X-CULTURE

Team number: 682

Client Company Name: Differ.Chat
Students: Gifty Fosua Opoku (Ghana), Cleanna Cardoza (USA), Pauline Raphanel (France),
Ivan Kuznetsov (Russia) & Britt Meijer (The Netherlands).
Email-addresses: opokugifty71@gmail.com, ccardoza01@manhattan.edu,
p.raphanel@tbs-education.org, st089784@student.spbu.ru &
BM.Meijer@student.han.nl.
Roles and work: We performed the tasks and completed the work together.

1
Executive Summary
To find out more about what students think about the Differ.Chat app, a survey was
conducted. The Survey has shown that 89.1% of all students surveyed are not aware of the
existence of Differ.Chat. These students communicate through other apps, that are
Differ.Chat’s competitors. Some main competitors are WhatsApp, Facebook and Slack. To
get a good overview of Differ.Chat's competitors, a SWOT analysis has been made.

To ensure that Differ.Chat can enter a new market as successfully as possible, research has
been done into potential new markets. This research revealed that the most promising market
for Differ.Chat is Japan, as they make extensive use of social media, E-commerce and online
services. Currently, Japan is positioned as one of the largest E-commerce markets, which
makes it easier for Differ.Chat to transition into the market.

There will also be competitors in the Japanese market. The biggest competitor for Differ.Chat
in Japan is Line. It currently has 86 Million active users in Japan, which represents 68% of
the society. Only 11% of Line's users are students. Differ.Chat should therefore take into
account that they emphasize students in their target group strategy. Differ.Chat is also
recommended to contain stickers in their app, just like the LINE app, because the Japanese
are known to love stickers.

As for the promotion channels, Differ.Chat is recommended to mainly use digital marketing
including email marketing, referral marketing, their website and social media. Differ.Chat is
recommended to have a basic SEO plan pricing that includes a regional/local concentration,
meta tag creation, keywords search and analytics configuration. This requires a price that fits
in the interval from $250 to $3000. The use of SEO is important to strategically assess the
page views per user, how much time they spent visiting our website, which part of the
website is attracting their attention and it also analyzes the bounce rate.

Differ.Chat is also recommended to collaborate with well-known Japanese public figures.

This will cost Differ Chat $400 to $1000. These collaborations help Differ.Chat to
significantly improve their brand image and their ability to reach a high number of students.

The advice to Differ.Chat regarding their website is to add some more parts on it, namely:
testimonials of students, a detailed explanation of the objectives/strategies, social media links
and a space to book personal meetings. If Differ.Chat wants to enter the Japanese market, it is
recommended to create a Japanese website as well.

With regard to the Business Model, we advise Differ.Chat to use a subsidiary type model,
like their competitor Line. As part of the advertising model, we recommend social media
accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Regarding the price, Differ.Chat should be free for students. This is recommended because
regarding our competitors and the current market trends, the most successful social apps are
the ones which are free for users. Differ.Chat should only charge schools and faculties. The
pricing strategy should be based on a membership pricing strategy.

2
Section 1: Market

END USER CURRENT BEHAVIOR AND NEEDS

The end-user is the ultimate consumer of a finished product, which is why it is important to
have them in mind. For Differ.Chat, the end-users are the University students who use the
app. To find out and understand what the needs of these students are, we have prepared a
questionnaire.

We sent the questionnaire to students from 7 different universities and found out that a decent
amount of students participated in campus events during the period right before university
started and continued on for the first month, as a means of communication. Overall, the vast
majority of students used online groups, mainly WhatsApp, to get to know new people when
they started university.

The majority of the students at the university felt excited about attending university and going
on campus for the first time. A small percentage of them did not get the opportunity to meet
new people when starting university and felt scared. There is an evident majority who would
consider a social app to aid them in meeting new people that share their interests.

Moreover, the main idea behind the concept of Differ.Chat is to connect students between
each other on a main campus and to promote integration of students. Therefore the main need
of our consumers will be associated with the need of belonging. Moreover, the need of safety
regarding a psychological well being is also a need that can be expressed by consumers using
the application as interactions help to maintain a certain moral welfare.

Product Demo and Feedback:

3
The questionnaire revealed that most people have never heard of the app, so after inviting
students to use the Differ.Chat app, we observed that most people also don’t know how to use
the app. So far students have struggled with figuring out how to proceed after the first screen
— the screen tells students to put in their phone number, then they are sent to another page
which tells them they need to be invited by another student who already uses the app. Since
our data tells us that about 89.1% of college students have never heard of the app, it is safe to
say that it will be difficult to get the request from an already existing user. We would suggest
Differ.Chat to make the first few introductory phrases simple so the consumer does not
experience any stress with the navigation of the app. Students who have given us verbal
feedback about their experience suggested that perhaps the next few steps should be “a list of
instructions on how to use the app” after students submit their phone number. An “automatic
virtual tour of how to use the app” was also mentioned. This will make students feel more
comfortable, especially after they have provided their personal cell phone number so they can
utilize the app.

Most people that we have surveyed would not consider using Differ.Chat, because they are
not aware of it. Navigating the app seemed difficult, but surprisingly students would
recommend it to their classmates. Differ.Chat should be made more easier to navigate and
should consist of mini educational games for students to play together.

INDUSTRY AND COMPETITION ANALYSIS

From our survey we can conclude that 19.6% of university students use WhatsApp as a
means to communicate with each other. This gives our team an understanding as to who our
main competitors are.

