Competitions

CAT Prep

Upskill

Placements

MBA Co'26

RTI Response

Rankings

Score Vs. %ile

Salaries

Campus Tour

The Rise Of Snapchat - Strategy With RS

Sep 8, 2015 | 3 minutes |

Join InsideIIM GOLD

Webinars & Workshops

Compare B-Schools

Free CAT Course

Take Free Mock Tests

Upskill With AltUni

CAT Study Planner

1 Day to CAT 2024 (All the best)

Participants: 20

Final 2 Days to CAT 2024 Test-44

Participants: 375

Final 3 Days to CAT 2024 Test-43

Participants: 315

Final 4 Days to CAT 2024 Test-42

Participants: 354

Final 5 Days to CAT 2024 Test-41

Participants: 372

Final 6 Days to CAT 2024 Test-40

Participants: 350

Final 7 Days to CAT 2024 Test-39

Participants: 344

Final 8 Days to CAT 2024 Test-38

Participants: 316

Final 9 Days to CAT 2024 Test-37

Participants: 327

Final 10 Days to CAT 2024 Test-36

Participants: 290

Final 11 Days to CAT 2024 Test-35

Participants: 505

Final 12 Days to CAT 2024 Test-34

Participants: 336

Final 13 Days to CAT 2024 Test-33

Participants: 298

Final 14 Days to CAT 2024 Test-32

Participants: 279

Final 15 Days to CAT 2024 Test-31

Participants: 367

Final 16 Days to CAT 2024 Test-30

Participants: 297

Final 17 Days to CAT 2024 Test-29

Participants: 312

Final 18 Days to CAT 2024 Test-28

Participants: 343

Final 19 Days to CAT 2024 Test-26

Participants: 338

Final 20 Days to CAT 2024 Test-26

Participants: 306

Final 21 Days to CAT 2024 Test-25

Participants: 253

Final 22 Days to CAT 2024 Test-24

Participants: 268

Final 23 Days to CAT 2024 Test-23

Participants: 180

Final 24 Days to CAT 2024 Test-22

Participants: 227

Final 25 Days to CAT 2024 Test-21

Participants: 226

Final 26 Days to CAT 2024 Test-20

Participants: 278

Final 27 Days to CAT 2024 Test-19

Participants: 232

Final 28 Days to CAT 2024 Test-18

Participants: 235

Final 29 Days to CAT 2024 Test-17

Participants: 247

Final 30 Days to CAT 2024 Test-16

Participants: 283

Snapchat is a platform for users to enjoy fast and fun mobile conversation! A user can ‘snap’ a photo or a video, add a caption, and send it to a friend. They'll view it, laugh, and then the Snap disappears. The concept has gained traction among users. So much so that FB had made an offer to buy it out for $3 billion. What makes a company valuable? There could be several reasons. One among them could be ‘differentiation’ - how unique & different is it in the minds of the customers in comparisons to the other options. But the differentiation cannot be for the sake of differentiation - it has to be on ‘determinant’ benefits – benefits which customers like, competition is not giving & your brand/company gives. Let me share with you the dimensions on which Snapchat has differentiated itself: 1.Non-permanent: On FB & Twitter you have to think & post because what goes on it stays there forever. Therefore you have to craft your text & looks. Not so on Snapchat. Here you can be your self … a bit irreverent knowing well that it will disappear after seconds / hours. 2.Only accessible via Smartphones: Snapchat has placed its bet that the young people are ‘mobile’ & are armed with a smartphone. And therefore Snapchat is not available on conventional web but only through smartphones because it wants the photos / video to fill up the entire screen of the smartphone. 3.Content: FB & others depends upon software to serve to its users content ranked as popular; or based on the surfing habit of the user; or upon searches, shares & clicks. Snapchats eschews this strategy. It has resorted to the old fashioned way of getting editors to decide what is good for its users & then serving it. Snapchat has tied up with 11 media brand like ESPN, People magazine, CNN, Comedy Central to contribute daily articles & videos. Of course the recommended content disappears at midnight!

Has the strategy to differentiate itself paid off for Snapchat? Take a look at these stats. – ‘Months taken to reach 100 million active monthly users:
• Twitter: 65
• Facebook: 54
• Snapchat: 44
Snapchat with its user base of 100 million + has a Valuation nudging $ 15 billion.

Business lesson for us: 1.It is difficult to achieve mega success by coping somebody’s successful formula, blindly. 2.You have to identify the determinant benefits – benefits that customers want, competition is not giving & you give. 3. Draw up a strategy to build a business around it. 4. Once you identify the determinant benefit then make sure to put competitors to shame on your chosen dimensions.   ———-   In this series, Rajesh Srivastava, Business Strategist and Visiting Faculty at IIM Indore gives you a regular dose of strategy case studies to help you think and keep you one step ahead as a professional as compared to your peers. Rajesh is an alumnus of IIM Bangalore and IIT Kanpur and has over 2 decades of experience in the FMCG industry. All previous Strategy with RS posts can be found here