Introduction
E-reader technology is growing at a fast rate, whilst its consumer base is increasing as new technological advancements come up. In the next couple of years, colossal amount of income is expected to originate from digital published-related business. Among the most popular digital publications are the electronic books. These books contain both graphics and texts and can house very huge volumes of data.
The consumers can enjoy these products by downloading them or by reading them online. Currently, the e-book technology has taken a new shape, especially with the emergence of flip-page technology. The technology can offer the customers a completely new and exciting experience, and portends good opportunities for investors.
Nonetheless, venturing into e-reader business requires extensive and well as informed advertisement strategy; as several players have already captured the market, and wields insurmountable competitiveness. Essentially, a deliberate and extremely strong marketing strategy is essential if a new product or a company is to succeed in this industry (Rhai, 2010).
In this proposal, we shall provide some insight into how our client- Libra Tech may device exceptional advertisement and marketing strategies to really scare away the competitors. Both long-term and short term strategies are generally proposed, with specific focus on the ones with the best possible outcome.
Many advertisement strategies such as, use of forums, e-zine article writing, offline advertisements, links, free trial offers, search engines and blog discussions will be dealt with in broader perspective. Specifically, the objective of this proposal is to show our client how the new product can be introduced in to the market, get popularized using various methods, and eventually get a strong hold of the market share within a very short span (Rhai, 2010).
The name of the product
We recommend LibraBook for our client. Since the name of our client is Libra Tech, the choice of this name is ideally borrowed from the client’s name. This will perhaps ensure reinforcement of their brand value. In other words, the product name will be used to popularize the company’s brand name.
Very many customers who will use this product on the website will also associate it with the company, and undoubtedly, they will associate the company with quality if they get satisfaction from this particular product. The visitors will also spread the good name of the company to other people (Hsee and Tsai, 2007).
In addition, the first impression when a person reads this name is very informative. People will think of the product as a library and a book at the same time. Indeed, this is precisely what the product entails. It is just like a library, in that people can access e books and read them just as they can do in physical libraries.
Furthermore, the name consists of key words that can help prospective customers to easily track the product through the search engines. For instance, numerous internet visitors who are searching for books to read are likely to get redirected to this particular product because of the key word ‘Book’ or even ‘Libra’ (Hsee and Tsai, 2007).
Libra Book can be described as a very simple and easy to remember word. Customers who enjoy this product are likely to retain its name the next time they visit internet. A simple and easy to remember name is also very useful since the customers can keep it in mind, and tell others, hence attracting more customers. Others will find the name attractive and appealing, and most likely, they will want to purchase the product.
Finally, and very important, Libra Book is a very unique name and is not shared or close to the names of the competitors. This will help the product to set its self apart, as a unique and highly quality product that cannot be matched by those of the competitors (van Veen, 2009).
Research
Information that can give an insight into the competitors’ strategies and products will be analyzed so that we can plan effective strategies, to counter the competitors’. All the available sources shall be explored for useful information. The aim of the research is to find out the kind of strategies that the competitors use to market their products. In addition, we shall be seeking information that is useful in designing a strategy for our product. The following sources of information shall be studied, to help come up with an effective advertising strategy for Librabook.
Industry and market reports
Analysis of markets and industry is very essential in establishing the force of the competition. It will also help us understand the rules and regulations that govern the industry. Having done so, it is easy to execute advertising and marketing strategies designed to outwit the competition. Both primary and secondary research will be used to carry out industry analysis procedures.
SWOT analysis and market segmentation is also very important. Reports that contain overviews and market reports of internet book stores and e-readers shall be studied to get some insights into the competitors’ strategies and products. Consumer survey reports and market share which is critical in strategy design shall be obtained from these sources.
Industry information will be very critical when it comes to positioning Librabook in the market. In addition, these reports will help us identify and understand the target audience and what the customers really want. This information will be used to devise ways of reaching the target audience such as through e-zine advertising, links, joint ventures, search engines, and many more (van Veen, 2009).
SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis can be used to explore some particular internal factors which includes strengths and weakness of our product compared to those of the competitors. By doing this, we can be able to establish the competitive advantage of our product; and use this to exploit specific opportunities. For example, if Librabook is voluminous in terms of resources, then we can popularize it to attract more clients who seek such features. As a result, we can increase sales and profits from the product.
Secondary Research
Collection of secondary information for research is important during strategy and industry analysis. Secondary information includes market share, strategies and promotions, and competitive products. Such information can be obtained from sources such as Nielson and NDP Group. We need to understand the position of the product in the market so that planning for promotion and pricing can be enhanced. Reports of the companies dealing with similar products can be searched in the databases. This information is very essential as it avails financial reports, product information and in analyses of the formulation of a SWOT analysis.
Primary research
Primary research which involves collection of information by surveys or internets, mail, or phones is included in the study of industry analysis and strategy. In order to undertake a thorough investigation of the customers, which in turn can help in establishing what the customers really needs, primary data collection is very helpful. As such, the company will monitor the additional features that the customers want and improve on it so that we can enhance their satisfaction and royalty. This can help increase the sales and profits from the product.
Market Segmentation
The likelihood of a certain group of customers using the products is determined through a process called market segmentation. In that respect, it is important to establish the different behavioral and demographic attributes of the customers.
Behavioral attributes such as, frequency of purchase of the company’s product and being heavy or light users. Targeting of customers through advertisement is very easy after the customers’ attributes have been established.
Table 1: Some of the Flipbook competitors.
Overall, the most successful online books stores seem to be using a combination of advertisement strategies that works really well. Some of the popular and seemingly effective strategies include e-zine article writing, blogs discussion, trial version offers and search engine listing. The more a strategy targets a wider group of people the more effective it appears, since it has potential to attractive big traffic to the company’s website.
