Marketing Report

A PLUS: Marketing Plan

Marketing

Plan

Product Name: A PLUS

Team (Company) Name: Triple J Success

Group Member Names: Jeff Lu, Jacky Liu, Jerry Jiang

Teacher Name: Ms. Michailidis

Course Name: Marketing: Goods, Services, Events

Course Code: BM13C1 – 03

Due Date: Friday, May 16, 2014


Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY…………………………………………………………..1

SITUATION ANALYSIS

Product Description Product Description ......................................................................................................................................... 2

Unique Selling Proposition .............................................................................................................................. 2

Goals ................................................................................................................................................................ 3

Customer Analysis Target Market .................................................................................................................................................. 3

Demographics .................................................................................................................................................. 4

Demographics Data and Analysis .................................................................................................................... 5

Psychographics ................................................................................................................................................ 6

Geographics ..................................................................................................................................................... 7

Product Usage Statistics ................................................................................................................................... 8

Competitor Analysis Direct Competitors ........................................................................................................................................... 9

Sustainable Competitive Advantages: Competitors ......................................................................................... 9

Non-Sustainable Competitive Advantages: Competitors .............................................................................. 10

Sustainable Competitive Advantages: A PLUS ............................................................................................. 11

Non-Sustainable Competitive Advantages: A PLUS ..................................................................................... 12

Market Share Plan .......................................................................................................................................... 13

Market Research Statement of Research Task ........................................................................................................................... 14

Review of Data Collection Methods .............................................................................................................. 15

Analysis of Data ............................................................................................................................................. 18

Interpretation of Data ..................................................................................................................................... 22

Summary of Findings ..................................................................................................................................... 26

Marketing Trends Current Trends ............................................................................................................................................... 28

Product Success Explanation ......................................................................................................................... 31


MARKETING STRATEGY

Product Objective ........................................................................................................................................................ 32

Strategy .......................................................................................................................................................... 32

Feature-Benefit Analysis ............................................................................................................................... 33

Positioning Map (Benefit and Price) .............................................................................................................. 34

Brand Name ................................................................................................................................................... 36

Logo and Slogan ............................................................................................................................................ 36

Place Objective ........................................................................................................................................................ 37

Strategy .......................................................................................................................................................... 37

Location ......................................................................................................................................................... 37

Rationale ........................................................................................................................................................ 38

Customer Service ........................................................................................................................................... 39

Promotion Objective ........................................................................................................................................................ 40

Strategy .......................................................................................................................................................... 40

Media ............................................................................................................................................................. 41

Advertisement ................................................................................................................................................ 43

Advertisement Effectiveness ......................................................................................................................... 44

Public Relations ............................................................................................................................................. 45

Sales Promotion ............................................................................................................................................. 47

Price Objective ........................................................................................................................................................ 51

Strategy .......................................................................................................................................................... 51

SWOT Analysis ............................................................................................................................................. 52

Selling Price ................................................................................................................................................... 53

Costs............................................................................................................................................................... 54

Pricing Policies .............................................................................................................................................. 55


FUTURE PLANS

Future Goals Market Share Plan .......................................................................................................................................... 56

New Products ................................................................................................................................................. 57

Co-Branding ................................................................................................................................................... 57

Advertising ..................................................................................................................................................... 57

Product Life Cycle Management Product Life Cycle ......................................................................................................................................... 58

4 P’s of Marketing ......................................................................................................................................... 61

APPENDIX…………………………………………………………………………..62


EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Education is what causes society to become knowledgeable. Success in education is what causes

society to become prosperous. Education has existed for hundreds of years, and it is with education that

caused society to grow into the world it is today. Our company, Triple J Success values the importance of

education. It is our goal to help educate students and lead them into a successful future, as they are the

future. They shall bring prosperity and change the world for the better with the knowledge they obtain.

We are to be the best technological educational helper in Canada. The founders of Triple J Success are:

Jeff Lu - Chief Executive Officer

Jacky Liu - Chief Operations Officer

Jerry Jiang - Chief Financial Officer

A PLUS, our all in one educational productivity app is to help students manage, enhance and

improve their educational lives. It saves time and reduces the frustration of needing multiple apps to

perform different tasks. It offers a variety of different educational-related features that students use on a

daily basis, such as an agenda, scientific graphing calculator, word processors, and many more. A PLUS

also offers it’s very own course-specific search engine, where it provides the user with tons of

information regarding the searched course. This marketing plan is what created Triple J Success, and will

also be the key to a success business. The contents of this plan contain a customer analysis, analyzing our

target market: high school students, as well as a competitor analysis of iStudiez Pro and Graphing

Calculator. Furthermore, the marketing plan illustrates how A PLUS will be successful due to the

collection of market research from the target market. Also, a marketing strategy is included highlighting

the sections of Product, Place, Promotion and Place. Lastly, the marketing plan displays the future goals

of Triple J Success and the Product Life Cycle that A PLUS will undergo, and additional research

regarding our product in the appendix.


2

SITUATION ANALYSIS

Product Description

Tired of having dozens of different applications to do different school tasks? A PLUS is an educational

school-based all in one application used by students to manage, enhance and improve their educational

school life designed by Triple J Success. A PLUS offers a variety of features and utilities such as a built

in agenda and checklist that alerts the user of tasks and work that need to be finished, as well as

upcoming tests and assignment due dates. Other features and utilities that A PLUS offers is a scientific

graphing calculator, dictionary, thesaurus, word processor, translator and much more smaller useful

utilities.

When connected to the internet, A PLUS offers even more features, such as the special course-

based search engine that provides the user of materials, lessons, problems, notes, videos, links and much

more in a categorized format related to their desired course. Also, the user will be connected to the A

PLUS website where they can upload work material and notes on to their account for computer access as

well as having access to the site’s forums where other students can help each other to complete

challenging problems and questions, and receives alerts when answers are received. With an all in one

wide variety of features to use, there is no need to have dozens of different apps making the A PLUS app

a must for students.

Unique Selling Proposition

What makes A PLUS unique is the fact that is has a very unique utility that no other educational-based

application has. This special feature was designed by Triple J Success and made only for A PLUS. This

feature is to be used online as it is a patented course-based search engine that categorizes the search into

lessons, problems, notes, videos, and much more.

Patented course-based search engine: This course-based search engine is not a typical search engine.

When the user enters a course, this search engine will display links and sites of lessons, problems, notes,

tutorials, videos, quizzes and much more in an easy to read categorized format related to the course. The

user can then choose to go further by selecting a specific category and will then be able to view more

information regarding that category. The user can also search specific terms, problems, and other

information related to the course on the mini search engine and it will display all the information in the

same categorized format regarding the search. The information is easy to read and well organized and is

a one of a kind search engine.


3

Goals

Triple J Success strives to be the best education business in Canada. As a company, we value

learning and success more than profits. Education is what builds our society, and helping students

achieve their academic dreams is the greatest goal our company could ever accomplish. Thousands of

students struggle with work when they are without teacher assistance, and A PLUS’s goal is to help these

students overcome these obstacles in order to reach their maximum potential at academic success. Triple

J Success understood the frustration of needing dozens of different apps to do different tasks, and our

goal was to create an application that could meet all those needs. A PLUS provides all the features

students already use and many more in an all in one app, allowing for students to learn, work and study

with just one application. The goal of A PLUS is to be a convenient way to help and enhance a student’s

educational life at an affordable cost.

Our objectives at Triple J Success are not only to gain a profit, but to allow students to understand

and improve on their education. Our company wants to prove to other businesses that helping students is

the main goal and at the same time our company can gain a wealthy profit. Triple J Success values and

promotes education and learning as we believe in the phrase, “Potential not met is waste”. As well, a

great degree of our profit will be donated to charitable organizations such as Pencils of Promise, UNICEF

and Build Africa as these charities value children and education as much as our company does. Triple J

Success strives to complete and maintain these goals, as they are fundamentally what created Triple J

Success.

Customer Analysis

Target Market

The target market for the A PLUS app is targeted towards students. Since A PLUS is an

educational school based app, it is safe to assume that most users who would use this product would be

students attending school. This includes students of all ages, but generally Triple J Success is targeting

university, college and high school students, as well as middle school students. These students generally

have portable technological devices that can use apps such as A PLUS, thus being our main target

market.

Therefore A PLUS’s desired target market is average household income students between the

ages of 15 to 24, who are care about their academics and live primarily in urban areas.

These students have a strong interest in school and will use materials that can improve and enhance their

educational lives.


4

Demographics

Age Students between ages of 15 to 24.

Gender Students of both genders: Male or Female

Family Life Cycle Students that are single, never married.

Income Level Average household income level: $69,860

Below average individual income: Less than $25,400

Ethnicity Students of any ethnicity and cultural background.

Age: A PLUS’s targeted consumer profile age group is between the ages of 15 to 24. This is the

general age group of students who attend high school, college and university. Also, generally students

under the age of 15 do not own compatible mobile or tablet devices, thus not being able to use our A

PLUS app. Therefore the ages of 15 to 24 are the ideal target market for an educational school based app.

Gender: The A PLUS app is targeted towards both genders, as both male and female students attend

school. Our company does not have a specific targeted gender group.

Family Life Cycle: The family life cycle of the users of the A PLUS app is generally single, never

married. Since the consumer profiles for A PLUS are students are between 15 and 24, they would not

worry about marriage during this age.

Income Level: The income level of the users of the A PLUS app is at average household income

level, but however below average individual income. This is the result of going to school daily and lack

of experience in the workforce. Students who have part-time jobs will not be able to work as often as

average individuals, thus being below average individual income, but however their parents and

guardians will work often, thus meeting average household income.

Ethnicity: The A PLUS app is also targeted towards students of any ethnic background and culture,

as Triple J Success does not have any specific targeted ethnical group.


5

Demographic Data and Analysis

The following graph obtained by

Statistics Canada shows the population

of high school students in Toronto as of

2011. From this graph, our company can

take into knowledge that the Toronto

high school student population is a large

one, well over 100, 000.

We understand that A PLUS will be a

successful product due to the large target

market. We will also understand how we

should market our product, as we could

advertise A PLUS with the help of

popular high schools. We will also

research high school student interests and

use that concept to develop engaging

advertisements.

