Deconstructing And Analyzing The Business Model Of Seven West Media Company, An Essay.

Discuss About The Variations And Experiences Business Model.

The Seven West Media Company located at Perth, Australia is one of the leading integrated media group companies, with a large market presence and dealing in magazine, broadcast television and newspaper publishing as well. The company deals in the online presence as well. The company can be taken to be an integral aspect of many media business lie Seven, 7TWO, 6flix, Pacific Magazines and the Yahoo!7 (Home » Sevenwest., 2018). The company is also a parent brand to some big content brands like House Rules, Home and Away, Sunrise, the Olympic Games, Better Homes, Marie Claire, The West Australian, Perth Now and 7 plus. With the advent of technology, the company has further planned to expand its presence into video and related publishing content. The company is in a good phase and has been creating more content an expanding its presence in the international domain (The official list, 2018). The company has formulated a strategy to expand its leadership position in the domain of producing content across all screen and elements.  The company is listed under the Australian Stock Exchange under the name, ASX: SWM.  The report will be deconstructing their business model and provide recommendations on the same.                

The company is an integrated media company and functions well within its domain in Perth, Australia. The company functions along with various other media companies and manages their operations successfully (Ovans, 2015).

The business model of the company comprises of the nine building blocks which can be successfully understood in order to understand the different functioning.

The customer segments of the company comprise of the following groups:

• Audiences between 24 to 49 years old
• English speaking and educated consumers
• Advertisers

The key partners of the company are:

Suppliers of services and technology

These suppliers assist the company in achieving a competitive edge in the business field.

The company has various advertising partners like the West Australian, Marie Claire Better Homes, Olympic Games, and Gardens, Who, The Sunday Times, Perth Now and 7plus (Home » Sevenwest., 2018).          

During different projects for specific brands and companies, the company partners with various leading newspapers and media channels to ensure that the organization achieves success (Bocken et al., 2014 p.42-56).

Original content with respect to reporting a wide range of subjects: The Company writes various blogs, articles, newspaper advertisements and other mediums on varying subjects for popularity.

Advertisement campaigns for varying audiences: The Company also conducts an integrated approach towards different advertisement campaigns for different audiences across Pacific Magazines, Seven Networks, The West and Yahoo7.

Key Partners

The activities of the Seven West Company is as follows:

1. Creation and distribution of original content (Home » Sevenwest, 2018).
2. Traditional Advertising
3. Modern Advertising
4. Investment in Research domains

The different channels through which the company Seven West Media communicates are as follows:

The website of the company: https://www.sevenwestmedia.com.au/

Through mobile application (Zott, Amit & Massa, 2011 p. 1019-1024).  

Direct communication with advertisers

The main revenue streams comes from the given sources for the Seven West Advertising Company: 

• Native Branded Advertising Solutions
• Traditional Advertising Solutions
• Investments (Home » Sevenwest, 2018).

The cost structure of the company is based on the following categories:

• Platform maintenance
• Production of content
• Marketing plans
• Salary
• Suppliers
• Partnerships

Figure 1: Snapshots of different brands under the company

(Source: Home » Sevenwest, 2018)

The different resources of the company are as follows:

• The website and social media platform
• Personnel and Partnerships (Home » Sevenwest, 2018).
• Key relationships with different companies
• IT and Communications Department

The company maintains relationships through the following:

Social media and content emails

The business model framework comprises of 9 building blocks, each of which comprises of different details of the company (Kiel, 2014). The given blocks are highly related to one another and any change in one of the blocks, can bring a change in other blocks as well as they are a part of single business unit.

This can be illustrated with the help of a simple example, which means that in case the key activities of the company undergoes a change, then the different costs structures of the company will be changing and so will the key resources as well (Massa & Tucci, 2013 p. 420-441).

In the same management, if the organization spends a higher amount on the customer relationships and seeks to build then successfully, then their Revenue streams might be impacted along with cost structure of the firm (Sinkovics, Sinkovics &Yamin, 2014 p. 692-707). In the same way, if the Seven West media firm decides to improve their key resources, this may have an impact on the cost structure of the firm or contribute towards the revenue structures of the firm. Hence, the different building blocks of the business model specifically of the Seven West Media Company is related to one another.

