LATVIA

PARTICIPANTS: ANASTASIJIA, VIOLETTA, JANA, JULIA

Describe your Project Idea and how it originated:

 At least 30% of citizens in Latvia whose native language is not the state language. Many of them have remained not integrated into Latvian society, they comfortably live according to the principles of another country. Often for those people, the main problem is language exchange. Unfortunately, the government and state services are not dealing with this social problem properly. Many people can live in Latvia for most of their lives, but still not have friends and close acquaintances communicating with them in Latvian. The disunity of society has led the country to the division of society, the cult of hatred and the unwillingness to unite. This all leads to very different opinions about economic, social and political issues. Additionally, due to the war in Ukraine, many refugees came to Latvia. They have been living in the country for a long time, which makes their stay in Latvia favorable only if they have a small base in Latvian. Our idea is to create a platform that would make it possible to unite different people on the basis of common interests.

What problem do you want to address with this Project? Why do you want to address this problem? How does your Project address this problem?

Russians in Latvia are more than 30 per cent and not everyone knows Latvian, as well as not all Latvians know Russian, so there is a strong stratification in our country that prevents the unification of society since ignorance of the language leads to the fact that people communicate only in their environment, do not understand culture, traditions and mentality. We want to unite Russians and Latvians in Latvia, using a website where people can communicate by choosing topics for conversations, and interests, noting their language level and other personal characteristics.

What will be the product? Describe the primary product/service offered by your company.

Our product will be about connecting people who want to integrate into the culture of each other. The primary product will be like tinder where you searching people with interests and then you can chat about specific topics. That's why you learn the languages, traditions, culture and mentality of Latvian or Russian people.

What kind of competitors do you have? How will you compete with them?

At the moment, there are no similar products in Latvia, therefore there are no competitors, which gives us the opportunity to be monopolists in our market. However, there are world-famous dating apps like Tinder and Badu that are somewhat similar to our product. But we have different goals and objectives that we must define precisely so that no one compares our application with the above.

What is your tone of voice? What is your Brand Philosophy? What are the main values of your project?

We want to show that different mentalities, languages, and opinions do not mean that the country cannot be one. Our philosophy is simple - to unite everyone and become one single country. The main values of our website are sociability, openness, tolerance, respect, and development.

What is your primary logo? Wordmark? Brandmark?

Company Management Structure

Will you start this project with a team? How will you distribute responsibilities?

In the beginning, it will be a team of four people. In our team will be a creative director, technical support, manager, and web - designer. Another people we'll take from our service. When our business will grow up, we take people in our team, like a programmer, accountants and so on.

Organizational Timeline

Timetable of how you will build your Company or Digital Enterprise Project

It is not difficult to open a business in Latvia. First of all, we will think through the whole concept one more time. Then we will need to go through all the bureaucratic stages of starting a business, so we will turn to an accountant for help. We also want to receive support from government agencies, so after the etching, we will submit grants for state support.

Company Assets

What will be the property of your Company or Digital Enterprise Project? How will you secure that property or that value? Describe the company's Assets.

We found it more efficient not to rent our own office, but to work in coworking spaces. The office will take up most of the budget at first. In the coworking, we will also be able to promote our business and look for potential ambassadors. So far, we will not have any assets other than computers and necessary equipment for the designer and for maintaining the website. All our resources will be invested in creating a good website and promotion

Future Plans

Describe in what way, you will expand your project (e.g., through future products or plans). In what ways, can your company/project be expanded?

First, we plan to create a web page where people can communicate and improve their knowledge of languages, over time we want to buy an office where people can meet and communicate life, also offering them various activities such as sports, board games, cultural evenings and so on. In the future, there will be more options for people without a subscription and with a subscription. We also want to attract a more adult audience, people with disabilities, so that they do not feel lonely by offering them a free subscription. At first, there will only be a website, this is due to a small budget, later we want to create an application for the phone.

MARKETING PLAN

Target Audience

What is your target audience? What kind of needs are you trying to address?

Our target audience will be between the ages of 18 and 30, who are interested in self-development, new knowledge (in particular, language) and getting out of their comfort zone for the benefit of themselves and society. We will give space for young people who strive for self-improvement, learn the language and integrate into society. Also, in the future, we plan to direct our product to an older audience, facilitating the functionality.

Pricing

How will you price the product/service? Will this price be affordable for your target audience? What will you do if the price is higher for your target audience? How will you manage to get a lower price?

We decided that on our website there will be a subscription for a different group of people. For example students, premium, and family subscriptions. It'll have different prices for each. Our concept will be to use a limited subscription for some functions, rather than paying for the full website after a while. If we see that people complain about the prices, we'll be thinking about discounts. Our company will manage the prices with the government's help. For example, suggest something business plan and ask for business support. For people with disabilities, we will make a 100% discount for subscriptions.

Advertising

How will you advertise your product/service?

Undoubtedly, we'll use platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. We will also write press releases to the media, in which we will highlight the problem, offering a solution to the problem - our product. Thanks to press releases, we will find support from other companies and institutions with which we will cooperate in the future. Among those, of course, an important part will be educational institutions such as schools, universities and also influencers whose opinion is highly valued.

Write a marketing abstract of two-three sentences:

Our campaign will be aimed at long-term collaboration with famous personalities, educators and cultural figures. Moreover, meetings will be organized for consumers, where it will be possible to talk with famous personalities and listen to their opinion. Besides, as a project, we will create a motivational and inspiring video that will make young people think about the importance of the problem in society and the benefits of this application. It will be shared on social media.

SWOT Analysis (Strengths/ Weaknesses/ Opportunities/ Threats)

Strengths: What are the strengths of your Project?

The main goal of our project is to unite people of different nationalities, so the strength of the project is knowledge, acceptance, tolerance and interest in another culture. We also have no competitors, this is the first such platform in Latvia, of course, there is Tinder, it may seem that they are very similar, but the goals for which people sit in one and the other network are different. Perhaps the state would be interested in our project and we could receive support from the state

Weaknesses: What are the weaknesses of your Project?

Our product can be confused with brands like Tinder and Badoo. We need to clearly assert ourselves from the very beginning as an application for connecting society and learning the language. We will need to strictly ensure that our application does not become a simple dating website.

Opportunities: Which opportunities are open to you? How will you grasp these opportunities?

For us, this is an opportunity to create a business through which we can favourably influence a social problem. Since there is no similar product, we can capture a large group of the potential audience.

Threats: How will you manage your threats if you don't know them? Try to find all the threats to your Project.

-The main difficulty is that the project is very social and may not pay off. -Perhaps some political parties may not like it and provoke a boycott of the website. 

• Now the economic situation is difficult, which can reduce the number of paid subscriptions and the ability of our audience. 
• For many years now, our potential audience has been leaving Latvia for a more favourable economic environment, because of this, the idea of learning Latvian or Russian may not be relevant. 
• State services may not be interested in financial assistance for such a project

Make a Poster accumulating your answers to all the previous questions to present them in a creative way in our next session (5-7 minutes presentation).