This chart from Statistics Canada shows the individual income of students at various degrees and

diplomas as of 2005. This chart helps shows the importance of education in our society. Generally, the

more education an individual goes through (higher the degree) the more money the individual makes.

With this knowledge in mind, Triple J Success can advertise showing the importance of school and how

A PLUS helps student with academic lives. Consumers will then choose to purchase our app as it helps

them advance towards success.

0

5000

10000

15000

20000

25000

30000

35000

15 years 16 years 17 years 18 years

Po

pu

lati

on

Age

School Age Distribution in Toronto (2011)

Total

Male

Female

Statistics Canada. 2012. Toronto, Ontario (Code 3520005) and Toronto, Ontario (Code 3520) (table). Census Profile. 2011 Census. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 98-316-XWE. Ottawa.

Released October 24, 2012. http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/dp-

pd/prof/index.cfm?Lang=E (accessed December 9, 2013).

Statistics Canada. 2012. Toronto, Ontario (Code 3520005) and Toronto, Ontario (Code 3520) (table). Census

Profile. 2011 Census. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 98-316-XWE. Ottawa. Released

October 24, 2012. http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/dp-pd/prof/index.cfm?Lang=E

(accessed December 9, 2013).

http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/dp-pd/prof/index.cfm?Lang=E




6

Psychographics

Religion Students of any religion.

Taste In Music Students have different tastes in music that varies from student to

student.

Lifestyle Students who attend school on a regular basis and spend their free time

with extra-curricular activities and academics, as well as with friends

and family.

Attitudes Towards

Health

Students with a healthy, active life and maintain and protect their

health.

Personality Traits Students with a helpful, smart, confident, determined and well-

motivated mind and personality.

Religion: A PLUS is targeted to students of all religions. Any religion is acceptable, as

our company does not have a specific targeted religion group.

Taste In Music: A PLUS is targeted to students of any musical taste. The taste in music

for each student will vary. However, generally students of ages 15 to 24 enjoy the newer pieces

of music. These music tastes ranges from pop to rock to rap and much more.

Life Style: A PLUS is targeted towards students that attend high school, college and

university daily. These students have an interest to improve and advance on their schoolwork

habits and knowledge. They are conscious about their grades and believe that education is the

key to success. Students may also join extra-circular activities at school or outside of school.

Also, students will probably spend some free time with family and friends. The lifestyle of a

student is generally related to academics, but however will enjoy activities during spare time.

Attitudes Towards Health: A PLUS is targeted towards healthy active students who

maintain and protect their health. They stay healthy, in order to stay strong and well-motivated

to do school and educational work.

Personality Traits: A PLUS is targeted towards individuals with a helpful and smart

mind and personality. They are also determined and well-motivated to go to school to do

educational work. They try their best and show their maximum potential with academics.

This chart on the left shows a decline in the

dropout rate of Canadian high school students.

This is because an interest in school has been

acknowledged by the students. Students have

developed an educational lifestyle and a

determined and well-motivated personality. As

these factors increase, the dropout rates of

Canadians decrease.

Source: Statistics Canada, Labour Force Survey.

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-004-

x/2005004/8984-eng.htm#a

(accessed December 8, 2013)

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-004-x/2005004/8984-eng.htm#a

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-004-x/2005004/8984-eng.htm#a


7

Geographics

The targeted geographic location of the A PLUS customers includes urban, suburban,

and rural areas. This is because A PLUS is an application used by mobile and tablet devices

which can be used just about anywhere. Our company also took in the fact that schools are in

urban, suburban and rural areas, which is why we don’t target a specific geographical area.

Though our company believes that A PLUS will be successful in any geographical area,

we strongly believe that urban areas such as Downtown Toronto will be the most successful

area to market A PLUS. Urban areas like Downtown Toronto are well-populated by students

and surrounded by technology, thus being easy to market A PLUS. Also, in the map below you

can tell that generally most of the schools are found in the urban areas of Ontario. Knowing that

most students and schools are located and populated in urban areas, marketing in an urban area

will lead to the most success.

Location of Schools in Southern Ontario

The map above shows school locations in southern Ontario, generally Toronto.

The red dots represent schools, and the red dots with letters represent popular well-known schools

Schools are populated in all three geographic regions: Urban, Suburban, and Rural

Schools are more populated in Urban areas (Downtown Toronto for example) than Suburban and

Rural areas

A PLUS will work and be available for anyone living in any geographic area

Map obtained from: Google Maps. (accessed December 8, 2013)


8

Product Usage Statistics

Heavy Users: Our targeted consumer profile will use technological devices, such as smart phones,

tablets, computers and any form of technology that uses apps and internet connection. Students are also

heavy users of programs such as word processors, graphing calculators and other various programs.

Medium Users: Students are medium users of educational materials, such as books, dictionaries, biblical

devices and agendas. Students are also medium users of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and

Instagram.

Light Users: Students are light users of television, movies, and newspapers. They are also light users of

online gaming and educational services such as tutors.

With the product usage statistics, Triple J Success will understand the needs of students and our

company can compare how each feature offered by A PLUS can help student needs. Also, with this

information, our company can advertise to our target market better. Our company knows what students

use and what they do, and when we advertise we will make them visible to the student population while

they do their activities. This will increase the opening market, thus being able to start with a large base of

users.


9

Competitor Analysis

Direct Competitors

Sustainable Competitive Advantages: Competitors iStudiez Pro

Unique Selling Proposition: The unique selling proposition that iStudiez Pro has to offer is the ability to

transfer information in your account from all devices. “Synchronize your iStudiez Pro data in the blink of

an eye between all your iOS and Mac devices. Creating Cloud Sync account is free and fast, and it also

gives you additional guarantee of safeguarding your data.” This unique feature allows students to quickly

transfer any information back and forth between their mobile devices and computers.

Graphing Calculator

Servicing a Niche Market: Graphing Calculator help service the needs of a high school and post-

secondary math student. Graphing Calculator’s main function is to graph different equations and only

those who take graphing-related courses will find use of this app. No other consumer will find the need of

this app. These groups of people (math students) are a niche market. Since Graphing Calculator has met

the needs of this niche market, other competitors generally stay away from this market and Graphing

Calculator has created a sustainable competitive advantage.

iStudiez Pro Features Graphing Calculator

Features

Provides a calendar

Full overview of the classes

you need to attend

Sort homework by

date/priority/course

Allows user to set due dates

Tracks marks and grades

received

Schedule can be accessed

through native device calendar

for convenience

Cloud Sync

Grade tracker; Calculates

overall GPA

Interactive Calendar

Supports more than 25

languages

Scientific Calculator

Ability to plot multiple

equations on same graph

Custom keyboard to speed up

entering in equations

Multiple graph viewing

abilities; zoom, drag/slide

Screen shot-share ability

Ability to obtain coordinates

for roots, intersections, min and

max

Supports advanced graphing

Supports graphing implicit

equations in the form

f(x,y)=g(x,y), which makes it

possible to graph equations that

cannot explicitly be solved for

y in terms of x.”

Ability to graph inequalities

and limit the domain and

ranges

Multitasking support

IStudiez Team.

"Sophisticated Student's

Planner for Your Mac,

IPhone, IPad."IStudiez Pro

for Your Mac, IPhone, IPad.

IStudiez Team, n.d. Web. 9

Dec. 2013.

<http://istudentpro.com/>.

Law, Herbert.

"Reviews." Graphing

Calculator. Google, n.d.

Web. 9 Dec. 2013.

<https://play.google.com/sto

re/apps/details?id=com.herb

ertlaw>.


10

Non-Sustainable Competitive Advantage: Competitors

iStudiez Pro

Benefits of Use: iStudiez Pro offers many different organizational calendar features. It helps the user sort

through homework through date and priority; it provides a calendar and helps keep track of grades and

marks. Students will benefit from using this app as it is meant to organize a student’s life and remind

them about future tasks.

Price: The price of iStudiez Pro is $2.99 which is a low competitively priced educational organizer app.

Design Features: iStudiez Pro is an easy to use and easy to navigate app. It’s overall colour scheme and

design attracts consumers and will be eager to use the app to organize their school life. Also, this app’s

main function is to organize a student’s life with the use of its calendar features and its homework sorting

features.

Graphing Calculator

Benefits of Use: Graphing Calculator has the ability to plot different equations and data on the same

graph. It has the ability to do advance graphing and supports high level math courses. This app is meant

to be use as a math tool for students who need to graph on a daily basis, thus being a huge benefit

towards math students.

Price: The price of Graphing Calculator is $1.99 which is a low competitively priced educational math

app. Offering the uses of a graphing calculator and scientific calculator for this price is competitively

low.

Design Features: The main function of Graphing Calculator is to graph and calculate equations. But this

app also has a customizable keyboard to enter equations in faster, which is a great design feature. Also it

has HD display allowing for students to view their work better. These designs help make Graphing

Calculator a competitive educational app.


11

Sustainable Competitive Advantages: A PLUS

Unique Selling Proposition: A PLUS has a unique search engine that allows users to find useful

resources related to the course. The results that the search engine outputs will be purely related to the

course, types of results will include notes, tutorials, videos, quizzes, and much more. The results can also

be filtered to help the user narrow down his/her search. This feature is an unique selling propositions that

A PLUS has to offer.

Customer Loyalty: A PLUS has the best customer service support. Whenever the user is in need of help,

they can contact Triple J Success’ customer service department online or through the phone. While

connected to our customer service department, the user will be able to seek help and ask any questions or

concerns, and our staff will be glad to help you. Our customer service staff are polite, efficient, patient

and caring. Our staff understands that users have problems and they will help users to the best of their

ability. We put our customers first on our list, and our customer service department makes that happen as

the user will develop strong relationships with our product.

Also, A PLUS provides dozens of amazing features and utilities that any student will enjoy. These

features will keep the students engaged and hooked on to our product. Students will have no need to

switch to other apps as A PLUS already provides all those features and many more of its own. With this

customer loyalty relationship A PLUS has to offer, consumers will not consider another educational

school app.


12

Non-Sustainable Competitive Advantage: A PLUS

Price: The A PLUS app has a very low and cheap price for all the features it provides. Unlike our

competitors, A PLUS tailors to all the needs of the consumer. The A PLUS is set to two prices: a free

version with limited features and a price of $1.99 with all the features. This price may be expensive at

first glance, but by having all the features other apps have to offer and many more of its own features, it

is competitively priced.