Here are some of their strengths, weaknesses, and a general understanding of what their apps
provide.
WhatsApp Groups Product and Pricing
-Allows video and voice calls
-Can create group chats and share different file types within the chats.
-Transnational calls are free, regular calls are free

Strengths
-Easy to use.
-Consumer market ranges between young and older people
-Minimal malfunctions
-Uses “end-to-end encryption”— messages are protected
-Easy to connect phone contacts onto the app
-Has a backup component that saves messages

4
 Weaknesses
-Scandals revolving around sharing users' information and accessing SMS and
photo gallery.
-Does not allow users to ever log out
-Files like photos are instantly saved to your device.
-Personal phone number is required to use the app.
-Requires internet.

Opportunities
-Can expand its consumer base— the internet is becoming more worldwide
-New technological trends to follow.
-Investing in possible advertising for higher revenue.

Threats
-The app’s purpose is to make it easy to copy.
-Uses encryption software, which is not legal in some places.
-Exposure to virus

Facebook Product and pricing

-Largest social networking platform in the world (over 1.7 billion users)
-Many features: profile, newsfeed, messenger, groups, events, videos, photos and
Facebook for Business.
-Free to use.
-Charge advertisers to show ads on the Facebook family of apps and technologies.

Strengths
-Strong brand.
-Diversified portfolio
-Market dominance.
-Loyal Customer Base.
-World’s best employer.
-Visionary leadership.
-Strong advertising business.
-Effective marketing strategy.

Weaknesses
-User’s privacy concerns.
-Overdependence on advertising.
-Spreading fake news.
-Friction in management.
-Allegations of racial bias.
-Negative publicity.

Opportunities
-Diversity Portfolio.
-Expansion of existing platforms.
-Increasing integration to other applications.
-Target a different audience.
-Expansion through different acquisitions.
-Exploit changes in advertising trends.
Threats
-Competition
-Increased Regulations.

5
 -Bans in several countries.
-Data Breach.
-New digital tax.
-Tainted Reputation.
-Duplicate and false accounts.
-Financial Regulations.

Slack Product and Pricing

-A freemium product— ability to search more than 10,000 archived messages and
add unlimited apps and integration
-Has three options for new users to pick from when they join slack.
-Free plan ($0 per month but restricted to 10k of your group’s most recent
messages and 10 thirds of custom integration.)
-The standard plan ($8 per month, but message searches and integration are
unlimited.)
-Premium plan ($15 per month, get unlimited searches and integration and
enterprise level services like: single sign on, compliance reporting and guaranteed
up time.

Strengths
-2,000 + applications with Slack.
-Flexibility workspace for users.
-Subscription and Freemium based business model makes slack practicable for
everyone.
-Strong investments from trusted business groups
-Phenomenal institutional customer base
-Different market strategy.

Weaknesses
-Minimal experience dealing with established organizations.
-Losses are increasing, but revenue continues to grow.
-It is dependent on third party sellers for data sellers.
-Rushing operational expenses.

Opportunities
-Competitive edge by becoming an open stage for app development and promotion
within the workspace.
-Classic tech company with extensibility, especially since remote culture is arising.

Threats
-Escalating improvements of cyber laws related to data sharing, data security and
data privacy may hurt user sentiments.
-Fierce competition from larger brands.
-Depends on one seller for the data center .

Microsoft Teams PRODUCT AND PRICING

-A chat-based workspace within Office 365
-Enables users to directly operate the documents
-Has voice and video conference calls

6
 -It is free.

Strengths
-Productivity gains and enriches communication.
-Helps prioritize your work.
-Easy to keep up and operate
-Full conversation histories and more saved

Weaknesses
-Difficult transition from outlook.
-Structure of files confuse users.
-Limited flexibility can lead to manual replications.

Opportunities
-Mobile device industry.
-Mobile Advertising.

Threats
-Guest users: once a guest is added, they’ll be able to see sensitive content.
-Access from unreliable locations.
-Sharing of confidential information.

SWOT Analysis of Differ.Chat:

Strength
● Free for users
● Already established many
partnerships with universities across
Europe → European presence
● Competitive advantage of being a
social app specifically designed for
school to promote social integration
Weakness
● Requires internet
○ without cellular data you can
not send/receive messages
● The app is not well known
○ low awareness
○ low user engagement
● Weak loyal customer base
● Have to be invited by a user to use
the app

Opportunities Threats
● New technological developments ● Intense competition
● Easy for Differ.Chat to enter ● Competitors established loyal
technology markets consumers
● Different attributes competitors offer
● Data access and safety of personal
information

NEW MARKET SELECTION

Criteria 1: Economic factor → Advanced technology market

The objective for our company is to establish ourselves in a market in which E-Commerce,
Online service, smartphone penetration rate and fixed telephone subscription are particularly
high. Differ.Chat needs to ensure that the consumers in the market fully understand and have

7
the technological knowledge and abilities to use the concept of Differ.Chat which is why
those 4 criterias will be the most relevant for our analysis. Moreover, our company will seek
to insert itself in a market in which the Gross Domestic Product is relatively high or which
experienced an important growth over the last 5 years.

Criteria 2: Socio cultural factor → Tertiary education indicator

The number of universities in a single market is a significant criteria to take into account for
Differ.Chat. Differ.Chat needs to focus on countries which have a large number of
universities, that would enable Differ.Chat to effectively spread their business project. It is
worth mentioning that it would be easier for Differ.Chat to establish itself in a market in
which universities are inter connected between each other as it would enable them to
efficiently implement their concept if their application is used effectively in a single
university. Therefore the 2 objectives are to: select countries which have a high number of
students enrolling in public universities, as well as selecting countries which have a high
percentage of tertiary education enrollment, especially public institutions.

Criteria 3: Demographic factor → Number of international student

The concept of connecting university students through a platform should be especially an
effective concept to be used by international students in order to promote their integration in
their new university, which is why our company has to make an in-depth analysis of countries
which have a significant amount of international students. Looking at the number of
international students also implies that we should look at universities that have English taught
programmes.

