Marketing Business Mobile App for General Mobile Users Research Paper

Marketing Plan: Mobile App for General Mobile Users

Marketing Business Mobile App

Smartek Inc. is going to introduce new mobile applications package that includes alarm and reminder snooze, appointment setter, note taker, and financial management applications. The new mobile apps package will be introduced in the United States and will mainly target students and business professionals along with ordinary individuals that have smart phones, personal digital assistants, tablets, and other smart gadgets.

This paper presents a comprehensive marketing plan for this mobile app. The opening section of the paper presents a situational analysis for the company for this particular mobile app using market summary (industry trends and outlook) and SWOT analysis (internal and external environment). The competitive analysis section gives an overview of the company's existing and new rivals and other competitive forces using Michael Porter's Five Forces Model.

The 'product offerings' sections gives explanation to how the product meets the individual needs of the target market and what features it will bring in its first version? The next section 'Keys to Success' explains the major areas where the company needs to focus in order to succeed in the market in the most profitable and competitive fashion. In contrast, the 'Critical Issues' section highlights the major factors which can impact the company's operations and financial performance in a negative way.

The 'Marketing Strategies' section comprehensively explains the mission, marketing and financial objectives, target market, positioning strategies, marketing research, and marketing mix strategies of the company for this particular product offering. The control section explains the implementation, marketing organization, and contingency planning for the company so as to ensure an effective implementation of this marketing plan. The paper concludes by highlighting the major points from the whole discussions.

2.0 Situation Analysis

Situational analysis gives a comprehensive overview of a firm's internal and external environment which can affect its business operations and financial performance in one way or another. This analysis starts with the assessment of market structure and industry performance and proceeds by highlighting the internal strengths and weaknesses of the firm as well as external opportunities and threats present in the market. Situation analysis also includes the evaluation of competitive forces, key success factors, critical issues, and products or service offerings of the firm. This section presents a complete situation analysis for the newly introduced mobile business applications package:

2.1 Market Summary

The mobile applications industry has grown sharply during the last few years. This trend can be seen around the Globe where billions of applications are developed and marketed by thousands of IT companies every year. This industry has become one of the most profitable and well-functioning industries in the world. There is an equal demand for free as well as paid applications; however, free apps industry has proved to be more profitable than the former (Kuittinen, 2012). Mobile applications developers and IT companies are expending a huge amount on R&D, development, and marketing of their products.

Where popular applications are giving long-term Return on Investments (ROI), new applications are snatching their market share by introducing innovative features and greater convenience and flexibility. The only way to make profits and satisfy the customers is to be competitive and innovative. Today, the most visited and profitable application stores are Apple's App Store, Google Play (Android), Nokia Ovi Store, BlackBerry App World, Windows Phone Store, AT&T, TIM, China Mobile, and GetJar (Solsman, 2013). It is predicted that App Store and Google Play will continue to dominate the market in the coming five years (Dredge, 2013). One of the most popular Research firm 'Gartner' has predicted that annual revenues for the mobile applications industry will increase by 44% in 2013 as compared to the previous year (Dredge, 2013).

Now, it is important to know which factors drive this rapid growth in the mobile applications sales. First of all, the tremendous growth of smart phones and tablets industry has developed the interest of users in trying new applications and having entertainment and convenience in their day-to-day life (Dredge, 2013). Secondly, billions of mobile applications are available free of cost which have also increased their demand worldwide. Moreover, mobile application developers keep in view the changing requirements, preferences, and tastes of the consumers in order to attract them in a more effective way (Kotler, Brown, Burton, Deans, & Armstrong, 2010).

2.2 SWOT Analysis

A. Internal Environment

a. Strengths

b. Weaknesses

The biggest strength for this mobile application is its multi-feature capability. It entails a bundle of functions; which include alarm and reminder snooze, appointment setter, note taker, finance manager, etc. By using this application package, mobile users will be able to manage their important day-to-day tasks in a more convenient and efficient way.

Due to its multi-feature capability, this application will become an alternative to various other mobile applications which are marketed and sold separately.

The users will also get an advantage of price discount by purchasing a set of applications in a single package. They will not have to pay for each application separately.

'Anywhere, anytime' usage feature. Very limited need to have internet connection.

Personalization

Person-specific. One-to-one app.

Affordable and truly practical application designed by keeping in view the needs of professionals and students.

Needs very low memory to be stored and function properly.

No third-party advertisements in the application.

One of the major weaknesses of this mobile applications package is its low-graphics interface. In order to make it lighter and efficient in memory usage, the company has used light color schemes and graphics. On the other hand, its competitor applications are more attractive and full of graphical themes.

Another weakness of this application package is its compatibility with operating systems. Currently, the company has developed this app for Android systems only. Therefore, consumers having Nokia's Windows phones, Apple's iPhone, and BlackBerry's smart phone will not be able to use this application.

Due to a large number of competitor brands that offer similar applications, this mobile app package will take reasonable time to develop itself among target consumers.

This application does not have any security feature in it which is essentially required by most of the consumers. Reason being, financial calculations, personal notes, and meetings must be protected from unauthorized access.

B. External Environment

a. Opportunities

b. Threats

Although this package has been introduced with different useful individual mobile applications; there still exists an option to add more features with the passage of time. The company has planned to provide an option of personal customization to those users who will actually buy the full version of the application package. Moreover, the free full version of the applications package to the first fifteen downloaders of the trial samplewill be helpful in getting their feedback on its usability and practicality. This feedback will then help the company in improving the features and compatibility of the application package in its next version.

The sale of smart phones and tablets has been showing an increasing trend which is also a positive sign for mobile applications developers. Most of the high-tech phones come with internet capability, multi-function support, and minimal memory usage. Keeping in view the value of entertainment, convenience, flexibility, and time in the day-to-day life of today's generation, Smartek can develop similar applications and become a well-recognized name in the industry (Dredge, 2013).

With this useful mobile application package in hand, Smartek Inc. can also develop its brand image in the market and introduce new applications with innovative features and better speed.

In order to become a competitive and profitable firm in the mobile applications industry, Smartek can develop applications that can best meet the cultural, social, demographic, and economic preferences of the general consumers in the United States. This strategy will help the company's marketing department in boosting up sales for this particular product category.

Steadily growing customer base is also an attractive opportunity for Smartek to introduce this application in the most potential markets in the country.

By setting a competitive price for this application, Smartek can compete with other similar mobile application developers in a more effective way (Kotler & Armstrong, 2008).

Most of the mobile applications packages are available absolutely free over the Internet; whereas Smartek Inc. is only giving a free trial version of the package and offering to buy it at a reasonable price.

In order to continue using the application, the user will have to purchase the full package. This pricing strategy will become a competitive advantage of numerous similar application packages that are sold free over the Internet -- thus, creating threats for this application package.

The rising costs of Research and Development, advertisement and promotions, and dealers' commissions are putting direct negative pressures on the company's operational and financial performance.

Due to the risk of data theft, the consumers prefer to use applications developed by well-recognized brands only. Smartek Inc. is quite new in the market and has very limited product range. In order to develop its image and win the consumers' trust, it will have to develop reliable and innovative applications and sell them at…