Marketing Case Study

Snapchat

Snapchat is a mobile app for Android and iOS devices, created in 2011, that allows users to share photos, videos, text, and drawings. It’s free to download the app and free to send messages using it.. The developer behind this application is a public company called Snap Inc.

At Snap Inc. they state their value propositions as:

"We believe that reinventing the camera represents our greatest opportunity to improve the way people live and communicate. We contribute to human progress by empowering people to express themselves, live in the moment, learn about the world, and have fun together."

From the article  "What is Snapchat, how does it work and what is it used for?" written by Maggie Tillman and Elyse Betters, they go on to describe what Snapchat began as and some of the leading edge updates it has developed.

"Snapchat was initially focused on private, person-to-person photo sharing, but you can now use it for a range of different tasks, including sending short videos, live video chatting, messaging, creating caricature-like Bitmoji avatars, and sharing a chronological “story” that’s broadcasted to all your followers. There’s even a designated “Discovery” area that showcases short-form content from major publishers like Buzzfeed.

Snapchat even lets you store media to a private storage area. Other features include the ability to add filters and AR-based lenses to snaps and show your live location on a world map. But the key thing to realise about Snapchat is that it is all about instant communication through your mobile phone. Prior to Snapchat, social media was very desktop-based, and it was all about accumulating data.

For instances, you'd post statuses, tweets, photos, and videos, and you'd have a record of all those things online, so your friends could comment on them and you would all see them forever. Snapchat has changed that. It changed the way we communicate online. With Snapchat, you can quickly send a photo of yourself with a rainbow-puking AR lens applied to a friend, and after they open it, it'll disappear forever.

Technically, they can screenshot it if they want, and reply back with their own photo or video response, which they can also broadcast to their story for friends and followers to see. There are so many uses for this app. It’s hard not to see its value and why it's unique."

We have seen Snapchat initiate many updates and new features to its application. One big one in recent times has been its AR (Augmented Reality) Lenses for companies to advertise on. For partnering companies this has allowed them to experienced a 46 percent drop in CPMs.

(CPM's: Cost per thousand, also called cost per mille, is a marketing term used to denote the price of 1,000 advertisement impressions on one webpage. If a website publisher charges $2.00 CPM, that means an advertiser must pay $2.00 for every 1,000 impressions of its ad.) 

Needless to say Snapchat has had many innovations to its app and it keeps expanding.

But what comes next for Snapchat you may ask? Well it looks like the company will be partnering with Amazon, which is the third largest online retailer. You may ask what kind of partnership could be formed between the two growing companies.The answer is an innovating concept they are testing that will allow consumers to search products and make purchases.

The new innovation will be a visual tool feature that will make it possible to take a picture of a product or barcode with the Snapchat camera, then press and hold on the camera screen to launch an Amazon product page to learn more and make a purchase.



Super cool right?

"With this new Amazon partnership, Snapchat is giving Amazon retailers a whole new e-commerce channel without any work on their part. As long as Snapchat’s visual discovery tool can identify and find a product or bar code, a purchase can be made with a minimal number of clicks." - Amy Gesenhues

Overall, I think the concept Snapchat and Amazon are working on could definitely be an amazing tool for consumers to utilize. It could change the way many of us shop and search for our favorite brands and products.

If I were Snapchats marketing manager I'm not sure that I would do anything differently in terms of the proposed partnership and concept the two companies are working on. Although, what I would be doing potentially different is making this new innovation more widely known (more marketing around the concept) to get more research on how consumers feel about it and  I would making sure that a new venture like this that involves such a big partnership with a company like Amazon continues to fall in line with the companies core values. Also, I would want to make sure that all of the legalities are in line so that the company does not end up having a lawsuit on its hands.


This company is truly interesting, evergrowing, and innovative.

Well done on a new Purple Cow Snapchat.


Dicussion Questions for Class:
1.) If the project is successful and this new innovation does everything it says it will. How long do you think it will be able to protect that intellectual property (or if at all?) before other companies will be able to do the same thing?
2.) Do you think that this is smart business or do you think it is leaving Snapchat open to future legal issues.







Tillman, Maggie, and Elyse Betters. “What Is Snapchat, How Does It Work and What Is It Used for?” Pocket-Lint, 27 Sept. 2018, www.pocket-lint.com/apps/news/snapchat/131313-what-is-snapchat-how-does-it-work-and-what-is-it-used-for.

“Snap Inc.” Privacy Center – Snap Inc., www.snap.com/en-US/.

Staff, Investopedia. “Cost Per Thousand - CPM.” Investopedia, Investopedia, 30 Aug. 2018, www.investopedia.com/terms/c/cpm.asp.

Gesenhues , Amy. “Snapchat Partners with Amazon to Let Users Shop from Pictures.” Marketing Land, Marketing Land, 25 Sept. 2018, marketingland.com/snapchat-partners-with-amazon-to-let users-shop-from-pictures-248825.