Final dissertation: Bing integrated marketing communications plan
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This document outlines a marketing campaign plan to increase awareness and market share of the Bing search engine in the UK. The plan proposes an integrated marketing communications strategy utilizing public relations, advertising, direct marketing, social media, events and loyalty programs. The goal is to position Bing as a viable alternative to competitors like Google through messaging focused on Bing's usability and ability to answer questions directly. The proposed 12-month campaign includes advertising on public transit, online display ads, social media engagement, viral videos, sponsored events and a loyalty program called "Club Bing".
![About Microsoft
According to the Microsoft corporate website (2012) "our mission and values are to help people and
businesses throughout the world realize their full potential".
Bing is Microsoft’s search engine which was originally named Live Search, and then changed to Windows
Live Search and MSN Search. Bing was officially launched on May 28, 2009 and started working in June
of that same year. Bing currently provides search services for information, news, images, videos,
shopping and maps. Its offer is comparable to that of Google search engine.
In 2009, Bing agreed with Yahoo to power their search engine. By 2012, all search users of Yahoo will
migrate to Bing. Also, Bing is supposed to be working towards becoming the most effective search
engine with new index serving technology. Finally, Microsoft has developed an alliance with Facebook,
to provide an enhanced search experience that is supported by your friend’s recommendations and
feedback. This allows Bing to become part of an online community with more than 900 million users and
become a relevant brand for search.
According to the Microsoft’s shareholder letter in their 2011 annual review, “Bing made strong strides
this year. It's redefining the way people find information and make decisions – Bing Internet search
share grew over 30% in the United States during fiscal 2011, to 14.4 percent. It has also played a key role
in making other products better like Windows, Windows Phone and soon Xbox. […]During the fall of
2010, we completed the integration of Yahoo! search with Bing, and by the close of fiscal year 2011,
Bing and Yahoo! together powered more than one-quarter of all U.S. searches. In May, we announced a
new partnership with Facebook that enables us to deliver personalized search results that are based on
friends' opinions. This data helps people make decisions more quickly and easily based on
recommendations that are personal, more relevant, and reflect the wisdom and experience of known
and trusted friends.”
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![Furthermore, in terms of plans, the company establishes as their future strategic plans that “for
consumers, we're focused on Skype, Bing, Windows Live and Xbox Live. [---]Bing will have a broad
impact beyond search as we apply its understanding of the world's people and knowledge to scenarios
that help individuals accomplish a task. Imagine that instead of trying to print a boarding pass by finding
a website and typing in a confirmation code you could simply say "print my boarding pass." There are so
many opportunities to fundamentally improve how we interact with the range of devices and services by
pushing the capabilities of natural user interfaces.”
The Microsoft brand
According to Interbrand, Microsoft has position 3 in the global brand ranking with a brand value of
59,087 million dollars and a decrease of 3% compared with the previous year. The report says that “A
new partnership with Nokia is likely to shine bright light on Microsoft's mobile software, which has had a
tough history with both consumers and providers. This, along with the recent acclaim for the Xbox
Kinect, the Windows Phone Mango OS, and a tablet-ready Windows 8 designs, indicates that Microsoft
has all the pieces in place to build a strong consumer business.”
Despite having the needed innovation and good products, the competitors have done a better job in
building their brand with marketing communications. In the UK, Microsoft ranks on position 45, with
Google being 3rd, and Yahoo is number 169. In the search arena, Google dominates more than 90%
according to Comscore report as of May 2012 (See Table) and Microsoft has only a 3.86% of the market
in the UK.
Source: Digital strategy consulting (2012)
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![Nevertheless, it is not only a communication issue. Regarding this, Belch (2003, p.16) says that
“however, the promotional program must be part of a viable marketing strategy and be coordinated
with other marketing activities. A firm can spend large sums on advertising or sales promotion, but it
stands little chance of success if the product is of poor quality, is priced improperly, or does not have
adequate distribution to consumers. Marketers have long recognized the importance of combining the
elements of the marketing mix into a cohesive marketing strategy.”
The best current approach for marketers and companies is to develop IMC programs, Belch (2003, p.17)
says that “Consumers' perceptions of a company and/or its various brands are a synthesis of the bundle
of messages they receive or contacts they have, such as media advertisements, price, package design,
direct-marketing efforts, publicity, sales promotions, websites, point-of-purchase displays, and even the
type of store where a product or service is sold. The integrated marketing communications approach
seeks to have all.”
Furthermore, Belch (2003) says that there are five steps to developing effective IMC programs, which
include understanding and determining who the customer or prospect is; develop multiple relevant
contacts or touch points; manage all your communications through a “single voice”; focus on developing
relationships with the consumers; and finally seek to have a direct effect on behavior.
In the current context, as Belch (2003, p.18) explains “Consumers not only passively receive Marcom
messages, but now they are active participants in creating messages via consumer-generated media
such as those noted immediately above [Internet, social media, etc.].” Besides this, “Television and radio
programs and magazine and newspaper pages (collectively, the mass media) are not always the most
engaging contexts in which to place marketing messages.” And finally, he also explains that “it is widely
acknowledged that marketing communications are governed by a key reality: The consumer increasingly
wants to be in control! Marcom practitioners must accept the fact that marketing communications must
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![be consumer-centric interactivity is changing the way organisations choose to communicate with target
audiences and is also changing the way audiences choose to interact with brands.”
But this is not only a challenge for marketers, it is also an opportunity. As Fill (2009, p.42) adds,
“consumers are now willing, motivated and able to contribute to marketing communications”. This is a
major reason why IMC is a determining factor in the current landscape, as the engagement of the
consumers through the integration of different tools, may achieve a higher involvement and their
relationship with the brand, leading to recommendation, social sharing, etc.
The opportunities for IMC are stronger now as “many marketing communicators now realize that
communication outlets other than the mass media often better serve the needs of their brands.”
(Shimp, 2010, p.32). Furthermore, the new tools allow for “interactivity [which] means that consumers
are devising and delivering content through the messages they create.” (Fill, 2009, p.42) But even more
critical, the IMC approach allows “adaptation by marketers to a changing environment, particularly with
respect to consumers, technology, and media.”
In the current economic, technological and social landscape, “the objective is to contact customers and
prospects effectively using touch points that reach them where, when, and how they wish to be
contacted. […] Mass media advertising is not always the most effective or cost-efficient avenue for
accomplishing this objective.” (Shimp, 2009, p.32) According to Fill (2009, p.32), all these trends have
combined and as a result it means that “the marketing communication mix has evolved to the point that
it can be said to consist of three main elements: tools, media and messages.”
Regarding the new reality for marketer, Belch (2003) says that there are a series of trends that are
affecting the way IMC works, including a major emphasis in consumer and trade sales promotions; less
use of mass media because of high costs and lack of effectiveness; the use of more targeted tools like
event marketing, sponsorships, direct main, and Internet as part of their IMC mix; an increasing power
of retailers pressing a major investment in large promotional fees; technology tracking tools that allow
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![retailers to analyse the behavior of each brand’s promotions; and the increasing use of very complete
consumers databases that allow further understanding of the target audiences.
Moreover, Fill (2009, p.42) says that “the move to integrated marketing communications also reflects an
adaptation by marketers to a changing environment, particularly with respect to consumers, technology,
and media. Major changes have occurred among consumers with respect to demographics, lifestyles,
media use, and buying and shopping patterns.”
As a background to all the IMC framework, Fill (2009, p.43) describes it as “a basic level marketing
communications, or promotion as it was originally known, is used to communicate elements of an
organisation's offering to a target audience. […] This offer might refer to a product, a service or the
organisation itself as it tries to build its reputation.”
As Fill (2009, p.44) explains, “planned marketing communications incorporates three key elements:
tools, media and messages. The main communication tools are advertising, sales promotion, public
relations, direct marketing, personal selling and added-value approaches such as sponsorship. Messages
can be primarily informative or emotional but are usually a subtle blend of both dimensions reflecting
the preferences and needs of the target audience. To help get these messages through to their
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![audiences, organisations use two main types of media. One refers to traditional media such as print and
broadcast, cinema and outdoor. The other refers to the increasing use of digital media and the Internet
in particular, in order to listen to and converse with their audiences.”
With the consumer as the center of the model, according to Belch (2003, p.82) “a successful IMC
program requires that marketers find the right combination of communication tools and techniques,
define their role and the extent to which they can or should be used, and coordinate their use. […] In
developing an integrated marketing communications strategy, a company combines the promotional-
mix elements, balancing the strengths and weaknesses of each, to produce an effective promotional
campaign. Promotional management involves coordinating the promotional-mix elements to develop a
controlled, integrated program of effective marketing communications.” Furthermore, Shimp (2009,
p.35) says that “IMC practitioners need to be receptive to using all forms of touch points, or contacts, as
potential message delivery channels, […and] the challenge and related opportunity are to select those
communication tools that are best at accomplishing the specific objective that has been established for
the brand at a particular point in time.”
The IMC approach reinforces the element of understanding the consumers and stakeholders of the
brand and organisation to plan integrated strategies. All of this is achieved through a comprehensive
and thorough analysis that includes an internal analysis (products, services, firm), capabilities and
abilities to implement promotion programs, the current image of the firm in the market, relative
strengths and weaknesses of the products or service (advantages, disadvantages, USP, packaging, price,
etc.); and an external analysis, that includes profile of the customers, consumer attitudes and
behaviours, market segments, positioning strategies and competitors. (Belch, 2003)
For these reasons, the recommended approach for Microsoft’s campaign for Bing is an Integrated
Marketing Communications Plan. This has proven to be a very effective model in terms of managing the
environment (understanding, controlling, monitoring and planning for it), increasing the impact (through
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![In terms of web properties, according to comScore (Mintel, 2012), “Google remains the top web
property with 91% of UK Internet users visiting websites operated by Google during the month of April
2012. In March 2012, Google, which includes the likes of YouTube, gained an audience reach of 92%.”
On the other hand, “the second most visited web property is Microsoft, which includes the search
engine Bing, MSN and email client Hotmail. Microsoft saw 86% of UK Internet users visit in April 2012, a
slight fall of 3 percentage points compared to March 2012.”
Nevertheless, Bing is the less popular on this property, being the MSN portal and Hotmail the most
relevant to the public. According to the UKOM (2012) report, “the three most popular search brands in
the UK are Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft. However, each of these brands offers a range of services
besides search, including web-based email, maps, news, instant messaging, social networking, and
communities for sharing pictures, videos and music. […]For Microsoft, Windows Live Hotmail (12.5
million unique visitors per month), Windows Live Messenger (11.4 million) and the MSN homepage (6.8
million) are all more popular than Bing Web (4.9 million). Again, Bing Web is embedded within the MSN
Homepage. In contrast, Google Search is, by a considerable margin, the most popular of Google’s search,
email and reference services (31.2 million unique visitors per month), and this popularity extends to
other search-based services such as Google Maps (17.1 million) and Google Image Search (12.2 million).”
Furthermore, according to the facts shown above, smartphones are becoming one of the most
important ways to access and consume content for the Internet. Nevertheless, as the Mintel report
explains “the constant development of mobile applications and mobile platforms helps to make other
functions of phones become more interesting or easier to use. For example, the mobile application
Instagram, which allows users to take a picture, choose a filter and then share it on social networks, has
just been released on the Android platform in addition to iOS. After a day on Google Play, the app had
been downloaded 1 million times and reached 10 million downloads after 22 days. [And] As more
websites and browsers become optimised for mobile, the amount of surfing the web on mobile devices
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![They are also 39% of the target market, which makes them an interesting segment to direct our
campaign to, and as the report states, they “have more ownership across all products, confirming their
desire to buy technology even when it is not needed to replace a product.” They are also the group with
higher ownership of smartphones which is very aligned to our approach of the campaign and
Tech Enthusiasts’ intention to purchase or upgrade in the next three months, March 2012
Base: 2,000 Internet users aged 16+
SOURCE: GMI/Mintel
Regarding the characteristics of this group, the Mintel report suggests that “Tech Enthusiasts have a
general active interest in technology, and actively look to keep up with the latest news and products. […]
They research products before buying and are very likely to discuss technology with friends and family.
This is not necessarily to get their advice on products, but is more likely to be because of their interest
and to give advice to others. […] Once they have bought a product, Enthusiasts enjoy working out how
to use the product and try to get the most out of it by using all of its features. “
Furthermore, “Enthusiasts are interested in buying new technology products so will always be on the
lookout for new products to buy, even when they do not need to replace another one. Once they have
purchased a product, Enthusiasts are very unlikely to consider buying technology to be a waste of
money. Enthusiasts are likely to be men aged 16-24 in a healthy financial position. (Mintel, 2012)”
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![phones shows that the majority of people not only can now afford smartphones, but also recognise the
additional benefits that they have over a basic mobile phone.”
Personal ownership of smartphones and basic mobile phones, by age, March 2012
Base: 2,000 Internet users aged 16+
SOURCE: GMI/Mintel
The report also says that “Smartphone penetration is highest in the London region, with over two thirds
(68%) of adults personally owning one. This is 10 percentage points higher than the next popular region
of Yorkshire and Humberside, at 58%. […and] Consumers aged 16-24 are nearly twice as likely as the
average to be planning on purchasing a smartphone in the next three months, at 29%. Younger
consumers are also more likely to purchase a basic phone, at 7%.”
In terms of accessing the Internet from a smartphone, the report says that it is “the second most
popular method of accessing the Internet is via smartphone, with 42% of all consumers accessing that
way. Among smartphone owners, 74% have accessed the Internet through their device in the last three
months. […] Younger consumers aged 16-24 and 25-34 are more likely to access the Internet through
smartphones (63% and 58%) than older consumers, based on the fact that smartphone ownership is
higher among consumers in the same age groups (70% and 72%).”
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![Appendix 3: insights and background for strategy
The smartphone boom and access across platforms
According to Mintel (2012) “The boom in smartphones looks set to continue, with the popularity of
flagship handsets like Apple‟s iPhone and Samsung‟s Galaxy series, as well as cheaper options, boosting
ownership amongst UK adults above that of basic mobiles. This growth trend shows no sign of stopping
with 15% of consumers intending to purchase or upgrade to a smartphone in the next three months.
[Furthermore, the …] intention to purchase a tablet in the next three months stands at 9%, compared to
the 5% who plan to purchase an eReader.”
Household/personal ownership of consumer technology products, March 2012
Base: 2,000 internet users aged 16+
Note: Results for smartphone, basic mobile phone and portable media player show personal ownership; others show household
ownership
SOURCE: GMI/Mintel
The report also comments that “PCs remain the most popular way to access the Internet, at 92%,
followed by smartphones, at 42%, which is being driven by younger consumers, falling in line with
personal ownership of the devices being higher among younger consumers.” Nevertheless, the amount
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![On the other hand, “the second most visited web property is Microsoft, which includes the search
engine Bing, MSN and email client Hotmail. Microsoft saw 86% of UK Internet users visit in April 2012, a
slight fall of 3 percentage points compared to March 2012.”