Benefits of Use: While using A PLUS, consumers no longer need to switch between different apps to

accomplish different tasks. Our app is also well organized and easy to navigate, thus saving time and

effort for the users. A PLUS is able to perform more tasks than other apps while doing a better job at it as

well. These benefits allow A PLUS to gain a competitive edge against its competitors.

Design Features: With technology’s constant growth, A PLUS will be tailored to Android and Apple

devices. A PLUS meets all the educational functions that students need. Our app provides many utilities

such as an agenda and checklist, graphing calculator, word processor, dictionary, and many more. It has

all the main functions a student uses all in one. Also, the colour design and organization can be changed

by the user depending on their preference, so A PLUS will always appeal to them.

Promotion: Triple J Success will continuously advertise and promote the use of A PLUS. These

advertisements will range from showing all its amazing features and uses to showing its sheer

convenience as an all in one application to the satisfaction of its consumers. Also, we will promote A

PLUS through the use of popular universities and colleges, as well as the media. Our company will also

create social media pages to advertise and promote A PLUS.


13

Competitor Analysis: Market Share Plan

The following graph shows the market share of A PLUS’s two main direct competitors: iStudiez

Pro and Graphing Calculator. iStudiez Pro’s market share is worth approximately $5,979,830, while

Graphing Calculator’s market share is worth approximately $131,540. The other educational apps total

market share is worth approximately $4,151,710. The total market share of educational apps is $10

million. This information is vital to the success of A PLUS as now Triple J Success understands that its

main competitor is iStudiez Pro as it has over half of the total market shares in this educational app

industry.

This information also allows Triple J Success to determine A PLUS’s possible market share. As

A PLUS already has the features of iStudiez Pro, Graphing Calculator and many more other educational

apps, consumers will tend to purchase our app instead of others. A PLUS will have a successful outcome

and its market share will be well over iStudiez Pro. Triple J Success estimates that its potential market

share will range between $8 million to $10 million dollars. This estimation is reasonable as A PLUS will

be the leading educational app due to its heavy amount.

Market Share of Educational

Apps, iStudiez Pro, 5979830,

58%

Market Share of Educational

Apps, Graphing Calculator, 131540, 1%

Market Share of Educational Apps, Other Educational

Apps, 4151710, 41%

Market Share of Educational Apps iStudiez Pro

Graphing Calculator

Other Educational Apps

"IStudiez Pro by IStudiez Team (US) - Sensor Tower - App Marketing and Mobile SEO

Keyword Optimization for IPhone and IPad." IStudiez Pro. SensorTower, n.d. Web. 8

Dec. 2013. <https://sensortower.com/ios/us/istudiez-team/app/istudiez-pro/310636441>.

"Graphing Calculator by Appcylon LLC (CA) - Sensor Tower - App Marketing and

Mobile SEO Keyword Optimization for IPhone and IPad." Graphing Calculator.

SensorTower, n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2013. <https://sensortower.com/ios/ca/appcylon-

llc/app/graphing-calculator/289940142>.


14

Market Research

Statement of Research Task

Marketing Problem

Triple J Success’ marketing problem is that we are unknown of the popularity, demand and

interest students (our target market) have with an all in one educational productivity app, A PLUS. This

is a new type of product and we are also unsure of the price students are willing to pay for it.

Explanation: Though having one app, A PLUS that offers many features of different multiple apps is

convenient for the users, our research team is unsure if students actually care about this convenience and

would prefer to have multiple apps instead. Also, since A PLUS is an original idea that offers many

educational features in one app, our research team would not be able to find any secondary information

about similar apps demand and interest, thus not being able to figure out if A PLUS would be popular

and interested by students. Similarly, due to the lack of information, a set price cannot be determined, and

sets problems for Triple J Success, as we do not know the perfect price to sell A PLUS for.

Information Required

The information required to solve this marketing problem is student responses and opinions

towards A PLUS. Triple J Success requires information regarding the interest, demand and popularity

students would have with A PLUS, an all in one educational productivity app. The target market would

be given a question in the survey, briefly describing our main features of A PLUS and then ask for their

interest towards it and why, thus obtaining the information. Also, after learning about these features the

target market will be given another question regarding the price they are willing to pay, which is the other

piece of information required to solve our marketing problem.


15

Review of Data Collection Methods

Types of Research

The type of research conducted was primary and consumer research. Due to the lack of data and

information archived on educational applications, we decided it would be more productive to conduct

primary research for meaningful information. A key factor as to why there is a lack of information on

educational applications is because most educational apps are made for a single purpose. Not many

applications provide as many features as A PLUS, thus not being able to find secondary information. So

our research team needed consumer research to gather information, specifically, our research team

conducted product research surveys to gather information of our target market and their opinions towards

A PLUS. The results of our survey was both qualitative and quantitative, as we gather information about

respondents thoughts and opinions toward A PLUS as well as numerical data of respondent ages, gender,

grades and technological school work usage.

Survey Description

The survey consists of twelve closed ended multiple choice and two open ended questions. The

questions focused on gathering respondent’s information as well as his/her thoughts towards the app.

This allows us to understand the needs of respondents according to his/her personality; and also paint the

picture for a broader consumer size. The closed ended questions were focused on asking the respondents

their age, gender, school status, types of technology used with school work and how often they use it.

The answer to these questions would help us understand how different students use technology with

school work, allowing A PLUS to help any student needs. Also this would also tell us how different types

of students would use and benefit from A PLUS. The open ended questions asked the respondents to tell

us their thoughts and opinions about A PLUS and what he or she would change or add. The answers to

the open ended questions would help us improve A PLUS so excess features can be omitted and desired

features can be added if they are not provided already.

Survey Distribution

The survey was distributed through Facebook on multiple high school social webpages as well as

our staff team’s personal pages. Facebook is used amongst most of our targeted consumers as it is a very

popular social networking site, and these multiple high school pages provided a great platform to conduct

our research directly to our target market. With careful attention to detail, we alerted the potential

surveyors to not do the survey if they were marketing students. By doing this, we can assure that there

will be minimal bias towards our surveys. Our research team also distributed the surveys to multiple

university students from The University of Waterloo, University of Toronto and York University. They

also made sure not to distribute the survey to students in the field of marketing as their opinions would be

biased, thus leading to inaccurate results. The survey was created using the Google Drive Form

processing software. Survey Monkey was not suitable for the amount of questions we wanted to ask,

therefore using the Google Drive Form software instead to create the survey.


16

Review of Data Collection Methods

Survey Sample


17

The link to A PLUS’s product research survey:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1hJ9y5OsJO3yRU2LTKc9lTkLzs

RBTg-gwXWi_7KflQS0/viewform

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1hJ9y5OsJO3yRU2LTKc9lTkLzsRBTg-gwXWi_7KflQS0/viewform

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1hJ9y5OsJO3yRU2LTKc9lTkLzsRBTg-gwXWi_7KflQS0/viewform


18

Analysis of Data

Summary of Results


19


20


21

Analysis of Data

Mean, Median, Mode

From a scale from 1 to 10, how often do you use technology?

Mean: 7 Median: 8 Mode: 10

What gender are you?

Mode: Female

How old are you?

Median: 15-17 Mode: 15-17

What is your current education status?

Median: High School Mode: High School

How are you currently doing in school?

Mean: 80%-89% Median: 80%-89% Mode: 80%-89%

How much time do you spend doing homework?

Mean: 1-2 hours Median: 1-2 hours Mode: More than 2 hours

What types of technology do you use for school work?

Mode: Calculator

Do you own a technological device?

Mode: YesAre you interested in an app that offers an agenda, word processor, graphing calculator, a

course-specific search engine and many more useful utilities that helps student’s educational needs?

Mode: Extremely Interested

Do you currently use any educational apps?

Mode: No

How important is convenience when choosing an educational productivity app?

Mode: Extremely Important

What would you consider to be a reasonable price for this product?

Median: Under $1.99 Mode: Under $1.99


22

Interpretation of Data

Graph 1

The graph above explains how often a student spends time doing their school work daily, with the

results presented in percentages. The legend shows the colour corresponding to the amount of time spent

on homework. Firstly, 32% of the students said that they spend 1-2 hours doing school work. Another

36% say that they spend more than 2 hours. From this, we can conclude that homework takes up a lot of

a student’s time, as more than half the respondents spend at least 1 hour of homework daily. Most likely

the students do not know how to efficiently organize their time with school work and daily activities, thus

resulting in the large amount of time doing school work. With A PLUS, we can help organize their time

effectively, allowing the students to do their homework in certain time periods so they can have

relaxation time at the end and use this extra time to do other important activities, such as extra-circulars.

Like many people say, time is money. In reality, if A PLUS can help effectively distribute the student’s

school work time wisely so they will not procrastinate or interfere with daily activities, the students can

accomplish much more because of efficiency. For those who spend less than an hour, those are people

who may have little amounts of homework, or they could be efficient at completing work. Those people

also benefit from A PLUS because we can further enhance their skills in academics and motor skills (i.e.

multitasking, note writing, planning, Etc.). With further enhances the students can improve on their work

and work even more efficiently than before.

9 %

6%

17%

32%

36 %

Time Spent Doing School Work Daily

Less than 10 minutes

10-30 minutes

30 minutes to 1 hour

1 hour to 2 hours

Over 2 hours


23


Graph 2

The following graph shows the use of technology for school work on a scale of 1 – 10 with 1 as

not very frequently and 10 as every time. The x-axis represents the scale of 1-10 and the y-axis represents

the number of respondents. The graph shows that more than 70% of our respondents use technology with

their schoolwork (voted 6 or more). This tells us that technology is an ideal asset to students when doing

school work. Not only does it benefit their schoolwork, but it also enhances their ability to use

technology in general. As we know, this is the era of technology, and with the constant growth of

technology, A PLUS is perfect for students. Due to the large portion of respondents using technology

for school work, by using A PLUS it gives the students more convenience. Students will no longer have

to switch between different pieces of technology for a different function, as A PLUS has all the features

ready to be used in a single app. Since technology is in demand by the student population, our research

team can assume that A PLUS will also be in demand by students as it is a piece of technology that can

be used daily for educational school activities.

