Mobile Application Development and Marketing

By Travis Meier and Keegan Irwin Prepared for: BMG320

For: Steve Karpenko

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Acknowledgements:

As a group, we would like to extend our thanks to the following people. Ian

Gwynne, Tami Salter, and Steve Karpenko. Without the help of these three

individuals our work would have been impossible. Ian and Tamie, we appreciate the

time you both took to speak with us about your projects. Tamie, your ideas and

suggestions were invaluable in the creation of this project. Finally, Steve, thank you

for your continued support of entrepreneurship. Your dedication to your students

and your constant innovation has been pivotal for the success of this project and

many others.

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Executive Summary: Today’s markets and businesses are extremely varied. But, we saw one

common thread that can connect any business to another and that thread is

marketing. Every single business requires some form of advertising to penetrate

their perspective market. Companies like Coca Cola spend millions on their

advertising and have been hugely successful. Recently though, we have see a rush of

new companies with a new model. The companies leading this charge are mainly

technology companies. The application market is expanding and the use of smart,

cheap marketing is making them a major threat in their market space.

Our project is to study these new companies strategies and hopefully

simplify the many different approaches into one easy to follow graphic. By building

a graphic we hope to provide value to any one who sees it. The concern, of course, is

backing up any claims made in a graphic. Normally people don’t explain their jumps

from one point to another. Our graphic will have references back to our research

explaining each step. This will provide useful information quickly and easily, but

with a heavy basis in research.

The focus will be to help our three applications establish a solid marketing

plan for the near future. Each application will have its own personal report that is

purely based off of our graphic. We want to prepare these reports in this way

because this is a proof of concept for future businesses that may use our model. We

hope that other companies will create their own model similar to our three cases

and from our graphic gain some valuable change in their companies growth.

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Abstract:

Small businesses are always struggling to maintain a low cost strategy to

compete with larger firms an effective marketing strategy is a necessity. It takes

significant time and money to produce effective marketing campaigns. With this

paper we hope to eliminate as much time and money from an entrepreneurs work

load as possible. By outlining where to start, how to start, and how to maintain a

simple but effective marketing campaign tailored to their business, entrepreneurs

can begin to compete larger markets.

How can entrepreneurs, while focusing on the other aspects of their

businesses, create and maintain an effective low cost marketing campaign?

By analyzing the techniques of successful small business cases, and compiling

research, we have built a simple to follow mind map like graphic. This graphic will

lead entrepreneurs through the most important steps in creating and starting their

own marketing campaign. Each step in the graphic will be paired with an in depth

description from our report, of how to best implement these steps for their own

company.

As a proof of concept our report includes a full marketing strategy for three

applications. Each application owner will receive personalized marketing

recommendations, based directly off of the graphic we have created. These case

studies will provide an example for future entrepreneurs to follow when using this

report for their business.

Though this method may not replace the “tried and true” marketing team.

This approach will allow entrepreneurs to effectively organize, and launch a

comprehensive marketing campaign.

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Table of contents:

Acknowledgements 2 Executive Summary 3 Abstract 4 Define your app 6 Platform and Coding 9 Coding 14 Money 17 Initial Stage Strategies Outline 19 Betas 19 Social Media Peer Sharing 21 Ambassadors 22 Exclusive Parties 23 Public Events 24 Incentive Programs 24 Promotional Videos 25 Case Summaries 26 Que Innovations 26 Uconversations 29 My Road Workout 32 Long-term Strategy 35 References 37

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Define your App:

Mobile applications have become extremely important in the last few years.

Mobile phones have evolved into becoming an appendage of one’s self. No longer is

it just a single communication device. With the launch of the original iPhone, Apple

redefined the “smart phone” product category and enhanced the convergence of

traditional mobile telephone, Internet services, and personal computing into a new

industry. Merging these separate industries into a single device, making a whole

new market and competition. Smart phones are tiny mobile computers that can fit

into your pocket. It has dynamic tools that sustenance its user’s needs, from playing

games, listening to music, navigating, to online banking and shopping. Given that

around 46 percent of app users report having paid for their apps and

eMarketer.com predicts 2 billion smart phones in 2016 there’s big money to be

made. By 2017, it’s expected that over 268 billion downloads will generate $77

billion worth of revenue (C. Clifford, 2015). Through our research we found case

study’s that logged detailed application usage information with over 4,100 users.

The findings of the average session lasted less than a minute, enough with the

participants spending most of the day on their phone (Böhmer, M.). Time of day and

location even play a role in the users’ behavior. For example news applications and

updates are most common in the morning, entertainment like games are the most

used at night, and communication application apps dominate throughout the day

and are the more common than not the first app used upon waking (Böhmer, M.).

Other studies claim that mobile phones are the first choice for accessing network

resources. The reason is because mobile access to web information is taking over PC.

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Mobile phones penetration outnumbers fixed internet users 5 to 2 (Han Rebekah

Wong, S. 2012). With this high demand for apps and the ever growing market it’s

hard to market and resourcefully find applicable analysis. Many new apps are

released every day, meaning app developers may find their newly released app

being moved off the release date list with in just a few days and it’s even harder to

stay on the top free list. Keeping apps in the App store for a longer period of time is

ideal for attracting more users. It has become very popular with developers to

create new names for their app and launch it again so it can stay on the released

date list and attract more outsiders (Han Rebekah Wong, S. 2012). Be cautious about

App download statistics for example in one study the author during a business trip

in Thailand, invited a colleague to download HKBUtube. Statistics showed that this

app was downloaded in Hong Kong even though it was downloaded in Thailand.

