Introduction
There are millions of startups being launched in the world on daily basis. Some of these startups work and have the scope in the market and some of them do not have the scope to expand. With little investment and rapidly growing technology, it is easy for anyone with the necessary funds to launch a startup in the market. However certain constraints like inadequate knowledge of the market, poor resources, lack of technology and competition in the market. A proper marketing launch plan for social connect would help the management reach the right target market with suitable resources required.
In order to formulate marketing strategies, the company’s management will firstly have to make sure that understand the external market in which they are operating. In order to do so, the company needs to understand the project market as well as the competitors’ market.
In order to understand the project market, the company would need to make sure that they understand the market they are serving and how popular their product or service can be in the market. The company’s management will have to identify the market segmentation and targeting, marketing trends, growth and demands in the company they operate in. in this paper, the market analysis will be carried out for SocialC.
1.1.1 Market Segmentation
Market segmentation is the main activity that the organizations should take into consideration when launching a product in the market. Unless the company is aware of the market it wants to target, they will not be able to successfully launch it. The right target market is required for the company to properly serve the market. SocialC is a professional network that operates online; the market for the company is too huge to cover. It is a network that would bring together all the talent in the market together and give them opportunities to get employment.
The first segment that the company intends to capture is the students from the generation Z. There are some students who are actively looking for either part-time jobs or full-time jobs once they complete their education. These students search the classified and job magazines or portals to look for new opportunities. With SocialC, the students can easily connect with a large base of employers in the market and show them their potential by displaying a few projects carried out by them. Students are targeted because of the huge potential in the market and the need among the students to get employed once they are done with their education or while completing their education.
The second market segment that SocialC is intending to capture is of the working professionals. The labor market in the world is becoming very competitive irrespective of the industry. With the demands and needs becoming countless, people look for earning opportunities that would help them fulfill their never ending needs and demands (Wedel and Wagner, 2012). Therefore SocialC with its professional network spread online across the world targets the huge working population of the world. Whether experienced or a fresher, the working professionals would get an opportunity to explore the employment vacancies being uploaded on the network and apply for them by showing their credibility and competency to undertake the required tasks. Since majority of the working population is migrating from place to place in search of more demanding, challenging and earning jobs, working professionals through SocialC can apply in international as well as domestic firms. Hence, targeting working population is the company’s main intention.
Apart from this, SocialC also intends to target entrepreneurs and businesses. Every business now a days require employees. Without human resources, it is impossible for a company to operate for a longer period of time. Even though the technology and the Internet are rising rapidly, however human resources still remain the main asset; instead it has gained significant importance in the present times. SocialC hence connects with the entrepreneurs and businesses in order to help them find the right talent in the market. This platform allows the entrepreneurs and businesses to post the vacancies available in their organizations and accordingly sift through the huge talent base that the company attracts through the network. On the basis of the qualifications and experience required by the companies, they can select their human resource from this network and carry out the further process.
SocialC also targets the universities as a segmented market. The intention of catering this service platform to the universities is for campus placements (Rogers and Thomas, 2013). The universities can use this professional network to come in light among the entrepreneurs and businesses so that they take an interest into conducting a campus placement and hire the students from the universities. This would allow the universities to result into 100 per cent placement in known and good companies and allow the students to get the employment in their desired companies. The professional network also targets the communities to let the non-government organizations and other people look for opportunities that would help them enhance their standard of living.
Therefore the segmentation of SocialC includes students from generation Z, working population, entrepreneurs, businesses and universities and communities.
1.1.2 Target Marketing Strategy
Once the company has segmented its market, it is important to use a targeting strategy. Target strategy can either be differentiated or undifferentiated. Targeting strategy depends upon the external environment in which the company operates. As per the market trends and needs, the company decides the approach in which they would target their segmented market. As far as SocialC was concerned, the company’s management decided to target the market with a differentiated strategy. The company used a differentiated strategy in a manner that it made the professional network unlike the others in the market (Gibbs, Fraser and Kelly, 2015). SocialC would inspire and accelerate the economic chances with the help of projects and give a new way of hiring people that the company would trust. Using this differentiated strategy the company intended to attract a huge base of individuals and increase the presence in the market and quickly gain market share.
1.1.3 Market Trends
With rising trend of using the Internet for various business purposes, the human resource industry has also started tapping the Internet world. Gone are the days when employers or employees look for job or post vacancies in the traditional media channels like newspapers and employment classifieds (Thaly and Sinha, 2013). Now days, the employers tie up with online employment and recruitment agencies and collaborate with them to fins the suitable match. Even the employees upload their resumes and search using the filters on the recruitment sites to get a desirable match for their employment. Though these employment agencies have captured the market, the employers and employees have now moved towards the social media and alike channels to recruit the desired talent in the market and find the best employment opportunities. This would allow the employers as well as employees to enter the international labor market. Therefore recording this trend, the market for SocialC seems strong and opportune for growth (Cingano and Rosolia, 2012).