4 2 4

12

6 2

9

18

14

28

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Use of technology from scale of 1 to 10


24


Graph 3

The graph above shows the types of technology used for school work. The x-axis represents the

percentage of respondents and the y-axis represents the different types of technology. This graph shows

how students use different types of technology for schoolwork. The most common ones amongst the

group are word processors, dictionary, agenda, search engines and calculators. These are common

because they are used in many subjects that high school students take. The agenda is used to keep

everything recorded so the student is aware of the things that are planned. Other tools like search engines

and word processors are used every day thus being a popular type of technology used. A PLUS offers

the listed features and many more in one app and since many students use these types of technology for

school work; A PLUS would be in demand by students.

12

13

14

14

8

18

5

10

2

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Agenda/Planner

Dictionary/Thesaurus

Calculator

Word Processors

Online Encyclpedias

Search Engines

Course Content Sites

Translator

Other

Types of Technology Used for School Work


25


Graph 4

In this graph, it shows the importance of convenience for an educational app for students. In

total, 93% of the students find it at least slightly important. As we all know, people tend to move around

throughout the day, so they are not always in front of a computer. With a smartphone or tablet device,

we can let the students use our product to maximize their time in doing schoolwork, as they can carry

their technological device around. Students can pull out their smartphone from anywhere and start

learning, planning, and doing homework which is the key idea behind our app. Also, without the need to

use other apps, having all the features in one single app is convenient for the student as they also do not

need to move around on their smartphone either. Knowing that students find convenience important, we

can take this in our advantage so our competitors will have a harder time competing with us.

40

33

19

1 7

Importance of Convenience

Extremely Important

Very Important

Moderately Important

Slightly Important

Not Important


26

Summary of Findings

Main Findings

The main findings from this survey are that most of the respondents are from a high school environment

of both genders between the ages of 15-17. These students generally have an average over 70% and

spend over one hour on homework daily. The students also use different types of technology on a daily

basis for school work to a high degree. Almost all these respondents have a technological device that can

run apps, however do not own or use any educational or productivity apps. Most of the respondents are at

least moderately interested in A PLUS, with an overall positive feedback about the originality and

usefulness of A PLUS. The students also want a low price (lower than $1.99) for the app and admire

convenience for educational apps. Overall, the respondents are heavy users of technology that helps them

with school and would be interested in A PLUS as it will help manage their time and work conveniently

and effectively.

Grouping Information

The information on our survey can be grouped as followed: “On a scale 1 to 10, how often do you use

technology with school work?”, “What types of technology do you use for school work?”, “Are you

interested in an app that offers an agenda, word processor, graphing calculator, a course-specific search

engine and many more useful utilities that helps students educational needs?” and “How important is

convenience when choosing an educational productivity app?” These four questions help gather the

demand and popularity technology has in school work by students. Since most students used technology

often for school work as they rated themselves as a 6 or higher and clicked on more than one type of

technology used for school work, it resulted in a high interest towards A PLUS as it offers all the features

the students currently use in one app. Also convenience is really important to students which relate to the

question, “Are you interested in an app that offers an agenda, word processor, graphing calculator, a

course-specific search engine and many more useful utilities that helps students educational needs?”, as

A PLUS is meant to be a convenient app for students to use so students do not have to open different

apps or tools for different functions.


27

Summary of Findings

Difficulties and Challenges

One of the main difficulties and challenges that occurred with the survey was the creation of the survey

questions. Our research team wanted to create the best possible survey in order to achieve the best

possible results. The survey questions couldn’t be too long as the respondents may not have time, but the

questions must have a correct amount of information for the respondents to understand. It took time to

create the survey and each question created needed to have a purpose. These questions were to be

responsible to answer the problems and concerns Triple J Success had with A PLUS. The Head of

Product Research, Ms.Michailidis suggested on how to improve and enhance the survey for better and

more accurate results from the target market, and with her advice, our research team created a final

official survey for distribution. After numerous revisions and editions the survey was completed;

however it was a very difficult and challenging task for our research team.

Analyzing and interpreting the results from the survey was the another difficult and challenging

task due to the possibility of false results. After analyzing 98 responses from our target market, our

research team concluded that about ten percent of the responses were false and inaccurate. Some of the

false responses were easier to detect as some of the respondents used inappropriate language in the open-

ended questions. Some were more challenging to detect, as the respondents answered the survey as if

they were honest respondents. However our research team discovered that the respondents gave negative

responses in the open ended questions after declaring they were extremely interested in A PLUS. After

discovering these false answers, our research team had to check over the responses one last time to make

sure the rest of the responses were honest and accurate results. It was hard to interpret and analyze the

results at first, but afterwards Triple J Success manages to gather 90 honest and accurate survey

responses.

Solving Market Problems

The results of the A PLUS survey helped solve many questions, concerns and problems Triple J Success

had regarding A PLUS. The greatest problem that this survey helped solve was the interest students had

for A PLUS. Based off the results of the survey, our research team concluded that 26% of our

respondents were moderately interested, 24% were very interested and 28% were extremely interested in

purchasing A PLUS. Knowing that over 75% were at least moderately interested in A PLUS helps solve

our problem if students would purchase our app. Also knowing that students often use multiple types of

technology to do school work, it increases the demand of A PLUS as it has all the features students need

in one app.

Another problem that the survey results helped solve was the price that students were willing to

pay for this product. At first, we decided to price our product at $6.99 as it seemed reasonable due to the

many features A PLUS has to offer. However our target market thought otherwise, with 60% of the

respondents wanting the price of A PLUS to be less than $1.99. By knowing this information, Triple J

Success can price A PLUS at a more convenient and affordable cost for students.


28

Current Market Trends

With over 1 million apps in the world and over 60,000,000 billion app downloads just by Apple’s app

store, it is safe to say that apps play a vital role in the global market.

This chart above shows the growth in the categories of apps. As you can see, there is a 66%

increase in productivity apps. Education apps fall under this category. With apps in demand, it is vital to

keep the demand of apps high in order for A PLUS to dominate its market and increase the value and its

market shares.

Farago, Peter. "Mobile App Growth Led by Video Sharing: YouTube in the

Crosshairs?" Flurry Insights. Flurry, 9 May 2012. Web. 8 Dec. 2013.

<http://www.flurry.com/bid/84831/Mobile-App-Growth-Led-by-Video-Sharing-

YouTube-in-the-Crosshairs#.U31Ny_ldXN4>.


29


This chart above indicates that the audience level for apps have grown substantially from 2012 to

2013. There is a giant spike from 6 app developer in quarter 1 of 2012 to a large audience of 32

developers a month in quarter 3 of 2013. The population of North America alone is 528.7 million.

Assuming that half of the population owns a smartphone of tablet device, this means 1 in 26 is users of

one of those apps. This shows how in demand apps are in this technological era.

The chart on the left shows even

larger increases in activity of app usage.

Apps that have over one million monthly

users increase from almost 400 apps to 870

apps. This is an increase of 108%. With

this in mind, it shows that there are over

900 million active users for the 870 apps.

We can take this trend and act accordingly,

knowing that apps are in demand.

Khalaf, Simon. "The Mobile

Content Explosion." Flurry

Insights. Flurry, 8 Nov.

2013. Web. 8 Dec. 2013.

<http://www.flurry.com/bid/

102208/The-Mobile-

Content-

Explosion#.U31JWvldXN5>

.

Khalaf, Simon. "The Mobile Content

Explosion." Flurry Insights. Flurry, 8 Nov. 2013. Web.

8 Dec. 2013. <http://www.flurry.com/bid/102208/The-

Mobile-Content-Explosion#.U31JWvldXN5>.


30


With 7.2 apps launched daily in 2010, there has been a sprout in the amount of app downloads. In

2012, the daily app launch has increased slightly to 7.9. Knowing this, it shows us that there is a larger

consumption of app users every year. We can tell because the increase from 2010 to 2011 is 0.3 apps,

while the increase from 2011 to 2012 is 0.4. From this, we can infer that there will be an increase every

year of releasing of apps for the public market.

These pieces of data show how important apps are in this technological era. Knowing that apps

are important, Triple J Success can easily market and sell A PLUS. The market of apps is a very large

one, with more and more app users each day. We can meet consumer needs and stay competitive in the

app market industry. This information is vital for our company, as it shows the potential success of A

PLUS.

Khalaf, Simon. "Flurry Five-Year Report: It's an App World. The Web Just

Lives in It." Flurry Insights. Flurry, 3 Apr. 2013. Web. 8 Dec. 2013.

<http://www.flurry.com/bid/95723/Flurry-Five-Year-Report-It-s-an-App-World-

The-Web-Just-Lives-in-It#.U31J-vldXN5>.


31

Market Trends: Product Success Explanation

A PLUS will be a successful product when it is released for many reasons. First of all, A PLUS itself is

an all in one application. It has dozens of different, unique and useful features and utilities to choose

from. Also, our society is very technological and A PLUS is an app and apps are part of our technological

society. This makes A PLUS a convenient product to have. Lastly, our product is an educational school

based product. Education will stay in our society for a long time, meaning this product will also last for a

long time.

As stated, A PLUS is an all in one application with a wide variety of different and useful features

and utilities to use. This means that consumers will no longer needs dozens of different apps to do

different tasks. Students find it frustrating to go back and forth between apps in order to do a different

task since the app they were using cannot perform that task. However, A PLUS will have all the features

that current educational school based apps have and many more of its own features. As well, it is well

categorized and easy to use, so students can use a single app to perform dozens of different tasks with

ease. Because of this convenience, consumers will love to purchase A PLUS, making it very successful.

Living in a technological society allows A PLUS to be a wonderful product. A PLUS is an

application that can be used on mobile devices, tablets and other portable electronic devices, making this

app easily usable. In the Market Trends section, it shows the popularity of apps in the past few years.

These pieces of data prove that our society is very technological and that millions of people worldwide

use apps. Because of the high app usage, it makes A PLUS a successful product.

Education is a very big part in an individual’s life. A PLUS is an educational school based app

that can improve and ease a student’s academic life. The student population is a large target market, and

knowing that A PLUS has amazing school and educational based features and utilities that can help them

with their daily school lives it will cause A PLUS to be in demand for a long time. There will be

generations and generations of new students every year, allowing for a bigger and bigger target market

each year. These factors influence the success of A PLUS, as these factors grow, so does the success of

this app.