App developers need to think carefully about what kind and where there statistics

came from beforehand (Han Rebekah Wong, S. 2012). Research is an extremely

important part of defining your app. This is a fast way to develop a product with no

traction, no wonder only 1.6 percent off apps generate most of app stores revenue

(Sara. Perez, 2015).

When defining your app you need to know who your customers are. Before

that you need to know your product. From our research we found most

entrepreneurs in the apps business recommended writing a descriptive script about

your idea. Detailed list in point form with all the features in its simplistic form. App

developer Mike Rundle said, He encourages those wanting to launch their own app

to spend time writing down the specific features they feel they want it to have.

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"Having a one-paragraph description of an app is not enough," Rundle said, "It

should be a few pages of bullet points going over what the app offers, why it's

different than others and what it will do to delight users and stand out from the

crowd." Building a beautiful app that displays your image, do this by writing a quick

server side script which reads an RSS feed also known as rich site summaries. Share

this with friends and family because you can become too attached or blinded to your

idea or image. Meaning it’s good to have feedback on whether it’s a good idea and

areas that need improvement. Many developers also agree it’s good outsource your

programing. Having programmers develop your idea, so you can focus your

attention to the future of the app instead of coding. Mikka Olsson, co-founder of the

app development firm Ebbex, said a lot of other work, from design to marketing, is

necessary for it to be a productive venture. After rounding out the image of your app

it’s good to find out who are your customers and what platform do they use. For

example iOS makes more money from its apps than Google Android by 26% and

within that market apple health fitness apps make up 3 % where games make up

21.45% (The Statistics Portal. 2015). Meaning it might be more advantages to

develop apps in iOS platform. With that said the Android market is growing at a fast

rate and is the biggest global market holder. Meaning they have sold the most units.

This brings use into the next section what platform are you going to develop for. An

easy way to find out what platform you want to develop for is to ask your team what

their most familiar with. It seems too easy to be true but going with the strengths of

your programmer are beneficial to your product and employees. Do you have tablets

planned? If so the iPad dominates the usage share amongst tablet apps. These are all

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factors in deciding or defining what you want your app to be. Do you want to charge

for your app? This is an import question when trying to define the future of your

product. For example iOS users are more likely to pay for an app than Androids,

meaning if you want to charge than iOS platform might be the best platform for your

app. Remember simplistic is the name of the game. If you have too much clutter you

will immediately lose users. In a field study at the University of British Columbia

they defined three types of users. They are the adopters, make-doers, and do it

yourselfers. The adopters are you’re technologically savvy; they research apps and

try many products to find the right one for them. Adopters pick up apps in the beta

phase and will give criticism back. Make-doers put very little research into

downloading apps. These users are very much influenced by popularity and their

networks. They use tools or apps with without personalizing. They only utilized the

minimal support or general purpose of the app. The do it yourselfers fall back on

what they know. They are influenced by their network and popular apps. There not

technologically savvy and have a steep learning curve. Meaning simplicity is the key

to keeping these users, visual clutter equals low convergent rate (Haraty, M. 2012).

Platform and coding:

Finding the right platform for your app optimization plays a big role in the

success of your product. Developing for one platform is a lot of work unlike websites,

which can be created even by those with little technical experience; mobile apps

take both coding knowledge and software development proficiency. For example

focusing on the native development can help like objective C on iOS and Java on

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Android. Through our research we have found that getting your product out fast

should be your objective. Entrepreneurs in the app world really suggest getting a

small following and rereleasing the app after you have ironed out the glitches. So

this means that if you’re a small business you don’t have time to develop for

multiple platforms. As it was stated above you should pick developers to do the

coding for your project. Since few have that expertise at hand, most app creators

turn to outside developer, which could be either a large firm or an individual

freelancer. The cost could run anywhere from $1,000 to $1 million. According to

Mureta it really depends on what the app's creator is trying to accomplish. It is

actually better if you aren't a coder," Mureta said. "You aren't stuck coding all of the

time and you are more focused on creating the app." (Chad Brooks, 2012). So you

have more time to focus your attention to running the business. Through the

research we found that apple iOS platform is the most viable option at the moment

meaning find a developer who’s familiar with iOS platform. They also need a Mac in

order to develop for iOS. When the iPhone came out in 2007 they had developed the

first mobile app platform which paved the way for following platforms. Meaning

other companies although very different used similar coding. For example when

android came out in 2007 it seemed to have inspiration from apple iOS (Lubos,

Mikusiak. 2013). Looking at the market it seems counter intuitive to focus on Apple.

Android dominated the market with a 76.6% share at the end of 2014 quarter (IDC,

analyze the future, 2015). These numbers are determined by the number of units

sold. Because Android sells a cheaper product which intern means a they have a

bigger global market. If you look at the best apps on the app store they come from

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people with a background in Apple. Apple users are more likely to spend money on

apps. According to Canalys’s data for the first quarter of this year, iOS users are

spending much more on apps even if they’re downloading fewer of them overall.

