REPORT ON AN INNOVATIVE MARKET
Executive Summary
Tile is a paid tracking smart phone applications that is designed to enable users track just anything, laptops, keys, cases, bags, bikes, you name it. It allows one to attach the tiles to an item he or she is likely to lose and keep track with the included app. This way he or she can check how far they the missing item is, often within 50 to 200 foot range. With this app, one can monitor close to fifteen tiles via his or her Tile account. Once activated, the tiled items can last for one year. It also has a crowdsourcing aspect as a secondary feature. One can share tile with close friends, family members, work mates, and so on. This is achieved by creating a community network of users within the range. When something is lost within that range, he/she can let the tile community network know to help in the search.
Tile is an ideal application to use either when at home, workplace or visiting new places. With these killer innovative features Tile will definitely become the must have application for everybody who wishes not to lose valuable and prized items. However, the triumph of this smart phone app will rely largely on providing the end – user with timely, trustworthy and resourceful information about tiled items. Users must be ready to create a sizable network community of users to allow roaming and enhancing efficiency.
Tile is the name of the company and the first product that this firm is seeking to launch. Any other upcoming product will be launched under this brand but with different name that will reflect the intended market.
Mission and Vision
As mobile phone become more and more predominant, we seek to provide applications that will help users connect, collaborate and share crowd information to help them solve their everyday needs. Our application will provide a fully customizable, brand – independent control platform in the palm of their hands.
This business seek to develop on a culture of trust and time. Users have to be able to find solutions to their problems in a timely manner and trust the information they receive. It is within these aspects that will result to positing returns towards the product and prompt app users explore more. Users will be required to register and together form a community network within a given range to make this app valuable. This app will rely on these aspects to improve the experience for everyone using it. Continuity and loyalty of users will result to a greater customer base and revenue.
Keys to Success:
- High quality development skills.
- Simple and easy navigable user interface.
- Strong innovation, involving substantial and useful enhancement to existing phone features such as Bluetooth and geo tag.
- First to market, quick establishment and penetration of market to enable visibility to possible acquirers.
Market Analysis
Innovative and marketing are perhaps the only two crucial drivers for the growth of any business. Substantial growth of a firm depend heavily on insightful, systematic, and scientific framework of marketing guidelines and methods (Fleisher & Bensoussan 2011). For start –ups, market analysis is integral as the basis for the marketing plan. Thus it will enable justify the sales forecast. As argued by Bowman & Gatignon (2010), existing retail firms will depend heavily on previous performance to screen the future. Conversely, start – up business have even greater challenges. They will depend heavily on marketing researches using libraries, trade agencies, statistics, and competitors’ observation, among others (Bowman & Gatignon 2010). Market research analysis is performed in order to collect as much information as possible on the intended market. It is a common business activity that is used by commercial firms every day to find sellers and during decision making.
This research will be alienated into various divisions. The first division will provide estimations on the size of the market. The second division will handle market and the needs of consumers. The final section will assess the competition within the intended market place.
Market Research
The tools that are often employed are focus groups, market surveys, field tests and interviews. Primary researches often rely on statistical frameworks that encompass scrutinizing as little as one percent of the intended marketplace (Bowman & Gatignon 2010). This small sample can deliver an actual representation of a particular market.
The downside of primary marketing researches is that they can be quite costly to conduct. Fortunately, emerging online tools and methodologies enable start – up firms to perform primary researches such as surveying themselves at minimal cost. The main aim of our research was to see if our concept of brand – independent and a fully operational smart phone app for easy tagging project was feasible to our market segmentation.
A Primary research was carried out using an online survey which was aimed at finding a qualitative online survey tool. These included some well – known research tools such as Survey Monkey. The survey was made using set of questions agreed upon by our research and development team. Survey Monkey Audience enabled us reach a good number of targeted population through specific demographic and behavioral trials. Below is a presentation of the information that we considered is most important to this plan.
Would you be interested in an App that let you monitor and locate lost items?
Apart from the primary research, we conducted what is called a secondary research. A secondary marketing research encompasses the investigation of already existing data sources as well as any previously relevant information. The data is available through various publications, reports, magazines, websites and journals. Secondary research data is easy to find and is not costly. However, the data is not always customized to the needs and demand an extensive research. For this reason, secondary research might as well be sizably useful to complete this plan.