32

Marketing Strategy: Product

Objective

Triple J Success strives to be the best technological educational helper in Canada. Thousands of

students struggle with school work when they are without teacher assistance, and A PLUS’s goal and

objective is to help these students overcome these obstacles in order to reach their maximum potential at

academic success. Triple J Success understood the frustration of needing dozens of different apps to do

different tasks, and our goal was to create an application that could meet all those needs. A PLUS

provides all the features students already use and many more in an all in one app.

We want to build top-of-the-mind awareness to our target market. When students think about an

educational productivity app, we want them to think A PLUS. The features A PLUS provides will help

enable this goal and will create a successful environment for A PLUS. The goal of A PLUS is to be a

convenient and time-efficient way to help and enhance a student’s educational life with loads of

information and materials at an affordable cost. Our company wants to prove to other businesses that

helping students is the main goal and at the same time our company can gain a wealthy profit. Triple J

Success strives to complete and maintain these goals, as they are fundamentally what created Triple J

Success.

Strategy

Triple J Success will position A PLUS as benefit positioning. A PLUS is an all in one educational

productivity application that helps students conveniently access various features and tasks in one single

app. This is what makes A PLUS unique, as the main benefit of the app is to save time and reduce the

frustration of students. Students no longer need multiple apps doing different tasks, and Triple J Success

will expand on this idea through advertisements attracting consumers about how A PLUS benefits

student’s time and educational success. Also, A PLUS has an unique selling proposition: a patented

course-base search engine. This search engine benefits students as the search engine will display links

and sites of lessons, problems, notes, tutorials, videos, quizzes and much more in an easy to read

categorized format related to the course that is searched. These benefits are what make A PLUS a truly

unique educational productivity app and will be strategically incorporated in advertisements to the target

market. These benefits are the objective of A PLUS.


33

Feature-Benefit Analysis

Utility (Features) Benefit Form Utility

Colour Our app consists of user defined preferences which

allows the user to change the background and text

colours to their liking. This benefits the user as

they can have their personal taste of colour on the

app. With their desired preference of colour

chosen, they will enjoy using the app more.

Design A PLUS is designed perfectly so that any user can

operate the app with ease. On the home menu, the

user is able to select the task they want to do from a

list of tasks. The user can leave the task whenever

they wish with the information they inputted saved,

and go onto another task. This design benefits the

user’s time as it reduces frustration of opening

other apps to operate different tasks.

Place Utility A PLUS is available for download in various app

stores and online through Triple J Success’

website. A PLUS will be available to download

and purchase in the ios app store, google play store,

and blackberry app market for instance. It is

convenient for the user with this easy access.

Time Utility Since the internet is available 24/7, access to the

app is easy. Consumers can buy A PLUS day or

night. Once purchased, the user can use the app

whenever they want while they are on their

smartphone/tablet device or computer.

Possession Utility A PLUS is easy to purchase. This is because it is

relatively cheap, so most levels of disposable

income will be able to purchase it. People can use

credit cards attached to the various app stores to

purchase products.

Information Utility In the app store, the product description is enlisted.

Not only that, but the information is unloaded

throughout the app, guiding the user on how to

properly use the app. There is also information

provided on the website such as the question and

answer section that is updated regularly.


34

Feature-Benefit Analysis

A PLUS has many different features, including a agenda and checklist with alerts and reminders,

a scientific graphing calculator, word processor, and much more smaller useful utilities. All these

amazing features benefit the user greatly. The agenda helps organize priorities and tasks so the user can

be time-efficient, the scientific graphing calculator helps the user with mathematical problems, and the

word processor helps students’ complete typed-assignments on the go. Also, A PLUS offers a course-

specific search engine. This benefits the user as they can obtain valuable information regarding the course

they want. The user will no longer have to carefully look for tutorials, problems and solutions and generic

info with a regular search engine, as our search engine provides the user of materials, lessons, problems,

notes, videos, links and much more in a categorized format. This benefits the user with knowledge and

time-efficiency. All these features are found in A PLUS, causing A PLUS to be an absolute benefit for

any user.

Positioning Map (Benefit and Price) High Quality (Benefit)

OpenStudy BenchPrep inClass

Quizlet

A PLUS iStudiezPro

Low Price

Babylon

High Price Margins

Low Quality (Benefit)


35

Positioning Map (Benefit and Price)

A PLUS: A PLUS is the first all in one educational productivity app. Due to its vast variety of features,

easy to use interface and time-efficient structure it has a high benefit rating on the positioning map. Also,

A PLUS will be priced at about $0.99 to $1.99. Though it is not free it is at a very cheap and affordable

cost and cheaper than Margins and iStudiezPro, thus being placed at its position.

iStudiezPro: This is a powerful scheduling app that will help you ace time management. iStudiezPro

allows you to input your class schedule and homework into a built-in planner, then alerts you of

approaching deadlines, keeps track of your grades, and organizes your extracurricular schedule. This

useful app is a big contender since the interface of this app is unique, yet friendly at the same time. You

can tell that the quality is superb.

Quizlet: This app is fairly simple in the way it works. Quizlet offers students a variety of ways to study

course materials. After choosing a flashcard set or creating a new set, students have the option of four

study styles, along with two varieties of flashcard games that strive to bring an entertainment factor to

studying, which is why the quality for this app is average.

inClass: This app helps students with the tools to keep up with material in the classroom without missing

out on their professors' lectures. Using inClass, students can record audio, take text or video notes, and

create images of slides or handouts. This app is also a big contender since the quality put behind this app

is superb.

OpenStudy: Open Study launched a mobile app that gives students access to study assistance, 24 hours a

day, seven days a week. Volunteers help answer tough questions that are sent by the users. This app is

basically a free tutor and the works behind the app is very user friendly. The quality is no doubt higher

than average.

BenchPrep: BenchPrep is the world’s only interactive course library for all devices. It contains a lot

school material and the quality behind the app is fairly great. This is because they have friendly user

interface.

Babylon: This free translation app is fairly easy to use. This translates from thousands of languages at

the palm of your hands. Because it is free, quality is not the greatest. It is too simple. There is nothing

that stands out from this app from other translation apps.

Margins: This $3.99 app is fairly simple. You are able to write notes on the side of texts from books,

textbooks, and other materials. This allows you study important lines and memorize the most important

notes. Although this app is very to comprehend by itself, there really isn’t much to this. The creator did

not enhance the app to become even greater. The quality is a little bit under average since it is not as user

friendly as other study apps and is fairly simple.


36

Brand Name

The name of the product is called A PLUS. This is a product-dominant name which influence and

show our target market that with A PLUS they will be able to achieve academic success. When students

here about an app called A PLUS, the first thing to come to mind would be that it is an educational app,

which is exactly what it is. This creates the top-of-the-mind awareness Triple J Success sets t achieve. A+

is the best possible grade to get, but students know they need to be knowledgeable about the subject, be

able to do and understand the work and to manage their time effectively and efficiently in order to

achieve this grade. So students would assume that A PLUS would benefit their grades and these skills,

which is exactly what it does. The brand name A PLUS matches perfectly with our benefit positioning

and our top-of-the-mind awareness goal.

Logo and Slogan

Slogan: Success is one tap away

This is a monogrammatic logo of the application’s name, A PLUS. The way the logo is formed

and shaped seems like it wants to be tapped, and that was the intention. The logo corresponds to the

slogan, creating an effective message. The slogan “Success is one tap away” explains to consumers that

this app is an educational app that helps and improves students educational success. With this slogan,

students will already know that this app will benefit their educational needs, which is perfect to the

benefit positioning strategy. This slogan relates to the logo as students are to tap the logo (A PLUS) to

their gateway to success. To tap the logo, you would need to purchase the app, and with that, the logo

will be displayed on the screen and once tapped, the students begin their educational successful journey,

thus creating an effective combination.


37

Marketing Strategy: Place

Objective

Our objective in terms of place is to reach as many students (our target market) as possible. A

PLUS is an app. This means that anyone who owns a smartphone or computer will be able to use A

PLUS. It helps students succeed, and we want all students to succeed. Apps are a revolution in the digital

age. It is very difficult to control where A PLUS goes, as it can be purchase on the Apple App Store or

Google Play Store in which everyone has access to worldwide.

A PLUS offers convenience, as well as productivity. By making a positive image for our app, we

can dominate the market and become more successful. We want to let the world know that there is an app

for students that will help them become successful at school. Through online distribution it may be hard

to promote a positive image at an early start. To overcome this, we will advertise mainly in Toronto to

promote a positive image, and as we gain popularity it will lead to popularity in Canada and eventually

worldwide.

Strategy

For channels of distribution, we selected intensive. This is because A PLUS is found online, through the

app stores on various platforms. Because of this, anyone can download A PLUS, anywhere and anytime,

if internet connection is available. This channel of distribution is perfect for our goal of reaching as many

students as possible. The type of channel we intend to use is specialty channel, specifically the internet

(e-commerce). This is because A PLUS is an app, so it can only be found online. Unlike traditional

products found online, ours is not tangible. Therefore, there is no shipping required. A PLUS starts off at

Triple J Success, the producer then to specialty channels such as Apple App Store and Google Play Store,

then to the consumer. Specialty channels using the internet are necessary, as the internet can be accessed

worldwide, and we want A PLUS to be available worldwide.

Location

A PLUS will be sold online in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store and through the Triple J

Success website. By selling A PLUS through these specialty channels, A PLUS can be purchased and

downloaded worldwide. Meaning anyone with internet connection at any time, and any place can access

A PLUS. The app will be found under the educational/productivity section in the app stores. There is no

specific location that we are targeting. However, for advertising, we are specifically targeting the urban

areas of Toronto as a way to gain publicity. Urban areas like Downtown Toronto are well-populated by

students and surrounded by technology, thus being easy to market A PLUS. After students of Toronto

know and use A PLUS, a flow of positive reviews will show and result in publicity throughout Canada

and eventually worldwide. Being able to sell through the app stores, it allows for Triple J Success to

accomplish our goal of selling A PLUS worldwide.


