Marketing strategy of online streaming media in China
This assignment is being submitted on July 06, 2015
Introduction
Chinese market has been the object of prime focus for internet based marketing and launch of various e-commerce based services (Wang & He, 2008). The rate at which Chinese e-commerce is growing at present, it is supposed to be soon perceived to be a part of lifestyle, rater than just being a way to shop (KPMG, 2013). In the earlier assignment, topic was the feasibility assessment of an internet based live streaming media around various factors that could affect it like economic, social, demographic and the corresponding target market for it. The current assignment is based on earlier assessed feasibility of online streaming media based service, focusing on online games and other important features like interactive speech, educational videos, web broadcasts, talk shows etc. Hence this essay focuses on developing a marketing strategy for this lives streaming media service. Coming notions will further analyze the various aspects that will affect and that can be strategically addressed, so as to effectively position the website service over the targeted market segment in China.
Potential customers
Internet economy had a share of 4.4% of China’s GDP in2013, much ahead of that for the US and German figures (McKinsey, 2014). There were estimated 632 million internet users in China in 2014 (McKinsey, 2014). Hence, owing to the growing advent of e-commerce in China’s economic growth, the expected share if e-commerce industry to China’s GDP will rise to 22%. (McKinsey, 2014).
The main category of customers for his online streaming media platform is that of online gamers, specifically those online gamers who like to play in sync with other gamers online at the same time. They will be attracted towards the multimedia gaming platform by issuing various games broadcasts and strategic ads which will project the variety of games and their access in multiplayer mode. Thus, for a group of gamers, the platform can be valuable in terms of providing a multimedia gaming access to all of them, in a single game, like Counter Strike.
Goals and objectives
The mission behind this project is to create an online streaming multimedia gaming platform, which has a whole gamut of interactive and education features, coupled with e-commerce based applications. The vision is to create a highly acclaimed and widely used online gaming platform that will cater to almost 100% of the gaming population in China, by the end of 2016. The two major goals of this business are, first, to create high value for the target customers and gain maximum membership and participation right from the first year of commencement in China. Second, to create enough revenues for further proliferation and then target the acquisition of global online gaming market share , customizing online gaming platform to meet the desired service from all major nations like US, India, Britain etc.
Products and Services
The main product is a multimedia gaming portal, which has a free trial membership for 2 hours and a paid membership for 3 months. The special feature of the membership scheme for the gamers comes in the referral scheme, where every member added as a reference by an existing member brings a discount of 10% over the referring member’s membership fee. Thus the target of acquiring wider customer base can be clinched using this scheme. This unique product pricing scheme will give a dual cutting edge ahead of other gaming portals in terms of setting a competitive price for the services and also encourage more of socially acquainted gamers to get linked to our platform. It has been found that the opportunity to interact with fellow gamers has been the key driver of customer pull creation in Chinese gaming industry (Kshetri, 2009).
Distinctive Competitiveness
The initial creation of distinctive competitiveness can be created via the strategy mentioned in feasibility analysis. Initial launch of the platform will be required to be done via some well known gamers in the country and their regular tips and video blogs will be made accessible to paid members. Also, live chatting sessions to learn fast scoring techniques will be incorporated to enhance the game learning and mastering techniques, from the experts. The other main competitive factor will be based on using better production technology, resulting in enhanced virtual multimedia integration for a real life gaming experience. These competitive add-ons will be preserved by using advanced copyright over the multimedia integration and simultaneous innovation in field live streaming based gaming tutorials.
Potential partners and employees
A team of highly proficient gaming oriented programmers and a web designer is required for efficiently managing the website traffic and ensuring hassle free gaming experience. Further, a team of web based interactive streaming multimedia designers will be required to ensure virtual reality based game training sessions. An online media marketing manager will be required to govern the web content setup and associated update of supporting content on the platform. Lastly, a team of focused and yield driven managers will be required to channelize the brand positioning over targeted segment and ensure maximum subscription and membership to the platform.
In its pursuit to promote online gaming, the Chinese government has been working on partnering with formal institutions working in this field (Kshetri, 2009). So the government agencies can be approached via a dedicated project report to avail government partnership and subsequent sponsorship aid for better proliferation of the multimedia gaming platform. The partnering in case of Chinese online gaming industry has been easily executed owing to similarity of its industrial set up with those of Personal Computer and mobiles (Kshetri, 2009).