Criteria 4: Political and legal factors

It is relevant for Differ.Chat to know the types of governments in the potential market before
it decides to commit resources.Gathering information about governments will also enable us
to see their impact on international trade. They must also consider the tax structure and other
legal systems and procedures before starting operations in other countries.

Potential markets:
The United States of America represents a very attractive market for a company like
Differ.Chat. The USA currently owns the highest GDP in the world which is estimated at
20.937 Trillion of dollars (Worldbank) and has climbed steadily since 1960, until it reached
the year 2008 marked by the subprime crisis. However in 2009, the numbers began to rise
progressively once again until the Covid crisis in 2019. This country represents a thriving
market except in periods of crisis, which is a factor that Differ.Chat needs to consider.In
addition to owning two of the biggest E-Commerce platforms (Amazon,EBay), they also
represent a market opportunity for groups like DC, not only regarding the US market size, the
relatively high purchasing power of Americans, the active internet user (282.1M) or the
internet penetration (87.9%) but mainly with the rise of spending of Generation Z, which had
a spending power of 44B per year according to V12data and which represents a targeted
audience for Differ.Chat.

8
The number of colleges and universities (5300) also evokes an important opportunity for our
company as well as the average university enrollment of 19.6 million of students in 2019
(Statista). It is worth mentioning that there is a clear contrast between both public and private
colleges as there is a major average enrollment in public colleges (14.5M) compared to
private colleges (5.1M). Therefore, DC will have to focus mainly on public colleges if it
wants to expand its concept.
They also illustrate the perfect “American Dream” for international students as they received
a total of 1.1 M of international students in 2019-2020, which should be a great occasion for
implementing an application that could connect international students with local students.
The country is a democratic government with a relatively stable political frame despite its
conflicts with some countries.They have a score of 1 out of 7 for the short term and long term
political riskiness (7 for very risky and 1 for secure) of the Credendo website.It is considered
as an ideal location for foreign direct investment. Companies wishing to operate in the US
will be subjected to 3 types of taxes: federal, state, and local taxes. All the different charges
such as income tax, capital gains tax, tax on dividends, interest and other passive income and
employee payroll taxes will be collected through the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), .
Businesses will also likely have some additional tax obligations according to the selected
state(s) in which a company operates its business. Also there are important aspects to take
into account for doing business in the US, such as opening a US Bank account, applying for
an immigrant investors visa, obtaining an employer identification number, selecting the
choice of law and also engaging a legal counsel especially if Differ.Chat is partnering with
universities.

China also represents a perfect market opportunity for Differ.Chat with the second largest
GDP behind the US ($14.723 Trillion) and the world’s largest E-Commerce market by
transaction level. The growth rate of E-Commerce is expected to rise by 6.9% from 2020 to
2024. Though the internet penetration rate is only estimated at 70.9%, which is relatively low
on a population of 1B of citizens. However, the education system in China quickly switched
to an online scheme during the pandemic and approximately 331M people in China benefited
from an online education service (Statista). This factor is substantially important for the rise
of online education services in China and could benefit from a system like Differ.Chat.
Also, the enrollment rate in tertiary education (54.4%) as well as the number of public
colleges and universities (2688) can be an interesting factor to take into consideration.
China welcomes approximately 500 000 international students which is more than any Asian
power and therefore is ranked 3rd behind UK and US regarding international student
numbers. The first important point of the taxation aspect is that the Chinese corporate tax
remains unchanged over the years (25%) which obviously implies more stability for business.
In addition, it is interesting to note that there could be preferential policies regarding the
location of businesses. Recently, The CBEC (cross-border eCommerce) policy notice stated
that “retail goods imported via cross-border e-commerce platforms will be regulated as
imported items for personal use and not be subject to the requirements for licensing,
registration or filing related to goods imported through traditional trade” according to USDA
government website. Moreover, according to Credendo, China has a relatively risky business
environment.

9
The Most Promising New Market:
Japan constitutes a very thriving and promising market regarding social media, E-Commerce
and online service. Indeed, 9 out of 10 people have access to the internet in Japan (on a
population of 126 Million people), and similarly, on average each citizen has 2 mobile
devices and the company itself has one of the highest percentage of social media users in the
world (approximately 2 in 3 people).They have a promising economy by having a current
GDP of $5.065 Trillion and being ranked 4th of the highest GDP countries in the world,
compared to China and the US. Currently Japan is positioned as one of the largest E-
commerce markets (especially regarding B2B types) in the world which makes it relatively
easier for a company like Differ.Chat to transition into a new market, which is already
accustomed with E-commerce transactions. Japan owns a mature as well as a highly
connected economy marked with a strong e-commerce growth over the years.
They totalized around 795 universities and the number of students enrolling in a tertiary
education system equalized almost 3 Million in 2019. Japan currently welcomed more than
146 000 international students in 2019 which is relatively lower than the two previous
markets, but which is in accordance with the size and demographic characteristics of the
country. It also represents a safe environment to do business in. They have a smooth import
procedure and have one of the lowest tariff rates in the world. Moreover, the registration for
taxes can be made through a local tax representative as corporate taxes can vary in Japan.
Japan has current corporate tax estimated at 23.2%, but more recently there were new
government regulations to specifically reduce the tax rate to 20%, only for companies that
manage to increase salary as well as raising the domestic capital spending. Also most of their
labor and corporate laws are inspired by the same fundamentals of Europe. It is interesting to
mention that in order to insert in certain market or sectors, it will be required to demonstrate
prior experience in Japan. According to the Credendo website, Japan has a low political risk
and a favorable export transactions index, both in terms of short term and long term projects.
The picture below also illustrates a positive score (A) on business environment risk and
additionally shows that the premium classification OECD is evaluated at 1 out of 7, which is
a positive criteria for doing business in Japan.