1.1.4 Market Growth
As more and more startups are being launched, every company is requiring more human assets. With international multinationals being established in various parts of the world, people engaging into small businesses from different regions and channels, human resource market is gaining a lot of importance (Kramarz and Skans, 2013). Due to the importance given to the human resources, the employment agencies are growing at a rapid speed to find the best match for the employer they are associated with. Even traditional recruitment consultancies are operating online to attract a large employee as well as employer base and help the employees get the right job and the employers get the right talent. Hence the growth of employment agencies in the near future seems to be on the rise. Taking into consideration this growth among the employment agencies and the rise of use of social media, integrating both seemed to be a viable option and therefore SocialC has the tendency to grow in the market provided that are able to get hold of the most prominent employers in the market and associate themselves with the universities and are able to help the employees sign the most profitable deals with the businesses that would help both the companies as well as employees get the benefits (Acikgoz and Bergman, 2016).
1.1.5 Market Needs
The market is demanding more and more employees due to the presence of more jobs. Establishment of new companies, multinational companies entering the market and the growth of online business have increased the need of the employees in the market and due to this, the pressure on the companies to hire the best talent has increased to gain competitive advantage and enhance the business performance (Hensvik and Skans, 2013). Due to the presence f more jobs, switching has become very easy as companies would give anything to hire the best talent and the employees would switch to organizations that would give them better scope. As a result, the labor market has become immensely competitive. Since the recruitment done by the company’s management is an expensive and time taking project, majority of the companies look for outsourcing their recruitment activities to external recruitment agencies. To save costs, they now rely on online recruitment companies that help the look for employees suiting their needs. However, these agencies though give the best candidate to the employers based on the experience of the candidates, however judging the competencies is still an expensive and unpredictable task. Hence there is a huge need among the employers as well as the employees to have a platform where they can showcase their competencies and experience through past projects and other methods (Di Stasio and Gerxhani, 2015). This allows the employers to judge the competencies of the candidates and hence SocialC would be a viable service to the human resource industry.
1.2 Competitor’s Market
Competition in labor market has increased because of which the companies are trying to the get the best talent in the industry. In order to acquire the best talent, the companies outsource their recruitment solutions to outside employment agencies. With recruitment agencies present in the market as well as the online market, the employers are looking for the best agency that would help acquire them the best talent in the industry and hence stay competitive (Acquisti and Fong, 2015). Hence the competition among the recruitment and employment agencies has also increased. All the recruitment agencies operating in the market are trying to look for ways to innovate their services to attract major clients and employees. Hence SocialC though has entered into the market with a new strategy and service, but would soon face competition from already established recruitment agencies. LinkedIn is the biggest social professional platform that has captured the corporate world’s attention in the entire world. From various international to domestic and prominent companies, everyone is trying to use LinkedIn to attract the right talent. Not only are the employers using it heavily but also the employees in order to showcase their competencies to the prospective clients and influence them to hire the right candidate (Varma and Lambert, 2013).
Though LinkedIn is a known and popular professional social media network but the company has yet not offered a service where they would inspire and accelerate the economic chances with the help of projects. However, it wouldn’t take time for the company to introduce this service and hence LinkedIn with its already established business would acquire the professional market (Nordstrom, 2014). Therefore SocialC might face huge competition from LinkedIn in the future times. Apart from this, the other competitors of the company involve Getlinks, Ziprecruiter, Jobnisit and AngelList. Even though these may not be so popular among the employers and the employees but SocialC might face competition because of its existence. However, there is an opportunity for SocialC to take away the market from these employment agencies with the help of better marketing strategies however it is challenging for them to capture the market from LinkedIn. Even on the rise is Facebook for short-term and vocational employment projects. Facebook allows the employers to create pages or groups where they could post the vacancies in their companies and help look for suitable employees. Though this is not a popular way of hiring the right candidate like LinkedIn, where the employers can get an entire preview of the candidate’s competencies, but still is a new way to at least promote the vacancies in the market, hoping to reach the right target market (Kuzma and Wright, 2013). Thus, it can be said that the competition for SocialC in the market is huge provided they carry out extensive marketing strategies and promote themselves on a huge scale to attract the right market.
