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TRANSCRIPT
Omni
Marketing Plan Brief
Group 5
J E N N I F E R D E J E S U S
D P J O L L Y
R O H A A N R A Y A N I
J O S E T O R R E S
J A R E D W I N E
4/22/2013
Principles of Marketing
MAR 250 – CRN 20450
Professor Chiagouris
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Executive Summary_____________________________________________ 2-32. Situation Analysis ______________________________________________ 4-24
a. Mission Statement 4b. Company Description 4c. Product Category 4-10d. Consumer Research 10-16e. Competitive Research 17-22f. SWOT Analysis 22g. Analysis of SWOT 23h. Competitive Analysis 23-24
3. Marketing Objectives _______________________________________________ 244. Positioning ___________________________________________________________ 25
a. Brand Name 25b. Tag Line 25c. Positioning Statement 25
5. Competitive Advantage _____________________________________________ 26-276. Targeting ______________________________________________________________ 27-287. Marketing Mix Program ____________________________________________ 29-37
a. Product 29-30b. Price 30-31c. Distribution 31d. Promotion 32-37
8. Organization ___________________________________________________________ 389. Evaluation ______________________________________________________________ 38-40
a. Performance standards and acceptable deviations 38b. Schedule for Monitoring Performance 39c. Contingency Plans 39-40
10. Bibliography ___________________________________________________________ 40-42
Page 1
1. Executive Summary
We can define social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to
construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, articulate a list of other
users with whom they share a connection, and view and navigate their list of connections
and those made by others within the system.1 Though relatively new, social networks are
no longer in their infancy; they have become an integral part of daily life. In society, there
are hundreds of networks supporting a wide range of interests and practices. Some sites
cater to diverse audiences, while others attract niche groups based on demographics or
interests, but they all similarly aim to bring people together. Since it emergence, social
networking sites have and will continued to evolve and offer consumers around the world
new and meaningful ways to engage with the people, events, and brands that matter to
them. Social networking has transformed into a global phenomenon.
Facebook is currently dominating industry, holding both the largest market share in
terms of visits in United States as well as globally. Research shows that Facebook holds
57% of the total market share in the U.S. and a global market share of 72.4%. However,
Facebook is losing its way. Originally a social networking site exclusively for college
students, Facebook has since then expanded, sacrificing the wants and desires of this highly
powerful demographic in the process.
We created Omni to give college students back their own exclusive online
community. Our goal is to give students everything they want and need for everyday life in
one site, which is why we chose the name Omni (Omni comes from word omniscience 1 Boyd, Danah M., and Nicole B. Ellison. "Social Network Sites: Definition, History, And
Scholarship." Journal Of Computer-Mediated Communication 13.1 (2007): 210-230. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web.
Page 2
which means all-knowing). What sets us apart for all other social networking sites in the
market is our unique toggle feature. College students constantly struggle to balance social
life with school life. We understand this, and thus developed a way to bring these two
important aspects of a student’s life together. Omni users are given two distinct profiles,
one for friends and social life, and the other for classmates and school work. Users are
given the option to add others as either classmates or friends, allowing them to filter who
see which aspects of their lives. Users do this by choosing which profile to post their
content to- social, school, or both. When closer relationships develop and users want to
share more aspects of their lives with a classmate, they can be updated to a friend for full
connectivity. Users can switch between their two profiles and personalized feeds with just
a click of a button. Omni provides an experience unlike any other social network, which will
capture user interest and draw them in.
Building awareness and generating users will be mainly achieved through our twin
campaign. Dylan and Cole Sprouse, twins who starred in their very own Disney Channel
show and are now students at NYU, will be featured in our campaign. These twins are
identical, but they have their own unique personalities that distinguish them. This, in
essence, is what Omni is- one website with two profiles that play to the two different
aspects of a college student’s life- social and academic. As we build more awareness, we
will recruit other famous twins, such as Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen. We will also use
curiosity to build awareness and generate users by displaying discreet ads on city trains
and buses. Through our efforts, we hope to create a one stop social networking site for
college students and eliminate the need for multiple accounts on various platforms.
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2. Situation Analysis
Mission Statement
To create a one stop social network tailored exclusively to college student that
combines social and school life.
Company Description
Omni will create a social network like none other currently available in the
marketplace; we incorporate all the best aspects of social networking onto one convenient,
easy to use site, our aim being to balance social life with school work, creating a one stop
social networking site for college students. We plan to do so with an initial budget of $20
million.