Nevertheless, Bing is the less popular on this property, being the MSN portal and Hotmail the most
relevant to the public. According to the UKOM (2012) report, “the three most popular search brands in
the UK are Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft. However, each of these brands offers a range of services
besides search, including web-based email, maps, news, instant messaging, social networking, and
communities for sharing pictures, videos and music. […] For Yahoo! and Microsoft, search is not the
most popular service. For Yahoo!, Yahoo! Answers (8.5 million unique visitors per month), Yahoo! Mail
(8.1 million) and the Yahoo! Homepage (5.4 million) are all more popular than Yahoo! Search (5.1
million), although Yahoo! Search is embedded within the Yahoo! homepage. For Microsoft, Windows
Live Hotmail (12.5 million unique visitors per month), Windows Live Messenger (11.4 million) and the
MSN homepage (6.8 million) are all more popular than Bing Web (4.9 million). Again, Bing Web is
embedded within the MSN Homepage. In contrast, Google Search is, by a considerable margin, the most
popular of Google’s search, email and reference services (31.2 million unique visitors per month), and
this popularity extends to other search-based services such as Google Maps (17.1 million) and Google
Image Search (12.2 million). The web-based email services provided by Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft
are each more frequently used per visitor than the search engines of these brands. In addition to unique
audience, Figure 4.40 shows the average number of pages viewed, per month, by each of the visitors to
the web services included in the chart. While unique audience is a measure of the popularity of a
website among all web users, page views per person can be used as a comparative measure of how
often a website is visited by those who use it. Yahoo! Mail is visited the most per visitor (235 page views
per visitor per month), followed by Microsoft’s Windows Live Hotmail (167 page views per visitor) and
Google Gmail (126 page views per visitor).”
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![Furthermore, according to UKOM “in March 2012, Google Search, Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia and
Amazon were the most popular sites accessed on desktop and laptop computers by number of unique
visitors, within the respective categories of search, social networking, entertainment, online shopping,
and news and information. Google Search (31.2 million unique visitors per month), Facebook (25.7
million) and YouTube (20.8 million) had the largest unique audiences overall, and each had a substantial
lead within its respective field. Among search engines, Google Search was ahead of the nearest
competitor Yahoo! Search by 26.1 million unique visitors per month. Among social networks, Facebook
was the leading site, with 19.5 million unique visitors per month more than Twitter. Among
entertainment sites there was a margin of 11.2 million unique visitors per month separating the second-
ranked site iTunes from YouTube. However, the differences between leading sites in online shopping
and news and information were much smaller: 1.4 million unique visitors per month between Amazon
and eBay, and 5.5 million unique visitors per month between Wikipedia and BBC News.”
Access of content in smartphones
According to the facts shown above, smartphones are becoming one of the most important ways to
access and consume content for the Internet. Nevertheless, as the Mintel report explains “the constant
development of mobile applications and mobile platforms helps to make other functions of phones
become more interesting or easier to use. For example, the mobile application Instagram, which allows
users to take a picture, choose a filter and then share it on social networks, has just been released on
the Android platform in addition to iOS. After a day on Google Play, the app had been downloaded 1
million times and reached 10 million downloads after 22 days. [And] As more websites and browsers
become optimised for mobile, the amount of surfing the web on mobile devices will naturally increase,
while new, more powerful devices with larger screens will also encourage more web browsing.”
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Final dissertation: Bing integrated marketing communications plan
- 1. Taking Bing to the next level in the UK Increasing Bing awareness and market share through an integrated marketing communications campaign 4MMC7A9 CAMPAIGN PLANNING PROJECT Module leader: Anne Barker Supervisor: Nigel Bradley Juan Mejia 13549275 September 2012 1
- 2. Table of Contents Executive Summary....................................................................................................................................... 5 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 7 Campaign Rationale .................................................................................................................................... 12 Macro Analysis ........................................................................................................................................ 12 PESTEL Analysis ....................................................................................................................................... 12 SWOT Analysis......................................................................................................................................... 12 Micro (internal) Analysis ......................................................................................................................... 13 Market and industry definition and parameters .................................................................................... 15 Market dynamics and trends .................................................................................................................. 15 Competitor evaluation ............................................................................................................................ 16 About Microsoft ...................................................................................................................................... 17 The Microsoft brand ............................................................................................................................... 18 Microsoft’s Marketing Communications ................................................................................................ 19 Marketing and brand analysis ................................................................................................................. 19 Marketing comparison chart .................................................................................................................. 21 Financial Analysis .................................................................................................................................... 22 Microsoft Online services division financial information ....................................................................... 23 Financial performance by company ........................................................................................................ 23 The brand opportunity for Microsoft ......................................................................................................... 26 Strategic Context of the proposition ...................................................................................................... 26 Business Objective .................................................................................................................................. 27 Marketing Objectives .............................................................................................................................. 27 The role of Integrated Marketing Communications in this campaign .................................................... 29 Marketing Communications Objectives ...................................................................................................... 36 Understanding the target audience and background ................................................................................. 38 Market size.............................................................................................................................................. 39 Target market ............................................................................................................................................. 41 Consumer profiles ................................................................................................................................... 41 Branding issues ....................................................................................................................................... 41 Brand aura personality, essence, strength ............................................................................................. 42 2
- 3. Positioning changes proposed and consumer implications.................................................................... 42 The Campaign Delivery Recommendations summary of agency proposals ............................................... 44 The insight ............................................................................................................................................... 44 A summary of the trends ........................................................................................................................ 44 Implications for this campaign ................................................................................................................ 46 Strategic approach ...................................................................................................................................... 48 Public relations Strategy and Tactics ...................................................................................................... 49 Advertising strategy ................................................................................................................................ 51 Direct and interactive marketing - experiential advertising ................................................................... 56 Public transport spaces to communicate on the go ........................................................................... 56 Static bus adverts ................................................................................................................................ 57 Interactive screens in tube stations .................................................................................................... 57 Large interactive boards in tube stations ........................................................................................... 58 Projection in tube stations .................................................................................................................. 58 Shopping and entertainment experience ........................................................................................... 59 Direct and interactive marketing - Online advertising............................................................................ 60 Direct and interactive marketing - Social media..................................................................................... 63 Direct and interactive marketing - SMS .................................................................................................. 63 Direct and interactive marketing - email ................................................................................................ 64 Club Bing - a loyalty program .................................................................................................................. 64 Viral video ............................................................................................................................................... 65 Events strategy and tactics ..................................................................................................................... 66 Measuring results across interactive media ............................................................................................... 67 Horizontal integration ............................................................................................................................. 68 Vertical integration ................................................................................................................................. 68 Activities by month ..................................................................................................................................... 69 Budget ......................................................................................................................................................... 70 Media plan and budget ........................................................................................................................... 72 Evaluation ................................................................................................................................................... 74 Appendixes.................................................................................................................................................. 75 Appendix 1: Analysis models ...................................................................................................................... 76 PESTEL ..................................................................................................................................................... 76 3
- 4. SWOT Analysis......................................................................................................................................... 77 Appendix 2: Consumer profiles ................................................................................................................... 78 Background information about Technology target groups .................................................................... 78 The mobile world .................................................................................................................................... 80 Data specifics from the target audience ................................................................................................. 82 Appendix 3: insights and background for strategy ..................................................................................... 89 The smartphone boom and access across platforms ............................................................................. 89 Smartphones are an important means of accessing the Internet .......................................................... 91 Most popular websites ........................................................................................................................... 91 Access of content in smartphones .......................................................................................................... 93 Appendix 4: Mosaic descriptions ................................................................................................................ 96 Group O: Liberal Opinions....................................................................................................................... 96 Group H: New Homemakers ................................................................................................................... 97 ACORN Groups ........................................................................................................................................ 99 References and bibliography .................................................................................................................... 100 Word count: 14,264 4
- 5. Executive Summary Despite Microsoft being one of the leading brands in the world, Bing -it's search engine-, struggles to get a significant market share in the UK. Google currently dominates more than 92% of the searches in the UK, and this has been a stable trend through the past years, where it has maintained its dominance. Despite Bing developing a series of campaigns since its launch in 2008, they haven't been able to achieve a clear proposition and don't have a clear USP in the UK. With a market that invests over £2.6 billion a year in online advertising, and search being the largest proportion of this investment, Bing has to urgently increase their market share. Despite high barriers of entry, other companies such as Apple have already moved into the maps service and Bing needs to establish itself before others come into this market. The following document intends to analyse the opportunities for Bing in the UK market, taking advantage of the move of users towards accessing the Internet in their smartphones, the increase use of multiple devices, and capitalizing on some other trends that will change the market in the following 12 months. We have selected a specific target audience called the Tech Enthusiasts, which is technologically savvy and they are very good multipliers of their knowledge. Furthermore, they represent 39% of the UK market. Based on this, we will develop a national campaign based on capitalizing on the touch points of this target, with a major emphasis in media that are across their daily lives journey. With an average investment of £15.8 million, the campaign will aim to drive an increase of 2.1 million unique new users and take the search market share from 4.9% to 10%. The following chart (shown in the top next page) shows the distribution of the investment of the campaign in the different channels. 5
- 6. The integrated marketing communications campaign includes advertising (outdoor, free tabloids and digital, corporate and product public relations, direct and interactive marketing (SMS, email, social media and a loyalty program), with events, in order to create an experience around the Bing brand. Lastly, the campaign develops around a communication platform that aims to communicate the aspects that the analysis identified as trends to capitalize on: mobility (smartphones, tablets and navigation across devices), the spare time of users during their commute and the importance of social networks in the UK. The campaign creative concept and brand essence that captures all this in a phrase is "Bing, our search mate on the go". This campaign will have duration of three months, from September to the end of November in 2012, and will be measured through specific objectives, but will also be supported by qualitative and quantitative research to ensure that the best outcomes are delivered. Finally, the campaign will be measure with a pre tracking study of brand awareness and another one developed after the campaign. In terms of other evaluation metrics, there are a series of stated metrics in each of the direct marketing channels, but also a series of qualitative sessions will be developed to test message effectiveness, copy, ads, etc. 6
- 7. Introduction The purpose of the following document is to present the opportunity that Microsoft has in the UK to become a leading brand, strengthening its marketing communications and winning in the consumer market around one of its flagship services and revenue creators: Bing. The aim of this project is to build a brand and relationship between Microsoft and the consumers in the UK, building a platform to sell the Bing as an entry point to the consumers’ life, and as a result increase the positioning of the consumer brand which according the Consumer Superbrands report of 2012 in the UK, is in 45th position of the ranking. Despite Microsoft having a very important profitability ratio and a continuous annual growth in revenue, the Online Services division continues to lose money every year, which means it cannot be sustainable for a long time. An integrated marketing communications plan is required to leverage all the strengths that Microsoft has with Bing, but that has not been able to fully exploit, and to achieve Microsoft’s business objective of using Bing as an interaction platform with consumers. The following chart shows the search engine share by engine in the UK, as of July 2012, where you can clearly observe Google’s dominance in the local market. Search Engine Market Share July, 2012 (Geographic and Demographic Filter: Country = 'United Kingdom') Search Engine Total Market Share Google - Global 88.64% Bing 5.27% Yahoo - Global 3.07% Ask - Global 2.15% AOL - Global 0.56% Source: Netmarketshare.com July 2012 7
