SBC102 case
TRAN Xuan Linh, Greenwich University (Vietnam), Coach
DINH Thi Yen Nhi, Safe Place Vietnam
TON Nu Bao Ngan, Safe Place Vietnam
DUONG Quynh Anh, Safe Place Vietnam
NGUYEN Thien Ngan, Safe Place Vietnam
HOANG Nhu An , Safe Place Vietnam
LE Nguyen Viet Anh, Safe Place Vietnam
NGUYEN Bao Huy, Safe Place Vietnam
PHAM Ba Quoc Huy, Safe Place Vietnam
ANALYZING THE BUSINESS MODEL CANVAS IN THE CASE OF SAFEPLACE VIETNAM
INTRODUCTION
The issue surrounding sexual abuse offenses is currently growing increasingly complicated, their nature is becoming more serious, and they are tending to increase, producing controversy in the public’s opinion and leaving many negative repercussions for society. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that one in three women has been the victim of physical or sexual abuse by a partner or stranger. It is obvious that this is a social issue that requires urgent awareness-raising and corrective action. SafePlace Vietnam is a community project using the social business concept, based on current social challenges and UN Goals. In order to listen to stories, share experiences, and delve into the unseen facets of victims’ lives, our project attempts to establish a secure, tranquil, and meaningful environment for victims of abuse.
Through social media and other forms of technology, SafePlace Vietnam will deliver important information to victims in an effort to help them comprehend and share it. We want to educate psychologists and local police about the need for self-defense and self-worth by sharing our experiences and expertise with them. We will share crucial information via social networks to help clients self-identify and become more conscious. Technology-wise, a program that connects with the collaboration of psychologists to assist victims in resolving their mental health issues.
Business Model Canvas is a tool that SafePlace Vietnam uses for creating business models. It was developed by Alexander Osterwalder and Yves Pigneur for strategic business management in the real economy (Osterwalder, 2010). The adaptation of The Business Model Canvas pursues a goal to increase the effectiveness of financial management in enterprises by optimizing management approaches to budget models. Along with nine elements corresponding to nine pillars such as Customer Segments, Value Propositions, Channels, Customer Relationships, Revenue Stream, Key Resources, Key Activities, Key Partnerships, and Cost Structure. By highlighting potential trade-offs, it primarily serves to assist SafePlace Vietnam in consolidating sales operations. From there, assist us in providing a more intuitive perspective and in reaching clearer, more correct decisions regarding the course of the company.
THE DESIRABILITY OF THE PROJECT
2.1 Target Customers
Our customers varied between the age range of 15 and 24 years old, which was named the “Youth” age range by both WHO and the UN. Most of our customers have developed a sense of mental development, and it has been claimed that mental health problems commonly occur within this age range (Jurewicz, 2015). Hence, when victims of Sexual Abuse fell within this age range, they have a higher chance to develop a sense of distress detrimental to their mental well-being and life quality.
In the same way, a preliminary survey conducted by UNICEF indicated that approximately 71% of Vietnam’s youth are the age group that is the most globalized generation through the use of social networks and advanced technology (Nguyen, 2022). Considering this statistic, SafePlace Vietnam places our target audience in this age range to efficiently deliver our services in regards to our key values of being predominantly online and accessible under any conditions.
With our customers, we are targeting delivering our values to two key categories of customers: the social customer’s group and the market customers group. The foundation for this is the differences in observation in our target audience age group of 15–24; within this age range, there are challenges in terms of financial independence for our key customers. As reported by Barroso in 2019, an analysis conducted by the Pew Research Center on Census Bureau data claimed that only 24% of young adults in 2018 were financially independent at the age of 22 or below. For that reason, SafePlace Vietnam presents our intended customers with options for using our comprehensive and free-of-charge value or making payments for more effective services.
2.2 Customer Relationships
Intending to create the ideal relationship with our customers, we highlight our four principal visions for connecting with them: Education, Help, Sympathy, and Knowledge and Awareness.
With Education, we anticipate establishing a commitment between customers and us through a series of learning and training courses on the matter of Sexual Abuse as well as Self-Protection. On top of that, SafePlace Vietnam proposes providing customers with courses on Sex Education and related topics. Following on with Help, we make an effort to fulfilling victims’ needs with professional help and seek psychologists to allow our customers to heal efficiently. By providing our customers with what they need, we will continue to be connected to them and intact with their well-being.
On the remaining visions, we aim on keeping our customers in contact by offering diversified experiences on our podcast where we deliver true stories from actual victims to listeners as well as raising awareness by providing in-depth knowledge on Sexual Abuse through channels of social media platforms and directly in our social events.