Product Category
Social Networks Market Size: $16.9 billion2 (2012)
Market Size of Facebook: 57% market share of visits / Total sales $5.089 billion (2012)
Consumers are spending an increasing amount of time on the internet, more so an
increasing amount of time searching for more meaningful ways to engage with the people,
events, and brands that matter the most to them, which has led to the rapid growth of
social media and social networking. Social networking will continue to grow and evolve to
meet the changing needs of consumers and fight to stay relevant in their lives. Social
networks have become an integral part of consumers’ everyday lives, making this such a
2 "Worldwide Social Media Revenue Forecast to Reach $16.9 Billion in 2012." Gartner.com. Gartner, n.d. Web.
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prime market to enter. Social networking has developed immensely since its initial
emergence into society; hundreds exist today supporting a wide range of interests and
practices, some catering to diverse audiences, while others attract people based on
common language or shared racial, sexual, religious, or nationality-based identities.3 The
image below shows the launch dates of major social networking sites dating back to 1997.
3 Boyd, Danah M., and Nicole B. Ellison. "Social Network Sites: Definition, History, And Scholarship." Journal Of Computer-Mediated Communication 13.1 (2007): 210-230. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web.
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The table below4 from Experian Hitwise displays the top 10 social media websites as of
March 30, 2013 in terms of total visits and visits share, identifying our leading competitors
in the industry we are competing in. As of March 2013, Facebook holds the largest share of
market visits with 57% and approximately 2 billion visits. Furthermore, as the table found
on the following page shows5, Facebook has an overall global market share of 72.4%.
Facebook is the leading platform of social networking, dominating both the U.S. and global
market. These findings agree with a study performed by the Pew Research Center, which
found that 67% of online adults use Facebook, 16% use Twitter, 15% use Pinterest, 13%
use Instagram, and 6% use Tumblr6.
Top 10 Social Media Websites
Week ending March 30, 2013Websites Total Visits Visits
ShareRank
03/23Rank
03/16Rank
03/09
Facebook 1,993,209,231 57.00% 1 1 1YouTube 880,975,059 25.19% 2 2 2Twitter 57,898,377 1.66% 3 3 3Pinterest 40,852,294 1.17% 4 4 4Yahoo! Answers 37,272,208 1.07% 5 5 5LinkedIn 31,583,376 0.90% 6 6 6Google+ 27,155,984 0.78% 7 7 7Tagged 17,598,603 0.50% 8 8 8Tumblr 17,356,666 0.50% 9 9 9Instagram 14,602,803 0.42% 10 11 12
4 "Social Media Trends." Experian Hitwise. Web. 07 Apr. 2013.5 Karma Snack. "Social Media Market Share - Updated Apr 2013." Karmasnack.com. Karma Snack Web Agency.6 PEW. “The Demographics of Social Media Users – 2012” Pew Research Center.
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Facebook, the dominating social networking site in the market, reached a total sales
of US$5.089 billion7 for the 2012 fiscal year and a net income of US$53 million7, a 37.1%
increase in revenue and 97.7% decrease in net income when compared to their 2011 fiscal
year in which they brought in US$3.711 billion7 in revenue and US$1 billion7 in net income.
Despite their current domination in the market, Facebook was not always the
leading social networking platform and many analysts believe they have lost their way. In
order to expand their user base, Facebook has spared the needs and wants of college
student, their initial target market. We want to give college students back their own
exclusive place on the internet and cater to their wants and needs. What we propose is the
creation of a strictly college based social networking platform- Omni, where users can
connect and interact with their friends and classmates, follow their favorite music artists,
find local businesses, restaurants, retail locations, and night life spots with ratings and
reviews from their own trusted peers, as well as reviews and ratings of professors and
classes at their universities from fellow classmates and multiple ways to connect to work
on group assignments or form study groups, such as group video chat rooms. Omni’s
unique toggle switch makes it easy for users to navigate back and forth between the fun
and learning, creating two distinctive profiles for close friend and social life and classmates
and school. Each profile has its own unique view; a clean, white theme for the social aspect
of Omni, and a simple black theme for the school orientated side. Users are given the option
to add other Omni users as a friend or classmate, classmates having access to strictly the
school oriented side of the social network. If desired, users can later change a classmate to
a friend when deeper relationships have formed. Users can also do many of the things they
7 Mergent. Facebook, Inc. Reported Annual Income Statement, Mergent Online.
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already love, like create posts and share pictures and videos, as well as multiple types
documents with friends and/or classmates. Users can also receive access to numerous
student discounts and free events in their area and they will only see the advertisements
that are relevant to their lives, different ads being displayed on each of the two profiles. All
this is done in the effort to create the best experience for students and join the two main
aspects of their lives together, all the while keeping them separate and distinctive. Omni is
everything needed for everyday life.