Moreover, it could be an interesting challenge to establish the business of a social service in a

monoculture country such as Japan in order to promote more open mindedness and attract
more international students to the country of Japan.

Therefore, Japan illustrates a very thriving opportunity for Differ.Chat by its ease to insert in
the market, more specifically in the high tech market, which is outracing other nations.

10
Moreover, this market ideally fits Differ.Chat’s proposal and matches perfectly with the
current problem in Japan, which is the English language as it has been reported that even
after years of English language education, some students still do not have fluent English
conversation abilities. This is why Differ.Chat could be the platform that enables Japanese
students to connect with international students to promote both English based conversation
and integration of students inside universities. Moreover, this problem also reflects itself in
the universities that have most of their signals and websites only in the Japanese language.
This makes it even harder for attracting international students.

We can see that the most popular social media in Japanese society are Line, Youtube,
Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. The main direct competitors of Differ.Chat are Line and
Facebook, but we will mainly focus on Line which has a significantly higher rate of monthly
active users compared to Facebook.

LINE is the main direct competitor of Differ.Chat in the Japanese market, it currently has 86
Million active users in Japan, which represents 68% of the society. However, students only
represent 11% of their users and men are more numerous than women in the 20-29 age
category, which are both elements that Differ.Chat needs to take into consideration and
therefore the company will have to emphasize students and both women and men equally in
their targeting strategy. Line has the advantage of having a high engagement rate of their
customers with more than 90% for teen males and 86% for teen women. Line is a social
media app that was founded in South Korea, but is particularly popular in Japan.

STRENGTHS OF LINE WEAKNESSES OF LINE

-Adapted for IOS, ANDROID, WINDOWS STORE, -Stiff competition with direct competitors
BLACKBERRY and their desktop version. (WhatsApp, Facebook, Linkedin, Slack,
-Already expanded worldwide (700 Million users Tandem).
worldwide, 86 Million active users in Japan). -No translator for international

11
 -Share instantly photos, videos, location contacts, voice communication.
messages, with other users. -Inefficient bugfix: users experienced
-Large variety of stickers and emojis. difficulty to log in, sms confirmation never
-Mobile payments between users. received by consumers.
-In-App Games and avatars representing users. -Mainy complaints about user privacy.
-Multiple services related to the main app: -Apple smartphones need to purchase coins
Line healthcare service to have medical consultation to buy stickers.
through text message, music stream platform, AI assistant
integrated in the app, Antivirus software.
Pricing Strategy of Line:
Once you get your official account, you want to choose your plan based on how many
messages you want to send out per month. There are three pricing plans.

Also, there are no differences in the line functionalities between these three plans. The only
differences consist of the number of messages each plan comes with and the price of each
additional message. If you choose the free plan, you won’t have the option to send any
messages until the next month, unless you upgrade to a higher tier plan.

Promotion Strategy of Line:

The promotional stickers program has two choices: Sponsored and Direct. Sponsored stickers
are very effective in the sense that it grows brand awareness and obtains new followers on
Line. In most cases, users are expected to follow the brand to download the promotional
stickers, which can help you increase your audience considerably. Once users download the
sponsored stickers, they are more willing to use the branded stickers in their daily
communication with loved ones, which can increase brand awareness and engagement.
Promotional stickers are featured on the line sticker store for 4 weeks, which is a major way
to be discovered by a new potential customer. Although promotional stickers are very
effective, they're expensive. To add to that, Line allows only four companies to promote their
brands in the sticker store per week.

12
Universities in Japan:
There are a total of 795 universities in Japan, the main goal of Differ.Chat will be to select
universities that have enough monetary resources to afford the application and include it as
part of their “integration programs”. Regarding the selection, we have made a list of potential
universities based on many criterias: popularity among international students, English
teaching programs (for international students), operating and capital budgets of universities
and potential “integration programs” designed for connecting students.
University name Information

Osaka university Currently the richest university in Japan, has a “Global

30” project to establish a climate that will enable
international students to integrate more easily into the
Japanese culture and university, some English taught
programmes, 2612 international students this year.

Kyoto university Has expanded its English speaking programs over the last
few years, 2715 international students this year, a lot of
student associations, has a current endowment valuation
estimated at $2.2Billion (one of the wealthiest universities
in the world).

University of Tokyo Has a large number of international students (3873), a

high number of English taught programmes, $31 Million
USD in endowment.

Tohoku University Latest endowment is estimated at $1.3 Billion, a high

number of degree courses in English, a lot of diverse
student clubs for integration and 1749 international
students.

Hokkaido University Growing international student population over the years

(2223 currently), provides orientation for new
international students each year, lots of programmes
uniquely taught in English, over 250 clubs and societies to
promote integration.

Economic factor:
The Japanese economy is one of the top five largest economies in the world. Being a patron
to society is a big part of Japanese culture, meaning that there is a high percentage of the
middle class in Japan making the consumer market rich. Education is essential, since it is
where students become more accustomed with social seminars and debates. Having the
ability to formulate relationships and deal with problems allows for Japanese students to
prepare for any working career. Japan has a relatively low unemployment rate, which is
estimated at approximately 2.8%.

Political factor:
Japan is recognized as a Monarch— rather than having sole authority. The Emperor is seen as
a symbol. A prime minister, the one who has an impact on the political and economic laws, is

13
selected after one party from the five major parties in Japan is selected. The five major parties
are: The Democratic Party of Japan, The People’s New Party, Liberal Democratic Party, The
Social Democratic Party and The New Clean Government Party.