2.3 Channels
SafePlace Vietnam will be offering three product channels for our target customers in insurance so that our channels are accessible and inclusive for all.
Mobile Application
With our mobile application, SafePlace Vietnam concentrates on arranging four key features which are available for all customers within any conditions.
Our Story Box provides users access to our podcast series focusing on Sexual Abuse and stories surrounding the topic with charge. In developing this feature, we seek the presence of willing victims to tell their stories from their perspectives and give listeners valuable advice. This program intends on obtaining societal compassion while building awareness about Sexual Abuse by sharing real victim experiences.
Following, our Confession Board is an anonymous space that allows users to openly share their own stories or experiences to raise awareness and relieve psychological pressure on victims of Sexual Abuse in a safe and welcoming setting. This feature is free-of-charge to create an accessible space for anyone who is a victim of Sexual Abuse and is interested in the matter.
Equally important, the section of Learning Hub is a system of charge courses for users on preventing sexual abuse as well as self-defense courses for interested customers. It was established in the hope to raise public awareness and urgency around the issue of sexual abuse by offering materials and opportunities for individuals to gain insight from specialists.
Lastly, the Counselling Room allows users to have a one-on-one conversation with an expert through online communication forms such as chat and video calls. SafePlace Vietnam plans on assisting victims to recover by providing professional psychological counseling and one-on-one guidance through collaborating with available psychologists and connecting them with our customers.
Social Media
The SafePlace Vietnam TikTok channel chooses to tell true stories and demonstrate the victims’ true emotions and obsessions to raise awareness, provide information, and offer a forum online where people can express their opinions. All videos employ AI technology to secure the identities of the victims and convey the story more engagingly.
Furthermore, we plan on utilizing the wide usage of Facebook all over the world to allow us to connect with our target audience as well as be a platform where we could inform our customers of any upcoming events and provide educational information on sexual abuse and self-protection.
Direct Social Events
Our events and campaigns will mainly concentrate on creating value through interacting with the target audience and building our presence in social settings. SafePlace Vietnam attempts on organising varied events and workshops occasionally over the year in the hope to raise awareness on the matter of sexual abuse and create a positive community as well as opportunities for victims to speak and interested individuals to learn with our speakers and experts.
2.4 Customer Analysis
Initially, we performed a set of interviews and surveys in developing our customer’s target and analyze them most comprehensively. We have determined our target customers through the statistics we have concluded and it showed that a total of 46.65% of victims are aware of themselves being taken advantage of while 56.40% express uncertainty about them being a victim.
In a research conducted by the Ministry of Planning and Investment with UNFPA, women between 20 to 24 years old were found to be likely to experience sexual violence by a non-partner.
Also, as stated in the chart above, those age 15-19 had the highest rates of sexual violence in the past 12 months.
Also, research has found out the number of women experiencing sexual violence has been rising for the last decade at an annual rate of 2.9%
From the above information, we have identified our main age group for personas to be from 15 to 24. Therefore, here are our 2 customer personas for this project:
Social Customer Persona
Figure 1. Social customer persona profile(1)
We identify this persona to be female, age 15, a current high school student, and living in Ho Chi Minh City. She will have access to the Internet and spend lots of her time on social media platforms (2) as a means of entertainment and education. However, she is currently not financially dependent, therefore, it would be hard for her to spend an amount of money using the services on her own. Moreover, as sex education programs are not widely and properly taught in Vietnamese high schools (3), she wouldn’t have a lot of understanding of how to properly identify sexual harassment/abuse and protect herself against sexual violence.
Figure 2. Social customer value propositions illustration(2)
From what we have identified from our social customer persona, we have come up with our value proposition:
Market Customer Personas:
Figure 3. Market Customer Persona Profile(3)
With this type of customer, we identify the target in this group to be women, from the age of 18 to 24. She could either have a full-time or a part-time job to have the financial ability to pay for the services and products on their own. She will also spend lots of her time on social media platforms for education, working, and entertainment. However, she has experienced being sexually abused/ violent before. Many researchers have found out that 94% of women experienced PTSD symptoms during the first two weeks after an assault, and this tends to last for a long time after the incidents.
Figure 4. Market customer value propositions illustration(4)
From what we have identified from our social customer persona, we have come up with our value proposition:
THE FEASIBILITY OF THE PROJECT
Based on what we have learned about our target audience, combined with our approach and product channels, we conduct our key activities primarily concentrating on effectively employing social media platforms to raise awareness of Sexual abuse, create a safe community for victims of Sexual Abuse and provide user-friendly and receptive counseling service for victims. These activities include in-house activities and activities that need support from external resources from partners, volunteers, sponsors, etc.