Consumer Research
Consumer research proves that young adults use social networks more frequently
on a daily basis than their older counterparts, females showing a larger involvement than
males, making college students a prime target market. Research conducted by Ipsos Open
Thinking Exchange (OTX) shows that Americans (ages 18-64) spend, on average, 3.2
combined hours a day on social networking sites. The average becomes 2.0 hours per day
for online Americans when the respondents who do not use social networking sites are
factored in. The graph found on the following page8 illustrates these findings, showing the
amount of time different demographics report spending on social networks from a
computer, tablet, and/or mobile phone daily (as of January 2013). It is shown that
Americans aged 18-34 spend the most time on social networking sites, averaging at about
3.8 hours per day, above the overall average, compared to 3.0 and 2.4 hours per day for
those ages 35-49 and 50-64. Additionally, females report spending about 40% more time
8 "Social Networking Eats Up 3 Hours Per Day For The Average American User." MarketingCharts. N.p., n.d. Web. 07 Apr. 2013.
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daily on social networking sites than males, averaging at 3.6 hours per day compared to 2.6
hours.
Another demographic that emerged from Ipsos OTX research which is important to
note is that those with lower education levels report spending more time on social network
sites a day compared to those with higher education levels (3.5 vs. 3.0 hours). Current
social networking sites meet the needs of the social side of the life of young consumers, but
they neglect the equally important academic side. As education level increases it becomes
more consuming, and users are forced to spend less time networking and more time
focusing on academics. Omni plays on this trend, making the balance of social and school
life the revolving factor of the site, which will be discussed in more detail later in the
marketing plan.
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A February 2013 Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project survey9
studied why Americans use social media by asking respondents to rank 7 motivators as
major, minor, and not reasons to use social networking sites. 67% answered that staying in
touch with current friends is a major reason, 64% said staying in touch with family
members is a major reason, and 50% said that connecting with old friends you’ve lost
touch with is a major reason, making these reasons the top three motivators for using
social networks among Americans. Finding potential romantic or dating partners, reading
comments by celebrities, athletes, or politicians and meeting new friends are not reasons
why Americans use social networking sites (84% and 74%). 50% of Americans also believe
9 "Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project." Why Americans Use Social Media. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2013.
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that connecting with others with shared hobbies or interests is not a reason to use social
networks; 35% believe it is a minor reason, and 14% believe it is a major reason.
Looking more closely at these motivators for social networking stated in the Pew
study, staying in touch with family member is a major reason across the range of social
networking users, but it is especially important to women (72% vs. 55%). There is no
major difference for this reason in terms of age, income, education, race/ethnicity, parental
status or place of residence. Social media users ages 50 and under are especially likely to
say that social networks help them stay in touch with current friends (7 out of 10) and
reconnecting with old ones (5 out of 10). Connecting with others who share hobbies or
interest is a greater reason to use social networks for older users than it is for younger
users (18% of 50-65 year olds, 16% of 30-49 year olds, 10% of 18-29 year olds). Finding
dating partners is the most minor element of social networking usage, with 8 out of 10
(84%) not using these sites for this purpose at all.
According to Simmons OneView and the provided tables below10, when asked what
website they have used or visited in the last 7 days, 23.4% of the 23,572 adults studied
answered that they have used or visited Facebook in the last 7 days. When projected onto
the entire adult population, 38.7% of the respondents are male and 61.3% are female.
Furthermore, 19.9% of these respondents are ages 18-24, 56.3% ages 25-49, and 23.8%
over 50.
10Simmons One View.“Spring 2010 NHCS Adult Study 12 Month (Population)” Simmons One View.<http://oneview.experian.com/main/#> © Experian 2013. (Accessed Mar. 25th, 2013).Web Image.