Android phones outpacing the iPhone by a hefty margin: 52.1 percent to 43.5

percent in the U.S market. Worldwide, Android phones sell a lot more units 70

percent of the market. Even with the more units sold Apple and Google are within

9 % of each other on apps downloaded. Apple is making more money from apps

downloaded around 74 %. NetMarketShare publishes monthly stats on which

browsers and operating systems are being used on the Net. Its report for March

2013 says that among mobile devices, iOS rules with 60.1 percent share. Apple it

62 % more likely to be used for business these numbers are even greater when

talking about tablets or iPads. A company called uTest uses a system to analyses

Apple’s App Store and Google’s Google Play, collecting user reviews and rankings. It

then turns this data into scores from 1 to 100 for individual apps, and calculates

average scores for each platform. Utest said that the average iOS app, will score of

68.5, which is superior to the average Android app, at 63.3 (Harry, McCracken.

2013). This is because developers are familiar with the Apple platform. Each year

people rush to get their hands on the new iPhone meaning that around 80% of

Apple users are on the latest version of iOS. So app developers don’t need to worry

about supporting earlier versions of the iOS. Each device and manufacturer have to

release its own Android upgrade. If mobile operators install Android on the devices,

they also need to provide an upgrade, which sometimes does not happen or it

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happens late. Android OS upgrades sometimes go wrong making many Android

users reluctant to upgrade.

What does it mean for an Android developer will it means developers need to be

prepared to support a wide range of Android versions in addition to wide range of

devices (Lubos, Mikusiak. 2013). When developing for iOS, memory size is usually

not a limitation. You can open many different views in your app and they will stay in

the memory no matter whether visible or not. iOS starts removal the memory only

once the whole RAM gets full. His can happen after playing games that leak lot of

memory. A GPU with OpenGL support was present already in the original iPhone,

which means that animations could take advantage of OpenGL. OpenGL stands for

Open Graphics Library, which is a cross-language, multi-platform application

programming interface (API) for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is

typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit (GPU), to achieve

hardware-accelerated rendering (OpenGL SuperBible, 2014). That is the reason why

animations on iPhone were always quick and smooth (Lubos, Mikusiak. 2013). On

the other hand Android still acts like the memory limits from 2008 still existed. This

restricts the amount of data, which the apps can hold in the memory. When a view

becomes invisible, Android will deallocate all UI (user interface) elements from the

memory. Next time the view is shown, the UI elements get recreated again. One of

the consequences for a developer is that for many views some code needs to be

written to restore the state when the view becomes visible for second, third, etc.

time (Lubos, Mikusiak. 2013). Subsequently from the beginning OpenGL isn’t a

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hardware requirement, the animations on Android devices are calculated by the

CPU. Also known as central processing unit which is the electronic circuitry within a

computer that carries out the instructions of a computer program, which makes for

slow and stuttering images (Lubos, Mikusiak. 2013). It’s hard to predict trends in

the technological world but right now Apple platform is a North America app

developers best shot. Once your product is well established it would be proactive to

start programing for Google. More users and high traffic means a well sufficient

business. You can do this through native developing or Cross-Platform Toolkits.

Coding:

In today’s technological world you don’t need to be a programmer to develop

an app you just need an idea. By 2017, it’s expected that over 268 billion mobile app

downloads will generate $77 billion worth of revenue (Catherine Clifford, 2014).

This is a huge market that’s getting over saturated with products. There are lots of

people wanting to make apps and only a finite amount of programmers. In a

developer economic report from VisionMobiles came up with four types of

developers. This study was an online survey and one on one interview with mobile

app developers from 137 different countries and over 10,000 participants. This

report categorized developers into five sections. The have-nothing, the poverty-

stricken, the strugglers, the haves and part-timers as known as hobbyists. These

hobbyists or app explores make up around 35% of the app developer population

who don’t care about making money (Sarah Perez, 2014). The have- Nothing

account for t 47% of all app developers. This includes 24% of app developers that

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are interested in making money, but make nothing at all. Meanwhile, 23% make

little amount of money, something like under $100 per month. Developers still go to

iOS first, it’s because those who prioritize iOS app development are less likely to find

themselves in this group, with 35% earning $0-$100 per month, versus the 49% of

Android developers (Sarah Perez, 2014). Poverty stricken developer’s make up 22%,

they make an average of $100 to $1,000 per app per month. This means apps cant

afford standard app developer salaries. 15% of developers make between $100-

$500 per app per month and 7% make between $500-$1,000 per app per month.

That means 62% of developers are below the “app poverty line” of $500 per app per

month, and 69% can’t sustain full time development. The strugglers who are 19% of

developers earn $1,000 to $10,000 per app per month. Finally the haves these are

the top 12% make more than $10,000 per app per month. 17% of iOS first

developers are in this group versus 9% of Android-first developers. The states

report, stated only the top 1.6% of developers make more than $500,000 per app

per month, but of those who do, some are earning tens of millions per month. They

are making more than 96.4% of the rest of the app developers out there (Sarah

Perez, 2014).

Now that we under stand developers and how hard it is to have a successful

product in this market we can learn a little basics about coding. The mobile application

development is full of many ways to build a mobile app. Among the most popular are

native iOS, native Android, PhoneGap, and Appcelerator Titanium (Petter, Traeg. 2013).