2. Internal Analysis
Once the company has analyzed the internal market, the company also needs to analyze its internal aspects. In order to carry out an internal analysis, the company intends to get an in depth information on the activities and resources of the company. The internal analysis of the company is dependent upon the resources and capabilities of the company to operate in the market for sustaining the competition.
2.1 Capabilities
Even if the company has the necessary resources for the operations of the business, however it would not be enough for the functioning of the company. The most effective activities take into consideration the collaboration of the resources within the teams. The term organizational capabilities are used to understand the capacity of the firm for carrying out a specific productive activity (Pezeshkan et al., 2016). The following is the analysis of the capabilities of SocialC to understand its effectiveness of using the resources for better launch in the market:
| Functional Activity | Capability |
| Corporate | · Ability to manage the finances, even though SocialC did not attract initial funds and used up the resources got acquired from NSC.
· Proficiency in strategic regulation, as it was able to attract 18 collaborations into the project from various parts of the world like India, China, US and Europe. · Effectiveness in coordination and motivation of business units would be required since the business in operating in international market on the Internet channel, resulting in a challenging tasks · Managing the partnerships with Indian, Chinese, American and European collaborates who showed interest in the project as well as build new collaborators and maintain associations with them. • Overall company management/ resource management because even though they operate in recruitment industry, they would need professionals to handle the taxing job of attracting the right clients and retain them in the company (Teece, 2014). |
| Information Management | • Since the company is operating in Internet market, they would require an effective and comprehensive information system that would help the maintain their database effectively and integrate the entire process and department for quick and efficient results. |
| Research and Development | • Operating in a professional network market, SocialC will have to undertake intensive research and development in different fields. They will have to ensure that the company is target the right market and analyze the market competition to position them accordingly. They would also have to research the industries and employers who are in need of employees and associate with them. |
| Product Design | • Since it is an online platform, SocialC will have to use its resources to develop a user friendlyinterface with convenience in operating the professional platform for the employers as well as the employees. |
| Marketing | • SocialC being new in the market will have to promote its brand using integrated promotional techniques.
• Being in the recruitment field, the company will have to understand the market trends in the labor market and respond to them accordingly. |
2.2 Resources
The company though it operates in recruitment industry, it is important for the management to consider the tangible, intangible and human resources. Tangible resources are the ones that are easiest to find out as well as assess like the physical resources or the financial resources. These assets can be identified in the financial statements of the firm. Intangible resources are not visible to the company but after a lot of time, it becomes important to the organization since it can be converted into a competitive advantage. These intangible resources comprise of reputation of the company and its technological assets (Russell, 2013). Human resources on the other hand are productive services that the individuals offer the organization in relation to their knowledge, skill, decision-making competencies and reasoning.
| Resources | Key characteristics | Chief indicators |
| Tangible Resources | ||
| Financial Resources | The capacity of the organization to borrow and its internal funds identifies the capacity of the firm to sustain in times of fluctuation in demand and profits.
SocialC didn’t raise any funds initially and its was only NSC that brought $20000 to $30000. |
• The effectiveness of financial positive of the company can be seen through debt to equity ratio, credit rating and ratio of net cash to the capital expenses.
|
| Physical resources | The physical resources usually comprise of plan, technology, equipment, raw materials and assets. Operating in a human resource industry that too in the Internet market, SocialC required very less physical assets. It required a website and an app for the people to operate it and assets and technology are the most important resources it required. | • The chief indicators are flexibility of PPE and resale value of assets i.e. the website and app of the project. |
| Intangible Resources | ||
| Technological resources | Operating in the Internet market, SocialC requires an advanced technology that would help them drive more traffic on their website and app. Not only this, the technological assets that the company would require comprise of patents, copyright and trade secrets. The human resource of the company should also be capable enough to use the technical know-how (Yap and Wang, 2013). | |
| Reputation/Goodwill | Goodwill among the customers with the help of ownership of brands, sustained associations with the customers, reputation of the services of the firm and the reputation of the organization with the employees and the suppliers.
SocialC though started off with NSC but within a year attracted collaborators from Europe, China, India and the USA. They share their skills, experience, opinions and know-how to give the project a boost in the market. |
• The chief indicators would comprise of brand recognition of SocialC, repetitive service buying, level of consistency in the performance of the company.
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| Human Resources | Training as well as expertise of the human resources identifies the competencies that are available to the company. Since the company operates in the Internet market, the company might not need a huge base of human resources but would require sufficient number of employees to manage the unavoidable tasks of the company. The association with these employees is the resources of the company.
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• The chief indicators comprise of technical, educational and professional qualifications of the employees handling the important departments like finance, sales, etc.; record of employee disputes and employee turnover.