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Total FACEBOOK.COM
Sample 23,572 4,921Weighted(000
)222,622 52,063
Total Vertical % 100.0% 100.0%Horizontal % 100.0% 23.4%
Index 100 100Total % 100.0% 23.4%Sample 10,397 1,706
Weighted(000) 107,268 20,148
MALE Vertical % 48.2% 38.7%Horizontal % 100.0% 18.8%
Index 100 80Total % 48.2% 9.1%Sample 13,175 3,215
Weighted(000) 115,354 31,915
FEMALE Vertical % 51.8% 61.3%Horizontal % 100.0% 27.7%
Index 100 118Total % 51.8% 14.3%Sample 2,008 842
Weighted(000) 24,442 10,377
18 – 24 Vertical % 11.0% 19.9%Horizontal % 100.0% 42.5%
Index 100 182Total % 11.0% 4.7%Sample 8,947 2,570
Weighted(000) 96,981 29,318
25 – 49 Vertical % 43.6% 56.3%Horizontal % 100.0% 30.2%
Index 100 129Total % 43.6% 13.2%Sample 12,617 1,509
Weighted(000) 101,199 12,368
50+ Vertical % 45.5% 23.8%Horizontal % 100.0% 12.2%
Index 100 52
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Total % 45.5% 5.6%
As previously stated, approximately two-thirds (67%) of online adults say they use
Facebook. As previous information supports, Facebook is most appealing to adult women
and young adults (ages 18-29).11 86% of consumers ages 18-29 and 72% of females
actively use Facebook, making them the most active and engaged demographic in the
market. The least engaged demographic are those ages 65 and over, with only 35% of these
consumers using Facebook.
The personal computer is still the center of the social networking experience, but
consumers are increasingly looking to other devices to connect on social media as
technology continues to advance. Time spent on mobile apps and mobile web account for
63% of the year-over-year growth in overall time spent using social media.12 46% of social
media users say they use their smartphones to access social media, 16% say they connect
using a tablet. As the illustration below shows12, from July 2011-12 consumers spent 362.7
billion minutes using social networks on PCs, 129.4 billion on mobile apps, and 28.1 billion
on the mobile web. There was a 4% increase in PC usage, 120% increase in app usage, and
22% increase in mobile web usage. Though PCs are currently the most popular means of
accessing social networks, if it continues to increase this rapidly, mobile apps will replace
PCs as the main way to access social content among consumers.
11 Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. “ The Demographics of Social Media Users” N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2013.12 Pew. “The Social Media Report – 2012” Pew Research Center.
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The image below12, also produced by Pew, further shows how consumers connect to
social networks.
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Competitive Research
Omni competes with companies in the social media industry. As previously stated in
our Situation Analysis, Facebook is currently dominating industry, holding both the largest
market share in terms of visits in United States as well as globally. According to Alexa
Search Analytics13, Facebook is ranked number two in internet traffic both in the United
States and globally in terms of visitors and page views. Other close competitors include
Pinterest, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram. Facebook reached total sales of US$5.089 billion
for the 2012 fiscal year and a net income of US$53 million. As previously stated, as of March
2013 and in terms of total visits and visits share, Facebook holds the largest share of U.S.
market visits with 57% and approximately 2 billion total visits, and 72.4% of global market
visits.
Product:
13 Alexa. “Statistics Summary for facebook.com” Alexa. < http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/facebook.com>Page 17
Facebook was launched by creator Mark Zuckerberg in 2004 as a social networking
website tailored exclusively to college students- a dot edu email address being necessary to
gain access, the goal being to allow students to interact with and find other college
students. Facebook has since then expanded its market; in 2005, it abandoned its strictly
college-users-only strategy, and as of 2006, permitted anyone with a valid email address to
create a profile on their site. Here lays one of Facebook’s largest problems- moving away
from its exclusive audience in order to broaden its user base was done at the expense of
college students. These college students, who are part of one of the dominating
demographics of the market, no longer have a social networking site of their own with
peers of their own age and content that is important and relevant to them.
If you look on their website today, Facebook states that its mission is to give people
the power to share and make the world more opened and connected.14 People use
Facebook to stay connected with friends and family, to discover what’s going on in the
world, and to share and express what matters to them.14 Timeline is the most recent
innovation, allowing users to frame their page as a story. Users can upload photos and
videos, create a status post, join or create various groups, talk to friends through
Facebook’s messaging system or video calling, post on each other’s timelines, and scroll
through their own personalized newsfeed of their friends, family, and subscriptions.
Price:
Facebook is a free social networking service- there is no subscription. Facebook
makes most of its revenue through advertising. As of December 2012, Facebook has on
14Facebook."Facebook - About | Facebook."Facebook.Facebook, n.d. Web. 25 Mar. 2013.Page 18
average more than a billion active monthly users and 618 million active daily users, making
it attractive to anyone looking to promote a business, product, or service. Users and
businesses alike can pay for Facebook ads and sponsored stories and they control their
advertising expenses by setting daily or lifetime budgets. Facebook’s advertising network
functions as a blind auction- potential advertisers bid to have their advertisements
displayed to various demographics15. They are given numerous ad targeting options- from
the location, gender, age, likes and interests, relationship status, workplace and education.