Because iOS right now is the most viable option to optimize success, were going to focus

our attention toward they’re native coding. Most applications in Apple’s App Store are

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written in the Objective-C programming language, and developers typically use Xcode to

develop their applications (Petter, Traeg. 2013). “Objective-C is the primary

programming language you use when writing software for OS X and iOS. It’s a superset

of the C programming language and provides object-oriented capabilities and a dynamic

runtime. Objective-C inherits the syntax, primitive types, and flow control statements of

C and adds syntax for defining classes and methods. It also adds language-level support

for object graph management and object literals while providing dynamic typing and

binding, deferring many responsibilities until runtime” (Mac developer library, 2014).

Xcode provides everything a developer need to create great applications for Mac, iPhone,

and iPad. Xcode brings user interface design, coding, testing, and debugging all into a

integrated package. The Xcode IDE combined with the Cocoa and Cocoa Touch

frameworks, and the Swift programming language make developing apps easier. With

innovative tools help you create the best app; Interface Builder making it easy to design

your interface without code, Professional editor and debugger keep your code front and

center, Apple LLVM technology finds and fixes bugs for you, Test driven development is

built right in, and instruments to analysis performance (Mac App Store Preview, 2015).

Now after you have established a working product and a strong following its time to

expand your app into the Android market. Now there are two ways to go about this. The

first if your programing team has the efficiency in Native Development Toolkit (NDK)

allows using C and C++ in Android apps and high-level cross-platform (Tim Mackenzie.

2012). Now for small business cross-platforms are the best way to limit the amount of

coding they have to write. This means faster release date and less money spent on the

project. Business dictionary defines it as the ability of a programming language for

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example Java, which enables programmers to develop software for several competing

platforms by writing a program only once. Cross-platform software can run on most or all

systems with little or no modification. Also called multi-platform. The top five cross-

platforms are PhoneGap, Appcelerator, Adobe AIR, Sencha, and Qt (Jim Cowart. 2013).

Now there are free cross-platform for example, BuildFire aims to make it easy for small

businesses to create their own mobile apps. This should be the option developer’s look

toward in the future of their product to attain the most users base.

Money:

You always hear don’t let money stop you from building your ideas. Focus on

building something people want and stop focusing on the money. The truth is money a

useful tool to completing your project. First off there is an annual app store fees of $99

for Apple and $24 for Google. Development costs can range anywhere between $3,000 to

$100,000 or more depending on the complexity and overall features involved. (Rahul

Varshneya. 2013). Meaning before you even get your product out and start marketing

you’re in the whole. Now for business with financial backing for their app projects there

are many benefits. Means you can afford market research, competitive analysis, start

leveraging social networks, and acquire a team to build you a beautifully designed app.

You can get indorsed by celebrities, professional athletes, successful businesses, ect. This

means your product can gain traction from there followers. It’s a good pull strategy used

by bigger businesses. It’s also a great way to gain low invested customers or users. Users

that have low technological background that download app by following the main stream.

This is a large portion of the market. Now with this said many successful app companies

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have started with little to no money. This means you need a good and clear idea or

monetization strategy right from the get go. Now lots or entrepreneurs and small business

don’t have money but have a good idea. To get started you its easy, you can ask for

investments from family, friends, angle funds, VC investors with a great idea and

implementation plan. This is very basic but needs to be said. Family and friends are also a

great way to get the word out about your product. If separate entities or people are giving

testament about your product on social media it’s great word of mouth advertising. Now

if you get good feed back from family and friends about you’re idea there is many

competitions you can enter to make money. For example Kelsey Falter the founder and

CEO of PopTip at the age 22 left school to pursue her dream of creating her own business.

The entered TechStar Demo Day at the age of 22, where she presented her startup in front

of hundreds of investors and journalists (Andrea Huspeni. 2012). With little effort into

searching you can find lots of price money competitions to compete in which are run by

business incubators and angle funds. Not only do these contest help you finically but it’s

a great place to gain insight into the industry, free marketing and potential inverter

opportunity. Now other strategies are to bootstrap it, which essentially means you raze

money through your existing job, savings, investments and start contributing to a fund

each month. This is a popular strategy with highly involved app developers. Because

there is many free build your own app websites, many people are choosing to develop on

their own. For example BuildFire aims to make it easy for small businesses to create their

own mobile apps. This service like many others offers two ways to build an app: do it

yourself or have a BuildFire app developer do it for you for free (Sara Angeles. 2015).

BuildFire’s build it yourself has a no-coding platform that lets anyone with zero

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technological coding skills create a high quality, engaging app. To have a BuildFire

developer create your app, just enter your website's URL and your app will be ready for

publishing within two business days (Sara Angeles. 2015). BuildFire apps come with

several small business-friendly features, such as push notifications, calendar integration,

streaming video, m-commerce and e-commerce, and a mobile website (Sara Angeles.

