Team members: Alix Fanneau, Sumit Saurav, Amit Bhasin, Dushvanth Kumar, Nafis Ahsan, Nupur Gupta
Business Concept
The idea is to provide quick connectivity and advertising/ promotion solutions to various retailers and corporate professionals through QR codes technology. The aim is to revolutionize the print advertisement- landscape by drastically increasing customer engagement by providing a unique and easy purchasing environment to every mobile phone user.
Target Customers
The target customers include:
· Retailers who advertise about their products and brands in the print media (newspapers, magazines, flyers, billboards etc)
· Corporate Professionals who frequently share Business Contact Cards
Market Opportunity
The print advertising contributes almost 50% in revenues to the advertising industry[1]. However, the newspapers and other print media are facing a great threat from the rise of Internet, falling circulation and readership, and a long term decline in the advertising revenues in the developed countries where the internet usage is high. With internet penetration still in its nascent, yet growing phase in India, there is a lot of potential for the print media to move from their characteristic ‘offline mode’ to ‘online mode’ before it starts losing its advertising revenue to the online advertising.
Presently the retailers in India use the following mass media advertising options:
1. Print advertising including newspapers and magazines : 48%
2. Television advertising : 41%
3. Radio advertising : 3.2%
4. Out-of-home advertising : 6.4%
5. Online advertising : 1.4%*
*The % share refers to the percentage share in the advertising revenues in 2007 of the particular option.
Additionally, the paper visiting cards available in the market allow only manual sharing of information on paper with no integration with mobile phones at all. Corporate Professionals who share their business cards frequently require hassle free sharing, storage and editing of contact information.
Technology Used
Quick Response (QR) codes: QR code is a matrix code that contains coded information like binary or alphanumeric symbols. QR codes are scanable by smart phones and can be used for tracking, entertainment or accessing websites and making purchases. QR codes are preferred due to its readability and large storage capacity. The technology is currently popular in Korea, Japan & the UK.
Solution
| Retailers | Unique QR codes will be placed in each advertisement in newspapers, magazines and other print advertisements like in transport infrastructure- bus, train, metro etc. When a customer sees the advertisement, (s)he can quickly scan the QR code with the help of the mobile phone camera and a free application, and (s)he will be directed to the link containing additional information about the product/ brand including payment options for quick purchase using mobile web browser. |
| Corporate Professionals | Visiting cards will contain personal information as in the traditional way. In addition, the card will have a QR code which when scanned will convert itself into a fully fledged contact page on the smart phone replete with Photograph, Phone no., Email address, website, Facebook, company profile etc. These details will be stored on dedicated servers and the data will be pulled by freely available QR code reader smart phone applications. The storage on the server will allow the user to change his contact details only on the website which will be reflected across all smart phones that have prior read the QR code. |
Competitive Advantage
Retailers:
- Retailers/ advertisers can track which advertisement and/or medium of advertisement is giving them the highest ROI (Return on Advertising Investment)
- Customers have the option of instantly checking out the product without the need to physically go to the store or search on the internet lowering the search cost to a minimum
- Increase the customer royalty by drastically improving engagement by providing the option of purchasing in a mobile environment
Corporate Professionals:
- Allows professionals to conveniently customize their visiting cards through online medium
- Allows formation of multiple profiles eg. Personal, Professional, Hybrid
- Ease of dissemination with single scan
- No hassles in case of change in phone no. and/ or address
Additionally, the first mover advantage will play an important role as if a retail chain has invested in the technology from our firm and integrated the same with its online advertising portal, it would not like to switch to a competitor even at a lower cost.
Financials- Cost/ Revenue Model
| Sources of Cost | -Customer Acquisition cost (Retail Stores like Reliance, Shoppers Stop, Spencers, Lifestyle) -Setting up of Central Web Server Cost -Database Management Cost -Web Portal Development and related team -Printing costs associated with Business Contact Cards |
| Sources of Revenues | -Revenues in proportion to the conversion rates from print to online media and further proportional to the final purchase -Customer service cost charges to the retailers -Revenues from Corporate Professionals for customized contact cards |
Roll Out Plan
The business solution will be rolled out in tier1 cities initially with aggressive B2B marketing to the retail chain owners through mass media advertising like Television and newspapers and direct marketing to catch attention. The retail chain owners will also be suggested to offer QR code advertisements in tier 1 cities and monitor results on a pilot basis. Once we gain their confidence in the business solution, then it will be easier to gain more customers.
Contingency Plan
To ensure sustainability of the business in the long run and differentiation from the players entering with similar value proposition, we would like to offer new innovative solutions to the companies and professionals to stay ahead in the league. As the business will expand, we can offer new solutions to our existing customers and additionally add new ones to the customer base.
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