38

Rationale

A PLUS is only found online, since it is an app. This means anyone can access it as long as they

have internet connection Also, by selling A PLUS through this specialty channel it offers Triple J

Success a chance to sell A PLUS worldwide which is our desired goal. However, we are specifically

targeting Toronto for advertisement as it is a student dominant location as well as a popular city to

promote new products. Our target market lives in all geographical areas: both urban and suburban areas,

as they are students and can be found all around Toronto. The chart below from Statistics Canada

indicates the population of students, aged 15-19 and aged 20-24 in Toronto and Ontario. The student

population in Toronto and Ontario is about 12-15% of the entire population which is a huge percentage

and is a perfect place to attract students to A PLUS.

As well the psychographics of students vary. All students have different personalities and they

shop online as well as physically shopping for products. In the lives of students, they want to spend time

with friends and family, do well in school, and find time for other activities, such as sports and other

extracurricular. Also, students all have different ethnicities and are generally in between the ages of 15-

24. They have individualized personalities and attitudes towards health.

Statistics Canada. 2012. Toronto, Ontario (Code 0944) and Ontario (Code 35) (table). Census

Profile. 2011 Census. Statistics Canada Catalogue no. 98-316-XWE. Ottawa. Released

October 24, 2012. http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2011/dp-pd/prof/index.cfm?Lang=E (accessed May 1, 2014).




39

Customer Service

Our product is very easy to acquire since it uses self-service. All the user has to do is log into their

account from the online stores where A PLUS is found and press download. It is very simple, with

minimal steps, so there is very little confusion. If there is any confusion, a support line can be found in

the description, where customer support will help amend any problems that people encounter.

Customer support can be reached through email, phone, and online chat messages. Because there will be

many new users that have not tried educational apps, we offer a 24/7 online customer service on the

Triple J Success website. We want to help our consumers and aid them in anyway. Our support team will

make sure that our customers will leave without any questions or confusions, we want to keep our

customers and with that we will provide an excellent customer service Our toll free number and 24 hour

concierge will be able to do so. Customer service is highly important to us and for our users because we

don’t want users to use the app without properly using it to its full potential.

Since today’s society is so technologically driven and students spend a majority of their time on the

internet, we want to incorporate a new form of customer service. Triple J Success will also create videos

regarding all the features of A PLUS, and how to properly access and use them. We will upload these

videos through social media and on the Triple J Success website. These videos will help guide and aid

users who do not know how to properly use that app and will most likely answer the questions that are

going through their head.


40

Marketing Strategy: Promotion

Objective

Triple J Success wants to create the best app available for students so they can have superior

guidance for learning in the world of technology. We want to strive and advertise at a global scale. We

want to get the message out to the world that there is an all in one app that stops the frustration of having

different educational apps to operate different tasks. However, to accomplish that, we must first start off

small in Toronto, then Canada, then worldwide. The goal of our promotions is that we want our target

market, post-middle school students to be aware of our products existence. To do this, our goal of

advertising will be brand awareness and positioning. With this goal in mind, we can inform students of A

PLUS’ features and benefits with our benefit positioning ideas, availability and general details in our

advertisements. Our positioning message in the advertisements will be is that it is the only all in one

educational productivity app out there. All the other apps have only one or two specific feature, while A

PLUS has dozens. This will attract students to not only be aware of the product, but to buy it as well.

Strategy

Triple J Success will position A PLUS as a rational appeal. This is because students want to

succeed in life. For many, school is difficult and hard to excel in all of their classes. A PLUS is an all in

one educational productivity app that helps students manage their educational needs effectively and in

our advertisements we will display that as the main idea. The advertisements will show all the features it

provides and the benefits behind them. The advertisements will not only show how convenient our app is,

but the savings students will get by only having one app. It shows the value worth of A PLUS and with

that, the consumers will be able to rationalize and realize that A PLUS benefits them greatly and is worth

its price. The advertisements will also display not only the competitive advantages, but our USP, the

course-specific search engine. Many students have trouble understanding certain courses and this search

engine will help provide notes and material related to this course. By displaying all these features and

outlining that it is the only all in one educational productivity app, customers will be aware of this app’s

existence and spread the news to their friends. This is exactly what we want as stated by our brand

awareness goal. Rational advertising will not only cause consumers to understand how great A PLUS is

and that it is worth its money, they will also be aware that such an app exists.


41

Media

The media that will be used for the A PLUS advertising campaign includes TTC Transit Shelters, internet

advertisements through social media such as Facebook and newspaper publications such as the Metro.

TTC Transit Shelters that are within a 600m radius from High schools and Universities will be

selected for advertising. High amounts of students in high schools and especially university travels to and

from school using the city’s transit system. The 600m radius captures the main transit shelters that are

around the school, reaching not only the students that use the shelter but also those who pass by.

The TTC has approximately 1,582,000 daily passengers. These figures are a broad interpretation

of reach, but do not provide specific values for our desired target market. Though A PLUS is designed

for educational purposes, informing people outside our target market is a benefit as these individuals can

benefit with some of the features A PLUS provides. They can also inform friends who do go to school

about A PLUS, and if these TTC passengers are parents of current teenagers, they can inform their child

about this wonderful app.

There are approximately of 333,515 people between ages 15-24 in Toronto according to Statistics

Canada; and also 105 high schools and roughly 8 universities and colleges in Toronto covered by the

TTC. Assuming that all of the population attends school, even without taking the TTC, they will be able

to view the A PLUS ads displayed on the bus shelters near their school. The cost of advertising per panel

on a Transit Shelter when the quantity is over 20 is $650 (4 weeks) and the production of the

advertisement is $75 each. 1

Estimated CPM for TTC Shelters (supposing there is one for each school):

CPM = Costs / Reach x 1000

CPM = (113 Shelters x (Advertising fees)) / (Toronto population of ages 15 – 24) x 1000

CPM = (113 x ($650 + $75) / 333515) x 1000

CPM = $245.64

The estimated CPM for students to view TTC shelters is about $245.64

Facebook is a popular social media website used by our target market on a daily basis. With that

said, it would be an effective way to advertise to students. Triple J Success can create a company

Facebook page as well as A PLUS’ very own Facebook page to advertise to students. Those who “like”

the page can be informed about all the promotions, events, and features of A PLUS. This is a cheap and

effective way to advertise. Also, Triple J Success will post ads on Facebook. The CPM of Facebook in

Canada is $0.16, as stated in the chart on the next page. Though this CPM is a general overview of all age

groups, a majority of Facebook users are students. In fact, according to Business Insider, as of 2013, 83%

of all 18 to 29 year olds who use the internet are also on Facebook and they contribute to about 67% of

all the users. Thus by advertising through Facebook, Triple J Success will be getting its money worth as

Facebook is a popular database for our target market as well as having cheap CPM rate.

1 Flack, Derek. "Ever Wondered What It Costs to Advertise on the TTC?" BlogTO RSS. BlogTO, 25 Oct.

2010. Web. 21 May 2014. <http://www.blogto.com/city/2010/10/ever_wondered_what_it_costs_to_advertise_on_the_ttc/>.


42

Media

Newspaper publications that are subscribed by high schools and universities will be selected as

advertising medium. Newspaper publications such as the Metro reach the students on a daily basis,

especially in schools running the DEAR (Drop Everything and Read) program. The Metro Toronto has

approximately 622,000 daily print readers and 46,000 daily digital readers, summing up to 653,000 daily

readers. As mentioned earlier, this does not provide exact figures for our target market, but the more

individuals who know about our product, the better. This causes the brand awareness that we want to

achieve. Since we do not know the exact number of students that are exposed to Metro newspaper, CPM

cannot be estimated or calculated. However, Triple J Success discovered the cost to place an

advertisement at Metro newspaper. For a one third page full colour ad that runs five times would cost

$1,399 per ad, while a quarter page ad would cost $1,082. Newspaper publications are to be used as an

alternative source of advertising, if the other two forms of media are unsuccessful.

Ads, Free Classified. "SiteAdWiki." 2014 Survey Global CPM Rate ~. SiteAdWiki.

Web. < http://www.siteadwiki.com/2014/02/2014-survey-global-cpm

rate.html#sthash.vxarZ3be.7Yx7eZJi.dpbs> (accessed May 1, 2014).

http://www.siteadwiki.com/2014/02/2014-survey-global-cpm%20rate.html#sthash.vxarZ3be.7Yx7eZJi.dpbs

http://www.siteadwiki.com/2014/02/2014-survey-global-cpm%20rate.html#sthash.vxarZ3be.7Yx7eZJi.dpbs


43

Advertisement

This advertisement will be displayed in the three forms of media. It will be displayed in the TTC shelters,

Facebook and Metro newspaper.


44

Advertisement Effectiveness

This advertisement is effective as it displays all the goals that Triple J Success wants to achieve.

The advertisement projects a high level of benefit positioning as it displays the main and most important

features of the A PLUS application. The picture displays three main features, an agenda/checklist,

scientific graphing calculator, and A PLUS’ original USP: a course specific search engine. The heading,

“A PLUS Revolutionizes the Way You Succeed” helps emphasizes that A PLUS is supposed to benefit

the user. Since the application’s function is to aid students with their school life, it offers a rational appeal

to its audiences. Students want to succeed in life, and with our heading it gives out a rational appeal to

students. As this is also the first product of Triple J Success, this advertisement brings brand awareness

about A PLUS. It also brings awareness by stating, “The First Ever Course-Specific Search Engine”,

indicating that our USP has never been invented before and we are trying to promote it to students.

Overall, the ad is highly effective as it successfully fulfills all the advertising objectives we want to

achieve and will be a great way to promote A PLUS.


45

Public Relations

The Public Relations plan for A PLUS is to prepare a press release. This will include news articles,

pictures, biographies, television commercial clips, and other interesting information. The news articles

will be published online to websites such as Wall Street Journal, The Star, and other news websites. On

the next page is an example of a news article written that can be found on the Star.

Annual Reports Triple J Success will be issuing annual reports

to corporate investors that find our product to

their liking. This will implement key ideas of

generating profitable margins from the help of

investors that will continue to make A Plus

grow

Crisis Management Triple J Success will hire public relation firms

to control fault and minimize damage. If any

problems will occur, the firm will hold for

accountability and persuade consumers of only

beneficiary of high quality apps from our

company

Media Release Triple J Success will have a press kit on hand to

ensure that they are ready for all situations her

to come. This will consist of pictures, online

video clips, biographies, and other interesting

facts.