2015). The company also offers a white label service, which gives businesses their own

branded apps instead of one carrying the BuildFire brand. The benefits of having a white

label app includes increased brand recognition and full control over how your app looks

to better represent your business and its offerings (Sara Angeles. 2015). Once you have

developed a working prototype their other methods of creating income. You can charge

people money to download your app. This is becoming a very unpopular method or

creating a revenue stream especially with the market becoming saturated. Free version

with running ads is far more profitable than apps that cost money. A in an article by Pat

Flynn he shows an example of his apps where his purchased apps make about 10 dollars a

day and his free versions earn between 30-60 dollars a day (Pat Flynn, 2011). Apple store

takes 30% form each sale of a paid application. So, with a $0.99 application, you actually

keep about $0.69 per sale, unless you have what’s called “in-app” purchases, which can

earn you an additional income after the initial purchase, although Apple’s cut still applies

(Pat Flynn, 2011). Apps that run advertisements but are free to download make money

anytime anyone clicks on an ad; you get paid just like Google AdSense. This means that

you have more opportunities to earn money from each download because people can

click on ads multiple times (Pat Flynn, 2011). This revenue stream is becoming

unpopular because of the clutter or ad pop ups are distracting and over time causes users

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frustration especially if your trying to keep them on your app for long period of time. In

short building a usefully application will attract users, which in turn attracts investors.

Initial Stage Strategies Outline

- Closed Beta (Brown, 2014).

o Closed Beta programs refer to the activity of allowing only select users

to experience your product. Closed Betas usually have from 100-300

Early Adoptive users. Early adopters are important at this stage

because they are willing to accept lack of functionality in order to get

a product first. Closed betas are most commonly used when: An app is

not fully functional, or is currently still being tested for bugs.

o Beta users for these programs need to have a direct link for

communication with app developers. This link allows for feedback on

any bugs or suggestions for improvements that these users may have.

Engaging these users directly maintains user interest, and makes the

users feel valued and obligated to continue using the product.

o Key uses:

Collects information about users with sign up

Works out bugs

Can help find out what users want your app to do rather than

having to guess

Allows for early launch

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o Key issues

Very limited publicity

Small sample of potential customers

Customer service can be difficult when managing a group so

large with only a few employees.

- Open Beta (Bulygo, 2012).

o Open Beta programs, as opposed to Closed, do not limit the number of

users that can sign up. Open betas use a sign up system like a landing

page. This prompts users to provide an email or a connection through

social media. The target audience for this is early adopters, as well as

those adopter’s networks. Open betas provide more publicity and

users, but the product must be in its Minimum Viable Product stage

before the users are given access. Since there are fewer early adopters

willing to deal with errors, and more regular consumers it is

important that your product functions exactly as advertised. Poor

reviews early on can start to pile up turning away potential new users

and increasing the rate at which users stop using the product.

o Open betas are different from launch because users expect betas to be

experimental in nature. The objective is to test functions in large

groups. Groups are usually formed using a waitlist. The first to sign up

are the first to gain access. Using this method you can build a

significant list of potential users. Controlling the flow of new users

into your product means you can group at a manageable pace. Finally,

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you can filter which users you accept earlier or later based on their

sign up info. Identifying your target market here is key because you

want all users to be from your target market so that all functionality

caters directly to them, and feedback won’t be as scattered since

hopefully all members of the demographic are looking for the same

things in your product.

o Key uses

Creating publicity among early adopters

Allows you to select and target specific user types

Builds a waiting list of future users

Gives your product a real world test of function with slightly

less risk of upsetting users

o Key issues

Bad reviews early can inhibit the flow of new users

A Minimum Viable Product has to be ready with few or no

errors

Large waitlists or wait times to gain access can cause potential

user loss. Managing sign up and customer service efficiently is

key.

- Social media Peer Sharing (Bulygo, 2012).

o Social media is one of the fastest ways for a product or company to

spread. Harnessing peer sharing can come in several forms, but the

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principle is the same. Peer sharing is used to bring networks of users

to your product by creating incentives for friends to join each other.

o Some examples of peer sharing are:

Easy Links that direct users to share the product to social

media sites,

Email invitations from a friend as the only way to access the

product,

Incentives for a users based on the number of extra users they

invite to the product, etc.

o The key element is the need for an easy platform for users to invite

their networks, as well as a value system that provides an incentive

for sharing the product to others.

o Key uses

- Example Ambassadors (Miller, 2014).

o Example Ambassadors are experienced users who have used your

product with a high degree of success. These are usually early

adopters from a beta program. Once your product is available to

everyone, differentiation and user retention become important to

growth. Ambassadors represent your product in some way by publicly

displaying what is possible with your product. These users are given

expert status and should become a visualization of what is possible

with your product.

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o Ambassadors can help define what your app actually does to users

who are unclear about functions. They can also help users with issues

or suggest new or improved ways of using your product.

- Celebrity Ambassadors (Miller, 2014).

o Unlike example ambassadors, celebrity ambassadors may not be

considered experts on your product. Instead they are users that have

a high social profile. These users networks of followers can be

extensive and an endorsement from them could bring new users to

your product.

o Often celebrity endorsement is expensive, but if you target up and

coming celebrities your product can use their growth to grow

simultaneously.

- Exclusive parties (Jarvis, 2014).

o Parties can be used as marketing tools, as well as growth tools. By

hosting a themed party, primarily you are targeting your key

demographic of users. Requiring proof of use of your product as an

entry requirement can ensure an increase in your products use over

night. Parties are also a way for your network users to meet, discuss,

and expand their current experience.

