Product Specification
The proposed Wamaz is a digital device of low cost but is enriched with high-quality specifications and features. The Wamaz is the newest generation of digital computer device, which doubles up as a mobile phone. The proposed product is incorporated with social networking applications. These impressive features and the unbeatable price tag will make the Wamaz an appealing and stylish gadget that meets modern reality.
The Wamaz utilizes a 2100mAh Polymer-Lithium battery with a backup that can operate for at least three hours. The product has one year warranty. Furthermore, the phone operates with GPRS and Wi-Fi EEE 802.11a/b/g SIM Cellular Modem for its internet access. The device has 350 gram Mass and has various formats such as MPEG2, DOC, MP3, XLS, DOCX, JPG AAC, PPT, AVI, XLS, ODP, PPTX, AC3, MPEG2, PPT, WAV, XLSX, FLV BMP, and AVI.
The Wamaz uses the web standard of JavaScript 1.8 compliant and āXhtml (Eugene & Michael, 2009). The product can function as a cell phone when headphones and SIM cards are inserted in the device. Also, this unique feature enables Wi-Fi and GPRS to work better in the proposed mobile phone than in other similar gadgets that are in the market. Besides, the device has an application that can enable it to function effectively as a 3G mobile phone with web compliance standards such as You Tube services/ videos support.
Unique Feature in the Wamaz Mobile Phone
Computer advancement has increased high efficiency that has to lead to the establishment of net-book technology. It is an efficient computer device that is portable, unlike computer desktops which cannot be carried from one place to another. It is important to note that the Wamaz is not designed to contend against IPod. Rather, it is made to generate affordable and cheap internet access that would enable students to watch academic videos and to study eBooks on their mobile. It enables users to access PDF documents. The Wamaz is much faster when moving from one page to another than other known mobile phones (Eugene & Michael, 2009).
It is designed with pictures and MS office 2010 documents that make it more accessible and effective. Furthermore, the design of the Wamaz has incorporated āAndrofficeā thus, making generation and editing office documents easier. The Wamaz is designed with e-books that are useful for students. With the device, students are capable to effectively access the internet through the use of Wi-Fi when they are traveling from one place to another. Moreover, the Wamaz is installed with high-quality insulators that regulate internal heating to minimize internal problems. This makes the device an effective mobile phone device for college students.
The Wamaz has an Android screen-touch that has co-processor HD video for graphic designs, and effective multimedia experience; this provides quicker supportive applications. Furthermore, the product has an internet browser that speeds up web pages with internet connectivity that is accessible in all places covered by the GPRS network. The accessibility of GPRS and Wi-Fi enable cell phone functionality and internet accessibility to be available anytime and everywhere.
Besides that, the USB of the Wamaz is supported by a 3G modem, making the device very effective in operation. Moreover, the Wamaz is designed with a quick responsive screen. Thus, users do not strain much but have to press the screen smoothly and it would respond faster than Samsung, iPhone, and other mobile phones currently in the market.
Product Competitive Advantage
The Wamaz is designed as an alternative computer device that has an affordable price tag, with a more efficient performance compared to other existing models. It is a perfect digital device for any place and any time because of its Android application, sports and web accessibility, and multimedia content. The product will promote a flexible digital technology in education that will impact studentsā lives through the launch of an affordable and effective computing device of the third generation androids. As projected, the sustainability aspect is likely to ensure that the product penetrates the targeted market with ease, since potential customers may find the Wamaz very useful as a mobile phone and a fully-fledged computer. The competitive advantage mix is summarized below.
Perspective: Learning and Innovation
Perspective: Customer
Segmenting the Market
Segmentation Criteria
Before the Wamaz is launched, it is important to identify the market to ensure strategic penetration and product marketing sustainability. The producer of the Wamaz mobile will have to undertake the STP analysis in the following manner to understand which market segments are to be targeted and how to position the service in the customer mindset so that it brings more acceptance to the mobile phone. The proposed mobile phone will be marketed in the UAE region.
Segmentation of the entire market of UAE and GCC into various small market segments so that it is easier to target the customers from that segment. The following are some criteria for segmenting the market for the Wamaz mobile phone.
Geographic segmentation
The entire UAE and GCC are the market for the new innovative concept of the Wamaz mobile phone. However, geographical segmentation would make small segments of the market, that is, a segment that would cover developing and moderately populated cities like Abu Dhabi, Dubai, and a segment of the market that entails remote areas of UAE and a segment encompassing the GCC remote areas.