- 8. For Bing to be able to be able to increase their market share in the UK market, they need to take advantage of one of the major opportunities in the current environment: smartphones and mobile platforms. According to UKOM (2012) report “in 2011, expenditure on mobile advertising rose to £203m, more than double that of 2010, and representing like-for-like growth of 157%88. Since 2008, mobile advertising revenues have grown seven-fold and in the same time the proportion of adults using their mobile phone to access the Internet has doubled (20% to 39%).” Furthermore “the UK Communications Market Report 2011 highlighted the rise of the mobile Internet and the likelihood that smartphone take-up was the primary driver of the increasing use of data services available on mobile phones89. It is also likely that smartphone take-up is the driver behind the growth of mobile advertising. Smartphones appear to facilitate the use of the mobile Internet, increasing the mobile Internet audience and making the platform a more attractive proposition for advertisers. Furthermore, the technological capabilities of today’s smartphones, such as touchscreens, large high- definition displays, high-speed processors, and operating systems capable of installing apps, present a wider range of creative opportunities for advertisers.” 8
- 9. And the advertising income and investment is not increasing for just any reason. Advertising investment follows consumers and what they do. As the following chart shows, the ownership of portable devices in the UK is very high and is due to get as high as that of PCs and laptops. Furthermore, the use of data services from mobile devices has increased rapidly and is due to continue growing significantly as consumers upgrade into devices like smartphones and tablets, which allow users to user data services wherever they are. 9
- 10. Currently, Google is clearly the leader in the search market in the UK, with Bing only getting 4.9 percent of the real unique audience. But the truth is that even though all the other categories (Social Networks, Online Shopping and News and Information) have already made a big entrance in the mobile arena, none of the search engines has done so. Both Google and Bing have currently mobile apps and mobile sites which offer the same functionality as their websites, but none has really explored this as a communication approach to try to capture their mobile audiences in a more compelling way. According to UKOM (2012) “Search on desktop and laptop computers seems to be levelling off. There has been little growth in the unique audiences of search engines on desktop and laptop computers. Between March 2011 and March 2012 Google Search remained the most popular search engine in the UK. The average number of unique visitors per month was 31.9 million. In the same period Google’s competitor search engines Yahoo! Search (6.1 million unique visitors per month on average) and Bing Web (6.1 million) attracted less than a fifth as many visitors, while Google Image Search had approximately twice their unique audience (11.9 million). Yahoo! Search and Bing Web experienced declines in unique audience of 32% (to 5.1 million) and 40% to (4.9 million) respectively between March 10
- 11. 2011 and March 2012. Competitor Google’s search and image search have not obviously benefitted, with both also declining slightly, by 3% and 12% respectively. “ “Possibly in a bid to mitigate these respective declines, Yahoo! Search has been entirely powered by Bing Web since October 2011 and there is a revenue-sharing deal on search advertising in place between Yahoo! and Microsoft. The top-level measure of total search reflects the trend, seen across Yahoo!, Bing and Google, of growth apparently levelling off on desktop and laptop computers. This could be due in part to search transferring to mobile devices. In PC and Mobile UK Internet Trends H2 2011, Enders Analysis claims that while there are still fewer search engine page views on mobile, the intensity of use is now greater than on desktop and laptop computers. In the UK in December 2011, 5.1 page views per hour were the average on mobile, compared to 4.1 on desktop and laptop computers.98 However, Figure 4.48 below also suggests that social networking might be beginning to rival search engines in terms of directing web traffic.” This means that the market is shaking and even though Google remains as the overall leader, the mobile platform could be a game changer that would make a difference in the market share in the next year. Furthermore, the UKOM report says that “nearly two-thirds of the entire online audience in the UK are on Facebook. Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the UK, with a unique audience for March 2012 of 25.7 million. In that month, 64% of the entire online audience went on Facebook. Globally, Facebook had 901 million active users by the end of March 2012. That is equivalent to nearly half of the two billion people currently online in the world. Therefore, Facebook’s popularity is more concentrated in the UK. Twitter (6.2 million unique visitors per month), LinkedIn (4.0 million), Google+ (2.5 million), Myspace (1.5 million) and Friends Reunited (0.7 million) are much smaller social networking sites in comparison.” This is an important opportunity for Bing, as Facebook signed a deal for Bing to be the provider of all of its searches, which is something that the brand needs to capitalize on and communicate further. 11
- 12. Campaign Rationale Macro Analysis As we have seen, there are certain opportunities to be explored as this is a very dynamic market that changes in less than a year. The following sections, will explore different issues that of the Macro environment where Microsoft can capitalize with Bing and win in the medium term. PESTEL Analysis The following analysis summarizes the current situation of the competitive landscape for Bing and Microsoft in the UK. Further thoughts about the opportunities and in depth views of the implications are explored in the following section. According to the PESTLE analysis, there is an opportunity for Bing due to the end of the search services provided by Yahoo, and due to the dominant position of Google that is currently being under question by the EU. Another opportunity is the move of people accessing the Internet from mobile devices, where Google hasn’t made much emphasis. The alliance of Bing with Facebook provides a platform to take advantage of the social sharing trend. Price is the same for all competing products. Importance of exploring and taking advantage of the trend of mobile search while shopping. For the full development of the PESTEL analysis, refer to Appendix 1. SWOT Analysis According to the SWOT analysis, Microsoft has a lot of strengths that it has to leverage to be able to win in the search engine category. Although the market share of Google is dominant, the technology landscape is changing rapidly and this could imply that there could be a new winner in a short term. Other companies with the technological capabilities and financial strength, such as Apple and Oracle, 12
- 13. could easily enter this market if Google continues to be the only significant player, as online advertising revenues continue to soar, these companies might find it an interesting business. Therefore, the opportunity for Microsoft is now and it has to leverage all their existing assets for Bing in terms of mobile sites, inter platform resources and enhanced technology with Facebook interaction, to position itself in the search business and gain market share. In summary, from the SWOT Analysis, Microsoft still has a strong brand, but very its position is very low in the UK. The change of names in its search engine has made difficult the positioning and the current penetration of this service is very low (around 3%). In terms of interesting opportunities, the mobile devices trend provide great opportunity to leverage the Bing app due to an increase share in smartphones and Internet usage on the go. People looking to search on the go for comparing products is a major trend to be exploited. To see the entire development of the SWOT analysis, please refer to Appendix 1. Micro (internal) Analysis The search industry on the global basis is quite small. There are very few competitors with a global reach, as the needs, costs and infrastructure to support search in different countries, languages and to develop a global reach, is not an easy task to do. The main players in this industry are Microsoft, Yahoo and Google. Much has been analysed in terms of the differences between search engines, with the overall conclusion is that they perform very similarly and each one specifically has some strong points and some weak points. The nature of the business behind this service is paid advertising. Nevertheless, it must be said that the usage of the search services are free for users. Therefore, the advertisers invest in placing their 13
- 14. messages in the search engine depending on the amount of users and specifically from their target audience, that the specific search engine can reach. For this reason, advertising buyers (media agencies and clients) are currently more concentrated towards Google because of their large share of the UK searches. Google has a dominant position in the UK of more than 90% of the searches and a brand which is also very important in the UK (Best Consumer Superbrands in the UK, 2011) Even though, as we mentioned, there are definitely important barriers of entry for local and smaller players, some of the largest companies with established brands and the technology capabilities could do it (ie. Apple, Oracle). One recent example of this, is how Apple decided to end their relationship with Google as their maps provider, and acquired a smaller company to develop the capabilities to launch a new maps service for all its platforms. 14
- 15. Market and industry definition and parameters Microsoft is a global company that operates in a lot of different segments. For the purpose of this project, we will only focus on Bing, Microsoft’s search engine which was once called MSN and Live.com, and has tried to compete with the growth of Google, but still struggled to succeed as a brand. In this industry which includes several major players, the most important companies that compete with Microsoft in the search engine market. These brands are: Google and Yahoo. Despite Microsoft being the longest standing company in this industry, the proposition of its search engine in the UK hasn’t been very good, with Google now having over 90% of the search in the country. Market dynamics and trends The technology consumer market is very dynamic, and has changed a lot during the past ten years. Microsoft enjoyed a market leadership in the 1980s and 1990s, but in the past decade new players have taken a front scene and threatened the position of the brand. Specially Google has strengthened its brand during the past five years getting to a position where it is now in the list of the ten most valuable brands in 2011 (Interbrands, 2012). The opportunity remains to be immense as Microsoft still owns the major portion of the market share of personal PCs (laptops and desktops), there are still more than 50% of people in the UK (Mintel, 2012) that don’t own a smartphone (which is great opportunity for the new windows mobile operating system), and for the web services there is still room for a lot of growth. The Xbox has become number two in number of consoles in the UK market and the Kinect is the most desirable accessory in the market (Mintel, 2012). As all these different entry points of digital interaction, Bing becomes the most natural entry service and a way to enhance the consumer experience of all the other platforms. 15
- 16. Competitor evaluation As mentioned before, for the purpose of this project we will work on the analysis of the main competitors of Microsoft in the search engine space. For this reason, the competitor analysis will focus on Google and Yahoo. The global search engine business remains based on this three major players except for some specific competitors in local markets in China, India, etc. But, for the purpose of this project, which will be based on UK, only these three search engines dominate the market. Google is the youngest brand in the group but the fastest in catching up. In the Superbrands report, Google is the number 3 brand and way ahead of all of its competitors. In terms of global brand value, Brandz places Google in position number 2 with a brand value of 111,498 million dollars, and Interbrand ranks it in position 4 and with a brand value of 55,317 million and a 27% increase over last year. As Interbrand describes it, “Google’s position as one of the world’s pre-eminent brands is growing and nothing seems to stop it. Finally, Yahoo was the first and most popular search engine, but it failed to keep up with the growth of its competitors. Currently, Yahoo is more focused on its content creating strategy capabilities than in search. Due to this business decision, in 2009 they made a deal with Microsoft to get Bing to power the Yahoo search engine and therefore focus on the content development area. Yahoo has had a couple of very tough years with a series of CEO stepping down and with not much stability. From 2007 to 2011, revenues fell 37%, although they have managed to increase their profit by 93%. Perhaps, the focus of Yahoo in their content business has lead them to compete in another market, aware of the power of Google and Microsoft in the search engine space. Yahoo currently holds position 169 in the Superbrands consumer report 2012. 16
- 17. About Microsoft According to the Microsoft corporate website (2012) "our mission and values are to help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential". Bing is Microsoft’s search engine which was originally named Live Search, and then changed to Windows Live Search and MSN Search. Bing was officially launched on May 28, 2009 and started working in June of that same year. Bing currently provides search services for information, news, images, videos, shopping and maps. Its offer is comparable to that of Google search engine. In 2009, Bing agreed with Yahoo to power their search engine. By 2012, all search users of Yahoo will migrate to Bing. Also, Bing is supposed to be working towards becoming the most effective search engine with new index serving technology. Finally, Microsoft has developed an alliance with Facebook, to provide an enhanced search experience that is supported by your friend’s recommendations and feedback. This allows Bing to become part of an online community with more than 900 million users and become a relevant brand for search. According to the Microsoft’s shareholder letter in their 2011 annual review, “Bing made strong strides this year. It's redefining the way people find information and make decisions – Bing Internet search share grew over 30% in the United States during fiscal 2011, to 14.4 percent. It has also played a key role in making other products better like Windows, Windows Phone and soon Xbox. […]During the fall of 2010, we completed the integration of Yahoo! search with Bing, and by the close of fiscal year 2011, Bing and Yahoo! together powered more than one-quarter of all U.S. searches. In May, we announced a new partnership with Facebook that enables us to deliver personalized search results that are based on friends' opinions. This data helps people make decisions more quickly and easily based on recommendations that are personal, more relevant, and reflect the wisdom and experience of known and trusted friends.” 17
- 18. Furthermore, in terms of plans, the company establishes as their future strategic plans that “for consumers, we're focused on Skype, Bing, Windows Live and Xbox Live. [---]Bing will have a broad impact beyond search as we apply its understanding of the world's people and knowledge to scenarios that help individuals accomplish a task. Imagine that instead of trying to print a boarding pass by finding a website and typing in a confirmation code you could simply say "print my boarding pass." There are so many opportunities to fundamentally improve how we interact with the range of devices and services by pushing the capabilities of natural user interfaces.” The Microsoft brand According to Interbrand, Microsoft has position 3 in the global brand ranking with a brand value of 59,087 million dollars and a decrease of 3% compared with the previous year. The report says that “A new partnership with Nokia is likely to shine bright light on Microsoft's mobile software, which has had a tough history with both consumers and providers. This, along with the recent acclaim for the Xbox Kinect, the Windows Phone Mango OS, and a tablet-ready Windows 8 designs, indicates that Microsoft has all the pieces in place to build a strong consumer business.” Despite having the needed innovation and good products, the competitors have done a better job in building their brand with marketing communications. In the UK, Microsoft ranks on position 45, with Google being 3rd, and Yahoo is number 169. In the search arena, Google dominates more than 90% according to Comscore report as of May 2012 (See Table) and Microsoft has only a 3.86% of the market in the UK. Source: Digital strategy consulting (2012) 18
- 19. Microsoft’s Marketing Communications Despite being one of the most valuable brands in the world, and because of its market leadership, Microsoft has not done a good marketing communications approach in the past few years. The largest competitors (Apple and Google) have built differentiation through their brand positioning, making it attractive for the consumer market. Microsoft’s strategy has been very defensive (as with the campaign responding to the Mac vs. PC of Apple), or very product oriented such as Xbox, losing the ultimate connection of the consumers with the Microsoft brand, although almost all people have a daily interaction with a Microsoft product. Recently, the focus of Microsoft has been in the Windows Mobile platform, but still fails to connect the brand with the consumer overall. The strategy with Bing has not quite been successful. This product has been renamed four times and even with its current name, it doesn’t have a clear brand proposition. The functionalities and services provided by both search engines Google and Bing, are almost the same, and according to several IT reviewers, the performance and search results are very similar. For these reasons, the marketing communications of Bing needs to build clear differentiation determining a specific segmentation and targeting, a strong brand essence and proposition, and a straightforward proposal to the user. Bing has to give consumers a reason to change from Google, otherwise it will be difficult to win any market share from that 90% that Google currently has. Marketing and brand analysis The three technology brands unfortunately don’t have a lot of marketing tradition. Microsoft´s strength with other products has always been through a good management of partners, channels and developers. Google has built a brand around its functionality and with little advertising spend has become one of the most global valuable brands. One of its signature brand icons are the doodles, which are the images they display on their main search site every day and that is based on an event, topic, or 19