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3. SWOT Analysis
SWOT analysis allows the company to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the market. Before launching SocialC, the company needs to analyze its SWOT to understand their internal and external position.
3.1 Strengths
Taking into consideration the strengths of the company, the company has 18 collaborators within one year from various parts of the world. It has expanded to the emerging as well as developed countries. It helps in effective filtering of the services as well as detailing of the individuals’ profile. The company actively engages in people seeking employment opportunities and highlights the trusted and professional recruitment site in China (Bhanot, 2012).
3.2 Weaknesses
The company has difficulty in attracting major number of collaborators because of the presence of LinkedIn and other competitors. The site is also prone to fake profiles or unverified profiles. There is very low user engagement on the SocialC platform and there is substantial reliance on online recruitment for increased income (Pucciarelli and Kaplan, 2016).
3.3 Opportunities
The opportunities that the company faces is that the promotional techniques would help the awareness among the corporates understanding the B2B reach. The company has shown immense growth in emerging economies and hence there is a future potential to expand. It has the opportunity to integrate with SKYPE/IM for better and quick communication as well as integrate with various telephone operators for increasing the reach.
3.4 Threats
The threats that could restrict the growth of the company would be the government regulations in different nations for maintaining the privacy of the individuals. It could also face threats from Facebook and LinkedIn that are rising in the recruitment field as professional websites for employment. SocialC also faces threat from hacking instances, fake profiles and upcoming professional networking websites.
4. SocialC Network Launch – Marketing Strategy
Prior to launching the SocialC Network in the market, the company would need to decide upon a marketing strategy that would help them reach the right target market and also able to promote the brand name in the market.
4.1 Strategic Positioning
Since SocialC is operating in the Internet market offering recruitment services, it would differentiate itself from the rivals existing in the market. The company will have to establish their business services as an evident and viable alternative for the target markets they are intending to acquire. From the viewpoint of the recruitment agency industry, the paradigm has been:
- Recruitment centric: If the company is not been able to recruit the right candidates they will not be a prospect among the employers and vice versa (Berman et al., 2015).
- Price: The price of recruitment agencies are usually higher, therefore the company needs to launch a measure that would allow the employers and the employees to look for jobs in a cost effective way. For example – the employees and employers can apply for jobs or post jobs through SocialC free of cost but for premium services like more visibility among the employees or employers, they would have to pay a premium price.
- Sell features: SocialC will have to sell its features out in the open to attract a large base of employers and employees.
SocialC has decided to use the following strategic positioning for promoting its brand in the market:
- New Attitude: The Company claims to be at the start of a technological convergence.
- New Approach: The Company operates through the Internet market using social media and website/apps as the primary channels.
- Set of Behaviors: Collaboration, selling employees and employers, recruitment, allowing talents as well as businesses to trust each other on the basis of past experiences.
- Marketing concept: Pull strategy, customer oriented, integrated efforts.
4.1.1 Competitive Edge
The competitive edge of SocialC is based upon establishing a strategic association with their clients. With the help of establishing a business that is relied on enduring relationships with clients who are satisfied, SocialC would be able to simultaneously build defense against the rivals in the market like LinkedIn. The more endure the relationship is, the more the company would help their clients understand the services they offer them and the reason they should connect with SocialC and refer it to others (Sivertzen et al., 2013). In a competitive labor market of China, reputation is very important and therefore word-of-mouth is an invaluable advertising technique.
4.1.2 Strategy Pyramid
The main strategy of SocialC is to place emphasis on the service as well as support activities. The main tactics of the company are systems trainings, networking expertise and implementation of customer relationship management system (Snell, Morris and Bohlander, 2015). The specific programs for the network establishment would comprise of word-of-mouth, online promotion through ad links and other social media channels and also through direct mailers or emails. The company would also implement a customer relationship management software and integrate it into their system to ensure he data recording to each individual they associate with and at the time of requirement, it is easily available in different departments (Schrader et al., 2012).
The second strategy the company focuses upon is the relationships. The policies comprise of marketing the organization, instead of the services; regular connection with the customers and increasing the sales with every customer. The marketing programs that the company undertakes are direct mail and word-of-mouth and viral marketing (Evans, 2013).
4.2 Brand Development
In order to attract huge number of clients, the company needs to develop its brand in the market and position it in the right target market. The marketing strategy is the core of brand development. The company uses its marketing strategy to develop the brand by:
- Emphasizing upon the support activities and the services
- Establishing good relations with other businesses and clients (A. Carrillat et al., 2014).
