1] User Research
Potential Market for our service: We could find out that there is a sizable amount of users already interested in animal-related contents ranging from SNS to applications. However, we could also discover the lack of entertainment in already- existing similar applications. We decided this entertainment to be our point-of-difference.
2] Professional Interviews
We could also receive practical and reality-checks with professionals in the fields of both mobile application and abandoned dogs.
01. Market Research
In order to proceed with our project, we conducted two kinds of market research:
user research and professional interviews.
Survey: We conducted user survey in order to research whether there would be actual demand for our service and in which medium the users would find it most comfortable.
1] Ad-Client Research
Business Model: Since BARK is a platform that enables the cycle where different forms of material flow from one component of BARK to another, the business model was thought of as a simple explanation of how BARK activities are realized.
As seen in the above image, the BARK business model cycle is made up of mainly three components; the ad clients & partners, animal shelters and BARK including its users.
Starting from the Ad-client’s payment for the advertisement within BARK, the payment is translated into BARK points and distributed to the users who view the advertisement. The users then can use the points in the item shop to purchase and send gifts to their select dog and the shelter dogs in return provide the users with media content. Within the BARK application, the media content is put together with the ad-client’s advertisements and upon consumption of the media content, the ad- client receives marketing effects and increased awareness.
As mentioned above, there are three main components to the BARK cycle. Since our team had previously conducted researches regarding the user group and the animal shelter group, we believed it would be rational to conduce researches regarding the client group as well.
At first our group started with bigger, franchise forms of stores; innis-free, banilla-co. However, the results showed that these groups already had forms of marketing as well as were harder to reach the marketing decision-makers.
Thus, we turned to smaller, local stores who do not participate avidly in marketing these days. We deiced to use a targeting system which would benefit the client as well as the BARK users in providing them with only the kinds of advertisements that are wanted.
Interviews were conducted with 5 local stores including clothing stores, gyms and restaurants/ cafes. 4 out of 5 gave positive responses to the system, especially with the targeting system. Moreover, the general good-cause of the application made participation more appealing. Some questions were even made regarding whether a mark to show that they participate in the cycle would be provided, such as stickers or panels.
2] Facebook Simulation
In order to do a trial run of our platform, our team devised a simulation by creating a Facebook page of BARK. Everything was run in the same way as our model except for the fact that it is not an application but a web-based page. For the simulation we collaborated with actual animal shelters that are in dire need as well as ad-clients who agreed to hold temporary contracts with our team. Each posting was held for a given period of 3 days average.
Our simulation proceeded as follows,
1. Posting pictures and stories of actual abandoned dogs currently in shelters
2. At the end of each post, a short advertisement of a temporary ad-client was added along with a quiz regarding the advertisement.
3. Viewers were required to answer the quiz questions in the form of comments under the given post. Each comment was translated into 200 won, each like 50 won and each share 200 won.
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4.At the end of the given period, the total amount of fund raised was announced along with a list of products the viewers could choose from to send to the introduced dog. A vote was conducted regarding which product would be sent also for a given period of time in the form of comments.
5.After a product was selected, our team purchased the chosen product, delivered it to the introduced dog and posted pictures of the delivery.
4 rounds of this cycle were run during a period of 10 days. A total of 60,000 won was raised and delivered to shelter dogs.
At first we experienced a steady increase in participation but during out third round, we were able to see a rather sharp increase in participation. This was due to a viral effect that was caused due to the sharing of the given posts along with the familiarity that was obtained through the series of our postings.
We realized that people had the willingness of going through the hassle of answering the quiz questions to help abandoned dogs as well as enjoyed our platform. Moreover, we were able to see that foreigners were also participating in the platform and were responsible for about 30% of the engagements made in our postings. Thus, we also started English versions of the posting, seeing the potential of foreign participation growth.
Veterinarian
PuppyHome Mobile Game
Dog Shelter
WEAAA, developer of abandoned animal-related mobile game
Songdo Central Animal’s
Hospital Director
Dabsimri Thank You Center,
Animal Shelter
With such sample, we asked various questions regarding the users’ usual mobile consumption, donation and volunteering habits. From such responds, we could deduct three main insights.
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1. Our target user group is animal-lovers.
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2. Users are more willing to watch advertisement when given points.
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3. Users are more willing to donate and volunteer when not much money and time are needed.
02. Business Model and Client Research
After the market research, we conducted client research and launched simulation of Bark service.