Mobile Devices and Crowdsourcing Technology Trends
Use of smart devices is increasing by leaps and bounds (Hopkin & Turner 2012, p.2). Various researches indicates that more than half of the world population with mobile phone currently have smart phones. This leap already lays a path for innovative ideas that will have a huge impact on people’s lifestyle. In the study conducted on how people currently use their smart devices for crowdsourcing, and how they are likely to use them in the future, various deductions can be drawn (Hopkin & Turner 2012). According to Neto (2014) smartphones influences 23 percent of all home and office activities in the United States.
Crowdsourcing and crowd funding technologies are huge technological and social trends. However, their power as a tracking tool is still being discovered. Nowhere before has a communications channel been adopted as rapidly or as widely as crowdsourcing media. Social – based apps will be more pervasive, encouraging community liking, commenting, as well as crowdsourcing and sharing information across a wide range of practices. Futuretechs & Park (2012) cites that “we will live and conduct businesses in a social matrix, where virtually all resources can be found including customers, funders, items, and services” (p.23). Crowdsourcing will encourage novel forms of concepts that are only just becoming noticeable.
Fig1.iOS and Android powered Phone Time per App Category. Social Technology together with utilities makes up to 36%.
Even now, moreover, the possibility for value creation from the use of crowdsourcing technology remains largely untapped. A Futuretechs & Park (2012) survey of close to 4,000 homes in US in 2012 noted that while more than 85 percent of respondents use social technologies, only 12 percent are actually networked to benefit and bring substantial value. This included Facebook and Twitter. About 2 percent of this population used other social technology forms such as crowdsourcing to enhance to solve day to day problems (Futuretechs & Park 2012).
But that has changed, people increasingly use social technology to solve these problems, often by crowdsourcing answers from enterprises, customers, experts, talented proletarians as well as a location finder. Futuretechs & Park (2012) noticed that enterprises with extensive internal capabilities are creating transparent competitions where participants provide concepts for novel products features, software, and most importantly, help with customer service.
Consumer Experience
Applications, especially developed for mobile phones has been around for some time and continues to grow. The technological advancement around these devices has become an important influencing factor for users when choosing which one to buy. Hopkin & Turner (2012) measured a 52% increase in active smart phones and tablets in the US alone between March of 2013 and March of 2014. Smart phone already play a big role in planning, as reminders, and executing role – based challenges. This overshadows the trips made through web based and computers tracking technology which only get to 22 percent (Hopkin & Turner 2012). Again, close to 82% of smart phone owners reach out for their mobile devices to explore new concepts and get recommendations on what makes their lives even easier. This way, people will look for strategies that are innovative enough to capture their mindshare (Nansi 2012).
App Growth
In 2015, over 40 percent of the apps downloaded will be social technology and role based apps. Just as it is difficult to recall how people ever lived without e – email, the same deduction is likely to be drawn about role based mobile apps in the next two to three years (John 2010). The iPhones, iPads, BlackBerry, Windows, Android as well as other mobile devices that are a fixture in the lives of majority of people around the globe today are set to change our lifestyles through intelligent use of mobile apps. Increasingly, mobility trends are converging to enable novel concepts. Hopkin and Turner (2012) also identifies major reasons for growth of such mobile apps. He deduces that mobile device – touting millennial are driving change in how people live and operate. Again, people are increasingly looking for virtualized operating frameworks that allow real – time collaborations anytime, anywhere. The mobile web as well as other embedded phone technologies are affecting the way people live and operate today. They note that the emerging phone technology concepts will mirror peoples’ world (Hopkins & Turner).
“We have seen these role – based mobility apps heighten productivity by 10 to 15 percent” (Hopkin & Turner 2014, p.12). On translation into a business context, these targeted forms of apps become “role – based apps”, as they are designed for specific roles and functions (Futuretechs & Park 2012). People will look to mobility as well as role – based phone applications for the more tactical objectives that will affect their general performance. This is made even more fascinating through the use of embedded features and technologies such as wi – fi and camera. Hopkin and Turner (2012) affirms that the future is even brighter for app companies and developers. In 2013, there were approximately 21 billion app downloads made on all mobile platform. Of more than 3/4 of a billion active Blackberry, iOS, Windows, and Android powered phones active across more, than 230 nations that will produce close to $ 18 billion in 2014 (Hopkin & Turner 2012).