When an ad is ran charges are made according to number of clicks (CPC) or number of
impressions (CPM) for each advertisement or sponsored story. The minimum cost per click
is $0.01, but that is not high enough for an ad or sponsored story to be shown. The larger
the advertiser’s bid amount, the more people the ad is likely to reach the targeted audience.
When paying per impressions, ads are optimized to be shown to the people most based on
the daily and lifetime budget set. Facebook calculates and creates a suggested bid range
based on how many other advertisers are competing to show their ad to the same audience
in order to aid them in placing bids that will result in a good amount of impressions and
clicks. Advertisers are in direct competition with each other for ad space on Facebook. The
click-through rate in itself is another factor that has impact on the Facebook ad prices- the
higher CTR an advertiser achieves the greater chance they have of winning auctions.16
Facebook Advertisements can appear in the News Feed of users or in the right column of
any page on the site.
15 "Campaign Cost & Budgeting." Facebook.com. Facebook.16 Qwaya. "Facebook Advertising Costs." Qwaya.com. < http://www.qwaya.com/facebook-advertising-costs>
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Recently, Facebook has given its users the ability to promote their posts. Promoted
posts appear higher in the News Feed, so there is a better chance of them being seen by the
user’s peers or audience. They offer two ways to promote a post: from a personal account
and from a Facebook Page. The cost to promote a post depends on several factors,
including geographic location and how many people are being reaching. The cost for an
average user with fewer than 5,000 connections is US$7.00. Generally, all revenue
generated through promoted posts is profit for the company. Users can also purchase
Facebook credits, which can be used to send gifts or to purchase items on applications or
games.
Distribution (Place):
Facebook entered the market as a social networking site for Harvard college
students and soon extended its services to colleges in the Boston area and other Ivy League
schools. Today, anyone with internet access, a valid email address, and is at least 13 years
of age is eligible to sign up for a Facebook account. They have drastically expanded their
market, now being available to multiple countries outside the United States. According to
Alexa Search Analytics and highlighted by the graphic below17, the United States possesses
21.0% of Facebook visitors in the world. India holds the second most engaged users, with
8.1% of visitors and Brazil comes in third with 4.5%.
17 Alexa. “Audience Demogrpahics for Facebook.com” Alexa. < http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/facebook.com>Page 20
While initially popular in the United States, social media has expanded
internationally, as shown above. Many countries in Asia and Europe have developed their
own social media services and are making efforts to penetrate the market in the United
States. Similarly, U.S. social media services are aggressively targeting foreign markets in
order to create a global social media presence.18
Looking closely at our main competitor in the market, the table19 below, produced
by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, shows the demographics of those who use
Facebook. Facebook’s most active and engaged users are females aged 18-29 years with an
annual household income of $75,000 or more, some college and from urban life.
18 Radicati, Sara, Ph D. "Social Media Market 2012-2016." Radicati.com. The Radicati Group, Inc, n.d. Web.19 "Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project." The Demographics of Social Media Users. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Apr. 2013.
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Promotion
Due to its popularity and domination in the market, Facebook does not utilize
advertisements for its site. For its’ startup years, much of Facebook’s marketing was
through word of mouth, and in 2012, 9 years after its startup, Facebook launched its first
advertisement in which they compared themselves to a chair.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths:
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All Inclusive Variety of Different Features Multi-Functional Balance of Educational & Fun Easy to Navigate Toggle Switch
Weaknesses:
Limited to college age students only May be struggle to balance social/educational aspects Garnering initial users/interest
Opportunities:
Expansion to other schools/age groups Incorporation of User Generated Content New ways of learning i.e. online schools, classes, books
Threats:
Pre-existing Social Networking Sites Established online schools
Analysis of SWOT Information
Omni prides itself in its unique ability to balance the fun aspects of social
networking with the educational aspect of learning. Our toggle switch makes it easy for
users to navigate back and forth between the fun and learning, all the while providing our
users with several other features and functions to enjoy. Omni will be exclusively for
college age students, limiting the market, and it may be a struggle for some of our users to
make the correct decisions in order to balance the fun with learning. This may result in
Omni have a difficult time starting up, as many college students may view Omni only as an
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additional learning tool on top of their college education already. However, expansion to
other colleges and age groups (graduate level students) is definitely a possibility in the
future, as Omni will continue to grow with the content its users’ generate. Omni has the
potential to become the future of learning. Omni’s greatest outside threats are pre-existing
social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and other leading market share
holders as well as already established online schools.