- 20. specific issue happening on that day. This has been a major asset for the brand within the users but it struggles now to surprise as consumers get used to it. As the following chart shows, there is little differentiation across all the Marketing areas in the three companies. Clearly Yahoo! Has made their content focus their own differentiator and this allows them to target clearly their consumers and have a very determined offering for them. The three companies seem to have varied results in Social Media, with none of them having a significant presence in the UK. In terms of advertising, none of the three has a structured long term brand building approach. Bing has had more than 5 different disconnected campaigns during the past year with no consistent positioning or message. Google has had two different campaigns oriented to specific products and issues management previous to their cookies policy being launched. Yahoo has not developed anything major, other than a specific campaign with Visit Britain to promote their travel sites, oriented to a specific portal and target. None of the three brands have a clear brand essence and positioning, but definitely Google has the major awareness. Different sources say its because they were the first to make it all around search and that their usability allow them to capture people, and since then people are just used to Google. With no other portal with a specific offering, people just go to Google by default. Finally, even though this industry has always relied upon a PR plan to multiply their releases, news and brands, I found no structured evidence of a consistent management for the search engines product in terms of journalists, bloggers, analysts and media in the UK. 20
- 21. Marketing comparison chart Marketing Area Microsoft Google Yahoo Search engine Yahoo includes search for information, news, images, videos, maps and shopping Search engine Google includes Search engine Bing includes search (soon will be powered by search for information, news, Product for information, news, images, Bing) images, videos, maps and videos, maps and shopping shopping Now focused on content development portals by topics: Style, finance, etc. Place Internet, mobile, Xbox, apps Internet, mobile, apps Internet, mobile, apps Price Free Free Free Promoted with PR, online forums Promoted with PR, online Promoted with PR, online Promotion: PR and experts forums and experts forums and experts Rudolph campaign for Internet safety "Good Christmas to know" Help your Britain campaign Promotion: for supporting charities Visit Britain Advertising Putting people first "Google Google+ TV ads attack" campaign JayZ decoded campaign Bing is for doing UK Facebook fans: 287,000 (in different users Facebook fans: 9,700 UK Facebook fans: 250 ie. Yahoo Finance, Movies, etc) Promotion: Social Global Facebook fans: 2.6 Global Facebook fans: Global Facebook fans: media million 9.7 million 9.4 million Global Twitter followers: Global Twitter Global Twitter followers: 242.000 followers: 4.7 million 361,000 UK Twitter followers: UK Twitter followers: 2.662 UK Twitter followers: 5 2,200 Promotion: Direct No structured No structured No structured Marketing As we can see in the chart, the Product that Bing offers to the consumers in basically the same as the competitors, with not much difference in terms of characteristics. In terms of place, Bing provides an extra functionality that hasn’t been exploited: it supports a connection with Xbox and Facebook. In terms of promotion, Bing has had several campaigns during the past year, but no clear USP or brand positioning, Google has also had campaigns oriented to security and features. In terms of social media outreach, we can see that Bing has had a moderate social media presence in the UK, and Google manages their social media on a global basis, which has a most impactful reach, but less customized local messages. 21
- 22. Financial Analysis Even though Microsoft is a very profitable and a growing company, its Online Services division which includes Bing is in serious problems. The following chart shows the current situation of this area, where Microsoft is almost losing the same money that it’s creating. The financial information of the three companies doesn’t have a breakdown per countries, but it is believed that this situation is consistent with what is happening in the UK, where Google retains more than 90% of the searches of the country, and this is reflected in their financial data. Bing, on the other hand, only has a 4% share of the UK searches, which is a very small proportion. According to IAB and PwC (Ad Spend study 2011) Online ad spend grows to £4.784 billion in 2011., an increase 0f 14.4% in like to like period. Furthermore, the report highlights that it is now 27% of the media spend budget of companies in the UK. Also, it highlights that the paid for search accounts for 57% of this investment, with a spend of £2,767.2 billion, an increase of 17.5% towards the previous period . If we know that the overall advertising revenue in the UK is £2,767.2 billion, and we know that Bing has a 5.27% of the search engine market in the UK, we could infer that the current revenue for Bing is around £145.5 million. In this regards, to be able to achieve a substantial market share increase, Microsoft UK should do a significant investment to obtain at least an additional 10% market share, 22
- 23. which will take its revenues to £422.5 million. The recommendation is to develop a campaign of £50 million that will ensure high impact and deliver the expected results. This investment will correspond to approximately 12% of the estimated total revenue. The Ad Spend study report also highlights the prospects for growth in the online advertising business as the following chart shows: Source: Mintel (2012) Microsoft Online services division financial information Indicator 2009 2010 2011 Net revenue (millions USD) $ 2.110 $ 2.200 $ 2.528 Income (loss) -1749 -2410 -2638 Profit ratio -83% -110% -104% Financial performance by company When comparing the three main players we have described as relevant for these purposes, we can see that Microsoft is definitely the largest one and has a profit ratio of 33% in the past year. If the Online Services division was not losing the amount of money it has been, probably Microsoft’s profitability would be much higher. 23
- 24. The following charts display the financial analysis of the four key players in the industry, showing how the position of Microsoft is threatened by the other players. As the chart shows, Yahoo has had a flat revenue growth during the past few years, while Microsoft and Google have rocketed. Furthermore, Microsoft has been the leader in profit ratio every year from 2007- 2011, while Google has grown more in revenue (138% in the same period), while maintaining an average profitability ratio of 25, 4%. The following tables summarize the financial history of the three players, showing the dominance of Microsoft and Google in the category, with a highlighted rapid growth of Google in this period, and due to the market share they currently have, its likely to continue to grow exponentially. Indicator 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Growth/Average 2007-2010 Microsoft Net revenue $51.122 $60.420 $58.437 $62.484 $69.943 37% Yahoo Net revenue $6.969 $7.208 $6.460 $6.324 $4.381 -37% Google Net revenue $16.593 $21.796 $23.651 $29.321 $37.905 128% Microsoft Net income $14.065 $17.681 $14.569 $18.760 $23.150 65% Yahoo Net income $639 $419 $598 $1.231 $1.049 64% Google Net income $4.203 $4.227 $6.520 $8.505 $9.737 132% Microsoft Profit ratio 28% 29% 25% 30% 33% 29% Yahoo Profit ratio 9% 6% 9% 19% 24% 14% Google Profit ratio 25% 19% 28% 29% 26% 25% 24
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- 26. The brand opportunity for Microsoft As a consequence of the analysis developed in Section A of this paper, the recommended path for Microsoft is to develop an Integrated Marketing Communications program over the next six months that capitalizes in the change of the consumer behavior towards mobile devices. This will allow them to capitalize on all the strengths and opportunities, achieving them an increase in the users of the Bing search engine, and therefore incrementing the revenues invested by advertisers in the Microsoft Advertising services. Strategic Context of the proposition Analysing the strategic context of Microsoft currently, we found that based on the Ansoff matrix, Bing should clearly aim at the consolidation phase (existing product in existing market) in the UK. This is due to the low percentage of the UK search market, and it clearly needs to be geared towards achieiving a larger market share in order to be able to develop other things. Furthermore, in terms of Porter’s generic strategies, Bing should choose differentiation to achieve a wider market scope, but differentiating from Google through a proposition of device integration and multiple platforms available. This is especially important bearing in mind that product differentiation is very little, and Google is already the default search brand for most people in the UK. For this reason, you need to focus on some other assets that Bing can differentiate such as multiple platforms and mobile apps. Finally, it is critical that Microsoft invests largely in positioning itself as the leader in mobile search, as there are other companies that have shown they have the capabilities and funds to enter this market. With Apple already in the Maps business, it is not very far from the search business, and this is following the advertisers spend in mobile which is increasing at a very high rate. 26
- 27. Business Objective Microsoft has confirmed in the Stakeholder letter of their last fiscal year that they will continue to develop Bing as a platform to grow their interaction with consumers. This may be due to the great advertising revenue potential of this business, where it makes real sense to increase the user base, to be able to create further advertising income, which is the backbone of this industry. Marketing Objectives Based on the understanding of Microsoft’s overall objectives, the market circumstances and the industry parameters, the following objectives have been outlined based on the SMART methodology. Increase the market share of online searches from 4.9% to 10% over a period of 8 months. According to latest reports, Google has over 92% of the UK searches, and therefore they account for the revenues. Nevertheless, as the technology market is usually changing, and with the new trend of people searching in smartphones and tablets, Bing could double their market share in a short period of time taking advantage of all the people buying new smartphones and the high usage of apps in these devices. Create revenue growth in the advertising business by providing an increase in the unique monthly users of Bing from 4.9 million to 7 million. As we mentioned at the beginning of the report, advertising revenues follow the users. There is only so much media agencies can do to convince their clients if the user numbers and the share of searches of Bing is not good for the advertiser’s purposes. Therefore, we believe that with the successful implementation of this campaign, Bing could obtain 2.1 million extra users. This is also based on the overall market share points. It has to be clear that when you talk about UK searches, that include all the times that a search is performed, regardless if one user searches once and another searches every day of the month. Therefore, the number of users and the 27
- 28. market share is different. We believe that the increase of unique users by 43% is achievable, even though it is ambitious, it takes advantage of an opportunity not capitalized by Google and that at the moment leaves a large enough gap to take a large piece of the market. Create loyalty amongst new and existing users, ensuring the return of at least 25% of all new unique visitors. Google and other search services have never really capitalized on the retention and loyalty of their users. This is especially important as the advertising revenues depend on them. Breaking the type of relationship that users have with a established brand such as Google, and offering them benefits for using another search service may be the best approach to trying to capture all the users that just use Google because it’s the one in their top of mind, and further develop a connection around things that are important for them. Develop a database of 2.5 million users that can be used to develop the loyalty program. In order to be able to achieve a successful loyalty program, you have to understand the people who are interested in being part. This campaign promotes that people need to sign in with their Microsoft account (ie. Hotmail, MSN, etc.). This information, together with their behavior and analytics of the items they search will help shape people’s interests and therefore a much more effective segmentation that could group the loyalty program subscribers into different groups. In this way, you can more easily communicate with them with relevant messages and benefits. Based on the estimates that currently Bing has 4.9 Million unique visitors per month, the target of this database is only aiming to get around 50% of the current base, without considering the extra 2 million delivered through the campaign, which should be more interested in adhering to the program as they are the target of the communications. 28
- 29. The role of Integrated Marketing Communications in this campaign According to Shimp (2010, p.30) “The primary forms of marketing communications include traditional mass media advertising (TV, magazines, etc.); online advertising (Web sites, opt-in e-mail messages, text messaging, etc.); sales promotions (samples, coupons, rebates, premium items, etc.); store signage and point-of-purchase communications; direct-mail literature; public relations and publicity releases; sponsorships of events and causes; presentations by salespeople; and various collateral forms of communication devices.” The mix of these tools has been largely discussed over the past decades towards B2B and B2C organisations, and mass media advertising has been the predominant tool in terms of investment and usage. Nevertheless, the last decade has brought a series of changes in the availability and nature of media, driving a media explosion. As Belch (2003, p.2) explains, “in today's world there are a myriad of media outlets—print, radio, cable and satellite TV, and the Internet—competing for consumers' attention. Marketers are looking beyond the traditional media to find new and better ways to communicate with their customers. They no longer accept on faith the value of conventional advertising placed in traditional media.” Also, the pressure of the circumstances of the economy during the past years have forced Marketing Communications managers to find “new ways to communicate, but are having to do so on reduced budgets and they must account for their communication spend” (Fill, 2009) Furthermore, due to the large media diversification and access, the consumer is being bombarded with advertising messages and information, making it more difficult to gather its attention. For this reason, Shimp (2010, p-9) states that “IMC is a goal worth pursuing because using multiple communication tools in conjunction with one another can produce greater results than tools used individually and in an 29
- 30. uncoordinated fashion”. And it is not only because of the media diversification and the disperse attention of consumers, but also because it creates synergy and increases results. The Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) approach recognizes that there is much more than the product or the service. “Corporate branding is now recognised as an integral part of the overall communication effort.” (Fill, p.24) The consumer is no longer only concerned about what the product is and does for him, but also about who the producer is and what it stands for. Furthermore, the global market has put competitors from all over the world at the reach of any consumer, making easy to compare and decide. This is where Microsoft can capitalize on having a brand that is very close to the consumers and their families, and with important ambassadors in the world like Bill Gates. As a result, Fill (2009, p.24) says that this all “leads to a new form and role for marketing communications and a vision that an organisation's entire marketing communications should be planned, coherent and consistent. This word consistency applies to internal policies and strategies, to messages to and from internal and external stakeholders, consistency with the values of their customers and with the relationships they forge with key suppliers and distributors.” Taking this into consideration, Shimp (2009, p.30) states that “IMC is a communications process that entails the planning, creation, integration, and implementation of diverse forms of marcom (advertisements, sales promotions, publicity releases, events, etc.) that are delivered over time to a brand's targeted customers and prospects. The goal of IMC is ultimately to influence or directly affect the behavior of the targeted audience. IMC considers all touch points, or sources of contact, that a customer/prospect has with the brand as potential delivery channels for messages and makes use of all communications methods that are relevant to customers/prospects. IMC requires that all of a brand's communication media deliver a consistent message. The IMC process further necessitates that the customer/prospect is the starting point for determining the types of messages and media that will serve best to inform, persuade, and induce action.” 30
- 31. Nevertheless, it is not only a communication issue. Regarding this, Belch (2003, p.16) says that “however, the promotional program must be part of a viable marketing strategy and be coordinated with other marketing activities. A firm can spend large sums on advertising or sales promotion, but it stands little chance of success if the product is of poor quality, is priced improperly, or does not have adequate distribution to consumers. Marketers have long recognized the importance of combining the elements of the marketing mix into a cohesive marketing strategy.” The best current approach for marketers and companies is to develop IMC programs, Belch (2003, p.17) says that “Consumers' perceptions of a company and/or its various brands are a synthesis of the bundle of messages they receive or contacts they have, such as media advertisements, price, package design, direct-marketing efforts, publicity, sales promotions, websites, point-of-purchase displays, and even the type of store where a product or service is sold. The integrated marketing communications approach seeks to have all.” Furthermore, Belch (2003) says that there are five steps to developing effective IMC programs, which include understanding and determining who the customer or prospect is; develop multiple relevant contacts or touch points; manage all your communications through a “single voice”; focus on developing relationships with the consumers; and finally seek to have a direct effect on behavior. In the current context, as Belch (2003, p.18) explains “Consumers not only passively receive Marcom messages, but now they are active participants in creating messages via consumer-generated media such as those noted immediately above [Internet, social media, etc.].” Besides this, “Television and radio programs and magazine and newspaper pages (collectively, the mass media) are not always the most engaging contexts in which to place marketing messages.” And finally, he also explains that “it is widely acknowledged that marketing communications are governed by a key reality: The consumer increasingly wants to be in control! Marcom practitioners must accept the fact that marketing communications must 31