Fig 2. Monthly Revenue per App.
This number of downloads is even expected to get to almost threefold year – on year in 2014The rising popularity of both apps and smartphone are correlated (Hopkin & Turner 2012). For smart phone devices and tablet computers, the world has quickly become accustomed to, and even more reliant on, easy access information, applications, communication, collaboration and more, by the use of web technology.
We highly depend on these literatures to enable us successfully market Tile app. Initially, we want to launch on the Apple iOs and Android platforms. We acknowledge both the centralized market and extensive that Apple and Google’s Android offers. This should enable maximum visibility so that focus will entirely be on apple and Android versions.
Market Segmentation
Market segmentation, in its tactical sense, refers to such thing as the use of particular statistical strategies for determining groups of potential customers with different needs, wants, tastes, and preferences (Hallberg 2000). Conversely, market segmentation strategy is a wider concept that refers to the strategic process that includes (1) identifying bases for segmentation, (2) using the articulated bases to determine potential market segments, (3) developing combinations, (4) assessing existing resources, (5) selecting an alternative that targets a specific market segment or segments, (6) adopting positioning strategies for the market offering for the segments, and (7) developing marketing mixes appropriate for each segment (Hummels 2009).
Our aim here is to figure out who our potential consumers will be. To do this, we will need to divide our consumer base into different categories. The activity of slitting all consumers into small divisions of possible buyers with like features is known as market segmentation (Hummels 2009). Throughout this process, we assent to keep in mind what groups of mobile users are similar enough that our product and service will appeal to. We will also keep in mind that the market is significantly, and not comprehensively heterogeneous regarding consumers’ needs, wants, use requirements, tastes and preferences. This way, we can segment this into smaller, meaning full groups and easily come with deductions of what types of consumers would be interested in Tile App.
In market segmentation, four basic strategies are used
- Behavioral Segmentation
This approach involve grouping consumers depending on their attitude towards, use of, or response to a product or service. Available literatures indicates that behavioral variables such as occasion, benefits, user class, level of use, customer willingness state and loyalty are the most effective preliminary points for developing market divisions (Hummels 2009). Using these theories, we will categorize consumers and organizations into units according to how they behave towards related products.
- Demographic Segmentation
This involve categorizing consumers by tangible, personal features such as their age, income, ethnicity, family size, social class, and forth. This approach is often applied in market break down since the variables here are not difficult to determine and assess.
- Psychographic Segmentation
We will use psychological profiles of the targeted population to supplement the actual geographic location of our targeted market place.
- Geographic segmentation.
The geographic segmentation groups consumers into divisions based on geographical areas such as nation, states, regions, towns or neighborhoods. It is integral to segment consumers according to geographic, since the purchasing behavior of smartphone users are greatly influenced on where they live and work. Tile aims more than one region. However, we acknowledge that these data may vary from a country to another (Hummels 2009).
According to Hopkin and Turner (2012), smart phone ownership and use is appreciably high among users who are 25 – 55 years old. Close to 68 percent own a smart device and 70 percent use it to help with role based activities. As one get older, their experience with smart phones tends to remain constant or increase, even as younger user who owns active smart phones make initial entries into role – based activity years. This information make us to come to a decision that this app can be most useful to consumers between the age 24 and 55 years. However, users outside the bracket can fall under minority target. They also note that given the large and growing impact of mobile devices on traditional activities, people will follow trend changing their approaches to mobile (Hopkin & Turner 2012). Using the above approaches and literature, we summarize our market segmentation as follows:
- Sex : men and women
- Location: worldwide – all of the app content and the website are written in English, thus understandable for majority.
- Age : Between 25 – 55 years
- Owns an iOS or Google’s Android powered mobile devices.
Sizing the Market.
Perhaps the most significant issues for anyone trying to market a novel product or service is to determine the size of the potential market. The prediction of market size provide a business plan a sense of scale (Hallberg 2000). We want know how big the opportunity is currently and big it may become in the near feature.
Determining the size of the market is probably the most challenging activity as it is not precise science. Market size is relative, markets change rapidly (Hallberg 2000). As a result, market numbers are educated deductions at best (Fleisher & Bensoussan 2011). There are numerous approaches that can be used to determine the market size. With this plan, we will employ the chain – ratio approach. It involve multiplying a larger market size, which is well known, by a chain of related – ratios.