Legal factor:
Japan resembles many European regulations in terms of the labour and corporate laws. Japan
should have rights that protect and promote shareholder engagement.

Cultural:
The work culture in Japan is very patriarchal. The demand to birth at least one son is vital--
the son would be the one to inherit all the wealth the family holds while women are expected
to stop working once married. The birth rate in Japan has declined in recent years -- for your
company, this means that there may be a possible decline in college students using your
product in about 17-18 years from now. A very important cultural factor to study is the term
“Hikikomori”, which is a social phenomenon of brutal social isolation experienced by a lot of
the Japanese population and is affecting more and more of the students population. The
students often face some stress related to academic pressure or the need to belong to a
community for instance, which can lead them to isolate themselves. Those people
experiencing this phenomenon ultimately end up becoming addicted to the internet and other
forms of technology, such as social media and video games. However, Differ.Chat will have
to differentiate itself from its competitors in Japan by proposing the perfect value proposition
that will enable to improve Hikikomori’s well being and quality of life, by providing them a
social app that will reinsert them into the community and make them interact on a daily basis
with other people.

Consumer taste and preference:

Line is the number one messaging app in Japan right now. This is so because of its
distinguishing features.
● Stickers: What makes Line different from other messaging apps is its renowned
stickers. As you can visualize, the app received enormous popularity in a country that
loves anime and emojis. Animated and sound stickers of famous characters and
celebrities are what we know to be the reason behind Line's popularity. It’s also an
impressive way for companies to promote their brand.
● Timeline: Just like other social networks, you can see what your friends are sharing
and exchange pictures, videos, comments etc.

Section 2: Marketing

PROMOTION CHANNELS
Our main promotional channels will be operated through Digital Marketing and will be axed
on a concentrated marketing strategy as we consider our project to target a niche market.

● Email Marketing: For a niche market like ours, the best way to reach out to our
potential clients is to use an Email marketing strategy. A website like AWeber is

14
 affordable for a company like Differ.Chat and specifically suited for small businesses
like Differ.Chat. It is associated with a monthly cost of $16.15 in exchange for a
potential high return on investment (median return on investment of 122% for mail
marketing, according to eMarketer study). Using AWeber is more effective than
simply sending mails to specific addresses, as the AWeber service includes: forms,
funnels, landing pages, email automation, web push notifications, email segmentation,
custom emails and email designer.

Regarding the mail contact selection, the objective is not only to select our preferred
universities but to reach as many universities as possible. Even though we believe the
minister of education of Japan is the go to person, we have made a list of 14 universities with
the specific departments associated with our request and their mail contacts.

Referral Marketing only when we will establish a certain amount of partnerships with
universities:

● Referral marketing will be a useful marketing tool once our project will be efficient in
the few universities that will adopt the application for their students. Lots of
universities are inter connected between each other in Japan, therefore we can expect
our project to be expanded to other universities, even abroad if it has success. Referral
marketing is a word of mouth initiative designed by a company to incentivize existing
customers to introduce their family, friends and contacts to become new customers.
Here, Differ.Chat can give referral discounts, such as free subscription for a period of
time to students who invite friends to join the Differ.Chat app. This marketing
strategy is considered as not costly and extremely effective if the service has delivered
great performance and great quality success.

● Events Marketing: One of the best ways for Differ.Chat to meet potential clients in its
new market (Japan) and raise awareness about their business proposition is to attend
conferences which are focused on the following topics: Education, Social Science, E-
Education, Wireless Network and mobile communication.We have carefully selected
and made a list of potential conferences which are occurring all around Japan and

15
 which occurs near in terms of dates.We also made sure that all those conferences and
topics welcomed students as well as potential university representatives (our clients).
The main objective is to reach university representatives but also to promote our
brand and our value proposition to the main users of the app which are university
students.

● Website and SEO: The website will be our main source to collaborate with
professionals and will have to be convincing enough for our potential clients. Our
website has to communicate our main principles and values, put forward some student
testimonials, mention our university partners (already done in the current website) and
has to have a space in which potential partners can contact us. The website should
convey a certain professional aspect to reach university partners while communicating
a very interactive and academic image at the same time. Using our website as a
marketing promotional tool will also require an SEO strategy to efficiently drive
traffic on the website.We should use an SEO monthly based pricing to regularly
assess the effectiveness of this digital tool and our progress in using it. For
Differ.Chat, we recommend them to have a basic SEO plan pricing that include a
regional/ local concentration, Meta tag creation, keywords search and analytics
configuration. SEO specialized agencies can require a price that fits in the interval
from 250$ to 3000$. The keywords that Differ.Chat should use to appear in the first
sites from a search are “students”, “social media”, “university”,”communication”,
“studies”, “social network” , “tertiary education” “facebook” “line” “twitter”
“instagram” “message” “call” “text”. The use of SEO is particularly important to
strategically assess the page views per user, how much time they spent visiting our
website, which part of the website is attracting their attention (pricing, university
partners, Differ.Chat introduction, contact information …) and also analyze the
bounce rate (if other actions are taken after leaving a website). The meta tag will
remain the same as the current one which conveys a very brief but impacting
description of the company. “Differ is a safe place for students to connect and chat
with peers . In partnership with your university, we create an informal online
community where students like you can chat with each other without sharing their
phone-number too early". This SEO strategy is expected to progressively increase the
Return On Investment if effectively used.

