Pastel Keyboard is an application that transforms the traditional mobile device keyboard into so much more. It was established in 2015by Ek (Ekachai Charoen Pattanamonkol), who explains that he had watched the live WWDC event in which he saw so many individuals who had become wealthy overnight from mobile application businesses. This sparked in him the dream to create an application that would be valuable both on a mental level and in terms of customer usage. At the time, however, he had no idea what he would do to fulfill this dream.
Ek would often walk around looking at mobile phones in the various shops and stalls throughout the malls and department stores. Then one time, he noticed how almost every store was selling Blackberry keyboard attachments. Later, as other smartphones began to take a share of the market, physical keyboards were developed into on-screen keyboards. Instead of keyboards, people were now buying phone cases. Both the physical keyboards when they had been popular and now the mobile cases were extremely easy to purchase and customers were provided with a wide array of choices and options. However, when it came to something that people were using every day—their on-screen keyboard—there really weren’t any options for users to be able to modify either the keyboard content or themes according to their individual preferences. This gave Ek the idea to create and develop a new alternative for mobile device users.
Pressing the “Enter” Button!
Ek had a background in IT and marketing, but he knew he also needed to team up with others who could focus on managing the other aspects of the project. He then thought of some of his friends from university, and subsequently invited Pongpol Vorapreukpisut, who would manage the technology aspects, and Nithisa Jetmongkolrat, who would handle the financial management aspects.
The 3 of them decided they needed to set a goal whereby they would begin earning revenue from the moment the application was downloaded by the user, and so they set their app price at just 35 baht. While this was a decision that went against the trend of the time, which was to allow apps to be downloaded free of charge, it proved to be the right one. Almost as soon as Ek hit the “Enter” button to release the Pastel Keyboard application on the IOS App Store, there was an overwhelmingly positive response. Customers were prepared to pay the small fee to download the app in order to then access the free themes and content that the app offered.
Not long after this, Ek began developing the second version of the app, which provided in-app purchases, allowing users to purchase even more themes from within the Pastel Store. This meant he was now earning a fairly stable income from his app business, and so he decided to leave his job of that time in order to open his own company.
From its small beginnings with 2-3 founders, the company has now expanded to a team of 10. While this may still seem like a fairly small team, they have managed to generate over 300,000 downloads in the Paid Store and have maintained their Top Download position for the past 3 years.
The Pastel Keyboard Strategy for Maintaining their Champ Position
Over the last 3 years, Pastel Keyboard has maintained its Top Download position in the Paid App Store (as an application for which customers agree to pay to download), a confirmation from users of its capabilities and potential. Ek revealed that remaining in a top download position is not complicated; it simply requires focus on continuity in every dimension of development, including the consistent creation of new features that resonate with users, and the creation of unique content and themes. It’s vitally important that these are in line with the needs of users, as follows:
Focus on User Needs
Pastel Keyboard has had a number of different turning points. It started with a focus on beauty, which its customers responded well to. The focus then changed to creating features that could be continually added with the understanding that the more options that were available for the customers, the more they would love and increase their usage of the app. In reality, however, once Ek and his team actually analyzed real customer usage, they found that the users paid more attention to the aesthetics and personalized, individual customization of the features than to the actual number of functions available. The designers therefore turned their attention back to the gimmicks and effects available with each individual function, with a focus on making them interesting, exciting, and attractive as opposed to adding more unnecessary functions.
Application Name and Logo Are Just as Important as Usability
Because this is an app that requires payment before it can be downloaded, selecting a name and logo that would appeal to users was the first major leap towards victory – the first door that would turn the heads of users and make them take a second look at the product. It’s very important to choose a name that the majority of your customer base can understand and relate to. Generally speaking, the Asian customer base loves things that are cute and that have a soft, gentle feel to them. Ek, therefore, chose a name and designed a logo that was aesthetically pleasing and would be easily understood by everyone from children to adults of every gender and age group.
Unique Content
At one point, someone else tried to compete with Pastel Keyboard by creating a similar application. Pastel Keyboard responded by partnering with the copyright owners of international characters such as Hello Kitty, causing a rapid jump forward in sales growth.
A Community of Creators
Ek wanted to foster and support a community of creators of content and keyboard themes, so he opened the Pastel Crafter system as a platform for designers from around the world to submit their own content and keyboard themes to be sold on the Pastel Store as well. This has resulted in brand new content consistently being presented to users of the Pastel Keyboard with currently over 6,000 different themes available on the app.
Technology is Important
Pastel Keyboard functions are focused on automation or automatic management with computer calculations. This means that, for example, content management in the Pastel Crafter system – from the introduction of content into the system to storage, the purchase and sale of content, revenue sharing, and more – is almost all performed using automation in order to support the participation of large numbers of content developers.
The Pastel Keyboard Definition of Scale
The success of Pastel Keyboard lies in the importance placed on actual customer usage over return on investment. Ek has defined ‘scale’ as the ability to create new customers who will continue to use Pastel Keyboard on an ongoing basis and to generate organic growth or the growth of user numbers without any cash infusion stimulus.
The Next Step for the Pastel Keyboard Business
While Pastel Keyboard has maintained its Top Chart position for a long time, this has not stopped its business development. Ek is looking into further expansion into two types of markets — its original market and a brand new market. Currently, Pastel Keyboard has built its business on a B2C marketing format with its store providing content and themes to meet the emotional needs of users. Ek will be expanding existing market opportunities with plans for the additional development of the Built-In Features Store, allowing users to further customize more sophisticated functions themselves according to their individual usage needs and preferences, thus providing more options beyond enhanced content.
Another new, upcoming market soon to be entered is the B2B2C market. This will involve keyboards for organizations or corporations, helping the organizations to reach a newer, more modern user/customer base using a Brand-in (Blend-in) strategy. The idea is to be able to infiltrate and interact with the lifestyle of smartphone users by providing quick, easy access to an organization’s services. For example, if you are a broker, you may have information and gold prices that you can then allow users to be able to share quickly and conveniently with friends via the keyboard.
Closing Thoughts for Up-and-Coming Developers
In closing, Ek leaves some final thoughts for up-and-coming developers of the younger generation who have ideas for app creation and development. He says you must study your market ahead of time to know and understand what it’s like and whether or not you have any competitors in that market and what strategies you will use to outdo or outperform the competition. Oftentimes, you may have ideas that you think are very good and that you believe to be unique. When you actually take the time to research your information, however, you may find that others have used the same ideas before you. The onus then remains on you to figure out how you will present those ideas in a new and different way that stands out to your intended customer base.
Pastel Keyboard entered the AIS The StartUp Monthly Pitching in July, 2018, and was selected by the committee to join as a new member of the AIS family in order to expand its business, both in its original market and subsequently into new markets. For new-generation developers who are looking to create more and greater opportunities for themselves and their business as Pastel Keyboard has done, you can submit your work for consideration at www.ais.th/thestartup