Fact is majority of phone users owns either an android or an iOS powered phone. These people must possess at least one valuable item that they don’t wish to lose. This translates directly to our market. We took this information from Flurry Analytics website. Over 450 million iOS and Android powered phones are active worldwide.
Fig4. Flurry Analytics, January 2013 to January 2014, countries with at least 500,000 active devices as of January 2013
As a reminder, our segmentation is as follows
- Both men and women
- Aged between 25 and 55 years
- Owns either iOS or Android powered mobile device
- Location – worldwide
Tile acknowledges this and seek to launch a mobile app that will provide key tools and information to enable and influence people’s life style. We use the above data to determine the intended market size. We suppose the distribution of age is equal for our targeted group, then we have close to 30 million app users of age 24 – 55. This number can translate to potential customers.
Competitor Analysis
Assessing potential competitor is crucial for any business strategy. When making an entry into a market with a novel product or service, it is important to picture and analyze the completion (Fleisher & Bensoussan 2011). A competitor Analysis is a business – strategic planning tool that enables easy decision making by taking into account the presence of competitors and their potential influence.
A complete assessment on our potential competitor will provide a comprehensive picture of the marketplace that target to operate on. As argued by Welfare (2011), a good competitor analysis looks at every aspect of the business. This includes the market segments the businesses operates in, their respective share in the market place and what different features do they offer that put them at a competitive edge. As noted by Fleisher & Bensoussan (2011), this analysis also encompasses competitors’ weakness and strengths. This assessment will also enable us to disentangle both direct and indirect competitors while defining the scale of the market.
Before assessing our potential competitors, it is crucial to understand different market types:
- Novel Market.
A novel market is unexplored market base, usually created by a distracting innovation. There are no customers and competitors currently present in this division. A concept has been developed that did not exist before.
- Existing Market.
This is a market where the competitors and consumers are well known. More importantly, the basis of competition can be pointed. Thus, there are some features which are quite significant to the consumers and for which they are willing to dump their current service provider. Taking lead in shares of an existing market is only possible when offering the best of these features (Welfare 2011).
- Re – segmented Market.
This involve an existing market which can be further segmented to suit a need. The approach used here is a market niche strategy. We will not compete directly with the existing competitors. We seek to develop a new market segment and be the first mover to the market which offers a great advantage.
The location – based app market is quite crowded and already well reputable brands such as Wallet TrackR are doing well in the field. However, there is no existing phone app that make it intensely easy for users to track items, share tiles with friend and receive locate these valuables on a timely manner.
Tile Company seek to launch a new product that will fulfil unaddressed needs in both crowdsourcing and crowd – funding worlds. Clearly, this is a re – segmented market, both concepts of crowdsourcing, crowd – funding and geo – location are brought together to satisfy needs that have never been explored before.
Assessing potential competitors makes more sense when a company is entering an already existing. In re – segmented market, assessing potential competitors begins with the hypothesis of “Here is the problem we are solving for our potential customers.” The primary research of potential competitors first began in App Stores of the targeted platforms entering keywords such as “crowdsourcing”, “tagging”, “crowd – funding”, “track items” and so on. Possibly, there exist thousands of related third party apps in stores. An effective strategy would be to download these apps and put them into practice thoroughly. However, we did the otherwise and screened them using online user reviews. We found that most of these apps supports just the usual geo tagging and location based practices. Tile is a first mover and a quite unique app that will maneuver its way to achieve a competitive advantage. It has no notable competition.
SWOT Analysis.
This is a strategy used in evaluating the Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of a business. The main objective is to align our strategies with the existing realities of the environment (Thomson 2005). This will enable use maintain and developed on our strength, fix and reduce weaknesses, encounter threats while taking advantage of rising opportunities.
Strengths
- First to Market
Tile must always be a stride ahead. A first mover does not necessarily mean always ahead. A late mover may has the capacity to assess the movements and techniques made by a first mover and may learn from their mistakes.
- Strong developer team
The developers of the mobile app are key developers of the research and development department with very reputable skills.
- Fair Segment
We seek to make an entry to unexplored market
- Solid technology:
Tile App is an open and very configurable innovation, no other black box required.