- 32. be consumer-centric interactivity is changing the way organisations choose to communicate with target audiences and is also changing the way audiences choose to interact with brands.” But this is not only a challenge for marketers, it is also an opportunity. As Fill (2009, p.42) adds, “consumers are now willing, motivated and able to contribute to marketing communications”. This is a major reason why IMC is a determining factor in the current landscape, as the engagement of the consumers through the integration of different tools, may achieve a higher involvement and their relationship with the brand, leading to recommendation, social sharing, etc. The opportunities for IMC are stronger now as “many marketing communicators now realize that communication outlets other than the mass media often better serve the needs of their brands.” (Shimp, 2010, p.32). Furthermore, the new tools allow for “interactivity [which] means that consumers are devising and delivering content through the messages they create.” (Fill, 2009, p.42) But even more critical, the IMC approach allows “adaptation by marketers to a changing environment, particularly with respect to consumers, technology, and media.” In the current economic, technological and social landscape, “the objective is to contact customers and prospects effectively using touch points that reach them where, when, and how they wish to be contacted. […] Mass media advertising is not always the most effective or cost-efficient avenue for accomplishing this objective.” (Shimp, 2009, p.32) According to Fill (2009, p.32), all these trends have combined and as a result it means that “the marketing communication mix has evolved to the point that it can be said to consist of three main elements: tools, media and messages.” Regarding the new reality for marketer, Belch (2003) says that there are a series of trends that are affecting the way IMC works, including a major emphasis in consumer and trade sales promotions; less use of mass media because of high costs and lack of effectiveness; the use of more targeted tools like event marketing, sponsorships, direct main, and Internet as part of their IMC mix; an increasing power of retailers pressing a major investment in large promotional fees; technology tracking tools that allow 32
- 33. retailers to analyse the behavior of each brand’s promotions; and the increasing use of very complete consumers databases that allow further understanding of the target audiences. Moreover, Fill (2009, p.42) says that “the move to integrated marketing communications also reflects an adaptation by marketers to a changing environment, particularly with respect to consumers, technology, and media. Major changes have occurred among consumers with respect to demographics, lifestyles, media use, and buying and shopping patterns.” As a background to all the IMC framework, Fill (2009, p.43) describes it as “a basic level marketing communications, or promotion as it was originally known, is used to communicate elements of an organisation's offering to a target audience. […] This offer might refer to a product, a service or the organisation itself as it tries to build its reputation.” As Fill (2009, p.44) explains, “planned marketing communications incorporates three key elements: tools, media and messages. The main communication tools are advertising, sales promotion, public relations, direct marketing, personal selling and added-value approaches such as sponsorship. Messages can be primarily informative or emotional but are usually a subtle blend of both dimensions reflecting the preferences and needs of the target audience. To help get these messages through to their 33
- 34. audiences, organisations use two main types of media. One refers to traditional media such as print and broadcast, cinema and outdoor. The other refers to the increasing use of digital media and the Internet in particular, in order to listen to and converse with their audiences.” With the consumer as the center of the model, according to Belch (2003, p.82) “a successful IMC program requires that marketers find the right combination of communication tools and techniques, define their role and the extent to which they can or should be used, and coordinate their use. […] In developing an integrated marketing communications strategy, a company combines the promotional- mix elements, balancing the strengths and weaknesses of each, to produce an effective promotional campaign. Promotional management involves coordinating the promotional-mix elements to develop a controlled, integrated program of effective marketing communications.” Furthermore, Shimp (2009, p.35) says that “IMC practitioners need to be receptive to using all forms of touch points, or contacts, as potential message delivery channels, […and] the challenge and related opportunity are to select those communication tools that are best at accomplishing the specific objective that has been established for the brand at a particular point in time.” The IMC approach reinforces the element of understanding the consumers and stakeholders of the brand and organisation to plan integrated strategies. All of this is achieved through a comprehensive and thorough analysis that includes an internal analysis (products, services, firm), capabilities and abilities to implement promotion programs, the current image of the firm in the market, relative strengths and weaknesses of the products or service (advantages, disadvantages, USP, packaging, price, etc.); and an external analysis, that includes profile of the customers, consumer attitudes and behaviours, market segments, positioning strategies and competitors. (Belch, 2003) For these reasons, the recommended approach for Microsoft’s campaign for Bing is an Integrated Marketing Communications Plan. This has proven to be a very effective model in terms of managing the environment (understanding, controlling, monitoring and planning for it), increasing the impact (through 34
- 35. a coordinated approach to tools, messages and effective targeting based on understanding the consumers) and maximizing the results for companies and brands (creating a single positioning to all stakeholders, making efficient investment of resources and achieving business goals). 35
- 36. Marketing Communications Objectives For achieving the goal of increasing the market share and user base of Bing in the UK, we will develop an integrated marketing communications plan that will achieve a consistent and high impact brand proposition for the consumers in the UK, furthermore, it will allow to effectively develop a targeting strategy that allows Bing to concentrate in segments of the market and be more successful. This plan should also communicate the new capabilities of Bing and increase usage on different platforms, specifically on mobile devices and it should engage with the target audience to create a brand experience and acquire new users. Based on the Marketing objectives, we have determined five key SMART objectives that will measure the effectiveness of the integrated campaign tools: 1. Achieve 1 million downloads of the Bing app in different devices in the period from September to December 2012. The aim of this objective is to measure the effectiveness of the advertising campaign, the digital campaign and the overall experience with the messaging platform. 2. Achieve 1 million user Likes in Facebook of the Bing UK page in the period from September to December 2012. This objective will allow measuring the user engagement and the approach to developing loyalty within the target reached in the campaign. 3. Obtain 5 million monthly additional searches in Bing in the period from September to December 2012. This is the key objective of this campaign as we are aiming to increase market share in UK searches. The results achieved in this specific objective should reflect the effectiveness of managing an integrated approach of the Marketing Communication channels and capitalizing on the touchpoints. 36
- 37. 4. Ensure the return of 700,000 of the new unique visitors achieved through the campaign, from September to December 2012. This specific objective relates to how much are we able to deliver on the loyalty program and ensure that people keep interested and have the desired behavior. 5. Increase the usage of Bing across all its platforms in 10% of the overall unique monthly visitors (700,000). This objective related to having a high loyalty with at least 70,000 unique users that will be part of the target and that become the platform to get new users engaged. This will ensure measurement on the engagement of this group, especially measuring the results of the Facebook private group for Club Bing users only. 37
- 38. Understanding the target audience and background After a deep research in consumer behavior based on secondary sources, we have selected to focus on the group of Tech Enthusiasts in the age group of people in all the UK from 20-34 as they are the ones who have greater ownership of mobiles, spend more time online and have the profile that we want to make this campaign more successful. Also, this group has one important characteristic and is that they become preachers of new technology amongst their friends and family, being one key element of further results with this campaign. Based on this research, we have decided to focus on the segment called the Tech Enthusiasts, which Mintel says they “like to keep up with technology and – as younger, wealthier consumers – are able to purchase on impulse. These consumers will be looking to own high-end, innovative products which they consider worth the price. Enthusiasts use the Internet for a combination of functional and entertainment purposes, but engage with their products more, reflecting their enjoyment of exploring the devices they own to the full.” Furthermore, Tech Enthusiasts “like to keep up with technology and – as younger, wealthier consumers – are able to purchase on impulse. These consumers will be looking to own high-end, innovative products which they consider worth the price. Enthusiasts use the Internet for a combination of functional and entertainment purposes, but engage with their products more, reflecting their enjoyment of exploring the devices they own to the full.” To see further information about segments, the research done to support this choice and some other market statistics, please refer to Appendix 2. 38
- 39. Market size In terms of market size, we have based on the previous age definition to quantify the amount of people in this group. Nevertheless, the even though this gives a reference number, the target market definition is more focused on lifestyle and approach to technology products as the previous section and Appendix 2 explain. For the purposed of quantification of the segment, we have consulted the latest data available. According to the statistics of the ONS (2012), there were 12.5 million people in the segment of 20-34 across Great Britain in 2011 (Refer to attached table). This will be our overall target audience. Nevertheless, as the Mintel (2012) report states, the Tech Enthusiasts represent around 39% of the UK population, which is around 23 million people. For the purposes of this campaign, we have decided to take an average of both, considering that even though the main target is 20-34, we are basing our campaign around a message that is directed to this segment, but that could appeal to people of other ages that belong to the Tech Enthusiasts group. Population projections by the Office for National Statistics Great Britain PERSONS, thousands Projected populations at mid-years by age last birthday in five-year age groups Ages 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 ———— ———— ———— ———— ———— ———— ———— ———— ———— ———— 0- 4 3.734 3.810 3.881 3.932 3.990 4.037 4.068 4.079 4.074 5- 9 3.334 3.401 3.491 3.594 3.669 3.747 3.822 3.893 3.943 10-14 3.446 3.389 3.326 3.301 3.310 3.348 3.415 3.504 3.606 15-19 3.789 3.715 3.665 3.620 3.572 3.524 3.466 3.402 3.376 20-24 4.180 4.228 4.260 4.244 4.224 4.169 4.094 4.037 3.986 25-29 4.122 4.211 4.326 4.439 4.509 4.554 4.601 4.623 4.598 30-34 3.774 3.869 3.971 4.079 4.179 4.275 4.363 4.470 4.578 35-39 4.080 3.948 3.823 3.753 3.760 3.821 3.913 4.011 4.115 40-44 4.503 4.461 4.394 4.306 4.188 4.081 3.949 3.822 3.750 45-49 4.438 4.502 4.548 4.549 4.528 4.471 4.429 4.362 4.274 50-54 3.868 3.978 4.083 4.186 4.293 4.397 4.460 4.506 4.507 55-59 3.481 3.498 3.547 3.620 3.693 3.784 3.893 3.998 4.100 60-64 3.670 3.673 3.520 3.413 3.372 3.351 3.369 3.418 3.490 65-69 2.852 2.975 3.215 3.362 3.432 3.469 3.472 3.330 3.230 70-74 2.404 2.397 2.412 2.470 2.546 2.633 2.751 2.979 3.120 75-79 1.951 1.969 1.998 2.039 2.082 2.110 2.110 2.129 2.188 80-84 1.456 1.480 1.503 1.525 1.540 1.562 1.588 1.622 1.665 85-89 914 913 921 933 953 979 1.009 1.036 1.064 90-94 358 394 422 443 458 466 473 485 498 95-99 97 100 101 101 107 120 137 149 157 100 & over 12 13 14 15 17 18 19 20 21 Source: Office of National Statistics 39
- 40. In summary, we will take a total market size which is an average of age and other characteristics associated to the Tech Enthusiast group. Therefore, the total market size is of 17.75 million people across all the UK. 40
- 41. Target market As we explained, we will be focusing on the age range from 20-34 from all Great Britain. In terms of social class, we will be oriented to ABC1, males and females. According to statistics, of this group 77% have a smartphone already. Consumer profiles According to the information introduced previously, we will focus on Tech Enthusiasts on this group of 20-34. These are people with a medium to high economic income, they are mostly employed, they already have a smartphone and tablet (or are planning to buy one soon), and some have a gaming console and access the Internet across different platforms. Most of this group is people that don’t have much time and have busy lives, they use public transport mostly on a daily basis to go to work and they live on the go. For this reason, they search and access web on the go, and also uses their smartphone to access coupons, discounts and compares prices. This group tends to spend a lot of time in social media and their main shopping activities are for clothes, electronics and food. In terms of Mosaic groups, we will focus specifically Group O: Liberal Opinions and Group H: New Homemakers. For ACORN classification, we will focus on Wealthy achievers (Flourishing families), Urban prosperity (Prosperous Professionals, Educated urbanities and Aspiring singles) and in Comfortably off (Starting out, Secure Families). For more information about these classifications, please refer to Appendix 2. Branding issues In terms of brand, Bing has not had a very clear USP and positioning. Furthermore, the search engine has had three names during the past twelve years: Live Search, Windows Live Search, and MSN Search. The name Bing was introduced by Microsoft in 2009 with a very important brand campaign mostly in the US. 41
- 42. This was aimed at getting better results in the overall market share of search. Even though the campaign in the US was successful and the market share in that country is much better, the brand in the UK has not had any clear communications platform. As mentioned in Section A, they have had several campaigns during the past year but with no clear message or proposition for the consumer. Brand aura personality, essence, strength The current brand wheel for Bing is just around being a search engine. There is no clear personality as they haven’t had a consistent campaign and the benefits and values are not clearly stated. The only difference current of Bing with Google is that they have a different daily image as a background in their site. They try to make some differentiation with this, but with no clear meaning behind it. In terms of the new proposed brand essence: Search anything, anywhere. In terms of Benefits we want to communicate that Bing is useful, easy, fast, and reliable. Regarding Attributes, we want to say that it is your search engine that can be used on the go, on mobile and in multiple devices. We also want to say that it is an enhanced search with social interaction with Facebook. The Values that we want to have are that Bing makes you feel more efficient (because you can use it on the go), it fits your needs and supports your lifestyle. Finally, in terms of Personality, we want to communicate that Bing is smart, efficient, active, modern and trendy. Positioning changes proposed and consumer implications The challenge with this integrated marketing communications plan is to establish a clear positioning around Bing. As we saw in previous sections, this doesn’t have a clear USP, so we propose that the new positioning is based around the following concepts. The first concept we want to communicate is that Bing is the best search engine for mobile, trying to promote the use of the mobile app everywhere. The second positioning message is that Bing gets more 42
- 43. intelligent and it improves your search results when you use it for searching across all your devices: PC, tablet, smartphone (anywhere). To make this effective, as we saw in the IMC section, the consumer needs to experience the new brand through different touch points. This will require a campaign that aims at reducing the barriers of services, specifically at Tangibility and Inseparability. Finally, we want to create a loyalty program that rewards behaviours of users in the short, mid and long term, so that we ensure that users return and keep using Bing services across platforms and as their permanent search engine. 43
- 44. The Campaign Delivery Recommendations summary of agency proposals The insight Based on the research we have developed about the consumer profiles, lifestyle trends and activities, we have identified a series of different things that need to be explored as the macro concept for this campaign. The following section summarizes some of these trends and will analyse their importance in the campaign development. All of these issues will be used as insights to input into the messaging, choice of media and strategy, in order to capitalize on the opportunity that lies in the market for Microsoft. A summary of the trends According to Mintel (2012) the smartphone industry is to continue growing over the next months, achieving a high penetration across all ages in the UK. A high amount of users plan to upgrade in this period. Furthermore, the report explains that increasingly, users are using their smartphone to surf the web and it’s quickly catching up with the Internet access in traditional devices like PCs. But this report also explains that users are using different devices to access the Internet searches, for different moments, places and purposes. Also, the availability of different devices has driven users to use more the Internet than before. Furthermore, the Mintel consumer research says that “the three most developed online activities are checking emails (99%), using a search engine (95%), and shopping online (89%).” In addition to this, the UKOM (2012) says that "More than four in ten smartphone users (42%) agree with the statement: “my phone is more important to me for accessing the Internet than any other device”. This demonstrates the increasing importance that smartphones are gaining in the Internet access for people. 44
- 45. In terms of web properties, according to comScore (Mintel, 2012), “Google remains the top web property with 91% of UK Internet users visiting websites operated by Google during the month of April 2012. In March 2012, Google, which includes the likes of YouTube, gained an audience reach of 92%.” On the other hand, “the second most visited web property is Microsoft, which includes the search engine Bing, MSN and email client Hotmail. Microsoft saw 86% of UK Internet users visit in April 2012, a slight fall of 3 percentage points compared to March 2012.” Nevertheless, Bing is the less popular on this property, being the MSN portal and Hotmail the most relevant to the public. According to the UKOM (2012) report, “the three most popular search brands in the UK are Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft. However, each of these brands offers a range of services besides search, including web-based email, maps, news, instant messaging, social networking, and communities for sharing pictures, videos and music. […]For Microsoft, Windows Live Hotmail (12.5 million unique visitors per month), Windows Live Messenger (11.4 million) and the MSN homepage (6.8 million) are all more popular than Bing Web (4.9 million). Again, Bing Web is embedded within the MSN Homepage. In contrast, Google Search is, by a considerable margin, the most popular of Google’s search, email and reference services (31.2 million unique visitors per month), and this popularity extends to other search-based services such as Google Maps (17.1 million) and Google Image Search (12.2 million).” Furthermore, according to the facts shown above, smartphones are becoming one of the most important ways to access and consume content for the Internet. Nevertheless, as the Mintel report explains “the constant development of mobile applications and mobile platforms helps to make other functions of phones become more interesting or easier to use. For example, the mobile application Instagram, which allows users to take a picture, choose a filter and then share it on social networks, has just been released on the Android platform in addition to iOS. After a day on Google Play, the app had been downloaded 1 million times and reached 10 million downloads after 22 days. [And] As more websites and browsers become optimised for mobile, the amount of surfing the web on mobile devices 45