Demographic segmentation
Demographics are ideally no criteria for segmenting the market for availing the Wamaz mobile phone. However, there is an upper limit and lower limit of the age of customers interested in the features promised in the proposed mobile phone. For instance, the college students will prefer the high tech version while the older people will prefer the ordinary version of the Wamaz mobile phone.
Psychographic segmentation
It is a fact that customers in the same demographic segmentation differ in the psycho-graphic factors. Applicable to the Wamaz mobile phone case, where any age group of customers is open to use this device, segmenting the market will be based upon the income level of the customers. Thus, the middle class working people and upper-middle class are the segment of the market that the Wamaz mobile phone will be sold to.
Behavioral segmentation
It involves segmentation of the market depending on the occasion like weekends and holidays, benefits in terms of spending less, and good quality. The company manufacturing the Wamaz mobile phone will segment the entire market depending on the interests of people in using a mobile application, entertainment, and their attitude towards acceptance of the new technology (Eugene & Michael, 2009).
Target Market Selection
Every product or service is not suitable for the needs or demands of all the customers. Targeting the market depending upon the following factors would help in identifying the potential customers in the case of the Wamaz mobile phone, especially within the dynamic market in the GCC region.
Demographic
The Wamaz mobile phone aims at targeting customers of all the age-groups, ethnicity, race, and youth population, in particular. The Wamaz mobile phone does not restrict itself to a particular age domain as using a mobile phone can be fun for people of all age groups. However, since the youth generation prefers the latest technology and user-friendliness in a mobile device, serving them would be a great deal and thus they would be the ideal target market for the Wamaz mobile phone.
Geographic
The initial launch of the Wamaz mobile phone would be to target only the customers in modern and ever-developing, moderately populated cities of UAE, such as Abu Dhabi and Dubai. After gaining success and recognition for the Wamaz mobile phone, the product will be rolled out to the remote areas and the entire GCC region as well. Also, the focus would be on targeting the customers within the college level and above.
Psychographics
The Wamaz mobile phone offers easy access to the information in any area at any time, which would target the customers who are willing to integrate the latest mobile phone technology but are deprived because of currently expensive alternatives. Such customers would seek for a cost-effective solution to enhance the communication activities over the phone.
Behavioural
The target market would also rely upon the behaviouristic attitudes of the customers. The company would focus mainly on the domain of people who indulge themselves in the latest mobile phone technology. Moreover, the quality of the Wamaz mobile phone would play an important role for the target customers.
Socio-graphic
Targeting the market depending on the social factors such as the availability of other alternative devices. The Wamaz mobile phone would target middle-class people and average income people who would mostly be students, the young generation, and early adopters.
Focusing on the Targeted Market
Market segmentation and strategy for the high-technology product follow a typical pattern called āTechnology Adoption Life Cycleā. When new technologies are introduced, a typical marketing strategy focuses on attracting the āinnovatorsā and subsequently the āearly adoptersā for the Wamaz mobile phone (Day, 2011). The adoption life cycle for the Wamaz mobile phone is summarized in diagram 1 below.
In the case of the Wamaz mobile phone product, the innovators are defined as those who pursue products with new technology aggressively. This means that they consider technology to be a central interest in their life and buy because they enjoy exploring the new features in a product (Eugene & Michael, 2009). They represent a small segment of the total market at approximately 2.5%.
However, they are critical to accelerating adoption in later stages since the Wamaz mobile phone will be integrated into the UAE market as a futuristic product. The early adopter segment, estimated to be about 13.5% of the market, will be pursued in conjunction with the innovators. Early adopters, perceived as “visionaries” in the market, buy new products early in the life cycle (Eugene & Michael, 2009).
They are imaginative thinkers who find it easy to envision and use new technology. They also rely on their intuition in purchasing, as opposed to depending on references from others. Also, they are more tolerant of bugs or glitches in new products than the average consumer. It is estimated that 14% of the total market for the Wamaz mobile phone will fall into the early majority segment. Following them is the late majority state consisting of 34% potential buyers (Day, 2011). Laggards are at the tail end of the Wamaz mobile phone product’s distribution channel or network. The target market was differentiated along with geographic, demographic, psychographic, lifestyle, interest, and insight traits as summarized in table 2 below.
Competitors
Many companies have been mass-produced and sold android mobile devices across the globe such as Apple, Samsung, and Microsoft. Based on market research, the Wamaz mobile phone has the potential to quickly penetrating the UAE market. However, the competition is about to get tougher as some industry players have entered the same market and launch their brands. Below is the list of mobile phones that have been launched in the UAE with a good selling reputation.