Weaknesses
- No strong marketing capacity. We are a technology firm, not a marketing one. As a result we need to accumulate sizable marketing knowledge.
- Limited Platform. We are currently depending on iOS and Android powered phones before we venture into other platforms.
- Limited to devices supporting Bluetooth 4.0 only.
Opportunities
- Growing trend in smart phone
- Growing trends in social technology, crowdsourcing, fund sourcing and location based technology lays a good opportunity for Tile App.
Threats.
- We are first to the market, we need to be sure and stay one step ahead of the competition.
- Evolution of Apps in the market. Mobile technology is evolving very quickly. As a result, it is even hard to predict how mobile applications will evolve in the future. As we face the competition, we need close assessment of every emerging trend on the market to react accordingly to any changes and trends.
The business environment is quite dynamic and a SWOT analysis is not a static tool. We have to re – assess our SWOT analysis on a consistent basis, at least annually and more frequently if our business is experiencing growth problems, or failing in order to achieve goals and objectives, to realize how the balance of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats may have changed.
Strategy and Implementation.
Marketing Mix.
The market mix details product, price, position and promotional approaches (Stevens, Sherwood & Dunn 2003). Market mix comprise of various elements that the company can be directly in control of (Fleisher & Bensoussan 2012). Our key objective is to reach a decision regarding these elements with an aim that all will give a positive return on value as well as response to the potential users within the targeted market place.
In this section, we will focus on the elements of marketing mix.
Product.
Our product is a key element to this market mix. What we offer to the market should be our best advertisement. As a result, because of our unique set of features and specialized channels to reach out to our possible App users, it means we will establish reputable contacts with people who can possibly remain our recommenders.
Product overview
Tile is a mobile – detectable tracker that enables users find any lost items using an app. It is a simple concept that utilizes crowdsourcing and crow – funding technology for locating valuables out of range. Tile has a lost and found network community capability. This feature enables users locate valuables by creating a small community within a given perimeter. The system setup is simple. All that is needed is a Tile and a phone application that interfaces Tiles.
Hardware – Tile consists of a tiny, matchbook – sized, Bluetooth – enabled plastic that is stuck to an item.
Software – This is an on – phone readout tile interface with a location finder capability. One can pair up to 15 Tiles via his account.
Features.
Tile is simple and Easy to Use. Simplicity in user interface is one of the major feature of this App. The ease of using mobile app has raised expectations among users. Users are accustomed to instant satisfaction, and app firms are redesigning services to reflect that.
- Mobility
The user can connect from anywhere to locate items tiled even one year ago. He simply enter the access code and look up to the tiled items to see the location last seen. Our cloud service will handle the high performance Google maps and the App. The application will only send status notifications when an item is tiled.
- Personalization
Apart simplicity and mobility nature, Tile is also specific user personalized. We take this path because we know that application users expect to be treated as individuals who are valuable to the firms they purchase products from. While this is challenging in complex, Tile aim to target a specific user group with specific needs. Obviously this is a group of people who love to keep track of all their valuable items through crowd funding.
Applications that possess these features, more personalized services and easy to use interfaces, as their fundamental specifications are rewarded with greater loyalty and sales (Jeff & Scott 2012). We need to fulfill our objective and the pledges we make to the public and make Tile App to be as user friendly as possible.
Price Strategy.
Price strategy is termed as a logical choice from a range of alternative prices that targets maximizing income within a planning duration in response to a given event (Fleisher & Bensoussan 2011). In a mutual economy, a given consumer segment stands more of the mean cost than the other. However, the mean price will still reflect cost as well as reasoned income (Fleisher & Bensoussan 2011). Several factors are to be considered while determining what to charge for the App. The first approach involve quoting price in relation to the related apps in the market. This ensures fair price while giving the impression that we are at per with the competition. Raising the price marginally above the common will create an impression of even a better product.
The primary source of income for Tile will depend on the number of downloads this application receives, either from Apple Store or Google’s Android Store. As mentioned by Fleisher and Bensoussan (2011) the pricing strategy needs to adhere with what people pay for other related products or services. We are creating a new market with without an already existing common price. However, we need to ensure that our App is adequately priced as per its value. Based on this literature, this paper would recommend a start – up price to be $19.99.