46


47

Sales Promotion

Samples

Samples will be a great sales promotion for A PLUS. In our scenario, our app will have a free

version and an upgradable version. We have a sample form that will be distributed to high schools and

universities across Toronto, where students can fill out and send to our company. The students will give

us their email address connected to the free version of the app and with that we will give them a code to

enter to receive and use a 7 day trial of A PLUS Pro (upgradable version). By doing this, we will be able

to attract more users to the upgradable version and if they enjoy using the upgradable version of the app,

they will most likely upgrade to the pro version, after completing the sample.

Although samples for tangible items are expensive for companies, an app sample is less costly; all

the consumer has to do is download the app. We do not have to manufacture samples for consumer and

this saves us money. Also, we do not need sales promoters, because all facts, answers and questions can

be found on the app download store or on our company’s website. Nonetheless, the reviews can influent

the consumer’s choice in buying the app. If we give them a sample of the pro version, they will leave

comments and rate the app for others to see, and in the end, promote our product. Also, we can give the

app to well-known people through social media, such as famous youtubers who has the same target

audience as us. They can also help influence students to buy our product. They can give reviews of the

app that will allow for more consumption. This is not celebrity endorsement because we are not getting a

celebrity to promote our product, but rather get a positive review in order to influence consumers.


48

A PLUS Trial Form

Name: Age:

Email: School:

How did you hear about A PLUS?

Would you like to see additional features? (List them if you do)

Do you currently enjoy using the free version of A PLUS?

Would you recommend A PLUS to a friend? Yes No

Would you like to sign up for our weekly newsletters? Yes No


49

Contests and sweepstakes is another great sales promotion for A PLUS. Through the use of social

media such as Facebook, we can achieve an online sweepstakes. For example, in order to get one entry

for the contest, they would have to like our Facebook page. For more entries, the contestants can share

the sweepstake photo on their Facebook wall, make tweets on Twitter, and send pictures of the

sweepstake via Instagram. This is an easy way to spark interest in A PLUS and get information about

who enters the contest.

Most of the entrants will be part of our selected target market: post-middle school students and by

doing this, we can find out the demographics about the consumer. By knowing this information it also

helps build up a customer database for future promotions. Also, contests help boost sales even though

there is “no purchase necessary”; the consumers will still buy our product to try out before the contest

ends. In our case, the prize for the contest is the pro version of A PLUS for the winner and 3 other

friends. Through the use of social media, we can boost the amount of sales and promote our product for

free. The sweepstake itself does not cost money, as it is done freely through social media websites and A

PLUS Pro only has to be manufactured once, and afterwards can be downloaded. Triple J Success does

not need to manufacture more apps for the winners, as they are getting the same one that can be

purchased on the app store.


50


51

Marketing Strategy: Price

Objective

Triple J Success wants to price A PLUS at an affordable and purchase-worthy cost to students.

Not only that, but at the same time we want to generate the largest amount of money at a quick amount of

time to break-even and gain large amounts of profit. To achieve these goals, Triple J Success decided to

sell the A PLUS application for $1.99 on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. This price is a

low, affordable and attractive price to students. The results of our survey determined that about 60% of

respondents wanted the A PLUS app to be priced under $1.99, and that about 20% of respondents wanted

the app to be free. To accommodate these demands by our target market, we made a free version of A

PLUS, however with limited features, and an upgradable version that is a consumer friendly price of

$1.99. Due to this attractive price, our second goal can be achieved, as 60% of respondents would

purchase the app at this price, and over 75% were at least moderately interested in A PLUS. This

attraction will cause a fast break-even point and generate a large amount of profit as well.

Strategy

Triple J Success will use penetration pricing as the pricing strategy for A PLUS. This strategy is perfect

as we are the only all in one educational productivity app. Not only that, we want to attract students will

our affordable and low cost of $1.99. Since this price is attractive, as described above in the objective

section, it will result in a large amount of sales, and A PLUS will dominant the market. Also, this will

result in a low competition, as competitors will have to match our already low price of $1.99. This

strategy will not only delay the entry of competitors, if they are any, but also encourage students to

purchase this already low costing app instead of waiting for another. This results in a large amount of

sales in a small period of time, and we will receive a quick break-even point and large amount of profits,

which are our desired goals.

A PLUS will be positioned as a cheap and value-worth application. Students will not purchase

something that won’t benefit them in return no matter how cheap it is, and A PLUS will prove to be not

only amazing to use, but also a cheap app any student can purchase.


52

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Pricing penetration offers an easy way to attract students to a new product at a low price. Students

would not want to wait for another all in one educational productivity app, and will purchase A PLUS

when it is released. The students will already be attracted to A PLUS due to its mass amount of benefits,

and the price of $1.99 will secure their purchase. It greatly helps Triple J Success to achieve the quick

break-even point that we want to achieve and will also reduce the number of competitors of entering the

market due to the low selling price of $1.99.

Weakness

Triple J Success is a recently started company, thus we lack the market experience. We are new to

the market with little to none public exposure. Competing brands that have both the knowledge and

experience in the making of an app as well as the market is a difficult task. Also, this strategy is risky as

it is dependent on accurate information and a mistake or inaccurate information can result in a loss.

Opportunities

So far, there has not been an application on the market where it offers as many features as A

PLUS does. And as we enter a new age of multi-tasking, the A PLUS app is likely to see a favorable

future for students. Also we do not need to manufacture the app, once the coding is complete; the app

will be available for download. With this said, Triple J Success can use economies of scale to develop

new brands. Since we already have the code for a word processor, agenda, scientific graphing calculator

and many more, we can use the code and make more apps that have individual features instead. This will

result in a large amount of revenue to be received for the same cost to develop. Also, A PLUS is price

sensitive as it will be a popular and inexpensive app. To increase demand and sales, we can continually

add upgrades or special features that enhance A PLUS for a minimum cost.

Threats

As A PLUS will be the only all in one educational productivity app, competitors may develop a similar

app for a lower cost. Because A PLUS is price sensitive, a lower cost app with similar features will be in

demand more than A PLUS. However this is highly unlikely, as A PLUS already has an initial low price

of $1.99 entering the market. Competitors that have only single features may try to price their app at a

lower cost to steal customers. These factors may result in a lower price of A PLUS during the maturity

stage as well as an expensive introduction stage to secure A PLUS’ sales.


53

Selling Price

The A PLUS application will be sold on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store for $1.99. This price

is set to make it affordable for all types of students. This price is also made to persuade students to try

using an educational productivity app in their educational lives. Most students usually don’t own

educational apps as it seems expensive and unnecessary to them. However, due to the mass amount of

features it has, students will believe they are getting their money’s worth, as A PLUS’ value is greater

than all the other educational apps, and is cheaper at the same time. Compared to other educational apps

that only aims for a specific function, such as iStudiez Pro which sells for $2.99 and Graphing Calculator

which sells for $1.99, we provide a wide range of features that is summarized in one app that only costs

$1.99, making it a very cost worthy app.

Students usually hesitate in buying apps and will usually want a free version; in this case we do

offer a free version to lure students into buying the upgradable version that costs $1.99. From our market

research it was discovered that 60% of respondents would purchase the app at this price, and over 75%

were at least moderately interested in A PLUS. These results will result in a fast break-even point and

generate a large amount of profit, making this the perfect price to set. Also, a low price is needed to

accompany the pricing penetration strategy that we want to incorporate. Low prices attract consumers,

and will secure our place in the market and remove any potential competitors.


54

Costs

Based off the survey conducted to our target market, 75% of the respondents voted that they were at least

moderately interested in A PLUS and that they would purchase this app. Thus, Triple J Success will use

this percentage to help calculate an approximation of the amount of people in our target market that

would purchase the app in Toronto and in Ontario. Our target market consists of students between ages

15-24.

Toronto population between ages 15-19: 150,045

Toronto population between ages 20-24: 183,470

Fixed costs

Development of app: $25,000

(Apple App Store) Apple’s share per sale: 30%/sale plus $99/year fee

(Google Play Store) Google’s share per sale: 30%/sale plus $25/ year fee

Variable Costs

Advertising and computer maintenance

Approximately $0.30 per app

YEAR 1 (Toronto):

Estimated number of customers:

= (Target market population in Toronto) x 75%

= (150,045+183,470) x 0.75= 250136.25

Gross Profit:

= (Selling Price – Variable Costs)

= ($1.99 – 0.30)

= ($1.69)

Total Gross Profit

= (Gross profit) x (Estimated number of customers)

= ($1.69) x 250136.25 = $422730.26

Total profit:

(Total Gross Profit – Development costs - Apple’s fees – Google fees) – (Projected Revenue x

Apple/Google share per sale)

($422730.26 - $25000 - $99 - $25) - ($422730.26 x 0.30)

= $397606.26 - $126819.08

Total profit = $270787.18


55

Pricing Policies

Leader Pricing

By pricing A PLUS at a low price, it not only attracts consumers to purchase it, but also makes them

believe that Triple J Success’ other products will be equally good. As mentioned in the Opportunities

section of the SWOT analysis, and in more detail, in the Future Goals section, Triple J Success will also

produce single feature educational apps. When these apps are released, students will be informed about it

and through this leader pricing policy, it causes the students to remember how cheap and amazing A

PLUS was and results in them believing that these new apps will be just as good and cheap. Students

enjoy cheap products, and will most likely purchase our new apps after enjoying A PLUS. This shall

generic traffic in Triple J Success and result in more customers to purchase our cheap line of apps. By

attracting more customers with our low priced apps, it helps us stay dominant and lower competition

from entering the market which is exactly what we want to achieve with our pricing penetration strategy.

If competition does enter, it will be difficult to compete with an already popular and low-priced app.

Leader pricing is also related to the positioning of a cheap and value-worth product, as A PLUS has an

excellent price while providing such amazing benefits.

