essay
Table of Contents Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………………….3 Methodology…………………………………………………………………………..…………………………3 Situation Analysis………………………….…………………………………………………………………..4 SWOT……………………………………………………………………………………...................5 PESTEL………………………………………………………………………………………………….5,6 Customer Insight……………………………………………………………………………………..7 Marketplace Opportunities……………………………………………………………………..9 Competitor Benchmarking…………………………………………………………………….10 Findings from primary research…………………………………………………………….10 Objectives: Where do we want to be?..................................................................11 Mission………………………………………………………………………………………………….12 Vision…………………………………………………………………………………………………….12 Strategy: How do we get there?...........................................................................12 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………………….13 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………………….13 Appendices……………………………………………………………………………………………14
Introduction
We have designed a unique app called Sports Maps. The idea of this app came from google maps and it offers people the ability to socialise with one another and to try out new sports. Our app is one of a kind and it helps people who struggle to socialise or who want to participate in new sports.
It is estimated that consumers spend an average of 2 hours per day in applications on mobile devices. In 2013, global revenue was expected to rise in app stores by 62% to $25 billion, according to Gartner Inc. Our research suggests that this trend is anticipated to continue. According to Hexa research, the market for fitness apps is likely to show extensive growth by 2025.
Developing an app such as Sports Maps is an exciting endeavour although the landscape is somewhat challenging due to oversaturation of apps on app stores, and the cost of maintaining apps. Although market conditions are likely to be tough, we believe that there is potential to grow the market for Sports Maps.
This report will examine Sports Maps in great detail and include a SWOT, PESTEL and the first three stages of SOSTAC. Primary research such as surveys and questionnaires will be used to analyse our app.
Methodology
For our market research, we gathered both primary and secondary research to help us further progress Sports Maps and see what our potential customers would want.
For the primary research, we created an online survey using Qualtrics and asked 30 people to answer this survey to the best of their ability. But before they could answer the questions from the survey they first had to read an ethical consent form which explains that in no way will their data be shared with anyone else. We would have liked to have a lot more responses for our survey to have a wider variety of answers but we unfortunately ran out of time to get anymore results in.
Our secondary research focused on gathering information we could find about other fitness and sports apps out there. From this research, we were able to figure out what things we could do to improve our app like adjusting the costs of the app, improving the layout and adding any extra tools to make it easier to use.
Situation analysis
Figure 1: This table briefly tells us a bit about our app and how we are going to develop it further using Situation analysis, Objectives and Strategy
Figure 2: The SOSTAC Model (PRSmith, 2013).
Swot
Figure 3: SWOT chart, this table shows us the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats our app will face.
PESTEL
|
Political |
· Now that the conservative party have won the election there could also be a negative effect on the Business due to BREXIT as it still possible that the United Kingdom could leave the transition period without a trade deal in place. |
|
Economical |
· Continued uncertainty around BREXIT could affect any investment in the Sports Maps App. · Because of Political instability prices may have to be adjusted. |
|
Social |
· Sports Maps is an application that could be used by individuals to help them participate in sports and connect socially. · The app is directly linked to the sport that an end user is undertaking. This should improve health as end users will be able to read statistics. |
|
Technological |
· Block chain is a new revolutionary technological achievement, mostly used for cryptocurrencies but due to its effective storing mechanism it may be possible to use it to store all kinds of data. · Existing technology is going to be used, such as google maps API in order to interface with Google Maps. · Cybersecurity measures will be in place in order to secure end users data. |
|
Environmental |
· The app is linked to the location where an end user is participating in sport. · The geographical location where an end user lives will be taken into account in order to personalise options in the app for taking part in sports. · Our app will make it easier for users to exercise nearby which will hopefully reduce the potential use of cars and encourage people to walk or cycle. · This may motivate our users to help tackle the environmental issues and reduce the amount of pollution. |
|
Legal |
· Because of confidentiality, terms and conditions will have to accepted in the app due to integration with third party social media apps. · Protection of data is paramount. We have taken this into account and made sure that we maintain and keep end user’s data safe and DDPR compliant. · Ownership and intellectual property must be protected and patents may be required in order to protect intellectual property rights such as design, app name, app icon etc. · The age limit of over 18 will be strictly applied, while use of inappropriate images on the app will be prohibited. |
Figure 4: PESTEL chart, this chart shows us the 6 marketing aspects of the external environment, which has been applied to Sports Maps.
Customer insight
Target customers:
Sports Maps will mainly target younger individuals aged 18 - 25 years old who are interested in sports and socialising. As we can see from the graph below, the majority of people who answered this survey are aged between 18 – 21 years old. However, we will still look to accommodate the older generation into our target market to widen the potential customers of Sports Maps.
Figure 5: Q2 What is your age? (Qualtrics 2019)
Needs of our customers:
Our customers want to be able to socialise and participate in sports within the area that they live in. Sports Maps will enable our customers to connect using Google Maps API interface to find sports to play within a certain distance from where they live.
How will our service meet our customers’ needs and wants?
Our customers want a wide variety of sports to choose from within a suitable range from where they live. The graph below shows some sports that our app will offer to our customers. From the results, we can see that our customers are interested in all of the sports available in the survey which means we are providing a good selection of sports.
Figure 6: Q3 What sports are you interested in participating in?
What factors make them use our service?