There is a likelihood of integrating some features into a later version of Tile App, but for the start it is recommended that the user interface be kept as simple and clean as possible. This way, users’ experiences with the application would be enhanced while encouraging them to effectively use the app.
Promotional and Position Strategy
These are very important element of the market mix. Promotional strategy encompass communicating the product to customers as well as the marketers (Bowman & Gatignon 2012). The launch of Tile App will be backed by a creatively designed simple website as well as with the support of other social networking sites mainly Facebook and Twitter accounts. We recognize technology and web advancements as the primary supporting features. We will perform various advertisement to specific target markets as a fascinating feature of the web 2.0. This channel will guarantee that our aimed market is reached out to while exposing our product.
Mixing this strategy with an appropriate price strategy, Tile should rapidly get adopted by people, either at home locating TV remote, or traveling while keeping track of their possessions through crowd – funding. However, like any other app Tile depend heavily on user experience so it is integral that it is rapidly adopted and put into application.
Distribution Strategies
As stated above, Tile app will be distributed though Apple and Google’s Android App Stores. Primary launch will be specific to these major platforms and stores. However, Tile seek to create a stand – alone store and even expand to other platforms at a later date.
Marketing Strategy
The main aim of this section is to implement strategies to best reach our potential customers. This will encompass plans to communicate our app to customers and convert them to our potential one. We have to ask ourselves why buyers should purchase our offering versus competitors. After all, we don’t want our app to be just another “face in the crowd” in the mind of the potential customers. Stevens, Sherwood and Dunn (2003) says that the process of positioning encompass tailoring the product so that is stands out from the competition and people who want to buy it.
There are three types of marketing strategies:
- Direct Sales: This strategy is done when there is an already existing customer base. Customers can be reached directly usually by phone, email and other direct personal contact.
- Direct Marketing: Here there is a direct communication to the customer. This strategy makes use of customers’ contact information with other advertising techniques such as SMS, email, online display ads, fliers, promotional latters, and outdoor advertising.
- Mass Marketing: this technique tries to communicate a marketing message to all potential customers who are willing to listen. It uses channels such as radio, television and internet.
For this application, it appears much sensible to rely on mass and direct marketing strategies. We acknowledge that our possible customer base is between three and four million people. This is a quite a big audience. However, they are not existing customers and we do not have their personal contacts. This way, we have to establish a good relationship with them. This calls for a mass marketing strategy to reach out to them through available channels, mainly the internet. There are ways to walk us ahead:
- Landing Page.
Tile’s first mission is to create a landing page, which is typically a single page website as an advertising method for the Tile App. While several downloads will come directly from Google and Apple App stores, a sizable amount of traffic will be web related. This is also an effective approach to establish an email database since we intend to invite users to share their personal addresses in order to stay updated during the app launches. These are the group that are possibly to be converted to potential customers.
- Getting our app into the into Apple and Android App store.
In secondary stages, the application will be available on stand – alone app stores such as GetJar, Amazon and Handngo. We acknowledge the power of customer feedback and review. To effectively make use of this we chose a slow distribution to help us manage emerging issues and fixing bugs while concentrating on updates prior to a rollout strategy.
- Social Media.
Tile seek to succeed through aggressive advertisement on social networking sites while providing an appealing and effecting approach to reach out to large customer base. We will develop some YouTube video files demonstrating Tile App. This strategy will also include creating Facebook and twitter account and use LinkedIn as a communication channel.
- Tile independent website.
We see the essence of marketing through website. As a result, Tile has already created a “look and feel” website and put aside the ground for working together with a marketing that focuses in search – engine optimization and marketing. We will use search engine optimization to position ourselves in the first page search results of related keyword searches.
Tile seek to create traffic to its website using a blog area which will be updated regularly about issues that our products covers or might be a solution for. Other bloggers, such as TheNextApp, iToday, Mashable are also useful to communicate new service to users. This will be made possible after a press release which will include a brief description on Tile App and its primary benefits, some screenshots, video, user testimonials and reviews links to such blogs.
- Advertisement: a sizable percentage of traffic is expected to come from various advertisement channels such as banners, adWords in various sites and search tools.
- This include participation in various exhibitions, conferences and meet – ups.
The marketing strategy can be split into 2 different stages. A pre – launch and post – launch phases. The pre – launch phase will enable create awareness as well as visibility. This will be done with an intent to acquire the interest and develop the curiosity of as many users as possible. We seek to use all the above criteria to achieve this strategy.