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o Parties will usually have significant costs involved and usually will be

more upscale. The type of party and location will be heavily

dependent on your target users.

o These events usually require publicity and planning, the success of the

event can have an affect on perceptions about your product.

- Public Events (Shontell, 2012).

o Similar to parties these often cost money, require planning, and can

have an affect on perceptions about your product. Public events are

open events where anyone can experience something about your

product. Uber used on call ice cream trucks through its app to

increase downloads, and gain publicity. Public events cannot cater

directly to your target market but should have broad appeal in order

to reach as many potential users as possible. These events can range

from interactive product demos, to charity events, the only

requirement is that your product is constantly promoted and viewed

by as many people as possible.

- Incentive Programs (Bulygo, 2012).

o Incentive programs can be used in combination with several different

types of marketing. Incentive programs provide uses with extra

functionality from your product in return for bringing more users to

your product. Finding a valuable commodity your product provides

and limiting its use has been used to push users to pay money, invite

25

friends, watch advertisements, and even provide more information

about themselves in order to obtain some valued commodity.

Incentive programs can be used to gain critical mass for any event,

launch, promotion, or advertising campaign.

- Promotional Videos or Viral Videos (Evans, 2013).

o The most difficult form of mass advertising is the promotional video.

There are so many factors that can affect the video including budget,

skill of the team behind it, and how the public once released receives

it. A promotional video that goes viral can provide a huge amount of

public visibility. Unlike other strategies, viral videos have significantly

more risk. If a video is offensive it can be extremely damaging to a

product. The key to a successful promotional video depends on the

target audience. Many resources exist on how to create these videos.

o Promotional videos can have multiple uses. A well-produced video

can be used as an introductory video for a social media page, or for a

Kickstarter campaign. It is important that every company considers

producing a video or series of videos that current users or possible

users may find interesting or useful.

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Case Summaries:

Que Innovations:

Learn Emotions is an application therapy tool for children with Autism.

Learn Emotions has simply features and a wealth of research behind its design. The

primary goals of this app are: to help children with autism learn about emotions, as

well as promote the company’s main product the Que Ball.

This app then, would fall into the category of a supportive gaming app. This

means that the app is a game, but is not the primary product of its creator. Since

Learn Emotions functions as a conduit to the Que Ball, any consumer for Learn

Emotions should be expected to transfer directly to the Que Ball once it is released.

This means that the ROI (return on investment) for this product is a large initial

user base for the Que Ball launch.

Learn Emotions is only available on the iOS App store, since this is the

platform that is used for educational devices. Learn emotions, as well as any future

apps should also be adapted to reach the Android operating system. By doing this,

Que innovations can reach the majority of their market space. The timing of the

android release can be strategic. Since ranking within app stores is based on the

number of daily and weekly downloads, publicizing the addition of an android

version of the application properly could result in a “waitlist” scenario. By

leveraging a variation of the open beta strategy, Que Innovations could create a sign

up list of interested Android users and release the Andriod version when they have

a large enough following (Olson, 2014). This will yield many downloads in a short

period of time, and hopefully a listing on the android marketplace.

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The users Learn Emotions should be aiming to attract should be necessity

users. In this case there is little value to the average early adopter since a very

specific type of user is required for this app. Necessity users will be the parents or

caregivers of children with autism.

The autism market is a highly community oriented market. This means that

influential peers within the community can heavily influence consumer trust in a

product or brand. In this market Que innovations needs to establish itself with

influential users, as well as leverage as much peer sharing mediums as possible.

Rather than advertising in the conventional sense via ads or sales pitches to the

masses, convincing key users to align themselves with Que Innovations will give the

company the reputation that will be important to its long-term growth.

Que Innovations has three strategies as its disposal, social media peer

sharing, celebrity ambassadors, and promotional videos. The implementation of

these three strategies will increase: Brand awareness, user base, consumer trust,

and consumer interest.

The first step for Que Innovations will be to reach out to celebrity

ambassadors (Miller, 2014). By conveying the companies story, values, research,

and products to these high profile community members Que Innovations should be

looking to capture the interest and support of these users. Contacting these users

through emails, or other private communications will likely achieve the desired

results. Through email, Que Innovations can share, videos, research papers, and

other media that ambassadors will hopefully distribute to their network of followers.

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The result is a large audience of necessity users that see Que Innovations as a

company that can be trusted.

Once celebrity ambassadors are promoting Que Innovations as a trusted

brand, Que Innovations can begin its own social media campaign. The primary

mediums to address with this business to consumer communication strategy will be

Facebook, and Twitter (Brown, 2013). Que Innovations can share, personal research,

new products, interesting company news, new promotional media, as well as

celebrity ambassador posts that are relevant to the company. The cross promotion

of Que Innovations and its celebrity ambassadors will give value to both parties, and

maintain a positve partnership, as well as giving Que Innovations relevant and

popular information to share to its followers. The number of daily posts is primarily

determined by the amount of time the company can devote to this aspect of the

business. The more posts the fresher Que Innovations will be in the minds of its

followers, but fewer posts with high quality content may leave a better impression.