Psychological Pricing

By pricing A PLUS at $1.99 instead of $2.00, it indicates a less expensive press. By pricing it at $2.00,

students will hesitate to pay for the app, but at a price of $1.99, perception takes place and dictates that it

is under $2.00. As a result, students will not hesitate to purchase A PLUS. Also, by pricing it at $1.99 it

indicates what type of company Triple J Success is. Relating to our position it will indicate that our

company sells cheap products which is what we want consumers to know. This will promote our

company’s reputation of pricing cheap value-worth products, and most consumers if not all like cheap

and value-worth products. This helps set up our pricing penetration strategy as we want to enter the

market with A PLUS set at a cheap price. This shall attract customers, and as a result generate a large

amount of sales and reduce incoming competitors that cannot compete with our psychological low

pricing of $1.99.


56

FUTURE PLANS

Future Goals

Market Share

After about two years A PLUS has been introduced in the market, Triple J Success hopes to obtain 40%

of the market share. As we heavily advertised in Toronto, students of Toronto will be the first to know

and use A PLUS. As popularity increases here, positive reviews and popularity of A PLUS can flow

throughout Canada and the world. As A PLUS will be the first all in one educational productivity app, it

will generate a lot of popularity among the student population and be on news headlines and popular

social media sites. Current competitors will have a hard time competing as they only offer one feature,

with this said, we want to dominate the educational app market and hold about 40% of the market share.

6000000

$100000

$4000000

$4500000

Market Share of Educational Apps

A PLUS

Graphing Calculator

Other Educational Apps

iStudiez Pro


57

New Products

As Triple J Success already has the code for all the features in A PLUS, we are able to make more apps

that provide only one feature. We will take the code regarding the specific feature from A PLUS and put

it into a new app. Since we already have the code for a word processor, agenda, scientific graphing

calculator and many more, we can use the same code and make more apps that have individual features

instead. As A PLUS will already have been a successful and popular product, the new apps that the same

company (Triple J Success) releases will already have demand by its customers. This will result in a large

amount of revenue to be received for the same cost to develop.

Co-Branding

As stated earlier, Triple J Success already has the code to all the features of A PLUS. If we were to work

with other brands to make these apps with individual features better, we not only don’t have to compete

with as many competitors, but we can make the app better and more attractive to our target market. The

cost to develop has already been done, so the only costs would be improving the new app, which will be

done by the other brand as Triple J Success provided the code for the feature already.

Advertising

After advertising throughout Toronto, publicity about A PLUS will develop among the students and

cause A PLUS to appear on news headlines and of the sort. At first we will be advertising about brand

awareness about the new app, A PLUS, however once lots of students purchase the app, Triple J Success

shall use another strategy to advertise. We shall position our advertisements as brand preference. We

shall indicate that are a dominating educational app, and show the positive reviews and stories from our

customers. With this advertising, those who did not purchase A PLUS will do so, resulting in more

customers.


58

Product Life Cycle

Introduction

Product: Research is conducted on the individuals who purchase A PLUS and we will ask for their

reviews of A PLUS. This information will help us understand why we are getting our current sales.

Place: A PLUS will be found on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. These app stores can be

accessed anywhere with internet connection. Also, A PLUS can be found on the Triple J Success website.

No storage or inventory management is necessary, as the app is a code that needs to be manufactured

once.

Promotion: Triple J Success will advertise and promote the new all in one educational productivity app

with rational appeal and brand awareness. Ads will be found online through social media, as well as in

the busy city of Toronto. TTC shelters and newspaper ads will contain the A PLUS advertisement.

Price: Pricing A PLUS at two prices: free and at a low price of $1.99 will attract students to purchase the

app. No other app offers as many features, so students would not wait, and will purchase A PLUS due to

our penetration pricing strategy.

Growth

Product: Triple J Success will ask for customer reviews and rates, and use this information to change

advertising strategies or the app itself.

Place: A PLUS will still be found on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, as well as the Triple J

Success website.

Promotion: Triple J Success will continue to use brand awareness for A PLUS to help maintain its

growth and popularity. We will have social media pages and accounts, which allows for students to

follow and be updated about ongoing information about A PLUS. Advertisements will still be found in

Toronto, and due to our growing popularity we will ask popular universities, such as Waterloo University

and University of Toronto to positively rate A PLUS. This will cause us to make news headlines that can

help advertise A PLUS in the country and worldwide.

Price: The price of A PLUS will remain the same, as it is already a low price, and competitors most

likely did not enter the market yet with a lower costing and similar app.


59

Product Life Cycle

Maturity

Product: Triple J Success will continue to gain credible reviews from students to strive for new

innovative options and features.


Success website.

Promotion: Triple J Success will continue advertisements to promote the use of A PLUS. However these

advertisements will be different as it will be displaying brand preference. We will show the target market

why A PLUS is the best. We will display the satisfaction and amazing stories A PLUS gave to the

student population. Our company will create videos and posts on social media sites to show the media

and public all the positive reviews and satisfaction of A PLUS, thus creating popularity and good rating

among A PLUS.

Price: The price of A PLUS will remain the same, as it is already a low price, and competitors most

likely did not enter the market as our low priced product is too popular to be replaced.

Decline

Product: Triple J Success will get research department to figure out why A PLUS is declining in sales

and find a way achieve more downloads. Also, we will get customer responses on how to improve A

PLUS, so we can get back old and new consumers,


Success website.

Promotion: Triple J Success will increase in advertisements online as popularity has caused A PLUS to

be known worldwide. Since we live in a technological society and this application is technology based,

continuing to advertise through these methods may increase sales.

Price: The price of A PLUS may decrease to $0.99 to attract new customers. The most logical reason for

the decline stage is that competitors had entered the market and we will need to competitively price to

compete with these competitors. These small improvements may allow an increase in sales, thus escaping

the decline.


60

Product Life Cycle

Decision Point

Product: Triple J Success will reformulate, redevelop and reintroduce a better version of A PLUS. Triple

J Success will do continuous research about student life and what they would want as new features on A

PLUS. Our research and development team will generate surveys to ask students what features they

would want to see on the newly designed A PLUS. Our company will then use this research and feedback

to create and design a new and improved A PLUS that meets consumer’s needs and wants. Some new

features that may be included are educational-based games so students can understand the work while

having fun. Once these needs and wants are met, the popularity of A PLUS will rise. Also, we can use the

existing code of the features of A PLUS to make new apps that perform only one feature. Since A PLUS

was already popular, our new apps will gain popularity easily.


Success website.

Promotion: Triple J Success will promote and launch these new apps to consumers. Our company will

advertise this new app once again through the same methods as well as some new methods. We may

target parents of teenagers as a means for teenagers to purchase this app. When parents are informed that

A PLUS is an amazing app that can help their child excel in their academics they will quickly inform

their children to purchase it. These new methods will help launch and reintroduce the new and improved

A PLUS to consumers.

Price: The price of these new apps will be fairly cheap. The price will be competitively priced with

competitors, and be the lowest as possible to attract our target market. The price of these new apps will

be priced at $0.99 to attract students.


61

Product Life Cycle Management: 4 P’s of Marketing

Product

Triple J Success will research about a student’s daily life. Our research team will record their

needs, wants and habits in an educational environment. Also, our research team will look deeply into

materials and sources that help students with their educational lives. With this research, Triple J Success

will design and develop the perfect app to help students perform to the best of their ability

Promotion

Triple J Success will promote A PLUS through media reports, newspaper publications, TTC

shelters and social media sites. With the help of these sources, our company will be able to explain the

uses and features of A PLUS to build publicity among consumers. These advertisements will grab student

attention as A PLUS will be the first all in one educational productivity app. Also, we will promote A

PLUS with popular universities and colleges as publicity grows. Students will see these popular sources

supporting A PLUS and word will spread among the student population, generating excitement and

popularity for A PLUS. Also, our company will create a video tutorial that outlines the uses and features

of the app as a sales promotion, so consumers will know what to expect of this app.

Price

A PLUS will be sold at the price of $1.99. This price is a very low price for students. This means

that consumers will have no need of purchasing other apps as A PLUS will already have all their features

and much more. Without the need of other applications, the price of $1.99 is competitively priced among

other competitors. In fact, this price is actually cheaper as apps that have single features and tasks

generally cost between $0.99 and $2.99, while A PLUS offers dozens of amazingly different features for

only $1.99.

Place

A PLUS can be purchased at the app store just like a regular app. Consumers have easy access to

the app store and A PLUS can be easily purchased. The information and data regarding A PLUS will be

kept and stored at the head research department at Triple J Success. There will be no need to ship or

transport any goods physically, as this is all technological computer based. There will be no need for

inventory as this is not a tangible product, it is an application used by technology. Also, the location that

A PLUS will be heavily advertised is in the urban areas of Toronto.


62

APPENDIX

These two graphs shown above show a trend in the use of technology and interest in education.

From the years 2005-2009, it has shown, on the second graph, that there is an increase in the use of

education related internet services. There is a direct correlation between the use of technology and

interest in school. In the first table, it shows many software programs that schools use to help educate

students. This also correlates with technology use by students. This is because the use in technology is

only acceptable when there are programs to educate students with. If schools have access to these

programs, they will most likely use it to enhance the learning experience of the students. Because of this,

the A PLUS app will be able to appeal to the students through the use of technology.

Information and Communications

Technologies in Schools Survey

2003/04, Centre for Education,

Statistics, Statistics Canada.

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-595-

m/81-595-m2004017-eng.pdf (accessed

December 7, 2013)

020406080

100

E-mail Researchingevents

OnlineInvestments

Educationrelated

material

Other ActiviesPer

cen

t o

f U

sage

Uses

Internet Uses by Canadians

2005

2007

2009

Statistics Canada, CANSIM, table 358-0130.

http://www.statcan.gc.ca

/tables-tableaux/sum-

som/l01/cst01/comm29a

-eng.htm (accessed

December 8, 2013)

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-595-m/81-595-m2004017-eng.pdf

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/81-595-m/81-595-m2004017-eng.pdf

http://www5.statcan.gc.ca/cansim/search-recherche?lang=eng&searchTypeByBalue=1&pattern=358-0130&p2=37

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/tables-tableaux/sum-som/l01/cst01/comm29a-eng.htm





63

Appendix: Competitor Advertisements

Graphing Calculator Advertisement:

Product Showcase:


64

Appendix: Competitor Advertisements

iStudiez Pro Advertisement and Product Showcase

.


65

Margins Advertisement:


66

inClass Advertisement:

Bench Prep Advertisement:


67

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68

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