Competitive Advantage
For Wamaz mobile phones to compete effectively, it will have to provide the ILM platform in a way that competitors cannot. Having a competitive advantage will help the company provide the Wamaz mobile phone at a lower cost compared to other players in the industry. The company will provide a simple and easy to use platform for customers. The system will be easily integrated with other systems to facilitate the sharing of information. This is what competitors in the market are not providing. It will be thus necessary for the marketing team to explain this advantage to prospective customers (Blythe, 2011).
The Wamaz mobile phone has an advantage over other server-based phones in that the customers will not worry about the physical environment, its security, or even backups. This will be left for the company to worry about. The cloud-based platform will not need the customers to manage hardware or backups. Also, the system will enable interoperability. This means that the customers will access a more flexible system that is capable of integration with technology devices whenever the Wamaz mobile phone is switched on.
Pricing the Product
Objectives of Pricing Management
In the presence of increased competition, the company manufacturing the Wamaz mobile phone will ensure that the device is affordable to the target market. In this case, the appropriate pricing strategy will be āgood, better, bestā pricing to give the customers a chance to choose from a variety of product brands available.
Tactics for Managing Prices
In the establishment of the Wamaz mobile phone product prices, essential factors should be considered and taken care of. These are the sensitivity of the company to its customersā interest, the market prevalence, and the product to be sold. A vigorous research team should be instituted to overlook the possible pricing strategies that do not infringe on the economic status of the customers in offering affordable Wamaz mobile phones to technology lovers. Discounts will also be analyzed to increase the number of new customers (Eugene & Michael, 2009).
Before coming up with the price for the Wamaz mobile phone product, it is important to understand what other mobile phone providers are offering in the industry. First, the Apple Company charges $698 to $5,000 for their devices. If the customer adds more features, Apple charges $250 more. It also charges $150 monthly for the lease service. Any service will be charged $100 monthly each. The second company to consider is the Samsung Incorporation.
The company charges $449 for its mobile products. For the provision of high end S series mobile phone brand, the company charges $599. Another company that offers similar products is Tecno Incorporation. The company charges $379 for most of its high-end mobile phones. It also charges $29 per annum for security software on a need basis. Given the prices offered by these companies, the Wamaz mobile phone has a chance of competing favorably with them.
In setting up the price of offering the Wamaz mobile phone, apart from the price offered by competitors, costs have to be considered. These costs are both variable and fixed. After considering all the costs that will be incurred in delivering the Wamaz mobile phone and doing a break-even analysis, the company manufacturing the device will settle on charging $399 per device for the basic option and $500 for the high-end alternative.
This pricing is very competitive considering what other companies are charging in the industry. The sales forecasting estimated that for the first 6 months of operations, the number of customers will be above 4000. When this number is taken into consideration, the company will be able to cover its costs with the given price per customer. With proper advertising, customers will be able to get information about the existence of a company that offers the latest mobile phone at an affordable price. The lower-cost service that will be offered by Wamaz mobile phone will provide relief to customers.
Positioning the Product
Positioning Mix
Creating brand awareness or a positive image of the product/service in the minds of the customers against the competitor product/service is the positioning of that product/service. The strategy of positioning the product would focus on serving the customers with the service they desire the most with exiting offers and meaningful explanations as to use the product.
- Attribute: The unique attribute of the device such as USB port, internet compatibility, and user-friendliness.
- Benefit: The advantage of this innovative device is the easy availability of the mobile device support at locations where accesses to other networks are rare and underdeveloped.
- Price and Quality: The product will be packaged as having the highest mobile phone experience quality at a reasonable price.
- Users: The specific users are targeted to position the product i.e. the customers who are fun-loving and would like to spend an extra penny in customizing the experience of using a user-friendly mobile phone.
- Against a competitor: The positioning strategy would also be against a competitor as it has a competitive advantage against expensive and complex mobile phones.
In developing and marketing the Wamaz mobile phone, the company manufacturing this device will establish a strong model of how to successfully align suitable goals and values with lifestyle needs consumers while drawing on its core competencies. The company will continue to drive revenue growth and brand equity from the Wamaz mobile phone, which adds environmental benefit without compromising traditional product quality, including such intangible consumer values such as styling, forwardness, and fun. The Wamaz mobile phone is not only a smartphone in the UAE market but also a symbol of the latest technology to most consumers.
This symbol reflects the spirit of the modern lifestyle as a sexy trend in this modern era (Blythe, 2011). The Wamaz mobile phone is seen as stylish, distinct, innovative, versatile, technological and a smart emblem of environmental sustainability in the mobile phone industry in the UAE and other markets across the globe.