Critical success factors can be described as those factors which contribute towards the success of the organization. The different success factors are as follows:

The strong network: The Company has various strong networks under its domain like the Yahoo Sport, 7 flix, New Idea, Pacific Magazines, Flickr, The West Post, The Australian post. While dealing with these brands and creating content for a large majority for most of them.  

Brand popularity:  The name of the brand is very popular and the media company is considered to be the primary choice of various brands and companies when they are required to have any activity related to the media aspect of their company (Hong & Fauvel, 2013). 

Key Activities

Key Resources: the key resources of the company are very effective in nature and thus, for this reason it is able to work efficiently and ensure success.

The downside risks associated with the company have been stated as follows:

There can occur various events like Natural Disasters, cyber-attacks, riots and cases of terrorism which can cause the business to shut down or limit to a few hours (Top 10 risks for communications, 2018).

The firm is looking out to expand into the international domain and hence, it may be then exposed to multinational exposure (DaSilva & Trkman, 2014 p. 379-389).  This may be in the form of supply chain errors.

Employee Safety

The safety of the employees during journalism activities may also pose a risk. Furthermore, very often technology errors and omissions also play a great role in deciding the risk as taken by the companies.

According to me, the following changes can be made to the business model of the Seven West Company:

• The revenue streams can be improved by inculcating more revenue sources which would assist the company in ensuring that their revenues can increase (Carayannis, Sindakis & Walter, 2015 p. 85-104).
• The value propositions as offered by the company can include a wider range of portfolios for the benefit of the different consumers.

Conclusion

Therefore, from the given analysis it can be stated that the company has been performing considerably well with respect to its duty of managing the integrated media companies. The given report followed a structured format whereby the different components of the business model of the company were deconstructed which was then followed by the analysis of the risks being faced by the company and the changes which could be made to the model.

After the analysis, the following can be recommended for the Seven West Media Company at Perth:

• They can expand to various international domains after taking into consideration the manner in which the international risk exposure can be minimized.
• They can include more avenues to earn a higher revenue.

References

Bocken, N. M., Short, S. W., Rana, P., & Evans, S. (2014). A literature and practice review to develop sustainable business model archetypes. Journal of cleaner production, 65, 42-56.

Carayannis, E. G., Sindakis, S., & Walter, C. (2015). Business model innovation as lever of organizational sustainability. The Journal of Technology Transfer, 40(1), 85-104.

DaSilva, C. M., & Trkman, P. (2014). Business model: What it is and what it is not. Long range planning, 47(6), 379-389.

Home » Sevenwest. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.sevenwestmedia.com.au/about-us/

Home » Sevenwest. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.sevenwestmedia.com.au/investors/financial-results/financial-results-2018/

Home » Sevenwest. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.sevenwestmedia.com.au/assets/pdfs/2017-Annual-Report.PDF

Home » Sevenwest. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.sevenwestmedia.com.au/

Hong, Y. C., & Fauvel, C. (2013). Criticisms, variations and experiences with business model canvas.

Kiel, I. H. (2014). Entrepreneurial marketing.

Massa, L., & Tucci, C. L. (2013). Business model innovation. The Oxford Handbook of Innovation Management, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 420-441.

Ovans, A. (2015). What is a business model. Retrieved August, 2, 2018.

Sinkovics, N., Sinkovics, R. R., &Yamin, M. (2014). The role of social value creation in business model formulation at the bottom of the pyramid–implications for MNEs?. International Business Review, 23(4), 692-707.

The official list. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.asx.com.au/asx/research/listedCompanies.do?coName=C

Top 10 risks for communications, m. (2018). Top 10 risks for communications, media and technology companies | PropertyCasualty360. Retrieved from https://www.propertycasualty360.com/2016/12/29/top-10-risks-for-communications-media-and-technolo/?slreturn=20180630054358

Zott, C., Amit, R., & Massa, L. (2011, July). The Business Model: Recent Developments and Future Research. Journal of Management, 37(4), 1019-1024.