16
 ● Social Media: The social media platform will play a huge part in our promotion
strategy and will be our main direct strategy to target end users (students).We should
create accounts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter as they are one of the most used
apps in Japan. The objective is oriented towards posting contents regularly about the
app,it is recommended to post weekly content until the company reaches a certain
number of followers (15K), when this objective will be reached, DC will have to
switch to daily content as we will need to engage a higher audience. Those contents
should be about: the student testimonials about their experience with the app and the
“Differ.Chat lifestyle” which links both campus life and social integration together.
Moreover, the content should include captivating elements to attract as much audience
as possible such as Hashtags, Emojis, location indicator and even collaboration with
Japanese public figures (i.e. Naomi Watanabe, Rola, Kiko Mizuhara, Yukina
Kinoshita). Those collaborations could cost between 400$ to 1000$ approximately but
can help to significantly improve our brand image and our ability to reach a high
number of students. Moreover, our posts should be written both in Japanese and
English. Those platforms will be an effective tool to contact other potential partner
universities if we manage to increase our popularity thanks to their use.

Ideally, students trust their professors and are more likely to take any recommended outlet to
communicate for assignment purposes. After executing a verbal questionnaire with students
from a total of six colleges and universities in the United States, to see if professors and other
college students are the most efficient way to bring awareness to Differ.Chat, we selected
answers from responses that answered the questions directly.

● When it comes to school, who are you most likely to take advice from? Why?
- “I would most likely take advice from my professors and advisors…they are most
experienced…and the advisors main goal is to help people like me with school
matters.” Sophomore student from City College, USA.
- “My program advisor because…she knows the [struggle] that comes with being a low
income [and] first generation student at a [Predominately White Institution].”
Sophomore student from Barnard College, USA.
- “Upperclassmen [with the same] major [as me]…because they’ve been in my position
before and can help me navigate courses and professors.” Sophomore student from
University of Southern California, USA.
- “Most likely…from my grandfather since he graduated from Brown [University] and
had a successful career.” Junior student from Manhattan College.

17
There is a mix of the responses consisting of answers that expressed trust in counselors,
professors, close family members and students who have already experienced the same
situation.

● Would you consider using a communication app that your professors recommend
or other college students recommend?
- “If enough people actually are active on it and upperclassmen recommend it more
than professors, then I would consider it.” Sophomore student from University of
Southern California, USA.
- “It would depend on what the app looked like exactly but yes I would consider it.”
Junior student from Manhattan College.
- “I would…use [an] app that a student told me about because the features might be
more up to date than an app recommended by a professor.” Sophomore student from
Manhattan College, USA.
- “Another college student.” Freshman student from New York University, USA.

Responses for question two exposed how a large percent of decision making comes from
advice given from peers, while a smaller percent of students worried about features and the
organization of the app.

MESSAGE
To prove that Differ.Chat is better than those offered by competitors, we need to highlight the
substantial features of Differ.Chat. The importance being, how the app will help university
students talk about their courses, assignments and make new friends. Therefore, if given the
opportunity, emphasize that Differ.Chat is better because it gives access to Japanese
university students.

Main Message
We recommend the main message to be: ‘A great starting platform for students to make new
friends and develop a sense of belonging’. This message should be visible for the target
audience (students). It should be the first thing to notice, when opening the Differ.Chat app
and could be used as the meta tag description as it effectively conveys the main activity of
Differ.Chat.

18
Slogan: “Developing a stronger student community.”

Other Marketing Campaign Elements:

Online market research must be added to the knowledge Differ.Chat gains from the field.
Customer-facing appointments, conference calls and visits give crucial insight into what
students want, what they need and what concerns them most. That data from the field needs
to be clarified, divided and cleaned so that it becomes practical. The online research can then
be used to support our claims or restate our belief from the field. If intelligence has been
gathered about the competitors’ face to face customer visits, checking that intelligence online
will merely be a matter of reviewing how the market and customers see the competitors
strengths and weaknesses.

Buyers Personas:
Here, Differ.Chat is targeting university students, because the app was made for students to
interact with each other. Marketing effectiveness comes from a clear understanding of the
target audience (students).

Search Engine Optimization:

Search Engine Optimization would be an effective tool to convey the message of Differ.Chat.
Indeed, Differ.Chat’s website will be placed on the top of the search results of specific
keywords searches, and therefore viewers will automatically see Differ.Chat’s meta
description tag which corresponds to the message of the company.This enable to put forward
the company’s website and message (meta tag) at the same time by promoting more
visibility.

Attention Grabbing Content:

The content has to speak to the students. It has to be aligned with addressing their biggest
concerns. It must provide the students with verifiable facts. Ditch the extended text. The
students will not read an endless article. They respond to infographics and vivid images.

Optimized Landing Pages:

The only way to convert incoming traffic is by having an optimized landing page. It involves
reviewing how students interact with your page. It requires understanding if traffic was
organic or paid and it involves defining the click through rates (CTR) on both traffic sources.

19
You need to know how much time students spend on your landing page, with who students
interacted with, on what they clicked and how they moved about your content.
Lead Nurturing with Market Automation:
Keeping the students engaged throughout their journey is essential to market effectiveness.
Every student action must be met with a response, one in which the Differ.Chat content and
digital offers push the students further through their journey until all questions are answered.

Brand name
The brand name shouldn't be changed for Differ.Chat.

PROMOTIONAL MATERIALS

Website page
In order to make the service more attractive and more professional for universities, we made
a draft website that Differ.Chat could use to enhance its website. We have included several
elements that were missing in the original website, which were testimonials of students, a
detailed explanation of our objectives/strategies, social media links and a space to book
personal meetings.

20
We also established a Japanese version to emphasize that Differ.Chat will need to adapt its
service to the market in which they intend to enter.