Post – Launch Phase.
The post – launch phase will seek to maintain the existing customers in order to enhance the rate of conversion while creating user retention.
- Marketing using App Stores.
Tile community seek to grab the focus of the online audience by having a catchy app icon. App stores demand the maintenance of unique keywords that customers can use to look up for applications. This way, the choice of this unique keywords has to be done wisely. The app description is also equally crucial. Product descriptions are the selling pitch. It must be brief and descriptive, explaining every key benefit and primary features.
- App Review Site
Tile needs to create a press release and make them available on different app review websites. Since Tile is a paid application, we will use first 100 free downloads strategy to enable us receive the reviews.
- App Rating and Review
We acknowledge the significance of app ratings and reviews. The more the ratings and reviews, the more opportunities of it being downloaded from the App stores. All review, both positive and negative, must be effectively tackled.
Sales Strategy
This section focuses on our business model choice. A business model defines in details how a firm will create, deliver, and capture value and generate profit (John 2009). We have to ask ourselves how we will make money through this application. Monetizing an application can be a quite challenging task while undertaking a mobile venture. How do we price Tile App, and will it be free for users or will they be charged? With these in mind we have to decide on appropriate pricing model for our product.
We can use different decisive factors such as: Pay per download, in – app Advertisement, in – app purchase, Freemium, or (and) Subscription
- Pay Per Download
This will generate income straight from App Store when downloaded. A fixed price is paid for every download made. This approach work for any application. However, once the app is sold there is no way to re – sell it to a same user.
- In – app Advertising
With this strategy, the app is available for download on free basis. However, ads such as banners are placed only to be paid by advertisers.
- In – app Purchase
This strategy allows users to download and use the app for a given period of time or with limited functionality. After which he / she pays of a complete version of the app. The main revenue stream is earned through the in – app purchase.
- Freemium
Applications under this model are free. The aim here is to generate income. Free is quite a powerful motivator to pull traffic and make users download the product. Under this strategy, income is generated from other business activities such as increasing sales of related products.
- Subscription
Subscription strategy allows a user to have access to a given service or product on a guarantee that he or she has paid for it. The fee is pain for a given period of time; if the time elapses the user has to re – initiate the subscription. This strategy is mostly adopted by newsletters or Magazines.
Considering all these strategies, we expect to have a very large user base in volume markets. However, we cannot package our app as one upgrade and sell it on freemium basis. The in – app purchase comes to consideration though it is quite challenging to decide what components to be free and what to be put on paid basis. If the free content is not enough it can poorly reflect upon Tile functionalities. Again if we extend the free content, users will not see the need to upgrade to a paid version. This makes in – app purchase our least option.
Conversely, we expect Tile to be quite compelling that users will purchase it without trying a free version first. As a result, together with our pricing strategy, it is sensible to settle on pay per download and the subscription models. This is because Pay per Download model is the most popular model and is applicable for any type of application. A subscription strategy may, in the initial instance, be a better choice since it will provide a direct returning source of income. However, this model is a natural fit for specific types of content, such as newsletters or other types of content that get refreshed on regular basis. We don’t really have an app whose content lends itself to this model so we actually want to use subscriptions purely to try and increase the amount of money we can draw from users which is not a good idea as users will perceive this.
Conclusion
Advancement in information technology is quite transformative. Every year comes a technology with a faster information processing speed, extended data sets, and even more enhanced storage capacity. Ways to connect, share, collaborate, and ensuring security have become reached, more varied, and more powerful, enabled extremely by ever advancing Information Technology capabilities. Information Technology makes it possible for other innovation trends to have fresh opportunities and create novel sources of value, products, and ways of reaching customers as a novel tool for enhancing efficient operation.
Tile welcomes these trends and aims to change the way people live through crowdsourcing relevant information while enhancing security of valuable possessions. By employing effective marketing strategies, extensive researches, and applying factual data attained from researches is an approach that start – up businesses can achieve competitive advantage. Importantly, business plans have a tendency for being biased and any inaccurate assumptions within this analysis may have a dramatic impact on our venture. Therefore a continuous and comprehensive analysis on marketplace and possible competitions should give Tile Company a leeway ahead.
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