- Creation of specific programs for each of the chosen target market segment. For example, for students and working professionals, the website can act as an online resume where they can show their own competencies and experiences. For the employers and businesses, it can be a platform to showcase the organizational culture of their company and post vacancies in a cost effective manner for attracting the right candidate. For the universities and communities, it can be channel to navigate for the recruitment solutions (Bondarouk and Olivas-Lujan, 2013).
4.2.1 Sales Programs
Even though the company operates in the Internet market, however, it will have to use specific sales programs in their marketing plan for effective sale of the company. The sales program of the company would be centered around carrying out the workflow as well as distribution of information and places emphasis on the advantages of using SocialC for getting the right talent for the company and getting the right employment opportunity for career growth (Ollington, Gibb and Harcourt, 2013).
4.2.2 Positioning Statement
For employers and employees that seek the right talent and job opportunities in the market, SocialC is the right professional platform where the employees can showcase their past experiences on various projects and present their profile as an online resume for the employers (Giars et al., 2014). SocialC is also the right platform for the entrepreneurs and businesses to attract the right talent for their company in this competitive labor market based on their past experiences and projects.
4.2.3 Pricing Strategy
The company operating in the Internet recruitment market focuses on charging suitable fees for the premium and high-end services as well as support activities. The revenue structure of the company must match its cost structure so that the salaries the pay are good. SocialC is basically a website that allows the employers to pay a fees for uploading their vacancy on the wesbite whereas the employees can free of cost upload their resumes and profiles on SocialC. However to take the premium services, a fees would be charged from all the clients.
4.2.4 Promotion Strategy
SocialC would employ the following promotional strategies for its different market segments that are students, working professionals, universities, entrepreneurs and businesses. Since it is operating in the online recruitment market, the majority of the promotional strategies are non-traditional methods (King et al., 2014).
Students: A seminar can be conducted at the schools and colleges and the project can be displayed over there for creating awareness and influencing them to make use the service. This service can also be promoted on other popular social media like Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. It can also be ranked on Google using better keyword searches. Word-of-mouth and direct mails are also a beneficial method (Feng, 2015).
Working Professionals: For working professionals, ad links and social media can be an effective promotional strategy. An advertisement can also be published in corporate magazines and newspapers for a short period of time. Word-of-mouth and direct mails are also a beneficial method.
Universities: Tie-ups can be made on individual basis with the universities for campus placements.
Employers and Businesses: A direct face to face contact or telephonic conversation would be an interesting way to attract the employers and businesses to collaborate with SocialC for increased recruitment solutions.
4.2.5 Distribution Strategy
SocialC is a direct recruitment organization with no place for a third party. This means that the employers can login and enter the job posts whereas the employees can login for job vacancies. Having said that, the company decided to penetrate into the working professional and business market segments and therefore needs to establish a strong presence as a value added solution provider for recruitment purposes. The entire distribution is carried out online.
4.2.6 Marketing Programs
The marketing plan of SocialC anticipates the completion of the detailed marketing plan by 30 June 2016 since the transformation to their vision of being client centric and market focused will not happen in one night. This transformation needs to be planned carefully and implementation needs to be judiciously so that it does not have an effect on their immediate functions.
4.2.7 Strategic Alliances
NSC and Jerome have launched SocialC. It did not has any collaborators for a year but later on the prospective flowed as Europe, China, India and US got inovolved in the project since they believed in it and shared their experiences, skills, opinions as well as advices for giving the project a boost. The company collaborates with 18 collaborators across the world (Rothaermel, 2015).
4.3 Web Presence
Since SocialC operates in the Internet market, it needs to have a strong web presence. Therefore, the company will have to use Search Engine Optimization to ensure its visibility in the online market. With Internet world rising so fast and so may online recruiting agencies being established, SocialC will have to ensure to use effective keyword use, meta tags, images and unique content on their websites for the popular search engines to bring them to the top rank. Since it is an online channel, it would be spread across the world, especially in nations where digital marketing is rapidly increasing. The company will have to use social media channels to enhance its web presence and indulge in forums and discussion groups for better awareness.
5. Early Results and Future Development
5.1 Return On Investment
The following chief financial indicators would reflect on the return on investment of SocialC:
- Anticipated Sales: The anticipated sales are usually based on the actual pas performance of the company and are considered to be conservative (Gilfoil and Jobs, 2012). SocialC intends to increase the sales of the company at an average rate of 12 per cent every year.
- Gross Margins: The average gross margins of SocialC would comprise of employee premium subscription = 50 per cent; employer satisfaction = 57 per cent; service = 52 per cent; others = 37 per cent accounting for a total operating gross margin of 49 per cent.
- Operating Expenses: These expenses rely upon the provision of above industry standards wages as well as benefits to the employees and other investors of the company. Expenses of the company are anticipated to rise at the rate of 8 per cent every year.