Many of the people who lands on the company’s website are likely to purchase the company’s products mostly depending on the particular strategies that have been put in place, in order to convert interests in to sales. As such, use of trial version can be a strong strategy to make sure that those who are interested with certain products, eventually buys them.
Advertising strategy
The target market
The product should target a wide spread of market, ranging from casual readers, all the way to students and business professionals. Basically, the biggest content should be targeted to the students as they command a bigger population of the targeted market.
Relevant consumer behaviors
Contrary to what many psychology and economics theories maintain, consumers do not really make rational decisions. In other words, consumers do not consider the benefits and costs of their buying decisions. Rather, they are typically influenced by emotional pressures, which according to this study; advertisements have played a key role (Hsee &Tsai, 2007).
Indeed, it has been observed that effective advertisement and promotional strategies can be used completely dominate the purchasing decisions of the e-reader consumers. Furthermore, the behavior of online consumers is inconsistent, and often changes depending on prevailing circumstances.
For example, if certain online visitors feel that they do not need some particular e-reader book, ingenious online advertisements strategies such as e-zine articles can be used to alter their mental orientation and feel the need of such a product (van Veen, 2009), Consequently, advertisement will be considered a very strong tool that can be used to maneuver the consumer behavior with the aim of expanding the market share (Hsee and Tsai, 2007).
Our overall strategy
Notably, e-reader is increasingly becoming tightly competitive, as emerging technology come up with new and more effective functionalities. At the same time, the e-books consumption base is broadening, with customers only getting attracted by those companies whose strategy is well balanced and compelling.
As such, we shall be preparing our product to competitively face the other industry players, with the greatest challenge being that we are new, and we are going to face strong competitors such as Amazon who have strongly dominated the market. We shall however be focused on executing ingenious strategies that will undoubtedly outwit the competitors (Fain & Pedersen, 2006).
Considering that our key competitors have largely popularized themselves, and as a result captured a substantial market share, we shall mostly focus on overturning the stones that have not been overturned yet.
In that respect, we shall introduce our product at very customer friendly prices that is generally below that offered by the key competitors. Besides, we are going to make use of advertisement strategies that have proved very successful with our competitors, based on the market and industry analysis. Some of these methods are outlined as follows:
- Use of e-zine articles: numerous articles that relates to our product shall be written, with which a link of our website shall be provided. To make it more effective, we shall engage freelance article writers across the world; to write messages that will increase the traffic towards our product. This way, more visitors will get an opportunity to visit our site, some of whom will purchase our product; while others who may not purchase personally can tell others about our product. Certainly, our sales and market share will kick off.
- Trial version: specific products shall be chosen to grant limited access to those who are interested, without having bought then. When the trial period ends, the users can be requested to extend their use through subscription. This is expected to attract a lot of prospective buyers as many consumers are moved by free products, and having used a commodity for the first time, they become accustomed to it and can hardly do away with it.
- Blogs: customers can be welcomed to contribute on different issues that affect the on the company’s blog. This can be very effective since many internet users find fun in doing so, and hence more traffic will be attracted to our website. In turn, some visitors will get interested with our product and hence purchase it.
- Links and search engines: this shall be a very critical strategy that is expected to win very many prospective customers. We shall provide our link to as many sites as possible, so that visitors can be directed to our site. In addition, we shall display key words in the search engines such as Google, to assist those searching certain information to land on our site (Fain & Pedersen, 2006).
- Offline advertisement media: our product advertisement campaign will also be taken offline. Media sources such as magazines, printed articles, books among others shall have the company’s link displayed in them. In particular, articles that are related to our product can be published in magazines and sources that can lead to our site provided. Spaces in the academic books will also be bought, to advertise our product and as a result, capture mo re market share.
All through, our advertising message shall be as captivating as possible. The message will be designed to attract the respective target group. For example, educational material shall be described as belonging to much esteemed authors and so on. Most of the campaign strategies we have suggested are very advantageous. For example, advertisements in books, articles and magazines have potential to reach a very wide coverage.
E-zine articles, search engines and blogs attract many visitors as well. On the other hand, the methods can have some shortcomings, for example, trial versions can prevent some customers from purchasing the full version. E-zine articles can be very expensive to maintain as they require huge spending- to pay the writers.
Blogs may fail to attract those who really need our product while links and search engine may get overshadowed by those of the competitors. Offline advertisement may tend to fall on the wrong persons, especially the ones who are not interested with electronic materials.
Conclusion
In conclusion, these strategies if implemented shall undoubtedly help flip book to capture substantial market share in the next three months. Particularly, the promotion process presents some challenges, especially considering that a new product is being introduced into an already established industry, with very strong competitors.
Nonetheless, with the management’s commitment to support the promotion process, especially by providing adequate finance to cater for the advertisement expenses, we expect Flip Book to establish ground in least time. All in all, the advertisement strategies that have been pin pointed will go a long way in establishing the products competitiveness.
References
Fain, D.C. & Pedersen, JO. (2006). Sponsored Search: A Brief History. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology. 32(2), 12-13.
Hsee, C. K. and C. I. Tsai. (2007). Hedonomics in Consumer Behaviour. Handbook of consumer psychology. New Jersy: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates: 639 – 658.
MacRomours. (2011, July 20). News and rumors you care about. MacRomours. Web.
Rhai, A. (2010). Role and Strategies of Internet Advertising in the Current Technological Scenario. International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887),7(4), 12-36.
van Veen, Y. (2009). From dream to purchase: shopping and purchase behavior in consumer digital products. London: ESOMAR.