Potential Competitors
A dual pool of possible competition exists for the given idea of developing the multimedia platform; they can be segmented into direct and indirect competitors to the given service. The direct competitors are the entrenched online gaming platforms in the industry like ‘gamesutra’, ‘zapak’ etc. The second pool which comprises of the indirect competition is from actual sports facilities and hardware based gaming clubs, which also cater to the gaming needs of the people in China. Their assumptions for the market are very similar to that of proposed media platform.
Marketing strategy
The core marketing strategy needs to be aimed at adapting with the unique aspects of business environment, as discussed in the feasibility study. The ultimate result of the intended marketing strategy should create a sustainable competitive advantage, by addressing the key constituents of marketing classified into 4 P’s, viz. Product positioning, Product promotion, Place for commencing the venture and effective Pricing tactics. Each of above mentioned facet of marketing strategy will be discussed in detail below.
Product Positioning
The desired image for the venture is to be as a unique online streaming multimedia platform, which provides webcast based gaming tutorials and provides an enhanced multimedia platform for clan based gaming solutions. Gamers across China should aim for rebuilding their old gaming networks at this platform. Further, the marketplace can have an additional identity of low cost gaming memberships, established via availing the membership’s referral program. However, the marketing communications will put a steady emphasis on the extremely real like virtual gaming experience created by enhanced web design.
Promotions
The marketing communications will be focused via collaborated digital marketing with leading search engines like Google and MSN. Pop advertising will also be enabled at other sports related websites. An additional communication channel will be created by spot advertising using banners and hoardings at sports event venues. The media communications will focus on three major subjects of communication, first being the enhanced real visual effects gaming experience followed by the low cost membership scheme for referrals and lastly, for the first live streaming multimedia gaming platform meant for clan gaming.
Place
The venture is entirely based on web portal application, so the actual place of launch will be the web space. The main website server will be based at Peking in China to ensure average cost of labor for initial set up. For the following scenario, there are no specific diadvantages for chosen location for online business commencement; however the advantages will be in terms of uniform access from any local network in China. Since the customers and end users are both same in this context, the availability and access to the services will be directly routed by the internet connection.
Pricing
The only form of cost undertaken accounts is of paid accounts and the basic cost charged from the customers will comprise of the initial development and maintenance costs, coupled with basic costs of creating and running a membership account (Polsinelli, 2009). The final pricing, including the variable costs of advertising and volume based costs variations required to be incorporated. The final price might be priced around $10-15, for initial membership and prone to a reduction by 10% for every subsequent referral based membership. The pricing will be at par with the prevalent average costs in the market across all major competitor platforms. The direct positioning of levied membership charges will be owed to the enhanced visual experience and the clan gaming value addition for the members.
Risk analysis
The risk analysis for the given industry environment need to incorporate the all elements of possible threats, underlying opportunities, bargaining power of suppliers and customers and generic competitive rivalry within the industry. The risk analysis will be categorized into SWOT analysis and Porter’s five forces analysis over the chosen industry for the live streaming based multimedia gaming platform.
SWOT Analysis
The internal factors of strengths and weakness are enlisted below and external factors of opportunity and threats are examined for determining the overall risk analysis for gaming industry.
Porter’s five forces analysis
Conclusion
The above mentioned analysis have encompassed over the target market segment, intended positioning, channelized marketing communications, pricing policies and risk analysis based on earlier defined models of industry environment analysis. Once the brand image is set up as a result of initial round of marketing strategies, the next move is to establish a better product differentiation, which can lead to a wider range of gaming services and thus ensure adaptability with varying customer preferences and changing technologies (Wang, Mao & Liu, 2013). Similarly, another crucial component of creating a distinctive competitive image can be via efficient R&D over prevalent gaming service experience, making it closer to real life experience, rather than being more virtual in graphic quality (Wang & He, 2008).
References
Kshetri, N. (2009) “The Evolution of the Chinese Online Gaming Industry,” Journal of Technology Management in China, 4(2), 158-179.
McKisnsey Global Institute (2014). China’s digital transformation: The Internet’s impact on productivity and growth. McKinsey&Company. 4-12.
Polsinelli, P (2009). Pricing an online service: Homo surfens. Web worker’s anthroplogy. Retrieved from http://pietro.open-lab.com/2009/11/03/pricing-an-online-service/
Wang,X., Mao,W. & Liu,C. (2013). Games and Culture: Using Online-gaming Data to Cluster Chinese Regional Cultures. 1-9.
Wang,X & He, R (2008) “Exploring strategies in online game industry : The factors affect strategy formulation in Chinese online game companies, University of Halmstad, 5-44.