- Collection Days: The Company would maintain an average collection period of 30 days. This anticipated period would reduce to 25 days in the future period with the help of increase in efficiencies in the internal business operations (Kumar and Mirchandani, 2012).
Traffic on the Platform
Once the marketing team has decided the various promotional strategies to be used and the first leg of promotion has been carried out, the traffic on the website is analyzed on the basis of offline and online promotion. This would help the marketing team to focus on the media channels that are actively bringing more traffic and business to the company. The following is the traffic on the platform using online and offline promotional techniques:
- Online: Online promotional techniques have ben a favorable option for the company. The marketing team decided to promotion SocialC using other social media channels like Facebook. With the majority of the population active on Facebook, the advertisement not only attracted increased traffic on the website of 1865 visitors daily but also got a million likes and hundreds of comments within one monthof regular updates on the social media. Targeting Facebook was a good option as it allowed the people to get aware of the new professional recruitment service and increase the traffic on the website. Apart from this, the marketing team decided to create backlinks of the website and associate it with other popular websites that though did not get a lot of attraction but was able to manager approximately 830 visitors per day. Google ads is another best approach that the company decided to use but it did not generate much results because of the lack of SEO optimization and being a new launch in the market.
- Offline: Using traditional methods of promotion were also a favorable option but not as much as an online promotion. The marketing team decided to use flyers, cinema and movie advertisements and direct mails along with word-of-mouth as the promotional activity. Movies and cinema advertisements did not had much impact on the users as they tend to forget the advertisement because of any recall value. On the other hand, word-of-mouth was an excellent promotional technique, however this was only possible if the public was aware of SocialC. Therefore, firstly the company needs to create awareness of SocialC and then promote it using word-of-mouth making sure that this promotion is positive and does not spread the weaknesses of the service.
Press Relation Activities after the Launch of SocialC
Once SocialC has been launched in the market, the marketing decided use press relation activities for its further promotion. This strategy does not comprise of the traditional media press interviews for the launch of the service but involved a lot of non-traditional methods and use of online channels for its wider presence. The company’s marketing decided to use blogs on its own website plus backlinks to other blogs in order to promote the services they provide. Blogs today are one of the best online mediums to promote a new start-up. The company uses backlinks with popular blogs or asks other to promote blogs related to their services on the social media in order to create further attraction and promotion. Apart from this, the marketing team also uses online magazines plus the paper magazines to promote the services of the new start-up. They also decided to gather a database and use it to email the customers regarding the idea behind the start-up and how effective can it be. Influencing people on the social media is the major task that the company undertakes because of the rising trend of using social media for promotion and business. These integrated approaches would allow the company to promote the start-up after its launch in the market and attract increased traffic and prospective customers.
5.2 Development of the Platform and Investors
In order to launch the service effectively in the market, the company will have to develop a platform as well as investors. Development of platform will on the web since the company operates as an online social recruitment firm. Therefore for developing the platform online, the company will firstly have to develop an effective and SEO optimized website and then use the online promotional strategies. These strategies could be backlinks to other popular websites, promotion on social media and ad links of popular search engines.
In case of investors, the company has already attracted 18 collaborators in the project and has observed a scope from India, China, USA and Europe. Therefore, the company should seek investments in the company from those organizations that are keen on investing in digital media, from government agencies that are keen on increasing the human resource industry as well as digital marketing and from banks and other financial institutions. Apart from this, the internal investors would invest in the company for its development in the market.
Improvement of the Platform
Once the marketing team has analyzed the early results of the start-up after online and offline promotion, it is important for the company to undertake certain improvement for enhancing its performance. Since SocialC has no tangible product to be served or place to operate from, the company needs to be more careful with the improvement techniques. With operations carried out on the Internet market, the first and the foremost thing is a website. The customers once they hear about a company, they immediately open their website to gain further information. Hence, it is important for the company to ensure that their website is providing the prospective customers with updated information. Since it is a platform for recruitment and selection services, it is important to daily update the website with new vacancies and remove the ones that have been closed. Moreover, the websites needs an easy to use navigation and friendly user interface to allow the customer easily operate the site and even understand its features. Along with this, the website can frequently ask the associated account holders to fill a small survey for taking feedback on what can be improved and thanking them for their time to give the feedback. This system should be automated and hence there is a need of improved and experienced technical staff.