Competitive Analysis
Omni possesses several determinant attributes that will influence users to engage in
our website and make it a part of their daily lives. One is ease of access. Websites that are
difficult to navigate create frustration and discouragement; our website is user friendly and
easy to operate. Omni is multi-functional, joining social life with school life. We balance fun
with learning and remove the need to have multiple social networking sites; all the best
features of social networking on one site. Targeted to college students, Omni will give users
a feeling of exclusivity. With Facebook now being opened to people of all ages, including the
preteens and older adults, it lost its aim. Omni will be tailored exclusively to the needs of
college students, a dot edu email address being required to obtain access to the site. Unlike
any other social networking platform, Omni revolves around a toggle feature. Our users
have the unique ability to switch between two different profiles, one strictly for school life,
and the other for social life. Users are able to add people as either classmates or friends.
Privacy is a major attribute when choosing social networking sites and with this feature,
Omni users are be able to filter who see which aspects of their personal lives. When
relationships with classmates develop and they want to share more aspects of their lives
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with one another, classmates can be updated to friends for full connectivity. Omni provides
an experience unlike any other social network, which will capture user interest and draw
them in.
3. Marketing Objectives
a. Launch site and establish a following:
i. Present website to local colleges & institutions such as Pace University, New
York University, and St. John’s University.
ii. Receive 250,000 users after 3 months.
iii. 525,000 users after 6 months.
iv. 1.1 million users after 12 months.
b. Expand the site and increase users:
i. Present Omni to colleges within the tri-state area within 2 months.
ii. Expand to colleges across the nation after trial period in the tri-state area.
iii. Welcome special requests from colleges to introduce site.
c. Sales:
i. Begin advertising on our website after 10 months in order to first build
loyalty.
ii. Make $9 million in advertising sales at the end of first year in the market.
4. Positioning
Brand Name
“Omni” comes from the word omniscience,
which is the capacity to know everything
that there is to know. In Latin, omnis means
"all" and sciens means "knowing". This
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encompasses our goal: to become a one stop social networking site for college students that
balances school life with social life,
pleasure with learning.
Tag Line
“Omni: Everything for Everyday”
Positioning Statement
To give college students the best online experience by combining all the most
desired aspects of social media onto one website that balances fun with learning. From
friends, classmates, entertainment, schoolwork and personal interest, Omni allows users to
easily switch between their social life and their school life with just a click of a button.
5. Competitive Advantage
Competition:
o Although Facebook is currently the most dominant of all social networking sites, it is
steadily eroding in popularity and beginning to dull its users
Many controversies have risen from security issues, cyber bullying, and
even identity theft.
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Facebook has drifted off course of its original function and is now a “jack of
all trades” but master of none.
o Twitter and YouTube have backlashes from its users for both having too many
changes to its layouts that make the website more complex and that there are many
instances where servers are down and the websites are not functioning.
Advantages:
o Omni is a new and exciting opportunity for many users that want an alternative to
Facebook, and the website combines the key features of all major social media sites
under one tab.
o Our website allows a combination of social life and school life to be used together
and have the option to choose between the two.
o Aimed for college students, Omni is a website where you can post whatever you
want freely without the backlash of family, co-workers, or professional peers
judging what you post.
o No advertisements from irrelevant products.
o Online community and newsfeed that is made up of college friends, and peers of
your age.
“Coolness Factor” - Users aren’t seeing posting from family and peers they
are forced to friend on Facebook, but rather peers of their own age and what
is important to them.
6. Targeting
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As our research shows, 75 percent of the U.S. population are active social network
users. American consumers spend, on average, 3.2 hours a day on social networking sites
using all their media outlets. From research, it can be understood that in America, 18-34
year olds are the most active social network users in comparison to all other age groups.
Since our research shows that this is the most active age group, our product is looking to
target consumers in university, the average age of our customers being between 18-22,
which falls perfectly in the age group previously stated. It should also be noted that an
astounding 1 out of every 5 people in this age group spends 6 or more hours a day on social
networks. Because such a large number of Americans between 18-22 years old operate on
social networking sites to such a high degree, they are ideal customers for Omni. In
addition, we have found that young adults are also the demographic that is most active on
their mobile phones, as shown in the pie chart below.
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According to the pie chart, social networking sites are where people spend the second
highest amount time on mobile phones. With this knowledge, it is clear that the target
audience for Omni is in fact college students ages 18-22.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, between 2000 and 2010,
enrollment in higher education increased 37 percent, from 15.3 million to 21.0 million
college students.20 Furthermore, between 2000 and 2010, the number of 18 to 24 years
olds increased from 27.3 million to 30.7 million, an increase of 12 percent, and the
percentage of 18 to 24 year olds enrolled in college rose from 35 percent in 2000 to 41
percent in 2010. The number of students choosing to go to college will continue to rise,
making this a prime market to target.