Regarding activities carry in-house, we choose social media platforms as our main place of activity, including establishing and improving our Facebook page, our Tiktok account, and the series of inner podcasts.
SafePlace Vietnam encounters a Facebook page that takes advantage of the platform’s widespread usage in order to assist us connect with our target audience and serve as a platform from which we can inform our target audiences of any upcoming events and provide educational information on Sexual Abuse and Self-Defense. In order to run the Facebook page effectively, we have set up a system for posting and interacting on the platform. First of all, the idea of post content will be listed based on events that will take place shortly or hot topics that are of great interest to many people related to Sexual Abuse and Self-defense. These ideas will be discussed through the process of editing, supplementing, rearranging accordingly, and reaching as many people as possible. The content will revolve around the knowledge of Sexual Abuse and Self-defense including concepts, forms, ways to avoid it, or articles that convey positive energy. In addition, images related to social events such as project workshops, talk shows, meetings with messages about Sexual Abuse, volunteering sessions, donations, etc. will also be updated on the page. All posts will have the ultimate purpose of directing readers to SafePlace Vietnam’s services. After that, the articles will be scheduled to be published, and apply communication and seeding strategies to reach as many readers as possible.
The SafePlace Vietnam TikTok channel chooses to connect victims’ stories through a virtual persona with gloomy color schemes to demonstrate the victims’ true emotions and obsessions. All videos employ AI technology to secure the identities of the victims and convey the story in a more engaging way to raise awareness about the severity of sexual abuse. Specifically, real stories related to Sexual Abuse will be collected and transmitted by SafePlace Vietnam via the TikTok channel by combining AI’s voice into a 3D virtual character. By using this virtual character and the voice of AI technology, SafePlace Vietnam preserves the identities of the victims and conveys the story more engagingly. We leveraged the popularity of this platform to spread the urgency, density, and severity of this problem. About the steps to post, first of all, the real stories about this problem will be searched and researched by us. Then the story will be adapted into the voice, voice, and identity of the victim using AI technology. To maintain and increase the engagement of the videos posted, we maintain a density of posting one video per day, thereby spreading the message widely to everyone.
In addition to using social networks, SafePlace Vietnam also focuses on creating topic-based podcast series to raise awareness and heal the soul. Podcasts episodes will be divided into series with different topics and messages, each series will have many episodes posted weekly on SafePlace Vietnam’s application. Topics will revolve around sharing knowledge, opinions, and alarming topics that are popular at the time. The information mentioned in the podcasts will be searched and collected by SafePlace Vietnam before being aggregated into a series of diverse topics. After that, podcasts will be uploaded once a week for each topic on SafePlace Vietnam’s app. The series will also be featured and updated on our Facebook page.
At the same time, we also engage in activities that call for outsourcing partners, such as conducting workshops, offering information and spiritual assistance, and creating podcasts in collaboration with other partners. Organizing workshops and talk shows is SafePlace’s choice to spread the project’s message. To organize a social event like a workshop, members need to plan a workshop and a communication plan that includes ideas, script writing, and content creation for social media posts. After the ideation and planning phase has been completed, SafePlace Vietnam will proceed to prepare the necessary goods and materials for the event. Most importantly, we will search for and invite speakers, inspirations, and MCs,… to attend, share and support the event. In addition, we also cooperate with designers, call for financial support, and shoot and edit videos for the event.
One of our most important activities is educational information and mental support. The members will plan, and create the necessary content and documents according to the customer’s needs or the team’s strategy. To ensure the quality of the operation, SafePlace calls for and asks for support from experts involved in training, orientation, and emotional support for each victim. Similar to creating podcasts in-house, SafePlace Vietnam also conducts podcasts but needs support from external resources, including speakers, partners, influencers, etc. After creating content and necessary materials, the members will search for and invite special guests to contribute to certain podcasts. The team will then conduct a media call according to the plan established in the Facebook page management activity.
In all the activities and tasks mentioned, SafePlace Vietnam always prioritizes optimizing the use of existing personnel to carry out the implementation. In in-house activities, SafePlace evenly distributes human resources in charge of all key tasks, including designing content, editing videos, recording audio, creating posting timelines, maintaining activities, and interacting on Facebook. , Tiktok channel as well as Podcast in-app. Besides, the SafePlace team also tries to divide the staff equally to carry out extra-curricular activities such as workshops by taking full responsibility for the content and script development for the seminar, and the planning of events. date and venue, call for sponsorship, connect, and invite guests and speakers. Letting the organization’s personnel take care of core tasks, of a fundamental nature, will ensure that the spirit of SafePlace and the values of SafePlace are always expressed most clearly and fully conveyed.