Find Investors to Increase Resources
No business can survive without investors. Since this startup does not offer any tangible products and operates in the Internet market, it is very challenging for the company to get reliable and long-term investors for increasing their resources. Initially, the company entered the market with very little investment but with its launch in the market, the company is in need of raising more funds. The first thing that the company can do is to enter into start-up events that would help the company showcase their business idea and influence the investors to invest in the company and enjoy the benefits offered. An alternative solution can be to take loans or attract government funding, explaining them about how the startup would help increase the employment industry in the nation. Government is concerned about the labor market and hence they would invest in the business knowing it would reduce the unemployment or underemployment rate.
5.3 Presentation for Future
In the future, the company would intend to gain a 15 per cent rise in its market share and outperform the competition in the market. LinkedIn has recently captured the professional social media market and hence SocialC is aiming to snatch the market from them to gain a 25 per cent rise in their profits.
Collaboration in Progress
SocialC is in collaboration with 18 collaborators across the world. With Indian, China, US and Japan being interested in the new startup, the companies have started to collaborate with them. SocialC is in collaboration with the universities to allow the students to have a compulsory basic level account on SocialC and upload their resumes and career plans and share with thousands of future employees. This would help attract the employees for campus placements. Not only this, the company is also in talks with employers and business to understand their needs and requirements of the labor market and convince them to post their vacancies with SocialC because of the benefits the platform offers them.
New Ideas
There is always some room for new and innovative ideas. Without innovation and anything new, the company cannot operate. Once when the already established companies like LinkedIn decide to use your differentiated service, then the traffic would easily shift because of the low switching costs. Therefore, SocialC needs to build new ideas like common chat room where the employers and employees can discuss the recent corporate issues and practices and a personal chat media where the employer and employee can connect to take the recruitment process further.
6. Shock Culture in Bangkok
Culture shock as defined in the literature is the experiences of the people when they migrate to a new place with a different culture and history. For instance, when a person is travelling to China from India, he or she would face certain changes in the culture and history of the host country and it might impact the perception of the traveller as well as build either good or bad experiences. Culture shock is not usually used to describe the experiences when migrating from one place to another for leisure, work or any other activity. It can also be for business purposes, meaning when a company decides to launch a new product in another country. Due to globalization and free trade, it has become quite easy for the companies to operate in international nations. This can be carried out with the help of multinational corporations, strategic alliances or through the Internet. Each approach of entering into an international market has its own advantage and disadvantage. Now day companies are integrating these approaches and concentrating on digital presence. Social media is one such aspect that the companies use to expand their operations in the international nations.
Social media marketing is one platform that is highly engaging and active and people from across the world uses this platform heavily. It is not only used for networking and building contacts with other people, but is also used to operate a business, promotional activities and looking for jobs and other career opportunities. Social media in Bangkok is also soaring high. It is considered to the “Global Social Media Capital” with among 10 million people, 8 million actively using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and other networking channels. This indicates that majority of the population in Bangkok is relying on social media channels for various activities. In the year 2014, 23 per cent of the Bangkok’s population had accounts on LinkedIn, the popular channel for searching employers as well as employees. The statistics since then has increased with people getting more acquainted with the benefits of using this medium for searching for suitable jobs, connecting with the companies and staying updated about their vacancies and practices along with the employers having a medium to connect with the suitable candidates for jobs. Saying that, there is a huge opportunity for products and services that can be marketed through the Internet, mainly through social media. This is because of the increasing trend of using these mediums for different activities.
As explained, SocialC is a platform that would allow the employers and the employees to collaborate with each other and based on the prior experiences with the talent resource, the companies can decide upon hiring them. The launch of SocialC is Bangkok can be beneficial for the company because of the trend of using social media in the region. With 8 million users actively using the various channels of social media, SocialC can be promoted as a recruitment social media service. The need of SocialC in Bangkok can be huge because of the availability of jobs in the region.
The nation being a tourism country with many international travellers flowing in and out on regular basis for leisure and business work, the hospitality industry as well as other sectors have shown a high rise in the employment. The labor market hence has become very competitive because of increased availability of jobs in various sectors. With tourism, the sectors related are hospitality i.e. hotels and restaurants, construction, spa retreats and education and fashion industry. However sometimes the companies are not able to find the right talent for the job and the individuals are not able to find the right job. In order to help these two parties, SocialC would be an excellent service.
Taking into consideration the recruitment practices in Bangkok, majority of the companies rely on the traditional ways of advertising their vacant positions. They either post it on their websites, advertise through classifieds or employment agencies and use internal recruitment or word-of-mouth. However these methods do not allow the company to assess their past experiences and works and sometimes result in hiring the wrong type of candidates. The recruiters in Bangkok are seeking for new ways of recruiting the talent resources that would help them not only assess their competencies but also see their past works. Even though LinkedIn is allowing the employers being able to look for the right candidates, but according to the statistics, only 7 per cent of the 23 per cent LinkedIn accounts in Bangkok makes use of this media. It is not necessarily that this media is used for recruitment purposes but people can also use that for other connecting and networking purposes. Some of them might not even know for what the media is used for. Therefore, there is a need for a platform that would help the individuals and the employers not only know what a social media recruitment platform is but how it would benefit them in the long run.
