E-Marketing Dji Case Study

1.a. Describe the "Customer Experience" that DJI’s Frank Wang Tao wanted DJI’s products to

deliver in 2009 (when DJI chose to develop quad-copters). What were the key features and

problems that Frank faced in delivering this customer experience? What factors needed to be

considered in developing the first generation of DJI products in a start up company? What

motivated Frank to shift from helicopter to multi-rotor? Did this reflect a shift in 'discriminators'

and ‘energizers’ driving the company’s products? (10 points)

Frank’s childhood’s desire of realizing the thrill of flight in his hands which evolved to make it available universally to kindred spirits fuels the Customer Experience that DJI wants to deliver to its customer base. The experience at hand would be of ultimate control of an RC copter which has an easiness of control and a very small learning curve so any random person with no experience of previous RC Copter flying or UAV’s would be able to put their hands on something through which they could fulfill their dream of the flight experience. On the other hand, the DIY hobbyists who treated assembling as an art would also be able to purchase a reasonably cheap product and yet have all the intricacies of the state of the art top shelf model available in market for a price heavy on the wallet. UAV history significantly discerns that initially only the wealthy hobbyists with plenty of time at their hand could have endured the experience of RC flying as crashes and malfunction was a major occurrence every now and then. Noting the fallacy of this existing infrastructure of things, Frank decided to turn things around by pertaining to their needs and also creating a new customer base in the amateur enthusiasts and inexperienced people.

In delivering on this promise there were quite a few hurdles to surpass, first of them was the core technology itself which would require an amalgamation of the technically intricate hardware with the advanced navigation/auto pilot software wrapped around in a learning difficulty analogous of an easy video game. There was a market for the assembled Copters but it required steep knowledge of the parts varied compatibility with each other so Frank had to come up with an assimilated product which effortlessly combined the quality and user friendly experience. One of the initial hiccups were also side effects of being a humble startup in the ravaging technological industry, they had to purchase in house electronic modules like a PCB from third party suppliers resulting in inconsistent quality and cost overheads.  Lack of resources was also one of the hindrance which would mean strategy revisions and time wastage whenever resource allocation was done resulting in low utilization. Another major strategy change that Frank had to undergo was the switch from Helicopter to Multi rotors, after months of pondering over the advantages of the multi rotor model and their burgeoning popularity along with the current dormant condition of companies dabbling in Helicopter models made him realize the effectiveness of this switch.

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