Marketing Plan

Table 3: SWOT Analysis of the Great Wall Platform and Suite of Services

Strengths Weaknesses

1.First mover advantage

2.Obtain economy of scale advantage 3.Government support

4.Huge market demand

5.Increase law firms earning potential 6.Favorable geographic location.

1.Regulations limit class-action suits and are frowned upon by government

2.Potentially easy to be duplicated

Opportunities Threats

1.Relaxing of regulations on class-action suits 2.Outsourcing of customer service department function for manufacturers

We have undergone and extensive marketing plan to ensure the rapid takeoff and adoption of the Great Wall’s platform and suite of services.

4.5.1. Positioning Strategy

The Great Wall’s strategy is to facilitate the locating of other consumers who find themselves in the same unfortunate position, seeking resolution to quality issues against unscrupulous corporations.

‧

4.5.2. Unique Selling Proposition

To consumers either concerned or negatively affected by product quality/safety from unscrupulous manufacturers the Great Wall is the one stop platform that connects you to other stakeholders for the purpose of 1) keeping informed of quality/safety issues related to purchases 2) to join forces with other affected individuals and together accumulate sufficient legal fees to combat irresponsible companies 3) to engage the services of skilled counsel because by working together we will level the playing field, empower the economically powerless, and restore integrity in corporate activities in China.

To law firms struggling to connect with civil case clients, The Great Wall is the one and only platform that 1) makes it possible to litigate small civil claims 2) offers browsing of high potential cases 3) generates leads 4) efficiently accumulate fees to sufficient compensation levels because its the only platform that provides lawyers with appropriate incentives.

We also enable users to share their posted complaints in one easy click from our Great Wall App or on the Great Wall Website to other mainstream social networks such as WeChat, Weibo and Qzone. This facilitates the locating of others in the same boat and serves to raise awareness for the Great Wall Platform.

4.5.3. Pricing Strategy

The Great Wall intends to obtain an economy of scale advantage, which means we are able to price our service competitively. Since there are two kinds of users on our platform, consumers and law firms, the Great Wall adopts two different value based pricing strategies that enable us

‧

law firms and will charge a membership fee based on the bulk-volume fee structure. (Refer to Table 4 in the financial section below) In addition, The Great Wall charges a brokerage fee on winning cases in order to cover our costs and maintain our daily management. Our APP is a free-download and available to all interested consumers which is used to broaden our customer base and maintain our existing customers.

4.5.4. Promotional Mix

Since The Great Wall is a non-profit social venture to protect consumers, we can utilize this social corporate responsibility mentality to our advantage and use a variety of channels to advertise for free or at reduced costs.

4.5.4.1. Advertisement

a) Choose an influential media platform: We choose BAIDU, the Google of China, which allows Non-Profits to advertise for free. Baidu maintains a 76% share in China's search engine market. We intend to use this in the initial phases of our advertising campaign and throughout our business life- cycle.

b) Utilize micro movies on streaming video websites: We will utilize a creative micro movie and upload it on famous streaming video websites in China such as Youku and Tudou (The Youtube’s of China) to show the function of our website.

c) Participate in law conferences: We choose some of the most influential law-related conferences which are held annually in our target markets as our first-step in reaching law firms.

We will utilize the opportunity to do face to face advertisement. The conferences we plan on

‧ 國

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

attending include the Shanghai International Conference on Law and the China Law Conference in Shanghai.

d) Advertisements on corporate third-party websites: Based on our research and negotiation with our strategic partner "WOCHACHA" (an existing app for scanning barcodes), we intend to do reciprocal advertisements: ours on their site, and theirs on The Great Wall’s site.

e) Advertisements in trade publications: We intend to use two famous trade publications,

"Chinese Lawyer" and "Regulations", for focused advertising to lawyers and law firms.

4.5.5. Public Relations

We plan to build symbiotic relationships with influential social media users and well known public figures in China. During the next inevitable quality related issue we intend to employ these channels to raise awareness and bring traffic to our platform. In the refrigerator example detailed in the executive summary, a public figure named Yonghao Luo was introduced. The Great Wall intends to use him as an ambassador of our Platform and promote our services. We intend to ask him to use The Great Wall platform to release future problems and also tweet on our behalf on his Weibo site with his extensive list of followers. Because of this public figure's effect, we could gather a significant consumer base in a relatively short period of time.

At the start of the business, we adopt a door-to-door sales pattern to our suppliers-the law firms in our target market.

We would ride the wave of consumer outcry as our initial phase of advertising utilizing these

‧ 國

立 政 治 大 學

‧

N a tio na

l C h engchi U ni ve rs it y

people who are experiencing the same challenges with the same quality-related flaws. As the number of consumers with the same issue accelerates to a sufficient level, The Great Wall would assist them by contacting a professional law firm to help them solve their problem. This would be our first success case and we would use public relations to manage the spread of this information in free public media outlets. Since we will choose a big issue which will generate a huge social impact, it will be an efficient way to raise awareness of The Great Wall’s Website and App. We intend to maintain ongoing announcements of our successes via these outlets to maintain our social influence and public attention.

4.5.6. Integrated Marketing Communications

To set the tone of our limited marketing/advertising budget, we feel our brand character is empathy, empowerment, and effective. We feel our brand personality will highlight our comprehensive set of our services and further differentiate us from our competitors. We intend to apply a consistent brand message across both the traditional and non-traditional marketing channels described above to reinforce each other.

‧

It is important to make an early distinction: The Great Wall does not promote class action suits.

The Great Wall is a middleman between upset consumers and potential legal representatives charged with seeking resolutions through direct communications and negotiations with manufacturers. The Great Wall effectively lowers the transaction value of this type of legal representation making previously unfeasible cases possible.