The accomplishment of brand and item administration relies upon an appropriate arrangement of a useful strategy into the formation of adaptable, automatic, and quantifiable estimation of observation among the intended interest group. Brilliantly, this strategy ought to have fundamental components that can, without much stretch, influence the perception, either emphatically or adversely.
In the case of the Wamaz mobile phone, the positioning model revealed that the company has a very proactive and successful marketing approach as part of the value proportion (Day, 2011). The primary measurement of this marketing approach puts the estimations on adaptability, caution, and dynamism toward one side of the scale while security, request, and control on the other side for optimal value achievement.
The second measurement takes a look at the interior introduction, mix, and solidarity on one side with brand awareness and contention on the other side. In this way, understanding the product positioning environment will empower the organization to pick up a vital upper hand in various ways in marketing the Wamaz mobile phone within the dynamic market. The Wamaz mobile phone will be packaged through the cross-stage product showcasing procedure to advance a better comprehension of the business dynamics, market forces, customer demand, and competitive advantage sustainability (Belch & Belch, 2009).
Positioning Strategies
In the overcrowded market for mobile phone products in the UAE, product position is directly linked to success in the short and long term, especially for a new product. To achieve the desired goals, positioning ensures a clear difference in the new product from the existing products. Thus, the following strategies will be applied.
First-Mover Strategy
We intend to position this product as the first of its kind in the market. As the first player for this kind of mobile product, we project a steady market share gain within six months. Once this is achieved, the delivery channel will revolve on quality maintenance to support the leading marketer status. In the process, a permanent and positive image of the company will be glued in the minds of our clients (Blythe, 2011).
Also, a series of market research on the demands of the consumers will be carried periodically to improve on satisfaction, desires, and expand on new market territories. In the process, the focus will be directed to the most competitive price and what the customers are able and willing to pay. To cut a unique niche, the right audience will be captivated by the alternative models available.
Multi-brand Strategy
To diversify market operations, we intend to create multiple products from the same product with different colorations, sizes, and packaging. This will create an environment of its competition and block other competitors from encroaching into the companyās market.
These sub-products will be differentiated by features, prices, and the difference in quality (Day, 2011). As forecasted in the market research, this strategy will be successful towards dominance as it offers a variety of options to consumers, while at the same time, maximizing benefits of economies of scale. Since the UAE market has low entry barriers, we are likely to reap from the experimenting consumers. The high and the low-end varieties will target the high and low income earning consumers. With the high end and low-end varieties in the market, little room will be available for competitors to create a third product based on quality.
Promotion and Distribution Strategies
The goal of the promotion and distribution strategies
The goals and objectives of the Wamaz mobile phone marketing strategy are listed below.
- To feature in the top ten positions of smartphones in the UAE market.
- To become the prestigious symbol of the technology living trend in the UAEās mobile phone market.
- To deliver and educate people on the concept of a technology lifestyle in smartphone use.
- To increase brand awareness and create a distinctive brand image through creative advertisement and product value experience.
- To increase sales by 30%.
General marketing strategies
The Wamaz mobile phone’s marketing strategy is to continuously spread awareness to people about the importance to keep the environment clean. When people become aware, they will internalize the need to keep the environment clean and adopt green living as a lifestyle. This goal of lifestyle marketing is to allow consumers to pursue their chosen ways to enjoy their lives and express social identities through the Wamaz mobile phone product. This is summarized in diagram 2 below.
By emphasizing on the attention to the environment, a certain level of awareness is expected until it becomes an urgent need and an irreplaceable lifestyle through the Wamaz mobile phone. The grand theme for Wamaz mobile phone’s campaign in the UAE is Efficiency Sculpted Form: New Thinking. The theme will cover all marketing-communication activities for the Wamaz mobile phone in the year 2017. It will try to touch the consumersā emotional side by inspiring them to be proud to use Wamaz mobile phone as a lifestyle product. A successful product by definition provides graffiti a consumerās needs and wants (Blythe, 2011).
Product benefits can be intrinsic (pleasure that results from owning or using the product) or extrinsic (monetary value generated from owning or using the product). For the Wamaz mobile phone, the proposed marketing communication strategy will try to grab the two dimensions above, therefore, extend relevance to multiple consumer segments (Akpoyomare, Adeosun, & Ganiyu, 2013). With the new thinking theme, the Wamaz mobile phone could be a pride for each user.
The theme will also highlight the prestigious aspects of the smartphone to gain a competitive advantage over more popular luxurious mobile devices in the same price range. This advantage creates an intrinsic pride for its owner as a āresponsibleā consumer with a role in addressing environmental concerns (Day, 2011). The latter benefit is often overlooked by companies outside the niche industry.