Sports Maps is very easy to use and aesthetically pleasing as well which combine together to make a really desirable app. Customers will want to use our app because it is unique and there is nothing currently on the market similar to it.
Why will our customers continue to use our app?
Our hope is that customers will continue to use our app because after they have connected with other users through the app, the app will become a social platform from which they can connect on with other end users. The app provides a very wide variety of sports which people may want to try out in the future. The graph beneath shows that the majority of our potential customers agree the app will encourage people to interact with one another and continue to use our app.
Figure 7: Q5 Do you think an application like this would encourage social interaction between you and other participants?
Marketplace opportunities
“The global fitness market size is anticipated to reach over $14.7 billion by 2026 according to a new study published by Polaris Market Research.” (MarketWatch, 2019) This could be an opportunity for Sports Maps to do well in the marketplace by becoming one of the best fitness apps available on the app store and google play.
Competitor benchmarking
There are a lot of fitness apps available to people, however we believe that our app is unique as it offers the ability to try out new sports with other individuals throughout the UK. “Google has just announced that its buying wearable company Fitbit for $2.1 billion.” (Gartenberg, 2019) Due to Fitbit being one of the biggest fitness applications available at the moment this can cause a problem when developing Sports Maps as the competition will be hard to beat.
From the graph below we can see that our target market possesses either an Apple smart watch, Samsung watch or Fitbit which is a lot of competition will be
Figure 8: Do you use other sports applications and wearables such as Fitbit, Apple Watch and Samsung Watch?
Findings from primary research
Our team decided to create a survey to help improve our research and analysis on Sports Maps. 33 people aged within our target market answered our survey. Results and graphs created from this survey can be found above and below.
To get a better understanding of our app and more reliable results we need to increase the amount of people who answered the survey to at least 100
people. We also need to ask more specific questions to do with our app to find out what the consumers are looking for so we can improve it.
As we can see from the graph below most of our potential consumers would use our app on a regular basis which means that the business has a high success rate.
Figure 9: If an application like this were available, how much do you think you would use it on a weekly basis?
Objectives: Where do we want to be?
Figure 10: This is the objectives we have set ourselves for the business
Mission
Our goal is to create something unique for end users, while creating an application that is simple and easy to use. Our target market is individuals of all ages.
Our hope is that as individuals use this app, it will lead to higher outcomes with regard to improvement in health through exercise in sports. We are hopeful that social interaction will happen through the Sports Maps Application.
Vision
The app is going to be promoted through social media, but also in newspapers and magazines. We are attempting to make sports and exercising more accessible and more enjoyable for the user.
A key element for our app is the ability to socialise with different people making it easier to make new friends and also participate in a variety of sports.
Strategy: How do we get there?
Figure 11: This is our strategy we have composed for the business
Conclusion
Our market research and analysis report show us that our app has a good chance of success as fitness apps are becoming increasingly more popular. The primary research we did shows us that our consumers are interested in the app and that they would use it on a regular basis which is a positive sign for the Business. Analysis of our strategy shows us we need to mainly focus on advertisement and getting our app up and running as quickly as possible. We also need to ensure that we have regular checks on the surveys we send out via email to keep updated on what improvements we can make to the application.
Bibliography
Worstall, T. (2013). More People Have Mobile Phones Than Toilets. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/03/23/more-people-have-mobile-phones-than-toilets/#4b503ae36569 [Accessed 13 Dec. 2019].
MarketWatch. (2019). Fitness App 2019 Global Market Net Worth US$ 14.7 billion Forecast By 2026. [online] Available at: https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/fitness-app-2019-global-market-net-worth-us-147-billion-forecast-by-2026-2019-01-29 [Accessed 14 Dec. 2019].
Gartenberg, C. (2019). Google buys Fitbit for $2.1 billion. [online] The Verge. Available at: https://www.theverge.com/2019/11/1/20943318/google-fitbit-acquisition-fitness-tracker-announcement [Accessed 14 Dec. 2019].
Appendices
Figure 1: This table briefly tells us a bit about our app and how we are going to develop it further using Situation analysis, Objectives and Strategy (PRSmith, 2013).
Figure 2: The SOSTAC Model
Figure 3: SWOT chart, this table shows us the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats our app will face.
Figure 4: PESTEL chart, this chart shows us the 6 marketing aspects of the external environment, which has been applied to Sports Maps.
Figure 5: What is your age? Qualtrics (2019)
Figure 6: Q3 What sports are you interested in participating in?
Figure 7: Q5 Do you think an application like this would encourage social interaction between you and other participants?
Figure 8: Do you use other sports applications and wearables such as Fitbit, Apple Watch and Samsung Watch?
Figure 9: If an application like this were available, how much do you think you would use it on a weekly basis?
Figure 10: This is the objectives we have set ourselves for the business
Figure 11: This is our strategy we have composed for the business
What is your age?
Age 18 - 21 21 - 25 25+ 24 5 2
What sports are you interested in participating in?
Sport Football Cycling Basketball Swimming 11 7 6 6
Do you think an application like this would encourage social interaction between you and other participants? Yes Maybe No 15 12 2
Do you use other sports applications and wearables such as Fitbit, Apple Watch and Samsung Watch?
Do you use other sports applications and wearables such as Fitbit, Apple Watch and Samsung Watch Smart watch from Apple Samsung Watch Fitbit 7 7 7
If an application like this were available, how much do you think you would use it on a weekly basis? Daily Once a week Twice a week 13 10 7
14