- 46. will naturally increase, while new, more powerful devices with larger screens will also encourage more web browsing.” In conclusion, there are four key trends to be capitalized: the rise of smartphone penetration, the use of the smartphone as a device to access the Internet, the increase of use of multiple devices to access the Internet (including tablets and video game consoles) and the high proportion of users that already use Microsoft sites and services, as well as services like Skype, Yahoo and Facebook (search powered by Bing). For further information about this trends, please refer to Appendix 3. Implications for this campaign We want to build a campaign that reflects the characteristics of the consumer behavior, but that also capitalizes on the changes that are happening in the environment. For that reason, we will summarize the implications of these trends for the Bing strategy. Over the next six months, a significant amount of people will acquire a smartphone. With current penetration around 50%, this will probably peak by the end of 2012 with a total of around 70%. As the statistics show, search is now done on the go more than ever before, and with the new wifi access in all the tube stations of central London, this will continue to increase. Furthermore, another trend suggests that people access the Internet across different devices. This means that on the go they search, but they also search at home, in their tablet, in their laptop, and even in Xbox. Taking into consideration that one of the strengths of Bing is the multiple devices it can work on, this is something really important to capitalize on. Another thing that becomes a really important selling point is that the Bing search engine becomes better as people use it more. For this to happen, they have to sign in, and the search engine captures data across all your devices. The third trend to capitalize on is the high penetration of the Microsoft websites and their traffic in the UK. Even though Bing powers the search of these pages and the ones for Yahoo, which is a great 46
- 47. advantage. Bing also powers the search engine for Facebook. Nevertheless, people don’t use Bing as much or even realize about this. For this reason, we are proposing to develop a more prominent branding across these sites. Finally, we consider that due to the large user base and engagement of people in the UK with Facebook, and considering that Bing is their search engine, we need to capitalize on this and develop a massive campaign where Facebook is the central point of interaction. 47
- 48. Strategic approach The strategy for this campaign is to focus on the mobile component of Bing and its functionality across different platforms. The center of all the communication will be to show how the Bing apps allow you to search on the go, easier, better and it connects across all your platforms. This concept of mobility, will be developed across all the different IMC channels, allowing to build an experience for the user and obtain the awareness required to achieve the objectives. With a clear communications platform around the creative concept “Bing, your search mate on the go” we aim to relate to each person specifically, it reflects that they are usually on the go, and the word mate (which is used in all the British context to talk about friends) gives it a local flavor and relates closely with each individual, reflecting the message that friends learn more about you as you interact with them. The different IMC channels will maximize the impact through the different approaches to the same message. The following section will outline the strategy in each of the IMC channels and how it matches the entire campaign. 48
- 49. Public relations Strategy and Tactics In terms of public relations, we will have a combined approach through two different campaigns that work to a single objective: Position Bing as mobile search engine and as a Microsoft product. This combined approach will achieve a connection in the minds of the consumers, positioning Bing as a leading product, but also supporting it by the corporation behind it, which has a lot of good brand assets. In Corporate PR, we propose to develop a campaign to promote some of the significant inputs from Microsoft in the global market and in the UK. This will be developed around the following activities: Interviews of the UK CEO of Microsoft talking about the prospects of the company, outlook, number of people working for the company in the UK, revenue, social responsibility programs, etc. A series of articles highlighting the role and works of Bill Gates, his foundation, his vision of the world, etc. Profiles of UK Microsoft employees that have been involved in different important projects in the company. Articles summarizing the views of Microsoft of the future and how the company is working to improve the lives of humanity. In terms of Product PR, we are proposing in develop a strategy very much based around the activities of the campaign. The PR campaign will aim to support the general message of mobility and cross platforms. The following activities are planned to support this: Launch event for the campaign for the media and important stakeholders. In this event, the Microsoft UK CEO will demonstrate the Bing app, how it works across platforms and will also launch the public searchboards. 49
- 50. Press releases will be issued talking about the functionalities of the Bing search app, the cross platform connection, the public search boards, and finally the rewards program. We will engage with a series of identified bloggers in the UK to get them to try the apps and share their experiences. Different profiles of bloggers will be selected so we show the versatility of the app: from fashion, to city activities, specific hobbies, etc. 50
- 51. Advertising strategy Our advertising strategy will be focused on touching points of people on the go. Taking into consideration that people from the Tech Enthusiasts are always on the go, and we want to have an impact of the activities they develop whilst this happens, one of the key things is to understand key touchpoints throughout the day. Also, the campaign focuses on reaching the largest amount of people while they are around their cities, so the choice of media is based more on having the numbers of readers from the target audience, to capitalizing in the behavior of people on the move in their everyday lives. The following chart from IPA touchpoints technology shows that our target audience is particularly “doing nothing specific” during the early morning and at the end of working hours. This may probably be the time when people are actually commuting. Furthermore, we can see that they are usually in shopping mode at the end of the working day, which is a great opportunity to exploit in terms of offering the search app which is a tool to find what they want. The campaign concept, as explained before will be around “Bing, your search mate on the go” will be the overarching theme throughout the three months of the campaign. Nevertheless, we have several 51
- 52. messages we want to communicate and we believe they can give dynamism to the campaign flow during this period. This campaign is based on the new brand wheel that we have created for Bing, differentiating it from the competitors and having a clear USP. We will maintain a look and feel that will give consistency across the campaign so people relate the different messages, but we will evolve the message across the span of the campaign. The following pieces show some examples of the print and static advertising concept. The advertising has very straightforward messages, the Bing logo on a black background, and the icons of a smartphone and a tablet, so people associate Bing with mobile platforms. Based on all the insights and research about the mobile trends, the following messages have been developed. These are thought as ways to cut-through and challenge users to take an action. They provide a question to the everyday activities of the Tech Enthusiasts group and provides an answer given by Bing. 52
- 53. The first ad (above, left) asks the user to why they keep on using their mobile browser while there are now apps for almost everything. One example of this is that people now use the Facebook app to access their account in smartphones and just a small proportion uses the mobile site. For this reason, the copy appeals to question something that users may have not thought about but has a point. Also, it puts the app as a center point of the messaging, which is something we have as a KPI in the campaign and it is our major asset. The second version of the ad (top right), also uses the question approach but in this case we want to communicate that the Bing search gets better and understand the user more as they use it. This aims to start creating a relationship with the user and supporting the concept of “mate”, which is an important part of the overall campaign message. 53
- 54. The third reference (top left image) of the advertising makes reference to one of the specific benefits and connectivity that people have when using Bing. This is just an opening message, as this is hard to explain in one advertising image only, but this is reinforced with the welcome email that people receive when they sign in to Bing. What this specific piece achieves is overall awareness that the Bing app is on all platforms, which is important in order to capture users with all types of devices. The forth version (top right), speaks about an important asset that Bing needs to exploit. Bing is the search engine that supports Facebook, and as we have mentioned in this report, Facebook has a high user base in the UK and they are also very active. Relating our brand to Facebook, is in a way saying that Bing and Facebook are “mates”. This is in a way endorsement, but also talks about the feature that the search engine is enhanced with the information of Facebook, which gives the user a much richer experience. Finally, we will end up with some key messages of the loyalty program Club Bing. The following two ads will be used towards the last month of the campaign in order to capitalize on the people that have already downloaded the app and are using the search services. All these people will receive an email shortly after signing in explaining the Club Bing and its advantages, but the advertising will be a support 54
- 55. to remind people to keep on using and recapture those other people that have not really looked into the Club Bing benefits. The first ad aims to create more interest on people and drive them to find out more information. In our first ad for Club Bing (bottom left), we are using the same approach in terms of asking a challenging question. With this we want people to remember about Club Bing and find out more. The second ad (bottom right) is the ad that will close the campaign. This message is a statement as it aims to communicate that Club Bing is established and a lot of people are taking advantage of its benefits. It also aims to question people that are not currently using it what is it about and get some extra traction. 55
- 56. Direct and interactive marketing - experiential advertising In addition to these ads, we will use the interactive public searchboards done by the outdoor media companies, where people will be able to interact with the screens and navigate across Bing for information about the area where they are. JCDecaux and Clear Channel develop custom made interactive boards that can be placed across the UK. We believe that this would have an amazing impact in high traffic points and where people usually look for maps, restaurants, activities, and directions. An example of this public searchboards is seen on the image below. Public transport spaces to communicate on the go In terms of other OOH media, we plan to maximize on the touchpoints of people while they are on the go. For this reason, we have chosen the daily free newspapers across the UK that are distributed in the transport links and around them, like Metro, the Evening Standard and ES Magazine. These media have the largest coverage of people on the go, which is one of the main features of the campaign. These ads in the free daily newspapers/magazines, will be combined with OOH advertising across different points, all of them in interactive places: interactive boards in tube stations, searchboards in bus stops, video 56
- 57. projection in tube stations and ads in buses. The following are some examples of the implementation of this. Static bus adverts The bus adverts give a great visibility and also connect to the mobility message we want to transmit about Bing in mobile devices. Also, with the large amount of buses that we are planning to have, it will be definitely very visible, and this will connect with the tube ads, interactive searchboards, etc. Interactive screens in tube stations The interactive screens in tube stations give you the possibility to give all the different messages of the campaign to a person as they go up. For this reason, we consider this media will be very effective in showing the 4 main ads on this campaign. The following media outlets show the same benefit across public transport advertising spaces. 57
- 58. Large interactive boards in tube stations Projection in tube stations 58
- 59. Shopping and entertainment experience Capitalizing on the different touch points of people on the go, we have chosen another way to get close to our target audience through the OOH advertising in shops, malls, restaurants and bars. Clear Channel provides the most important bars and restaurants, as well as shopping centers, and JC Decaux and CBS outdoor, with a massive coverage across the UK. The following images show some examples of these types of media outlets and their environment, which is very social, something else we want to position across this campaign. 59
- 60. Direct and interactive marketing - Online advertising In terms of direct marketing to drive people to download the apps, we will use online advertising we plan on capitalizing on the websites of the Microsoft network as they feel a natural place for Bing. People going there already trust MSN and Microsoft, and therefore are more likely to click through. Furthermore, as Yahoo uses Bing as its search engine, it is also a natural place to advertise. Besides, this 60
- 61. is one of the largest web properties in the UK, and with the Skype user base (that also belongs to Microsoft) can be a powerful campaign. Examples of digital advertising The new user environment of Skype for smartphones and tablets offers advertising space which we plan to use as the following images show. 61
- 62. 62
- 63. Direct and interactive marketing - Social media The main strategy around social networks will be based on Facebook. In here, we will have own and paid spaces. We will have an interactive app in Facebook that allow users to use the services of Bing without leaving Facebook and to share their results. Furthermore, we will have activities and prizes in the page to keep an active interest of the participants. On the paid side, we will use Facebook advertising to promote our page and the app. These ads will be placed across all the users in the target in the UK. The following chart shows that according to Facebook, we are able to target 1,182,160 in the target that we want, according to age, location and some interests. Source: Facebook Finally, we will create a closed group for the Club Bing. Only registered and users will be able to join. In this group we will share benefits, answer questions and have a closer relationship with the active community. Direct and interactive marketing - SMS SMS messages will be sent at the beginning of the campaign to promote app downloads and inviting people to join Club Bing. 63
- 64. The SMS will be with a very clear call to action, and aimed at directing people to download the app and focusing on the benefits. Some examples of the text messages as follows: “Still searching in mobile browser? Try our app, you’ll love it… bit.ly/Bing - Bing, your search mate on the go” “Do you search in your phone, tablet or PC? Never mind, we have apps for all. bit.ly/Bing - Bing, your search mate on the go” Direct and interactive marketing - email Email will be a very important part of the campaign. As a start, Microsoft already has a significant database of people that use MSN, Hotmail and Skype. To this database, they can send an invitation email explaining the benefits of using Bing, using the same messages that are developed across media, and explaining the mechanics of Club Bing. Furthermore, once users have downloaded the app and sign in to their Microsoft account in any device, they will receive a welcome email to Club Bing, the community and with an link to a video that will explain the dynamics, prizes, the Facebook group and other relevant tips. This video will have the purpose of explaining the overall services, the functionality across devices and the importance of signing in, the rewards program and how the benefits will work. Also, the video will explain how Bing learns as you use it more and how it interacts with Facebook. Club Bing - a loyalty program Club Bing will be an important differentiation point from other competitors. This will allow users to feel more comfortable in using the search services across platforms, always signing in. 64
- 65. This loyalty program will reward users that use the Bing services in either device at Keats five times a month. The users will have access to a special group where people can access discounts in different outlets, freebies and special events organized or sponsored by Bing. The benefits will usually feature online activities based on the Facebook group to ensure that this remains active, and so people engage more in this communication channel. Viral video A special contest in the Bing Facebook page will be featured at mid campaign for people to share through a small video how Bing is their search mate on the go. People need to do a short video with their smartphone and show how they use Bing on the go. Format is open, but videos must be of a maximum duration of 90 seconds. Bing will select the 10 winners with the best stories and they will get a free trip to a choice destination in Europe with all expenses for them and a partner. With the collection of videos, Bing will develop a viral campaign mixing the experiences of these people and producing special videos and sharing them across social platforms. This will all be supported by PR activities with traditional media and bloggers, to ensure massive coverage and active engagement. 65
- 66. Events strategy and tactics In terms of events, we are proposing some traditional events and some activation events throughout the city. The traditional event will take place for the launch and as we explained in the PR section, the UK CEO of Microsoft will develop its messaging and showcase the app. Furthermore, in this event we will have not only the media, but also government officials, celebrities and other guests. The public search boards will also be launched in this event. The event will close with a show of Coldplay. Regarding the activation events, this strategy is a patrol of people From the Club Bing that will be going around the high traffic areas where people go for entertainment and eating. The aim of this group is to reward people that show that they already downloaded the app, giving them small prizes and souvenirs. This will be reinforced by a push in social through Facebook and YouTube to update where the patrol will be, taking pictures of the activities and videos to share in social networks. Finally, in November the Club Bing rewards program will be launched. Only those users who have actively used the app or their account during the past 60 days, will be invited to a concert to launch the Bing Club. Communications for this will be one to one through email, and updates via social networks. 66