SocialC is the professional recruitment platform that is based on social media and operates in the Internet market. In Bangkok, using this medium would definitely will be a challenging task for the company to launch. This is because of the reluctance among the individuals using it for recruitment. The companies do not rely on social media for recruitment and selection purposes as they believe that it would attract increased number of applications that might not be suitable for the job description. They may believe that the experiences and information present on these sites may be fake or manipulated to get selected. Therefore the companies do not rely on such platforms. However, SocialC is determined to face this culture shock and launch the service in the international market since it sees an opportunity if positioned appropriately.
SocialC intends to position itself in the Bangkok market as a social media platform that solely caters to the recruitment and selection services of the employers and the employees. The founders of this platform have intended to support the human resource industry by offering the employers the right talent and by allowing the individuals to find the right job. Unlike other recruitment channels, this particular is based on the concept of social media where anyone can create an account and connect with companies not only in Bangkok but also internationally. The strategy of the company is to attract the companies operating in Bangkok to post their vacancies on the social media and attract the right candidates. Since there is always a chance to attract numerous applications that might not satisfy the general requirements of the job, the social media platform SocialC allows the companies to post quirky little activities that would reflect the competencies of those who apply for the vacancy. This way these companies would not have to spend time and money on sifting through the wrong and right candidates. In Bangkok, the recruitment agencies are huge in number and many of them are effective in offering the right talent to the companies. However, some small companies do not have the expenses to bear the outsourcing of recruitment and selection and hence look for inexpensive ways of doing so. SocialC would be one such platform to cater to the recruitment needs of such companies. In Bangkok, the service needs to be promoted intensively in order to gain the attraction from the right target market and influence them use it and subscribe to its premium accounts.
On the other hand, individuals in Bangkok look for the classified and other such traditional recruitment channels to look for the jobs in the nation. Even though the citizens in Bangkok do not use social media for professional networking but with the positioning of SocialC, the service can fly high. SocialC would allow the talent resources in Bangkok to go through the vacancies of the companies operating in Bangkok and understand the requirements they want and the compensation they are offering. On the basis of these and the activities uploaded by the companies, the individuals can get the right job that would satisfy their employment needs. Not only this, the international presence of the service platform would allow the individuals to look for jobs on the international platforms as well.
7. Summary
SocialC is a social media networking platform that allows the employers and employees to collaborate with each other and satisfy the employment needs. This is a platform that intends to help the companies to find the best talent in the competitive labor market by considering their past experiences and knowledge whereas it assists the individuals to find the best job in the market. SocialC is a platform operating in the Internet market with 18 collaborations present in India, China, US and Europe. The service platform segmented its platform in four categories, that are the businesses and entrepreneurs; students, universities, and working professionals. With differentiated and cost leadership target market, the service platform intends to increase its presence in the entire region of Bangkok. The trend of using social media in the world is rising with a need of professional platforms that could provide employment opportunities to the individuals and help the companies find the right talent. The launch plan of SocialC intended to first analyze the capabilities and resources of the company. The company requires least resources to operate in the market since its is operating in the Internet market but definitely would require the right technology and human resources. However, it faces tough competition from LinkedIn. SocialC intends to target five market segments with a differentiated target strategy. These segments are students, working professionals, entrepreneurs, universities, communities and businesses. From the strategic analysis, it is observed that SocialC would use extensive and integrated promotional strategies to target each of its market segments varying from word –of-mouth to direct mails to tie ups to face to face sessions and telephonic conversations. Taking into consideration the marketing strategy of SocialC, the service is positioned as recruitment centric, low priced, and sells the recruitment features to the employment market. The company intends to gain competitive edge in the market with the help of an association with their clients. The company gives increased focus on the client relationship, as it is the employers and the individuals seeking jobs that would take this platform to its intended position. The company also intends to increase its sales performance by 12 per cent every year with a gross margin of 49 per cent and operating expenses increasing by 8 per cent every year along with 25 days collection period. The company intends to attract investments from organizations keen on investing in digital marketing, government agencies and financial institutions along with in-house investors. SocialC in Bangkok has huge potential because od the trends of using social media in the nation i.e. 8 million actively using various networks. It is also beneficial in Bangkok because very less number of online channels is present to find the right talents and SocialC intends to offer that to the employers as well the people seeking jobs.
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