However, in both in-house and outsourced required activities, SafePlace will face many difficulties and cannot fully fulfill its mission without the companionship of important partners. In the process of building content for Facebook and Tiktok, SafePlace received support from professors and psychologists namely Ms. Cat Phuong, who won a prize in Designing electronic lesson plans for teaching Education and Training Department, and Ms. Tam Dan, a psychology student in Ho Chi Minh University of Education, helps the team check the quality of the information posted and its relevance to the community. As for TikTok, the stories of the victims are visualized through AI, most of which are true stories anonymously contributed by the community. It is a great contribution to perfecting SafePlace’s image to enhance the reputation of SafePlace on social media platforms. Moreover, in the future, for the content of Podcasts in-app, in the process of compiling the content, SafePlace also intends to find Psychologists to provide content related to knowledge or participate in face-to-face interview visual podcasts to bring quality content to the community.
In addition to the support received through in-house activities, for extracurricular activities such as workshops, SafePlace has been supported and assisted by countless partners in many ways, which is absolutely necessary, helping SafePlace’s services to be widely spread and develop as well as creating solid trust. After the crowdfunding period, SafePlace received a total of 7,500,000 VND, sponsored by the University of Greenwich, the educational organization Unitutor, Kinder Ielts and 108 accessories, and many benevolent individuals, creating favorable conditions for SafePlace to conduct the workshop with modern equipment and prestigious guests. In addition, during the pre-and post-event period, media ambassadors, clubs from universities, social media pages and even the charming Vietnam newspaper contributed to spreading the word about the business. SafePlace Vietnam society and information about the conference and the meaningful services and messages that the organization brings to the community. This has helped the reputation of SafePlace be replicated, increased brand awareness, and contributed to the success of the workshop when many people attended and gave praise and praise to SafePlace. Finally, for a seminar, expert speakers and guests are two equally important components, directly related to the professional significance of the seminar. SafePlace understands that and has been recognized by speaker Hoang Le Minh Dung, master of psychology, and Miss International Queen 2023 Tran Ho Ha Dan. The very everyday sharing and professional knowledge of the two speakers made the seminar not only successful but also impressive but also strengthened confidence in the potential of the SafePlace project with the community.
THE VIABILITY OF THE PROJECT
We are expected to reach a break-even point after 4 years, with our revenue streams and cost. As in our revenue streams, for the first 4 years, our main source of income would come from events (fees/donations). However, the proportion tends to change after 4 years. As we grow along the journey, sponsorship income will become more and more important in our revenue streams, as we forecast that more brands are going to sponsor us as a way of CSR activities for corporations. Commission tends to also increase, as more and more people know about us, and tend to use our services to help solve their problems. On the other hand, our marketing and staff costs are going to be the dominant operating costs that we need to pay. Marketing costs, including ads on social media, campaigns will be needed to help our branding for the first few years, while staff costs are going to increase along our growing stage as we will need more personnel to help fulfill our visions and goals.
CONCLUSION
Understanding the urgency, severity, and density of this issue, SafePlace Vietnam has decided to create a safe, tranquil, and fulfilling environment for abuse victims by utilizing the social business concept, based on current social challenges and UN Goals. SafePlace has applied the Business Canvas Model to the project to create a suitable business model and has identified a client base who are victims of sexual abuse and violence in the wider community regardless of any background. any characteristics or features. From there, SafePlace will build in-app psychological counseling and sex education service, to help its users gain more understanding so they can protect themselves. Besides, SafePlace Vietnam will also organize online and offline campaigns to get closer to customers in particular and the community in general so that SafePlace’s project and message (business mantra) can be spread more widely, thereby enhancing the image, prestige, and value that the project brings as a peaceful and safe place for society.
REFERENCES
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Chivers-Wilson, K.A., 2006. Sexual assault and posttraumatic stress disorder: A review of the biological, psychological and sociological factors and treatments. McGill Journal of Medicine: MJM, 9(2), p.111.
Jurewicz, I., 2015. Mental health in young adults and adolescents–supporting general physicians to provide holistic care. Clinical Medicine, 15(2), p.151.
Kuadli, J. (2023) 32 disheartening sexual assault statistics for 2023, 32 Disheartening Sexual Assault Statistics for 2023. Available at: https://legaljobs.io/blog/sexual-assault-statistics/ (Accessed: 15 June 2023).
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National Study on Violence Against Women in Viet Nam (2019) (2020) UNFPA Asiapacific. Available at: https://asiapacific.unfpa.org/en/publications/national-study-violence-against-women-viet-nam-2019-0 (Accessed: 15 June 2023).
Osterwalder, A., & Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business Model Generation: A Handbook for Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers Paperback (p. 288). John Wiley and Sons.