most popular social media in Thailand. There are approximately 4.5 million twitter users in Thailand, a growth of 350% from previous year.
Exhibit 20: Yelp Facebook Page (left) and twitter (right)
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Pantip.com was one of the top 10 websites in Thailand. Many Thai citizens use this forum to share their opinions or reviews with other members of the community. In many cases, people will use this forum to share their experiences and recommend new stuffs for other people. This is one the sources where people will find information that can influence their decision. It is a place where word-of-mouth marketing can take place and encourage more users to download our application Youtube
Video is one of the most expressive and effective ways to show off our App’s interface and capabilities. We will create a video that demonstrate its features and workflow.
Caffeinated App Website
We can create a simple website to set up our company information, our product’s description and how users can contact us. Users can find out more about the benefits and advantages that they can get while joining our platform.
Press and Journalist
Our company can will the release announcement to mobile application review websites such as Androidtapp.com, PCMag.com or TechCrunch.com. An email sent to them will include a link to App introduction video, screen shots and a brief description of what our application is about. This will help them to capture the essence our App and perhaps they will publish a review of our App on the website.
Food and Beverage Expo
To connect with coffee houses, we will have to attend several Food and Beverage Expo in order to introduce our application to them directly. At the site, we can demonstrate how our application can benefit their business and guide them through the registration steps as business owner in our platform.
Paid Advertisement
We can consider using the service of two major internet advertisement platforms, Google AdWords and Facebook Advertisement.
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Google AdWords is an online advertising service that places advertising copy at the top, bottom, or beside, the list of search results Google displays for a particular search query.
Facebook is another platform that we can consider engaging in paid advertisement to reach the target audience. The paid advertisement will be shown on Facebook mobile application, it allows us to specifically determine type of target audiences such as country, region, age and gender.
Exhibit 21: Example of Google AdWords (left) and Facebook Mobile Ads (right)
To keep engaging with users and show them our appreciation, after their registration is processed, we will send them a notification email and a thank-you note. Then sending information to them when we have a new update or special promotion on our App, or delivering an information that is useful to them (such as coffee making tips, events) to build relationship with our customers. When we have a query from our customer via email, we shall reply within 24 hours.
4.2 Operation Plan
At this point, we will spend the first month to look at all aspect of our business plan and fully develop it to mitigate all risk factors and ensure the successful outcome. As CEO and HR manager, Thidarat will create the profile and recruit necessary staffs to fulfill our production plan.
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Programmer (Android – must, iOS – preferred) : Full-Time
Graphic Designer : Part-Time
Marketing Specialist : Full-Time
As Thidarat has previous experiences with website and mobile applications user-experience design before, as well as project management, she will handle all aspects regarding the spec designs, QA testing process and manage the development process to meet targeted schedule.
Both founders, Thidarat and Vilailuk, will both have to work full-time together to develop the initial promotion campaigns and contact local coffee houses to join our platform.
After the release of Caffeinated App on Android platform, we will monitor users’ traffics and revenues for 3 months to evaluate whether or not we should develop this App for iOS platform as well. During those 3 months, our full-time programmer will spend time to study
After the release of Caffeinated App on Android platform, we will monitor users’ traffics and revenues for 3 months to evaluate whether or not we should develop this App for iOS platform as well. During those 3 months, our full-time programmer will spend time to study