Once Que Innovations has developed a committed group of followers,

promotional videos can become a focus. A viral, or popular video can greatly

increase the visibility of a company. Using the trusted company image, and celebrity

endorsement from earlier promotion, video promotions can now become useful

media to convey progress, examples of applications uses, interviews, and other

relevant media. Videos don’t require as much or any reading so more users will

likely view this form of media (Evans, 2013).

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Uconversations:

Uconversations is an application designed to connect students and alumni in

a more informal way. Events can be posted onto the application where users in the

area can see them. Uconversations will keep pictures, and other media from events

as promotion for future users. Uconversations also offers users the chance to buy

tickets for events right in the application.

Uconversations can be described as a supportive service application. This

classification is because the app provides a full user experience, but is also paired

with a fully functional website. Since both the app and the website share similar

capabilities, the app could potentially exist on its own.

Uconversations will be available on both IOS and Android operating systems

in order to be available to as many potential users as possible. The initial user base

for this application will be Bishop’s students and alumni. In the future the app could

be expanded to include any school that wants to adopt the service.

The market for this app is a difficult one. Schools have struggled to build

meaningful social media interaction with their alumni for a while. Though many of

these efforts are through existing networks like Linkdin, and are generally more

about professional networking (Lavrusik, 2009). Where Uconversations has

differentiated by building a more personal level of interaction.

The key issues Uconversations will likely face will be similar to many other

apps, but unique as well since the Bishop’s community is unique. Bishop’s has a

relatively small population of students and therefore alumni compared to other area

30

schools like McGill. This means that success will likely depend a high rate of initial

adoption.

Uconversations has four key strategies that could create the initial interest

that will be required for success. The use of: social media peer sharing, example

ambassadors, exclusive parties, incentive programs, and video promotion, could be

key to expanding the apps user base.

Since the app is launching to a small and exclusive community, gathering

users from day one is important. The first step will be to harness social media to

build a waitlist (Bulygo, 2012). Even before the official launch of the application

building interest and committed users will be important. Since the application relies

on the community for content, it follows that there has to be an immediately active

community upon the launch of the application, so that users receive immediate

value. By initially approaching community event coordinators like, The Gait, The

Golden Lion Pub, Donald Lectures, etc. Uconversations can build initial events for

the application. Partnering with these well-known events will provide credibility,

interested users, and cross promotion between Uconversations and these groups.

Along with building initial offerings for the app, preparing a promotional

video could help clarify the apps intentions to potential users (Evans, 2013). A video

introducing the students, ideas, and basic operation of the application prior to its

launch will give potential users a clear idea of what the app will do. The video is a

chance for the app creators to appeal to the Bishop’s community for support in

making the launch a success. Creating a cause for users to help could increase the

amount of initial users. In the future a viral video, whether staged, or organically

31

discovered from user generated content, could increase the visibility of the

application past the Bishop’s community and into the eyes of other schools.

The use of example ambassadors to promote Uconversations could be

another potential user generator (Miller, 2014). By having community members

promoting the application to their networks, the app can increase its visibility

without having to market for itself. By making sure that it is simple for users to

share their experience to other major social media networks, Uconversations can

ensure that potential users can see examples of the events provided by the

application.

Encouraging these ambassadors to share content and grow the community

can be done through the implementation of an incentives program (Bulygo, 2012).

By providing incentives to bring in new users, Uconversations can grow its user

base. The details of what incentives to offer users are up to the development team.

The key promotional tool that Uconversations could harness is an idea taken

from the creators of Tinder (Jarvis, 2014). Since the app aims to attract location

based users, and is dependent on community interactions, similar to the idea of

Tinder. The use of an exclusive party could prove to be a benefit. By creating an

event where the tickets can only be found on the application and requiring proof of

that ticket for entry, Uconversations can gain a large amount of users in one night.

Making the launch of the app coincide with the event is key. Once the waitlist of

potential users is informed that a party will be hosted to officially launch the

application, it provides a concrete reason to download the app as soon as it is

32

available. Uconversations can providing community, content, and value to its users

immediately upon its release by leveraging the strategies above.

My Road Workout:

This application is a health fitness app in the process of a relaunch. This means

that the startup needs greater distribution to reach out to its target customers to sustain

traction. In a Men’s Health app development industry estimate there are now 100,000

apps dedicated to mobile health available for Android and IOS, a figure, which has

doubled over the last two years. The report shows the global health and fitness mobile

app market is worth about $4 billion at the moment, but this could increase to $26 billion

by 2017 (Andy Boxall, 2014). This means huge market and a very divers customer base.

More than 50% of apps are not sustainable (Sara. Perez. 2014). Even more concerning is

that 60 -70% of apps may not be sustainable long term, because the high demand for

skilled developers means they will move on to more promising projects (Sara. Perez.

