Flipkart after receiving the latest funding from Soft Bank, now wants to extend its brand in other areas as well

07 Sep

Brand Management

Q1. Maruti has finally gained tremendous success in the luxury Sedan segment after the launch of a separate brand Nexa. Owing to this Hyundai, the other major player in the small car segment is feeling the jitters. It feels that it too should follow the same strategy as it is more known for small cars and except the Verna, all its other luxury sedans have failed. Some analysts are even against the idea. Can you guide them on the same?

Q2. Flipkart after receiving the latest funding from Soft Bank, now wants to extend its brand in other areas as well. The first new segment it wants to target is the car buying and selling segment. It wants to come out with an extension called “Flipkarz” by end of 2017. Analyst are skeptical about the same. Is it a good decision? What steps should Flipkart follow to make it a success?

Q3. Analyze the below given Case study and answer the questions below:

Snapchat is both a messaging platform and a social network. It can’t be used from the regular we and exists only as a mobile app on your iPhone or Android smartphone. Users can “chat” with their friends by sending them photos, short videos up to 10 seconds long. You can sort of think of it to be like texting with pictures or videos. Text chats and video calls are two other features that were added more recently to the app. One of the most unique things about Snapchat is the ephemeral components of all the content that gets shared on it. Photos and videos essentially disappear a few seconds after they’ve been viewed by their recipients. Average revenue per user was 90 cents in the first quarter, Snap said, up from 32 cents the same quarter a year earlier but below the $1.05 per user in the fourth quarter of 2016.Snap’s net loss widened to $2.21 billion, or $2.31 per share, in the first quarter, from $104.6 million, or 14 cents per share, due to stock-based compensation related to the IPO.

Facebook once failed to buy Snapchat; ever since, it’s tried to copy it, mostly without success. Until now. Facebook’s Instagram Stories, a clear Snapchat clone, has more daily users than Snapchat itself – and parent company Snap Inc. should be very worried. Snap’s latest earnings report isn’t helping either. On Thursday, the company said user growth for the April-June period was a paltry 4 percent from the previous quarter. Snap’s stock, already down 44 percent since its initial public offering in May, declined 14 percent, to $11.90, in extended trading after the results came out. That’s less than half of the $24.48 closing price on its first trading day. While the doom doesn’t spell imminent death, it’s a sign that Snapchat could be relegated to the side-lines as a niche app for young people – or worse, a passing fad – rather than a major competitor for digital ad dollars like Facebook and yes, even the struggling Twitter.

BY THE NUMBERS

Instagram recently disclosed that Stories, which lets people share videos and snapshots in a continuous 24-hour loop, has amassed 250 million daily users in the year since it launched. Snapchat, in comparison, had 173 million in the second quarter – and that’s all of Snapchat, not just its version of Stories. Instagram in its entirety, meanwhile, had more than 400 million daily users as of February 2017, the last official count.

TO GROW OR NOT TO GROW

Facebook sends notifications for all sorts of things, such as a friend doing a live video or another friend posting something after an extended absence. Another might be on a new item for sale in the service’s “marketplace” section. These notifications – which primarily appear in the Facebook app but can also be pushed to the phone’s home screen – can conceivably keep people returning day after day. While Snapchat sends fewer notifications, it encourages daily use through Snap streak, which calls out streaks in which two friends send each other snaps at least once for more than three consecutive days. But it isn’t working too well, as daily use hasn’t grown much.

RIVALS UPON RIVALS

Rivals don’t always succeed. Facebook recently shut down Life stage, which lets those 21 and under share photos, selfies and videos with classmates. Life stage was aimed at high schoolers – a big chunk of Snapchat’s audience. Before that, Facebook killed Slingshot, another Snapchat clone for sending disappearing messages. In turn, that followed the demise of Poke, which also let people send photos and videos. All that followed Snapchat’s decision to rebuff Facebook’s $3 billion offer for the service in 2013.But Facebook and others kept trying and trying, until Facebook succeeded with Instagram Stories. Easy to use and piggybacking on Instagram’s existing popularity, Stories expanded Snapchat’s idea to a broader range of users. While Snapchat’s audience is mostly teens and young people, on Instagram, anyone might send a “story.” Other messaging apps are looking to clone Snapchat, too. Google is reportedly working on Stamp, which The Wall Street Journal compared to Snapchat’s Discover feature for letting people find photo and video-heavy news items. While Google isn’t commenting on Stamp, published reports say the company is in talks with the likes of Vox Media and Time Inc. to create such content.

a. What according to you is wrong with Snapchat?

b. What strategies can it undertake to revive?

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