- 67. Measuring results across interactive media The combined strategy of SMS, Social media, email, viral video contest, and the loyalty program should contribute a significant part of the responses in the campaign. In this way, the activities developed in advertising, PR and events are the brand experience support, but the results can be more easily measured through these activities. The following chart shows the estimated response rates of the campaign in each of the specific media. This closely connects to the KPIs identified initially in the objectives. # of Response Conversion Channel / media type contacts Rate Downloads Rate Club Bing Facebook 14.000 10,0% 1.400 1/4 350 Facebook ads 1.182.160 0,5% 5.911 1/4 1.478 Facebook app and video contest 1.000.000 3,0% 30.000 1/4 7.500 Email 30.000.000 0,3% 90.000 1/4 22.500 Outdoor advertising 40.000.000 0,3% 120.000 1/4 30.000 Online advertising 60.000.000 0,3% 180.000 1/4 45.000 Newspaper advertising 40.000.000 0,3% 120.000 1/4 30.000 Events 1.000.000 0,3% 3.000 1/4 750 SMS 40.000.000 5,0% 2.000.000 1/4 500.000 TOTAL 213.196.160 2.550.311 637.578 67
- 68. Horizontal integration Throughout all this IMC plan you have been able to identify the consistency in message across all the channels, and the visual connection that also ensures that the brand experience is seamless across all the different stages of the campaign and communications. Vertical integration In terms of vertical integration, the campaign actually builds upon the Microsoft brand, connects to their messaging style and is very friendly, as most of the brands in the portfolio are. It matches the values of the company and it aligns to the new reality of the users, which is ultimately a goal for Microsoft’s products. The campaign is also aligned to a medium/long term objective of Microsoft to grow its advertising platform and search is seen as a key product in the mix. 68
- 69. Activities by month The IMC campaign will span from September to the end of November, mixing the different activities across the three months. During September-October we will launch phase one of advertising campaign to download app and supporting PR, event and promotions. In the period October-November we will launch phase two campaign to communicate what people can do through advertising, online and social media, and e mail. The launch public searchboards will be done in September but they will be launched across the campaign throughout the UK. With regards to social media , the period from September- November will all be active, as it supports all the activities. The Newspaper advertising and outdoor are also going to be permanent to ensure the effectiveness and reach, but changing the messages across the period. Regarding events, the launch event will be done in September, the launch of the concert for rewards will be done in early November, and the activation of the patrol will be done throughout the campaign as a way to maintain interest in the facebook audience. The following chart shows the major points. Sept Oct Nov Activity 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 Facebook Facebook ads Facebook app and video contest Email Outdoor advertising PR activities Online advertising Newspaper advertising Events SMS 69
- 70. Budget According to market figures referenced earlier, the current market size for search advertising in the UK is of £2,767 million. This type of advertising also has 58% share of the total digital adspend. Despite not having specific figures for the revenue of Bing and Google search specifically in the UK, according to the share they have of the overall searches in the UK, Microsoft would have a current revenue of around £110 million currently (Bing has 4.9% of the searches in the UK). With an increase of share to 7%, the figure could jump to £193 million. Furthermore, Mintel reports say that the increase in search activity was around 4.1 per cent this year and its likely to continue to grow over the next years. Taking this into consideration, the budget of this Integrated Marketing Communications plan for 4 months is for £15.8 million. This budget also contains a £1 million reserve costs that will be used for internal charging of associated technology, headcount and other related costs in Microsoft. The following chart shows the summary of costs for each of the used channels of the campaign. Item Qty/Reach/Months Total cost Facebook 14.000 £100.000 Facebook ads 1.182.160 £1.099.480 Facebook app and video contest 1.000.000 £200.000 Email 30.000.000 £600.000 Outdoor advertising 40.000.000 £7.028.800 PR activities 5 £250.000 Online advertising 60.000.000 £590.000 Newspaper advertising 40.000.000 £860.800 Events 1.000.000 £1.000.000 SMS 40.000.000 £1.080.000 Sub total £12.809.080 Agency fees (15%) 1 £1.921.362 Market research (pre,during, post) 1 £77.000 Technology, team, etc. £1.000.000 TOTAL £15.807.442 The budget of the campaign represent only a 8.2% of the overall projected revenue, and not only this, but we believe that at this turning point, when consumers are migrating from PCs to other devices to 70
- 71. navigate online, the effects in the market share could even be higher over time, if Bing develops a consistent approach to the users and develops a well-established loyalty program. In terms of media, this is one of the largest investments in the campaign. The following chart shows the overall summary. The campaign is due to last three months, from September to the end of November. Over that period, we will have an investment of £860,000 in a total of 32 full page color ads. In terms of outdoor advertising, this is the largest proportion of the budget in advertising as it intends to have an ownership of the spaces across different transport systems in the 6 main cities in the UK. With this investment, we can have a consistent high impact campaign that is in the main stations of these cities through the three months, but is also supported by packages of interactive outdoor boards, shopping centers and Buses advertising. For these packages, they have been planned to be across the highest traffic locations in each city. In terms of the interactive boards, these are usually budgeted by unit, as they include production. The total investment of OOH advertising is of £7 million and includes packages with the best locations, as well as over 4,200 advertising spaces across the UK. Finally, in terms of digital advertising, we have a total investment of £1.68 million, as online advertising is the main natural media for this brand, as well as using the advertising channels which are closer to the brand and services: Microsoft portals, Yahoo, Facebook and Skype. 71
- 72. Name GRP / Audience Format Rate (th£) Total Total GRP Total Rate Press Metro 5,96 FPC £37.000 16 47,68 £592.000 Evening standard/ ES Magazine 2,55 FPC £16.800 16 20,4 £268.800 Name Description Format Rate (th£) Total Exposure Total Rate Consumer Pack 20 Digital CBS - London Underground - Oxford (Weekdays 4pm-7pm Escalators £67.780 60 19,79 £4.066.800 Street Station Outdoor & W/E 8pm-12pm) Pannel Restaurants, bars and Clear channel Interactive boards £850 1000 5,2 £850.000 shopping Interactive panels JC Decaux D6 panels £900 1000 3,5 £900.000 across the UK CBS - Buses Uk buses T Ads £1.212 1000 4 £1.212.000 Site Description Format CPC / CPM Est Traffic Total Rate Yahoo Home page Banners £0,62 8 500.000 £310.000 Internet Microsoft websites Permanent banner Home page £15.000 8 10.000 £120.000 Skype mobile banner £20.000 8 10.000 £160.000 Facebook Ads £0,31 Facebook Sponsored story 8 3.546.480 £1.099.409 TOTAL £8.679.008,80 The following chart also shows the percentage of allocation of budget to each one of the IMC Channels. Media plan and budget The following chart shows the media plan detail and costs. The plan has been developed according to the different touchpoints and indications of Mediatel (2012), and the specific rate cards for each one of 72
- 73. Media Plan GRP GPR GRP GRP GRP GRP GRP GRP GRP GRP GRP GRP September October November Bing campaign W1 W2 W3 W4 W5 W6 W7 W8 W9 W10 W11 W12 Name GRP / Audience Format Rate (th£) Nº Total GRP Total Rate 33,5 33,5 41,0 35,8 16,0 16,0 16,0 17,7 17,7 12,5 12,5 8,5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 Metro 5,96 FPC £37.000 16 47,68 £592.000 5,96 5,96 5,96 5,96 5,96 5,96 5,96 5,96 5,96 5,96 5,96 5,96 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 Evening standard/ Press ES Magazine 2,55 FPC £16.800 16 20,4 £268.800 2,55 2,55 2,55 2,55 2,55 2,55 2,55 2,55 2,55 2,55 2,55 2,55 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 2 Name Description Format Rate (th£) Nº Exposure Total Rate Consumer Pack (Weekdays 20 Digital CBS - London Underground - 4pm-7pm & Escalators £67.780 60 19,79 £4.066.800 19,8 19,8 19,8 19,8 1 1 1 1 Oxford Street Station W/E 8pm- Pannel 12pm) Restaurants, Clear channel Interactive boards bars and £850 1000 5,2 £850.000 5,2 5,2 5,2 5,2 5,2 1 1 1 1 Outdoor shopping 1 Interactive JC Decaux panels across D6 panels £900 1000 3,5 £900.000 3,5 3,5 3,5 3,5 3,5 1 1 1 1 the UK 1 CBS - Buses Uk buses T Ads £1.212 1000 4 £1.212.000 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Site Estimated Reach CPC / CPM Est Traffic Yahoo Home page Banners £0,62 8 500.000 £310.000 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Microsoft websites Permanent banner Home page £15.000 8 10.000 £120.000 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Internet Skype mobile banner £20.000 8 10.000 £160.000 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 Facebook £0,31 Facebook Sponsored story Ads 8 3.546.480 £1.099.409 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 TOTAL £8.679.008,80 campaign, as well as the investment per media type, quantity of ads, format and specifications. the media types chosen. The chart includes how the media will be spread across the twelve weeks of the 73
- 74. Evaluation In terms of evaluation, there are different phases considered in the campaign for this purpose. The first phase of evaluation is towards the advertising message and visuals of the campaign. For this, we are recommending to develop six focus groups across the UK to determine the effectiveness, cut through and understanding of the messages. With regards to the Bing brand indicators, we recommend developing a web survey to determine the brand awareness. We propose doing a survey through email with a link to a survey website about search engines. This will allow establishing the awareness of Bing and Google, in order to develop another survey after the campaign to compare the results. The campaign will be done to 2000 adults in a random sample by email. The reason for choosing this type of tool is that we want to make sure we are targeting active people on the Internet, which most probably means that if they answer the survey is that they belong the Tech Enthusiast group. Regarding the different components of the Direct and Interactive Marketing campaign, we suggest to develop several tests. With the SMS, choose samples of 1,000 people and test responses. This will help ensure that the most effective copy is used. With regards to the email, we suggest to do in depth interviews with a group of 10 people to understand if they got the message that we wanted, but also to ensure the understanding of the different points we intended. Finally, after the campaign is finished, we suggest the development of a second tracking research with an email survey to compare the statistics. This survey will also have the same random audience of 2,000 adults, but it will include a couple of more questions regarding their awareness of Club Bing, its benefits and what they understand about it. The following table illustrates the costs of this research. Item Qty Unit cost Total cost Tracking survey 2.000 £10 £20.000 Focus groups 6 £3.000 £18.000 Other campaign testing 20 £750 £15.000 Post tracking survey 2.000 £10 £20.000 Agency personel fees 40 £100 £4.000 TOTAL £77.000 74
- 75. Appendixes 75
- 76. Appendix 1: Analysis models In the development of the analysis of the macro and micro environment, we used two main models of which we made reference in the main text of the report, but the overall development of each one is shown in this Appendix 1. PESTEL Description Implication Certain Important Take advantage of the dominant Anti-monopoly law **** ***** position of Google Be careful in the management of Political EU cookies law privacy and communicate with users ***** ***** regarding their policy Data privacy law ***** UK decrease of growth in the Spend in advertising will decrease ***** ***** economy Online shopping is due to Advertisers looking for value in their ***** ***** Economic rise investment Price comparison and online Users seek comparison functionalities surfing is important before ***** ***** and easiness of access buying People are using Facebook Leverage alliance with Facebook ***** ***** more than ever Social sharing is a major Promote social sharing of searches ***** ***** Social trend Mobile shopping has become Emphasize on mobile search ***** ***** part of consumers behavior More people with Promote the Bing features across ***** ***** smartphones and tablets platforms Access across different Technological Provide a consistent experience ***** ***** devices New technologies for search Promote new services like voice and ***** ***** including voice image search 76
- 77. SWOT Analysis Strengths Weakness •Strong software brand •Lost share of other services like hotmail, MSN •Reputation •Marketing and brand positioning (dif names) •Good large user base of PC users •No USP or proposition to customer •Technology •No perceived benefit and differentiation •Reliable source •No high impact IMC •Global coverage •Increase user base of Xbox •Strong financial capability •Good mobile solutions •Interaction with Facebook Opportunities Threats •New users •Economic crisis •Mobile apps •Threat of being closed as a division •Cross platform internet access •New entrants (ie. Apple or Oracle?) •Segment the market to offer value •External analysts reviews •Monopoly of Google •Failure to adapt to new mobile environment •Social sharing and connections •User confidence loss •Users seek value and want help 77
- 78. Appendix 2: Consumer profiles Background information about Technology target groups According to Mintel research, there are three major groups of consumers in Technology products: Technophobes, Middle ground and Tech Enthusiasts. The report describes Technophobes as consumers that “are likely to be older consumers with a low level of interest in and enjoyment of technology, resulting in mainly purchasing to replace products. They tend to own and desire items that are well established in the market, without too many complicated features. However, smartphones are becoming more popular within this group, reflecting the establishment of the technology in the mass market.” Regarding Middle Ground consumers, the report describes this group as “younger and take a more hands-on approach to buying new technology products. They harbour a desire to purchase newer, innovative items but do not have as much money to do so, and therefore are more likely to buy as prices fall. Middle Ground consumers are most likely to use the Internet for social and entertainment purposes.” Technology target groups, March 2012 Base: 2,000 internet users aged 16+ SOURCE: GMI/Mintel 78
- 79. They are also 39% of the target market, which makes them an interesting segment to direct our campaign to, and as the report states, they “have more ownership across all products, confirming their desire to buy technology even when it is not needed to replace a product.” They are also the group with higher ownership of smartphones which is very aligned to our approach of the campaign and Tech Enthusiasts’ intention to purchase or upgrade in the next three months, March 2012 Base: 2,000 Internet users aged 16+ SOURCE: GMI/Mintel Regarding the characteristics of this group, the Mintel report suggests that “Tech Enthusiasts have a general active interest in technology, and actively look to keep up with the latest news and products. […] They research products before buying and are very likely to discuss technology with friends and family. This is not necessarily to get their advice on products, but is more likely to be because of their interest and to give advice to others. […] Once they have bought a product, Enthusiasts enjoy working out how to use the product and try to get the most out of it by using all of its features. “ Furthermore, “Enthusiasts are interested in buying new technology products so will always be on the lookout for new products to buy, even when they do not need to replace another one. Once they have purchased a product, Enthusiasts are very unlikely to consider buying technology to be a waste of money. Enthusiasts are likely to be men aged 16-24 in a healthy financial position. (Mintel, 2012)” 79
- 80. The following two charts show that the most active target market online and in smartphones is definitely in the age range of 15-24 and that men are more active than women. Also, there is a high emphasis in ABC1 more than in all the other groups. The mobile world According to Mintel consumer research, “54% of adult Internet users now personally own a smartphone, compared with 52% who own a basic mobile phone. Some 7% of consumers do not own a mobile phone or a portable media device. Penetration of smartphones outweighing the number of basic mobile 80
- 81. phones shows that the majority of people not only can now afford smartphones, but also recognise the additional benefits that they have over a basic mobile phone.” Personal ownership of smartphones and basic mobile phones, by age, March 2012 Base: 2,000 Internet users aged 16+ SOURCE: GMI/Mintel The report also says that “Smartphone penetration is highest in the London region, with over two thirds (68%) of adults personally owning one. This is 10 percentage points higher than the next popular region of Yorkshire and Humberside, at 58%. […and] Consumers aged 16-24 are nearly twice as likely as the average to be planning on purchasing a smartphone in the next three months, at 29%. Younger consumers are also more likely to purchase a basic phone, at 7%.” In terms of accessing the Internet from a smartphone, the report says that it is “the second most popular method of accessing the Internet is via smartphone, with 42% of all consumers accessing that way. Among smartphone owners, 74% have accessed the Internet through their device in the last three months. […] Younger consumers aged 16-24 and 25-34 are more likely to access the Internet through smartphones (63% and 58%) than older consumers, based on the fact that smartphone ownership is higher among consumers in the same age groups (70% and 72%).” 81
- 82. Data specifics from the target audience Summarizing the facts and findings of the Mintel report about technology consumers, we can determine that the best segment for this campaign will be the following: Socio-economic group: ABC1 (57%) Status: Single (62%) Financial situation: Healthy – I have money left at the end of the month for a few luxuries or to add to my savings (54%) Social Networks: Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Other (eg Foursquare, Friends Reunited etc) Activities online: Shared personal photos (70%) Posted status updates/Tweets (71%) Shared general news or articles I have read (70%) Shared information about purchases I have made (75%) Responded to a post or update (66%) Browsed for/found out about job opportunities (69%) Found deals or discounts (70%) Played games (68%) Joined groups related to personal or prof. interests (71%) Followed/subscribed to companies I like (72%) 82