2014). This means the market economics is essentially encouraging developers and users

to see apps as disposable things with no long-term commitment (Sara. Perez. 2014). So

figuring out your target market is an important step in this relaunch and providing a

engaging service. With a proper focus group this will create traction and build brand

recognition. With that said its impotent that as My Road Workouts looks for new

customers that they don’t lose there current ones that are actively using their app. Brand

identity is a very powerful form of advertising. Because smart phones are basically

extensions of their owner’s, advertisers need to adopt new rules. For example the

repeating messages worked great with television by the build up effect it seems pointless

in the mobile setting (Bellman, S. 2011). Nevertheless, the very personal nature of mobile

33

phones, which are virtually extensions of their owners, means that advertisers need to

implement new rules of conversation when communicating with mobile phone users

(Bellman, S. 2011). Mobile phones, advertisers need opt-in permission to advertise on

them because of the personal nature (Bellman, S. 2011). Smartphone apps overcome both

of these difficulties. First, they are “pull” rather than “push” advertising. The consumer

talks to the brand, not the other way round. Second, consumers are exposed only to the

apps they opt into by downloading, and they control how much information they reveal

when customizing the app (Bellman, S. 2011). That means brand recognition is the best

form of app advertising for this product. The best publicity for this application is third-

party endorsements. A review from tech bloggers, health bloggers, and this word of

mouth technique is the best press coverage for this product (Rahul, Varshneya. 2013).

You can do this by keeping close attention to reviews posted by users of your application

and work to reverse the negative reviews (Rahul, Varshneya. 2013). A Global Study of

Consumers’ Expectations and Experiences of Mobile Applications stated that 84 percent

of mobile device users say app store ratings are important in their decisions to download

and install a mobile app (Ed, Coburn. 2015). That’s why including free content, as often

as possible to encourage continual engagement with your brand is an apps best practices

(Ed, Coburn. 2015). That’s why doing a competitive analysis is really beneficial to app

developers. Comparing similar business and their models and seeing why their products

are successful can in lighten developers. For example the statistics on Statistics Portal

represents the average monthly app usage frequency of selected app categories as of

August 2014, stated that health and fitness apps represent 12.7% (The Statistics Portal.

2014). From that they found the primary reasons for U.S. internet users to access mobile

34

health and fitness apps. During a March 2014 survey, it was found that 7 percent of

respondents were accessing mobile health or fitness apps to identify unhealthy habits. 30

percent used goal tracking, 28 percent awareness of health issues, and 27 percent for

motivation (The Statistics Portal. 2014). These are import feature to keep in mind for a

successful heath and fitness app. Goal tracking is a great way to allow customer

personalization. Most popular apps that users spend the most time on allow for

personalization and interaction. My Road Workout should have a tracking feature of

progress through workout programs and dieting, that the users can post on social media.

For example Runkeeper is an app that tracks and records your runs each day, providing

data on distance covered, calories burned which enables users to share this data on their

social networks each time they work out (Rahul, Varshneya. 2014). Not only does this

mean the users is more engaged but also makes them obligated to keep going once they

have shown all their friends and family. It’s the vanity affect; Users proudly enable this

option of sharing on their social networks because it makes them look good among their

friends and peers. It’s vanity. People love to show off (Rahul, Varshneya. 2014). It’s also

a great and free promotional opportunity. Now to build a new following you need brand

recognition. A great way to build grass root users is to get involved with organizations

and people as well which will help gain traction. This is a great way to gain ground in a

short-term plan. There are great organizations like Alpine Ontario for example that have

young elite athletes traveling around Ontario and Quebec. This application would greatly

benefit young traveling athletes who need to workout on the road to keep up with high-

level competition. Even before contacting Alpine Ontario there is an escarpment

development team in Collingwood that sends 90% of its skiers onto the Ontario team. If

35

you can capture users young and build loyal customers there word of mouth will help

grow your user base. All these athletes have multiple social media platforms to boost

about your product. This means you need great customer service and trainers ready to

help with any users questions or inquiries. Eighty percent of companies said they believe

that they deliver superior customer service, but only 8 percent of customers think these

same companies deliver, according to HelpScout (Rahul, Varshneya. 2014). Having more

interactive features and great customer service will build loyal customers, which in turn

build up the brand name. Once you get more users you can implement a long-term

plan. Aid referrals for example are a great way to build up more business. Dropbox ran an

extensive campaign during which you could share the service on Facebook and Twitter

for additional space. These referrals increased Dropbox signups by 60 percent (Rahul,

Varshneya. 2014). They made it really easy for users to tell someone else about the

product. PayPal paid cash to each new customer and cash to the customer who referred

them (Rahul, Varshneya. 2014). Finding a way to incentivize your users to spread the

word is the best way to gain more traffic. This incentives also transfers over to social

media it’s no longer fashionable to just put a "Like us on Facebook" or "Follow us on

Twitter." You need to give users a reason (Rahul, Varshneya. 2014). You can give away

free T-shirts or hats to every user that brings 10 new customers to the app. My Road

Workout can also send shoot outs on social media about success stories to promote

positive media. If implemented these features and attitudes will allow for My Road

Workout to grow and become a powerful tool for healthy living.

Long-term strategy:

36

Loyalty Programs

- Using customer service to retain a loyal customer base

- Providing branded products to users

o Free gifts

o Prizes

o Promotional Events

- Promoting user successes

o Through company social media

o On blogs

o On the application home page

Cross Promotion

- Using other brands to remain relevant

o Complementary products

o Celebrity brands endorsements

o Advertising through users, or mixed media

Product Line Expansion

- Upgrading the application

o Adding new functions

o Refining current uses

o Rebranding for a new market

- Creating a new products

o New applications

o New complementary products

37

Phone cases

Headphones

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