7. Marketing Mix Program
Total budget: $20 million to bring to market
Product Strategy
Budget: $2 million
Omni is a social networking site restricted strictly to college students. A dot edu
email address is necessary to join. Omni brings social and school life together by
integrating a unique toggle feature. Users can switch between two different profiles, one
made the social aspect of life and friends (with a white design), the other for the school
aspect of life and classmates (with a black design).
20 "Fast Facts." Nces.edu. National Center for Education Statistics. Web.Page 29
In order to make our social network come to life, there will be expenses associated
with claiming a domain name, the cost of dedicated servers, and software creation. Web
hosting is one of the most important parts of a website’s web presence and can mean the
success and failure for business. In the case of social networks, the best option for hosting
are dedicated serve hosting due to the large amount of web space and bandwidth required
for the amount of videos and files to be hosted and to
cater a large amount of traffic. 21
A large part of this budget will go into the
engineering and programming of our website as well
21 "Which Web Host Does Myspace, Facebook or Youtube Use." VideoWebHosting.org. Video Web Hosting. Web. Page 30
as the development of a mobile application due to the fact that mobile devices are the
second most popular way consumers connect on the internet, as supported by our previous
research. Also, social networking makes up 30% of all mobile app consumption. From our
suggested $20 million budget, approximately $2 million will go towards the creation of our
site and mobile application.
Price Strategy
After 10 months, to monetize Omni, advertising models must be in place for
monetization to occur.
Those willing to advertise on Omni will be asked to pay through a variety of online
advertising options. The options are cost per click (CPC), cost per thousand impressions
(CPM), or cost per action (CPA).
Advertisers can choose their option and can spend to how much their budget allows
them to. When the advertiser begins to create ads for their business they can choose how
much money they want to spend advertising on a weekly, monthly, quarterly or yearly
basis.
Advertising Option Cost ($)
CPC 0.05
CPM 15
CPA 25
We at Omni decide to have a flat-rate system for our advertising models, unlike
Facebook that has a suggesting bid range. It is best to have a flat-rate therefore all of
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adverts have a fair chance of receiving space to advertise. However, Omni will have 100
spots available within 3 time slots (4:00PM-12AM, 12PM-8AM, 8AM-4PM) that adverts
could choose. We believe that the advertising is a premium because it is for a niche market
(college students), which is how we set our rates.
Distribution Strategy
Budget: $1 million
One of the advantages of creating a website is that they are easily distributed over a
large population. We will begin our efforts in New York and the tri-state area, eventually
spreading to the remaining east coast and cross to the west coast through advertisements
and word of mouth.
Promotion Strategy
Budget: $14 million
Omni has the potential to become the main social networking site for college
students. Our positioning in the minds of our target is as followed: Omni, a one stop only
social networking site that joins and balance social and school life, as all you need for every
day. We have budgeted $14 million towards our promotional mix, consisting of advertising
and public relations. Effective use of these two elements will place Omni in the minds of
many college students and encourage many to join our site, soon making Omni one of the
top competitors in the market. We will begin our efforts in colleges in New York and tri-
state area, with print, web streaming and online advertisements and television spots. The
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graph below22 illustrates the best ways to reach college students, with email and television
being the best agents and radio commercials and text campaigns the bottom two.
Most of our focus will be on our television commercials. As previously stated,
television commercials are the second most effective way to reach college students, just
slightly under email. To emphasize and highlight our competitive advantage, our toggle
feature, our campaign will revolve around twins. Twins are identical people that have their
own personality which distinguishes one from the other, making them unique individuals.
This is an excellent representation of Omni- one website with two profiles that play to the
two different aspects of a college student’s life- social and academic. Our television spots
22 "Chart/table From: TV Ads Reach – and Influence – College Students." MarketingCharts.com. Marketing Charts. Web Image.
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will feature twins, each twin promoting for one of the two sides of Omni (social life and
school life). We will switch back and forth from one twin to another, from one profile to
another, mimicking our toggle feature and its’ ease. Since we are starting our efforts in New
York and the tri-state area, we will begin our campaign with celebrity twins Dylan and Cole
Sprouse. These twins are well known and easily recognized in our target market by their
old hit Disney Channel show ‘The Suite Life of Zack and Cody’, and are easy to relate to
because they are now college students at New York University, making them excellent
sponsors for our social network. We will later recruit other celebrity twins, including Mary-
Kate and Ashley Olsen, as well as feature everyday twins that our target can easily relate
with. The table below23 shows the top ten networking programs, so we will strategically
run our ads on channels such as CBS, ABC, NBC, and MTV. From out total promotional
budget, we will allocate $8 million for our television spots and endorsements. Our featured
twin campaign will also extend to print and online advertisements in order to further
promote our site and unique toggle feature and build awareness.