- 83. The following is a chart from the Mintel report that shows the most relevant characteristics that have determined the target audience we will look. We have highlighted the pieces that are most attractive to determine the best target audience group and the best communication channels and approach: Methods of accessing the Internet, by demographics, April 2012 Base: 2,000 Internet users aged 16+ Using a smartphone (eg Using a computer at Using a gaming Using a tablet device BlackBerry, iPhone, work/ university/college device (eg Xbox (eg iPad, Samsung Android phones etc) 360, Nintendo DSi, Galaxy etc) PlayStation 3 etc) % % % % All 42 42 17 14 Gender: Male 45 46 21 17 Female 40 37 12 11 Age: 16-24 63 71 37 23 25-34 58 53 23 22 35-44 49 46 17 12 45-54 32 30 6 8 55-64 21 20 4 8 65+ 11 6 1 6 Region: Inner and Greater London 57 53 15 23 South East/East Anglia 41 41 20 16 South West and Wales 43 43 16 12 East and West Midlands 37 36 18 10 North West 37 36 18 13 Yorks, Humberside 45 46 12 14 North and Scotland 38 35 13 10 83
- 84. Area: Urban location 50 48 20 17 Suburban location 39 38 15 12 Village/rural location 34 35 14 13 Working status: Employee full-time (30+ hours/week) 51 61 20 17 Employee part-time (less than 30 37 31 15 12 hours/week) Any self-employed 43 28 8 14 In full-time education 62 85 36 23 Retired 13 3 2 7 Not working for any other reason 38 11 16 7 Socio-economic group: ABC1 46 54 18 18 AB 45 53 18 21 C1 47 56 18 15 C2DE 37 21 14 9 C2 41 27 15 9 D 38 17 15 9 E 21 6 11 5 DE 33 14 14 8 Highest level of education: GCSE/O-level or equivalent 34 25 14 8 AS/A-level or equivalent 48 53 21 17 Vocational qualification (eg NVQs, BTEC 41 33 13 9 etc) Further qualification (HNC, HND etc) 37 42 16 19 University degree (including 51 54 20 22 undergraduate and master’s degrees) Gross annual household income: Under £9,500 44 34 17 14 £9,500-15,499 31 21 13 9 Under £15,500 35 26 14 11 84
- 85. £15,500-24,999 36 36 15 12 £25,000-49,999 47 48 18 14 £50,000 or over 55 66 22 29 Don't know/Refused 43 40 15 9 Current marital status: Single 55 59 25 19 Married/Civil partnership/Living as 39 35 13 14 married Separated, divorced or widowed 26 25 8 5 Financial situation: Healthy – I have money left at the end 40 47 17 20 of the month for a few luxuries or to add to my savings OK – I get by, but there's not a lot left 43 42 18 15 by the time the basics are taken care of Tight – I'm making ends meet, but only 40 39 14 10 just Struggling – I'm in danger of falling 49 34 18 10 behind with bills or loan repayments/In trouble – I've missed loan repayments or household bills Online news sources used: BBC News 52 53 20 18 MailOnline 47 51 21 20 The Guardian 63 66 26 27 Yahoo! News 51 51 23 22 Telegraph.co.uk 52 61 24 28 The Times/The Sunday Times 62 66 32 36 The Independent 61 66 30 31 The Sun 57 50 32 28 Financial Times* 65 63 39 40 Sky News 60 52 26 23 Other online news source 51 53 23 21 85
- 86. None of these 26 24 7 6 Social networking sites visited (Once a month or more): Facebook 50 47 20 16 Twitter 62 57 30 25 Bebo* 42 52 33 34 LinkedIn 56 63 24 30 MySpace 47 51 35 35 Google+ 49 45 25 26 Other (eg Foursquare, Friends Reunited 45 41 30 31 etc) Activities done on social networks: Shared personal photos 62 55 25 19 Posted status updates/Tweets 64 57 26 21 Shared general news or articles I have 62 59 29 23 read Shared information about purchases I 63 64 37 34 have made Connected with existing friends online 56 51 23 19 Met new people online 56 51 29 24 Responded to a post or update (eg 59 54 24 19 ‘Like’, @reply, post comments) Browsed for/found out about job 60 57 30 26 opportunities Found deals or discounts 59 52 29 24 Sent private or direct messages to 54 49 22 18 individuals Played games 60 46 27 18 Joined groups related to personal or 66 65 32 24 professional interests Followed/subscribed to companies 64 62 31 25 whose products/services I like 86
- 87. Arranged offline/real life meetings (eg 71 73 32 30 going to parties, gigs etc) None of these 26 32 7 8 * small sub-sample (75-100) SOURCE: GMI/Mintel Most popular online activities done in the last three months, by demographics, April 2012 Base: 1,945 Internet users aged 16+ who have accessed the Internet via computer, tablet or smartphone in the past three months Used a search engine (eg Bing, Shopped online Used online maps (eg Google, Yahoo! etc) Google Map, Bing Map, OpenStreetMap etc) % % % All 95 89 82 Gender: Male 96 89 84 Female 95 90 80 Age: 16-24 94 87 85 25-34 95 90 88 35-44 95 92 82 45-54 94 86 80 55-64 97 89 79 65+ 96 92 76 87
- 88. Region: Inner and Greater London 95 92 88 ngSouth East/East Anglia 97 90 86 South West and Wales 95 90 80 East and West Midlands 96 90 80 North West 93 87 77 Yorks, Humberside 95 86 79 North and Scotland 93 88 79 * small sub-sample (75-100) SOURCE: GMI/Mintel 88
- 89. Appendix 3: insights and background for strategy The smartphone boom and access across platforms According to Mintel (2012) “The boom in smartphones looks set to continue, with the popularity of flagship handsets like Apple‟s iPhone and Samsung‟s Galaxy series, as well as cheaper options, boosting ownership amongst UK adults above that of basic mobiles. This growth trend shows no sign of stopping with 15% of consumers intending to purchase or upgrade to a smartphone in the next three months. [Furthermore, the …] intention to purchase a tablet in the next three months stands at 9%, compared to the 5% who plan to purchase an eReader.” Household/personal ownership of consumer technology products, March 2012 Base: 2,000 internet users aged 16+ Note: Results for smartphone, basic mobile phone and portable media player show personal ownership; others show household ownership SOURCE: GMI/Mintel The report also comments that “PCs remain the most popular way to access the Internet, at 92%, followed by smartphones, at 42%, which is being driven by younger consumers, falling in line with personal ownership of the devices being higher among younger consumers.” Nevertheless, the amount 89
- 90. of Internet traffic with smartphones and tablets is yet significant and is due to increase during the next month’s considering the intentions of acquisition. Devices used to access the internet in the last three months, March 2012 Base: 2,000 internet users aged 16+ SOURCE: GMI/Mintel As the chart shows, people are more and more accessing the Internet across a large range of devices, with the Mintel report continues, “some 38% of consumers use just one method of accessing the Internet, with older consumers most prominent among this group. Younger consumers use a mixture of methods, with the highest proportion (28%) of 16-24-year-olds using three methods. Mintel expects that penetration of smartphones and tablets will increase to a point where at least two methods of access becomes the overall norm.” According to comScore (Mintel, 2012), “April 2012 saw an increase in the time spent on the Internet compared to March 2012. UK Internet users spent an average of 2,052.3 minutes per person online, up from 1,930 minutes. Men continued to spend longer online compared to women in April 2012, with an average of 2,202.9 minutes against the female average of 1,896.5 minutes.” According to the Mintel consumer research the three most developed online activities are checking emails (99%), using a search engine (95%), and shopping online (89%). 90
- 91. Smartphones are an important means of accessing the Internet According to UKOM (2012) "More than four in ten smartphone users (42%) agree with the statement: “my phone is more important to me for accessing the Internet than any other device” (Figure 4.3). Levels of agreement with this statement are highest among those aged 16 to 24 (51%) and 25 to 44 (48%). Levels of agreement have also increased over time, with 42% net agreement in 2012 compared to 33% net agreement in 2011.” Devices used to access the Internet in the last three months, by age, March 2012 Base: 2,000 Internet users aged 16+ SOURCE: GMI/Mintel Most popular websites According to comScore (Mintel, 2012), “Google remains the top web property with 91% of UK Internet users visiting websites operated by Google during the month of April 2012. In March 2012, Google, which includes the likes of YouTube, gained an audience reach of 92%.” 91
- 92. On the other hand, “the second most visited web property is Microsoft, which includes the search engine Bing, MSN and email client Hotmail. Microsoft saw 86% of UK Internet users visit in April 2012, a slight fall of 3 percentage points compared to March 2012.” Nevertheless, Bing is the less popular on this property, being the MSN portal and Hotmail the most relevant to the public. According to the UKOM (2012) report, “the three most popular search brands in the UK are Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft. However, each of these brands offers a range of services besides search, including web-based email, maps, news, instant messaging, social networking, and communities for sharing pictures, videos and music. […] For Yahoo! and Microsoft, search is not the most popular service. For Yahoo!, Yahoo! Answers (8.5 million unique visitors per month), Yahoo! Mail (8.1 million) and the Yahoo! Homepage (5.4 million) are all more popular than Yahoo! Search (5.1 million), although Yahoo! Search is embedded within the Yahoo! homepage. For Microsoft, Windows Live Hotmail (12.5 million unique visitors per month), Windows Live Messenger (11.4 million) and the MSN homepage (6.8 million) are all more popular than Bing Web (4.9 million). Again, Bing Web is embedded within the MSN Homepage. In contrast, Google Search is, by a considerable margin, the most popular of Google’s search, email and reference services (31.2 million unique visitors per month), and this popularity extends to other search-based services such as Google Maps (17.1 million) and Google Image Search (12.2 million). The web-based email services provided by Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft are each more frequently used per visitor than the search engines of these brands. In addition to unique audience, Figure 4.40 shows the average number of pages viewed, per month, by each of the visitors to the web services included in the chart. While unique audience is a measure of the popularity of a website among all web users, page views per person can be used as a comparative measure of how often a website is visited by those who use it. Yahoo! Mail is visited the most per visitor (235 page views per visitor per month), followed by Microsoft’s Windows Live Hotmail (167 page views per visitor) and Google Gmail (126 page views per visitor).” 92
- 93. Furthermore, according to UKOM “in March 2012, Google Search, Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia and Amazon were the most popular sites accessed on desktop and laptop computers by number of unique visitors, within the respective categories of search, social networking, entertainment, online shopping, and news and information. Google Search (31.2 million unique visitors per month), Facebook (25.7 million) and YouTube (20.8 million) had the largest unique audiences overall, and each had a substantial lead within its respective field. Among search engines, Google Search was ahead of the nearest competitor Yahoo! Search by 26.1 million unique visitors per month. Among social networks, Facebook was the leading site, with 19.5 million unique visitors per month more than Twitter. Among entertainment sites there was a margin of 11.2 million unique visitors per month separating the second- ranked site iTunes from YouTube. However, the differences between leading sites in online shopping and news and information were much smaller: 1.4 million unique visitors per month between Amazon and eBay, and 5.5 million unique visitors per month between Wikipedia and BBC News.” Access of content in smartphones According to the facts shown above, smartphones are becoming one of the most important ways to access and consume content for the Internet. Nevertheless, as the Mintel report explains “the constant development of mobile applications and mobile platforms helps to make other functions of phones become more interesting or easier to use. For example, the mobile application Instagram, which allows users to take a picture, choose a filter and then share it on social networks, has just been released on the Android platform in addition to iOS. After a day on Google Play, the app had been downloaded 1 million times and reached 10 million downloads after 22 days. [And] As more websites and browsers become optimised for mobile, the amount of surfing the web on mobile devices will naturally increase, while new, more powerful devices with larger screens will also encourage more web browsing.” 93
- 94. Regarding consumer habits, we can see in the Mintel report that “in the case of smartphones, it appears to be 16-24-year-olds who are more engaged with social and sharing activities. Despite penetration being lower by 2 percentage points than the 25-34s, at 70%, the proportion of 16-24-year-olds using instant messengers, accessing social networks and sharing photos and videos is significantly higher.” Another trend that the report finds is that those who engage more in social and sharing activities are in London and the South East of the UK. One of the reasons for this is that London has a higher ownership level of smartphones. Information-finding activities performed online in the past three months, by device, March 2012 Base: 1,945 Internet users aged 16+ who used a computer, smartphone and/or tablet to access the Internet in the past three months* *percentages shown are based on respondents who own the device Note: ‘Any devices’ is a net of online activities performed across computers, smartphones and tablet computers SOURCE: GMI/Mintel As we can see in the chart, the level of people developing search from their smartphone is quite high. This is an opportunity to take the search conversation to the online arena. The Mintel research says that they “expect several of the information-finding activities which use GPS, such as using online maps and finding things to do locally, to increase on smartphones as penetration increases. In some cases the 94
- 95. increase in use on smartphones will be at a greater rate than on tablets. For example, the use of online maps on smartphones will increase more than on tablets because smartphones are smaller and therefore users can look at it more conveniently on the move as they make their journey.” Another interesting fact on the rise is that “he amount of streaming of videos on tablets and smartphones will increase as penetration of these devices increases. Several phones that have recently been released or are set to be released will help this trend by providing power and hardware ideal for viewing video. The latest flagship phones from HTC (One X), Google (Galaxy Nexus), Samsung (Galaxy SIII) and LG (Optimus 4X HD) all feature screens bigger than 4.6 inches with high-resolution displays. The next instalment of Apple‟s iPhone has also been rumoured to feature a larger screen and a quad-core processor. “ 95
- 96. Appendix 4: Mosaic descriptions Group O: Liberal Opinions Johan and Freya 8.48% of UK households (Types 61-67) Liberal Opinions are young, professional, well educated people, cosmopolitan in their tastes, liberal in their views, who enjoy the vibrancy and diversity of inner city living. These neighbourhoods also contain a high proportion of the country’s students living in term-time accommodation, whether in halls of residence or shared accommodation. Popular occupations include jobs in journalism, politics, entertainment and the arts, as well as fashion and design, university education and the Internet. As a result these neighbourhoods can be found in inner London, inner areas of large provincial cities such as Edinburgh and Cardiff, and in towns with popular universities. People in this group are characterised by a tendency to postpone making permanent commitments to partners or having children. This results in a very high proportion of young, childless, single people, which reflects itself in a high demand for small but smart rented flats, many of which experience a rapid turnover of tenants. Such neighbourhoods also attract foreign-born students, many of whom are living and working in London for a limited period, which further contributes to the diversity of these areas. Brands that promote a multi-cultural image are popular with a target group that tends to be welltravelled and has an international orientation. Likewise these people demand a high degree of ethical and environment responsibility from organisations they engage with. 96
- 97. Consumers in this group are well read, have a keen interest in environmental and humanitarian issues and enjoy the arts. Quality national newspapers are popular, and the Internet is an important source of information. Most members of the group bank and purchase goods using on-line channels. Liberal Opinions people tend, as a rule, to spend more of their income on services and less on products than most other groups. Those living alone in small flats often eat out, visit the cinema and the theatre, and attend museums, exhibitions and public lectures. By contrast, these people are at an age when a large proportion of their incomes are not being spent on consumer durables. Key exceptions to this rule are small, high value equipment such as computers and cameras and small items for the kitchen. Group H: New Homemakers Lukas and Keeley 5.91% of UK households (Types 34-37) New Homemakers live in homes which are likely to have been built only in the last five years. These homes can take a variety of forms: small well appointed flats in new brown field inner city locations suitable for young, single people, many of whom rent from private landlords; small starter homes designed for people on average incomes; mixes of flats and houses in larger new developments where local councils have required developers to include some affordable housing alongside more luxurious homes. Such developments cater for the growing number of single person households. Some residents are young single professionals who prefer living in a well equipped, purpose built flat to sharing an older divided house; young people on middle incomes who rent a flat whilst sub-letting the second bedroom 97
- 98. to a friend; older people down sizing into modern accommodation and young couples just starting a family. Most residents have a ready income from a secure position working for a large private or public sector organisation. The small kitchens in many of these homes and the difficulties of managing food for a single person, means that eating out is popular. Residents are also likely to order fast food from local take away and cook ready prepared meals bought from the local convenience store of a major supermarket chain. Most residents own a car which is used for visits to the gym or the local cinema. Time is also spent at local pubs and clubs, especially where this neighbourhood occurs close to the centres of large provincial cities. New Homemakers rely on searching the Internet search for information and advice about products and services. For the many who lack knowledge of local suppliers it is often simpler to buy over the telephone or via the Internet. This is a generation that is increasingly influenced by the growth of ‘viral’ marketing and for which there is an increasing demand for information to be sent via text messaging rather than direct mail. Learning how to use financial products, surviving on a budget and managing debts are concerns for many in this group. It is a market for which many suppliers can productively convert to direct debit as a means of payment and for email as a means of billing. 98
- 99. ACORN Groups The following is the list of categories of the ACORN website available publicly. Wealthy Achievers – Category 1 A – Wealthy Executives B – Affluent Greys C - Flourishing Families Urban Prosperity – Category 2 D – Prosperous Professionals E – Educated Urbanites F – Aspiring Singles Comfortably Off – Category 3 G – Starting Out H – Secure Families I - Settled Suburbia J – Prudent Pensioners Moderate Means – Category 4 K – Asian Communities L – Post Industrial Families M – Blue Collar Roots Hard Pressed – Category 5 N – Struggling Families O – Burdened Singles P – High Rise Hardship Q – Inner City Adversary 99
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