Mail letter example:

We also have made a mail marketing letter that needed to include many elements: politeness
language, formal and professional vocabulary, brief and concise introduction of our business
concept, the features of the application, how it would benefit students (both local and
international), how it would help the university in itself and the final element which is closing
the mail by suggesting a personal meeting during the same month in which the Differ.Chat’s
team is supposed to assist to the conferences in Japan (mentioned in events marketing
section).

““Good Day” or “Dear Mr/Mrs ( their last name)”

We are Differ.Chat from Norway and we would like to use this opportunity to talk to you
about how our application is going to benefit university students in Japan.

Differ.Chat is an educational app in the sense that it connects university students. The
purpose of Differ.Chat is to help new students develop friendship and a sense of belonging in
transition to university with the aims of increasing both engagement and retention. This
application gives the students the opportunity to know each other and discuss assignments

21
and courses. It also has some mini educational games for university students all over the
world to play together. We think this app will benefit both your new local students and your
international students as both groups are seeking to integrate themselves into their new
university. This application would also benefit your university regarding the following
indicators: student productivity, student social life, positive university reputation and
communication, social and technological innovation.

We would be delighted to provide you with more details about our application and how we
could collaborate together during a personal meeting. We will be in Japan from December
2nd 2021 to January 1st 2022. We are flexible and will gladly adjust our schedule according
to your availability.

Sincerely yours,
Differ Chat.”
Section 3: Management

PRODUCT DESIGN AND BUSINESS MODEL:

Being that Line is the most successful communication app in Japan, Differ.Chat should
imitate the business model of Line. Based on Line’s company overview, the company has a
subsidiary type model. Entering the Japanese market will definitely cause some changes in
looks and probably in operating. With this in mind, the original style of Differ.Chat would be
displayed in Norway, the home country, while Differ.Chat operating in Japan would be
considered part of the company that acts separately, because of the cultural values needed to
be met, so the app is more accepting to the intended users. The most common subsidiary
models in Japan are the Kabushiki-Kaisha (KK) and the Godo-Kaisha (GK) which are both
joint-stock corporations with GK having a lesser liability.
Advantages of subsidiary Disadvantages of subsidiary
➔ Differ Chat operating in Norway is ➔ Longer set up time
protected from legal & tax liabilities ➔ Higher capital requirements
➔ Differ Chat operating in Japan acts like a ➔ Stricter requirements for shareholders
separate entity
◆ only files a tax return for
themselves
As far as actually using the app, Differ.Chat should be free for university students and not
require an invite from a friend to join the app. Motivation will help bring awareness to the
app.

Differ.Chat should allow university students in Japan to

● engage in games.
● connect with students without passing through channels.
● interact with students around the world and not just within their country.

It is recommended for the app to ask what course a student is enrolled in and connect them to
students enrolled in the same course. Since one of Differ.Chat’s missions is to help connect
students, the addition of educational games may allow interest in the app to peak. We have

22
already created a website for Differ.Chat. Here is where students can request any help or
further instructions on how to use the app.
Advertising
As part of the advertising model, we recommend social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter
and Instagram. Differ.Chat should follow students within its target audience— university
students in Japan. The accounts should connect with the students in a meaningful way by
posting about how the Differ.Chat apps are helping students to do their assignments together,
making group work easy, making new friends, playing educational games and make asking
for help comfortable. The app can also host a launch party and invite Japanese local media
and tech influences. There should also be interviews with Japan’s local newspapers and tech
bloggers. Japanese celebrities like Naomi Watanabe, Rola, Kiko Mizuhara, Yukina Kinoshita
endorse Differ.Chat will create a positive advantage.

PRICING:
For a social app company like Differ.Chat, charging students cannot be an option to consider
simply because regarding our competitors and the current market trends, the most successful
social apps in terms of active users, popularity and financial profitability are the ones which
are free for users. Nowadays, social media users are seeking convenient applications that do
not require a fee to use the application. Therefore Differ.Chat should only charge schools and
faculties.As a consequence, our pricing strategy will still be based on a membership pricing
strategy.It has a lot of advantages for Differ.Chat because it makes sure to provide enough
options to the potential buyer as it offers a range of different prices according to the services
included. It also enables predictable revenue and can also increase customer retention. If
Differ Chat were to take some of our recommendation strategies in the Retention section
(section below), they can add an additional package containing more functionalities/services
with a price which is proportional to the two current ones (6€ and 12€ , therefore the new
package would be 18€).

During the negotiation process, we could offer a potential 5% discount (on a specific
package) for universities that are not agreeing on the pricing list and ask them in exchange to
advertise our social media app on their social media platform, website and on the campus
with a billboard advertising type.However Differ.Chat cannot ask universities to only use
advertising as a form of “payment” because they need a source of income as they are
planning on potentially establishing the concept in the japanese market and implement an
office there. As a consequence, the cost of having an office in Japan will increase the plant
and equipment cost and more generally the operating cost, which is why we need to use a
membership pricing strategy in order to have a predictable source of income.

RETENTION
The objective of retention is to engage as many users as possible and therefore we established
a list of strategies that would promote even more interactions between users and enable users
to use multiple functionalities on the app in order to increase customer satisfaction and
therefore create customer retention.