23 "Top 10 Network Television Programs, Week of Apr 1, 2013." MarketingCharts.com. Marketing Charts. Web Image.
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When it comes to general internet access, young adults of all stripes are much more
likely than the general population to go online. The chart below, produced by Pew
Research, shows that 99% of undergraduate students are internet users. 24
24 Smith, Aaron, Lee Rainie, and Kathyrn Zickuhr. "College Students and Technology." PewInternet.org. Pew Research Center, 19 Jul 2011. Web.
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Taking all this into
consideration, we will allocate
$5.25 million from our total
promotional budget of $14
million to web streaming and
online ads. We will make use
of websites that heavily traffic
college students and advertise on websites such as YouTube.com, Amazon.com, and
RateMyProfessor.com.
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We will also create simple print ads that will only feature our brand logo with the
words (omni.com) underneath to build curiosity. Some special ads will feature QR codes
that will send consumers to a featured video. We will
also have a second ad that plays on the school aspect of
Omni- our brand name being shown against a marble
composition notebook. We will place these ads on the
interior and exterior of buses, in bus shelters, and in
subway carts. Subway interiors will have a major
impact on our attempt to reach consumers due to the
fact that many college students ride the subway on a
daily basis and as they wait to arrive to their destination, they have the irresistible
opportunity to look for new and interesting content within subway cars. We will allocate
$750,000 towards our print advertisements. Finally, much of our promotion will be from
word of mouth. Research clearly demonstrates that word of mouth – product or service
recommendations made by friends, co-workers, or neighbors you know and trust – is still
the most effective way to win new customers. Word of mouth advertising resonates well
with target audiences, and this is especially true for the college demographic.
Miscellaneous/Unanticipated Expenses: $3 million
From our total budget of $20 million, we will allocate 3 million for miscellaneous or
unanticipated expenses that may arise during our startup. It is important to be prepared
for the unexpected in business, and set aside budget will aid us in being prepared for
whatever may happen during our attempts to bring Omni to the market.
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8. Organization
9. Evaluation – Control & Update
Performance Standards & Acceptable Deviations
Looking at the startups of our main competitors in the industry, we plan to obtain
1.1 million users by the end of our first year in the social networking market, and generate
$9 million in advertising sales.
The acceptable deviation is (+/-) 10%, meaning our social networking site may
generate anywhere from 990,000 to 1.21 million users a year from its initial launch and
produce $8.1 to $9.9 million in ad sales.
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Schedule for Monitoring Performance
We aim to meet or exceed the needs of consumers, constantly maintaining high
performance, functionality, and consistency of our social networking site. We understand
the frustration that arises when websites crash and are forced to shut down for
maintenance and we want to ensure that our site is consistently available for users. In
order to accomplish this, our IT and Engineering department will perform daily quality
control daily to ensure that Omni is functioning properly and as close to ideal standards as
possible.
To ensure that we are making progress towards our set objectives and strategic
direction, we will make use of marketing dashboards to monitor performance and
popularity. The marketing metrics that we will consistently incorporate are reach (i.e.
growth of users, growth of active users, user demographics), engagement (i.e. time spent
on site, number or visits and return of visits), and influence (i.e. advertisement clicks,
conversation rate, economic value, market share of visits). Our dashboard will report usage
and sales on a month-to-month basis and integrate data visualization so that deviations
and trends can be quickly and easily spotted and corrective measures can be taken
immediately, if needed.
Contingency Plans
To prepare for unplanned and undesired event, we have developed a plan to quickly
adapt changing circumstances and remain in operation. To decrease chances of
maintenance issues and server problems, we will aim to have adequate storage space, both
in a digital and physical sense. For the day-to-day operations and developmental purposes, Page 39
we will rely on several memory cached serves. These servers temporarily store
information in the server's memory, in turn reducing the need to search a database for
information and decreasing the amount of time it takes between a request for information
and the delivery of that data, ensuring that our site runs quickly and smoothly for clients.
As our site expands and traffic increases, we will adapt by adding more servers to meet
demand and possibly lease additional space to house our servers as traffic and usage
continues to increase. We will also have an in house monitoring system to keep track of all
our servers.
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