The Malaysian Alternative "Shutterstock and Canva" - How Is STIVE ASIA Different For Local Business Owners? (PART 1)

The visual elements that encompass a business's marketing material can make a difference in growing your brand. 

These include how your company's branding flows, what images, shapes and colours you use to connect with the said brand, and the overall feel it gives off when looking at these things through one customer's eyes. 

It is often up to designers on which decisions they make for design changes. If great marketing looks dull, businesses won't captivate attention; and your first-hand impression tends to fall out. 

To this point, we can't help but admit having a designer is of utmost importance to any business in designing its brand positioning. 

However, getting brand collaborations can be competitive. With thousands of designers to choose from, businesses have a hard time filtering their selection, and designers are concerned about standing out. 

That's why creative platforms such as Canva and Shutterstock exist to make things easier for everyone who wants to either monetise their designs or create visually appealing branding materials quickly at an affordable price! 

"But, there is one problem."

Services and websites like Shutterstock can be costly for most Malaysian small and micro-businesses. 

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Just take a look at the monthly rates: 

Minimum download limit: 10 images per month

Minimum cost: 299 USD per year = approximately 1225 MYR!

Imagine you run a coffee shop, that requires you to sell about 102 cups.

With the current economic climate and Covid situation in Malaysia, coffee shops barely sell more than 5 cups of coffee a day. Would subscribing to a stock photo service be cost friendly to your revenue? Hence, Stive is here to be the game-changer for Malaysia. Unlike Canva and Shutterstock, we tailor-made each aspect of our platform for Malaysians like you. 

Our platform focuses on 2 target markets: business owners and designers. In this article, we put the focus on business owners. Part 2 will be focusing on the designers. 

Here are 3 ways of how Malaysian businesses can benefit from Stive Asia: 

1. Localised and Affordable 

While Canva and Shutterstock are the key players in this field, they are not localised. But, on the other hand, it is 100% made in Malaysia, which can favour Malaysian consumers – accurately tackling our culture, slang, and preferences of Malaysians, which bring in the sense of relatedness. Such relativity bridges the emotional gap between brands and consumers and evokes a more profound connection for one another.

Besides, creating impressive brand materials to grow your businesses don't have to cost you a bomb! 

The lowest price per image (just a picture!) you can get from Shutterstock is 9.16 USD (approx. 36.64 MYR), but at Stive Asia, it starts from as affordable as RM18.00 per branding material. And the best part? You can buy a fixed amount of credits at an even lower price and download your materials at any time of the year. On top of that, you get to enjoy absolute freedom on your membership package and payment style - no commitments required, only get the resources when you need them. And when you need to take a break from us, you can cancel anytime.   

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Here is a breakdown of the pricing: 

If you buy just an image from Stive Asia, you pay RM18 per branding material. 

But if you buy 10 credits, the pricing is RM49 with RM4.90 per credit, plus it's useable any time of the year. 

In total, you save RM131 by buying 10, as compared to Shutterstock, where you pay RM103.71 per month for 10 images.

Even if you decide to not get the package and buy the images at an individual price (RM18 per material), you still save at least 20% of your marketing cost when you buy 20 pieces. 

Besides, users can even submit payments via multiple localised payment methods such as TnG, Boost, iPay88, GrabPay and more.

2. Varieties – Branding materials from A to Z 

Need stock photos? Need social media graphic templates? Need audio tracks or just any other materials for your business branding materials? We have it all! 

Canva and Shutterstock may provide a mountain load of graphic templates and stock images, but they are service-specific. At Stive Asia, we offer all ranges of services, so you don't need to look high and low to fit your different business marketing needs. 

Our materials include ready-to-use:

• design templates
• Illustration 
• Audio / soundtrack 
• Stock images 

And the list goes on! All you need to do is unlock all the stock templates available create your materials within minutes. You can even use our app to design them on the go. Here are some ways you can utilise our templates: 

• Create e-business cards 
• Create e-invitation to your online events
• Business promo materials
• Microsite
• Landing pages
• Video thumbnails 
• Audio tracks for your video's background music 

3. Connecting local talents to businesses with ease 

Unlike Shutterstock and Canva, we've incorporated a talent search feature for business owners to directly connect with artists who design their templates.

We understand, as a business owner, time equals money. Unfortunately, not many of you have the privilege to learn and create designs on the go. Don't worry! Our platform also allows you to connect with thousands of talents without any commission charges freely. All you need is to click and engage with talent even at the ease of your fingertips. 

The common hiring platforms like Fiverr and Upwork may be the go-to place for business owners to engage talents. However, hiring on such platforms can be challenging due to unlocalised payment gateways, communication channels, understanding of the marketplace and filtering through hundreds of portfolios. Hence, in Stive Asia, business owners can discuss with talents

Discover talents for your business needs such as:

• Musician
• Photographer
• Fine artists
• Watercolourists
• Graphic Designer 
• Illustrator 

And the list goes on. 

Summary 

In short, creativity can be simple, and this is the mission of Stive Asia. We are committed to helping business owners create more value than we take because we focus on a vision far more meaningful than revenue. 

Time and tide wait for no one, and we understand all businesses in Malaysia are now standing on the edge, hanging on to whatever is left. 

Thus, the materials in Stive Asia are created to help improve your systems for long term growth. With no commission and no extra hidden charges, this all-inclusive platform is a place for your brand to flourish. 

Find everything you need at affordable rates!

From one template leads to a post, then a reader and then a purchase, slowly the ripple effect grows. Soon, your brand will elevate to a whole new level.