The Marketing strategies that will be used to market the Wamaz mobile phone are ‘Above the Line’ and ‘Below the Line’. These marketing strategies are aimed at raising brand awareness to shape the brand image as well as reach the benefits wanted by the target market. The TV commercial will be broadcast mainly on weekends, during sports or talk show programs. One of the critical strategies is to organize some events to build emotional bonding between the target market and the Wamaz mobile phone brand. It can also be used as a medium to share the experience with the Wamaz mobile phone (Day, 2011).
Since a strong impression will have a long-term effect in the minds of the targeted market, it is assumed that brand-recall affinity will be increased in the minds of potential customers when making the buying decision. It is very important to choose the programs, broadcast times, and event formats carefully, to make the marketing communication effective and maximize the outcome of each marketing strategy (Akpoyomare et al., 2013).
Marketing Mix
Branding is a āname, term, sign, symbol, or design, or a combination of them intended to identify the goods and services of one seller or group of sellers and to differentiate them from those of competitionā (Blythe, 2011, p. 32). The objective of the business is to penetrate the smartphone market in the UAE through the provision of affordable and quality smartphones, service plans, and ownership benefits to clients.
The company manufacturing the device accentuates on customer satisfaction and quality automobile services as a strategy for upholding its position as the preferred garage for customers looking for the customized Wamaz mobile phone. To diversify market operations, the company will create multiple products for the Wamaz mobile phone with different benefits, financing restoration, and providing an affordable service plan for each category of mobile devices. In the presence of increased competition, the company will ensure that its Wamaz mobile phone product is affordable to the target market.
The company marketing the Wamaz mobile phone will adopt flexible and proactive advertisements meant to appeal to each customer segment for the products. Besides, the company will have a series of after-sales services such as discounts, coupons, and rewards to customers who make the highest number of purchases for the Wamaz mobile phone. The business will use direct, online, and database marketing through its Business-to-Consumer (B2C) and e-commerce models (Akpoyomare et al., 2013).
The main objective of the promotion plan is to attract the customers’ market through the company’s website and fan pages to increase the customer traffic for the Wamaz mobile phone product (Blythe, 2011). The objective aims at packaging the Wamaz mobile phone as a favorite of customers who want smartphones. Through massive recruitment of online fans on the Twitter and Facebook pages, the company will not only benefit from increased traffic of online compliments but also recorded high rates of customer loyalty as most customers are influenced by reactions from other clients. Offering the Wamaz mobile phone and accompanying services in the right place and time create the right place strategy for the business. In other words, clients are supposed to get the services at the most convenient place.
Since the UAE market is dynamic, with relatively good connectivity, the objective of the place management at the company will be to adopt the business to customer contact strategy to directly deal with its customers by creating sales points in different regions to serve the clients (Day, 2011). Direct interaction with the clients was critical in knowing the customer needs, which leads to developing products that suit their expectations as well as market needs. Therefore, the sales locations will not be limited to major cities in the UAE but the entire region (Belch & Belch, 2009). The proposed marketing mix for the Wamaz mobile phone will integrate the aspects of price, product, promotion, and place as summarized in tables 3 and 4 below.
Table 3: Product, place, and price mixes for the Wamaz mobile phone.
Table 4: Promotion mix for the Wamaz mobile phone.
Conclusion
Properly researched marketing plan determines the success and sustainability in penetrating a market with a new product. To increase credibility and maintain professionalism, product processes and the feature should flawlessly facilitate a healthy and lifetime relationship between the company and its clients. A properly designed market plan should be practical in presenting brand knowledge, awareness, penetration strategy, and passing information to the target audience.
In achieving these objectives, the plan should map possible competition, positioning strategy, consumer and market analysis, and geographical region of operation. Generally, these concepts are vital in forecasting and act as a guide towards actualizing a marketing plan blueprint for the proposed Wamaz mobile phone.
References
Akpoyomare, B., Adeosun, L., & Ganiyu, R. (2013). Approaches for generating and evaluation product positioning strategy. International Journal of Business Administration 4(1), 46-52.
Belch, E., & Belch, A. (2009). Advertising and promotion: An integrated marketing communications perspective. McGraw-Hill, Boston: Mass.
Blythe, J. (2011). Essentials of marketing communications. New York, NY: FT/Prentice Hall.
Bodily, E., & Allen, M. (2009). A dialogue process for choosing value-creating strategies. Interfaces 29(6), 16-28.
Day, G. (2011). Closing the marketing capabilities gap. Journal of Marketing 75(3), 183- 195.
Eugene, F., & Michael, C. (2009). Financial management theory and practice. New York, NY: South-Western Cengage Learning.
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