Value Proposition Explanation
The Value Proposition Map
According to the Customer Job(s) our group came up with a list of Services that can be provided by the voluntary members of the platform. This list includes:
- Public Relations
- Event Marketing
- Social Media
- Marketing Planning
- Branding Material (Print, Graphics, Videos)
- Internal Communications
This list matches the marketing activities of Social Enterprises referring to our research with Social Enterprises. Moreover, the companies are facing numerous Pains in terms of these marketing activities. In more detail, they often lack sufficient financial resources to finance their marketing. Therefore, our platform will provide services as Pain Relievers that are priced significantly lower than actual market prices for similar services offered by ordinary marketing agencies.
During our research it turned out that interviewees mentioned problems with finding qualified employees who can carry out specific marketing tasks. For instance, companies simply don't know how to create a company logo or how to run a social media campaign. To solve this pain, our platform will provide young but experienced people who are familiar with e.g. social media or graphic software. Besides, the quality will be ensured by a mentoring system. This means that experts from the field of marketing will guide volunteers to fulfill their project objectives.
Current non-profit marketing agencies, our competitors, offer services to a limited number of companies only. We found out that there is no broad access to marketing help for smaller social enterprises. We want to solve this problem by providing a user-friendly, easy to access, transparent and diversified platform. For ensuring this goal, the platform should be as automated as possible in order to cut costs and reduce workload for our company.
Finally, our services do not only help social enterprises to increase their profits and inherently boost their social value. In fact, they will gain a much broader set of marketing opportunities and quality of work. We will deliver qualified volunteers that do not negatively affect the companies balance sheets such in way common marketing agencies would do. As Social Enterprises aim to contribute to the overall social benefit, they have the opportunity with our services to to extend their social impact to both ends - workers and young professionals, as well as society and/or the environment.
During our research it turned out that interviewees mentioned problems with finding qualified employees who can carry out specific marketing tasks. For instance, companies simply don't know how to create a company logo or how to run a social media campaign. To solve this pain, our platform will provide young but experienced people who are familiar with e.g. social media or graphic software. Besides, the quality will be ensured by a mentoring system. This means that experts from the field of marketing will guide volunteers to fulfill their project objectives.
Current non-profit marketing agencies, our competitors, offer services to a limited number of companies only. We found out that there is no broad access to marketing help for smaller social enterprises. We want to solve this problem by providing a user-friendly, easy to access, transparent and diversified platform. For ensuring this goal, the platform should be as automated as possible in order to cut costs and reduce workload for our company.
Finally, our services do not only help social enterprises to increase their profits and inherently boost their social value. In fact, they will gain a much broader set of marketing opportunities and quality of work. We will deliver qualified volunteers that do not negatively affect the companies balance sheets such in way common marketing agencies would do. As Social Enterprises aim to contribute to the overall social benefit, they have the opportunity with our services to to extend their social impact to both ends - workers and young professionals, as well as society and/or the environment.
Minimum Viable Product
Conducting former hypothesis tests and various group discussions about services brought us to the point at which we had to define a first outlook on how our product will look like. This has a crucial importance for consensus of the product perception among our group members. We want to assure that each one of us has the same expectations about the platform and its opportunities!!
Brand&Breathe is a connector between volunteers and Social Enterprises in form of an online platform. It seems likely that the product has to appear as a social community, which enables the users to network and connect each other. As our services need volunteers as the key resource, we decided to attract mainly Young Professionals on the landing page.
Brand&Breathe is a connector between volunteers and Social Enterprises in form of an online platform. It seems likely that the product has to appear as a social community, which enables the users to network and connect each other. As our services need volunteers as the key resource, we decided to attract mainly Young Professionals on the landing page.
Within our platform, each volunteer gets an own profile that includes pictures, volunteer rankings, work ratings and a personal communication panel where new notifications and messages can be checked. Additionally, a Feed presents the newest information about activities of other members, active projects and events. A Calendar on the upper right hand corner shows members the next important events, for e.g. if a volunteer takes part in a project, alle deadlines will be visible in the calendar.
Furthermore, there will be a workspace for projects. Once, a company has found a volunteer for a specific task, both parties will be connected to a workspace side. There, all participants will be visible and can be contacted straight away. Moreover, a status shows the current progress of the project and a brief project description shows volunteers the expectations of the company. Volunteers can take part in multiple projects and can switch between workspaces in their navigation panel on the left hand side of the page. The file management is based on the Dropbox service, so everyone has easy access to the files. Similar to the personal profile, a Feed shows the newest activities of the group members.
Value curve
We developed a value curve, by starting with defining our most important value attributes. We defined 8 value attributes, by which we can compare our service with the competitors' service and by which we can differentiate ourselves from the competitors.
The 8 value attributes we defined are: Quality, Relationship building, Accessibility, Reliability, Flexibility, User-friendliness, Price and Social Benefit.
We made an evaluation of how our startup may be positioned in relation to each of the chosen attributes. Afterwards, we made an evaluation on how each competitor positions itself in each of the chosen attributes.
After this review, B&B main sources of competitive advantage are Relationship Building, User-friendliness, Price and Social Benefit.
The 8 value attributes we defined are: Quality, Relationship building, Accessibility, Reliability, Flexibility, User-friendliness, Price and Social Benefit.
We made an evaluation of how our startup may be positioned in relation to each of the chosen attributes. Afterwards, we made an evaluation on how each competitor positions itself in each of the chosen attributes.
After this review, B&B main sources of competitive advantage are Relationship Building, User-friendliness, Price and Social Benefit.