23
Strategies:
- Creating weekly challenges on the platform, such as games with virtual objects to find
on the campus for example.
- Create games to play between students to promote interactions between students on
the same campus.
- Integrate new systems/functionalities: music sharing space; video conferencing; create
a work space in which students can help each other on different homework; create a
special space for all the different campus events that promote student integration and
student life on campus; creating for each university a daily or weekly newspaper that
would update students on campus life.
- Make sure to have a policy that would effectively report any form of harassment that
could happen between students. It should include an immediate banning from using
the app for a student harassing other students and should also include a report
communicating the misconduct of the student that would be sent to his university.
Indeed, some social media users are concerned with the “safe” aspect of social media
that might become a major customer attrition factor that Differ.Chat needs to take into
account. It is important to mention that Cyberbullying mainly occurs on social media
app (19.2%) and students (19 and older) represent 54.3% of the overall kids bullied
according to the survey done by Comparitech. Therefore, if Differ.Chat manages to
provide a safe platform for users, this would also increase customer retention.
- Provide effective customer service with a 24/7 assistance service to help users and
answer their questions.
- Asking users for feedback and asking them to rate the app on a scale from 1 to 5 stars
and give them the opportunity to freely comment on their user experience.
- Reward universities for their trust and loyalty by possibly giving them discounts for
their next subscription license.

24
References
-Ari Soffer, (2019), 7 Components of Effective Marketing Campaign, leadspace. Retrieved from
https://www.leadspace.com/components-of-effective-marketing-campaigns/
-C. Texter, (2021), Number of online Education users in China, statista. Retrieved from
https://www.statista.com/statistics/860245/number-of-online-education-users-in-china/
-C. Texter, (2021), Tertiary Education in China, statista. Retrieved from
https://www.statista.com/topics/6184/tertiary-education-in-china/#dossierKeyfigures
-Cyberbullying statistics and facts for 2021. Comparitech. (2021, October 28). Retrieved November 6,
2021, from https://www.comparitech.com/internet-providers/cyberbullying-statistics/
-Does it cost money to use Facebook, (n.d.), Facebook.
Retrieved from
https://m.facebook.com/help/186556401394793
-Education System in Japan, (n.d.), factsanddetails. Retrieved from
https://factsanddetails.com/japan/cat23/sub150/item833.html
-End User, (n.d.), Merriam-Webster. Retrieved from
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/end%20user
-Generational Consumer shopping trends and Statistics, (n.d.), v12data. Retrieved from
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/international-students-united-states-2020
https://v12data.com/blog/generational-consumer-shopping-trends/
https://marketingtochina.com/ecommerce-guide-in-china/
-How to start a Business in Japan,(2015), founder’s guide. Retrieved from
https://foundersguide.com/foreign-guide-how-to-start-business-japan/
-Japan’s top social media network, (2021), humblebunny. Retrieved from
https://www.nonprofitcollegesonline.com/wealthiest-universities-in-the-world/
https://www.humblebunny.com/japans-top-social-media-networks/
https://investigatingjapan.weebly.com/political-culture--socialization.html
-Mahesh Mohan, (2021), Over 61 Facebook Products and Services you probably didn’t know, google.
Retrieved from
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.matrics360.com/facebook-products-and-services/amp/
-Microsoft Teams, (n.d.), coursehero.
Retrieved from
https://www.coursehero.com/file/63927724/MICROSOFT-TEAMSpptx/
-Microsoft Teams Pricing,Features, Reviews and Alternatives, (n.d.), getapp.
Retrieved from
https://www.getapp.com/collaboration-software/a/microsoft-teams/
-Nadja Vietz, (2019), A primer on doing Business in the United States, harrisbricken. Retrieved from
https://harrisbricken.com/blog/business-united-states-overview-foreign-companies/
-Patrick Campbell, (2018), Slack’s pricing page tear down: Slack’s free vs paid plans, profitwell.
Retrieved from
https://www.profitwell.com/recur/all/slack-pricing-page-teardown
-Pestle analysis of Japan,(n.d.), google. Retrieved from
https://www.google.com/amp/s/pestleanalysis.com/v/s/pestleanalysis.com/japan-pestle-analysis/
%3famp_js_v=0.1&usqp=mq331AQKKAFQArABIIACAw%253D%253D#ampf=
-Ross Knap, (2020), How to convince the client to buy, calpage. Retrieved from
https://www.callpage.io/blog/how-to-convince-the-client-to-buy/
-S. K. Gupta, (2021), Facebook SWOT Analysis, bstrategyhub.
Retrieved from
https://bstrategyhub.com/facebook-swot-analysis/amp/

25
-Slack Technologies SWOT and PESTLE Analysis, (2021), swotandpestle.
Retrieved from
https://www.swotandpestle.com/slack-technologies/
-Slack, (n.d.), en.m.Wikipedia.org.
Retrieved from
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slack_(software)
-The Security Threats to Microsoft Teams, (n.d.), agatsoftware.
Retrieved from
https://agatsoftware.com/blog/ten-security-threats-to-microsoft-teams-part-1/
-The ultimate guideline to using the line app for Business, (n.d.), blog.btrax. Retrieved from
https://blog.btrax.com/ultimate-guide-line-app-for-business/
-TRADING ECONOMICS. (2021). Japan Unemployment Rate. Retrieved from
https://tradingeconomics.com/japan/unemployment-rate
-Update to China’s cross-border e-commerce policy,(2019), fas.usda.gov. Retrieved from
https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/china-update-china-s-cross-border-ecommerce-policy
-Whatsapp pro’s and con’s: the complete guide, (n.d.), techosaurusrex. Retrieved from
https://www.techosaurusrex.com/whatsapp-pros-and-cons-the-complete-guide/
-Whatsapp SWOT analysis, Competitors and USP, (n.d.), mbaskool. Retrieved from
https://www.mbaskool.com/brandguide/it-technology/12846-whatsapp.html
-Why Line is the most popular social media app in Japan and how to use it for online ad campaign,
(2020), digitalmarketingforasia. Received from
https://www.digitalmarketingforasia.com/why-line-is-the-most-popular-social-media-app-in-japan/
-8 ways to promote your app, (n.d.), upland. Retrieved from
https://uplandsoftware.com/localytics/resources/blog/8-ways-to-promote-your-app

26