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Table of Contents
Executive Summary____________________________________________________2
Internal & External Environment___________________________________________3
Mashalot Profile__________________________________________________4
What is the Market?
Market Analysis_____________________________________________6
Current Marketing Mix Position_________________________________8
Key Market Trends___________________________________________9
Competitors Marketing Mix Position_____________________________13
Mashalot’s Competitor Analysis________________________________15
Target Market & Strategy________________________________________________24
Marketing Objectives_____________________________________________25
Mashalot’s Target Market__________________________________________27
Marketing Mix___________________________________________________30
Product Strategies_______________________________________________31
Product Development_____________________________________________35
Place Strategies_________________________________________________38
Promotional Strategies____________________________________________39
Implement & Control___________________________________________________51
Action Plan_____________________________________________________52
Time-Line______________________________________________________53
Budget________________________________________________________54
Metrics________________________________________________________56
Addendum___________________________________________________________57
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Executive Summary
Mashalot is a corporation located in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Mashalot provides
its users with the most competitive sales in the area right to the convenience of a
cellular device. Mashalot currently has one employee, the owner, and several
contractors who give maintenance to the app. This lack of proper staff has caused the
app to have several issues with glitches and lack of flow within the apps menus. The
most difficult challenge Mashalot faces is generating both users and content for the app.
Mashalot’s internal strengths, weaknesses, external opportunities and threats served as
the foundation for the development of this strategic analysis and marketing plan.
Mashalot’s current mission statement is to generate the most amount of users in the
least amount of time. This plan strategically manages Mashalot’s mission and
emphasizes on generating Mashalot the new users and content it needs while attaining
worldwide brand awareness.
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Mashalot Profile
Mashalot is a relatively well known App. It is a social shopping app. It has been
recognized by various celebrities and media. Among them, the biggest names of
celebrities were Paris Hilton and The Kardashians. Mashalot made headlines with its
October 2013 media blitz where the app was found featured in “13 best shopping apps”.
Founder John Marino’s vision is to generate the largest amount of users in the
least amount of time possible. The company was founded in 2011 and since then it has
gain various media attention and celebrity recognition.
Mashalot currently has only one employee registered on it. The company is
valued at around $80,000. Currently, Mashalot has its hosting being done by Amazon.
Past Marketing Campaigns consist of Mashalot trying to tailor their services to their
consumers. During the first year in which Mashalot was founded, Mashalot would get
suggestions from their users to approach some company of their choice, in return
Mashalot will approach these companies to generate some deals in which the user will
benefit from.
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Mashalot Internal SWOT Analysis
Strengths Weaknesses
Mashalot has the Kardashians Mashalot App is severely suffering from
lack of content
Mashalot has overall good recognition
nation wide
Mashalot has had a difficulty generating
new users
App is positively reviewed App has difficulty being stable (several
bugs)
Several big YouTube members are
familiar with the brand.
Mashalot has no cross platform
adaptability
Mashalot Logo:
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Target market:
Mashalot’s target market is female iPhone users between the ages of 13-24. Of
the 320 million people who live in the United States 51% are between the ages of 13-
50.35 Of the 163 million between the ages 13-50, 25% have an iPhone.36 The total
market for IOS applications in the United States equals 40,891,484. 49.61% of those
13-50 year olds are female and 70.86% of that number is over 24. The portion of the 40
million market that Mashalot can receive is 5,911,418 people.35
34,980,219
Our Slice,
5,911,265
Market Size: Total = 40,891,484
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Target Market by Region:
Mashalot’s portion of the market can then be further broken down into regions.
17.6% of this demographic live in Northeast United States. 21.2% live in the Midwest
United States. 23.6% live in West United States. Lastly 37.6% of this demographic live
in Southern United States.35
Northeast US
1,040,409
Midwest US
1,253,220
West US
1,295,094
South US
2,222,693
By Region: Total = 5,911,265
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MARKETING MIX
Mashalot’s Current Position in Marketing Mix
Currently Mashalot competes primarily on price and different promotions. The
app is free and therefore competes with other pricy shopping apps. Through the app,
users can find deals through the users they follow. Mashalot also competes on
promotion because users can find better shopping deals.
Mashalot
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Key Market Trends
Economic Environment
GDP
o Since the launch of Mashalot, the economy has been steadily growing
since the 2008-2009 recession. GDP has made slight increases in the last
four years. The largest jump was from 2013 to 2014. Fourth quarter has
been the strongest quarter for GDP in each of the last four years. Personal
Consumption expenditures in the services of GDP have grown with that
national GDP since launch.93
Personal Income
o The wages and salaries of consumers has also seen a slight increase in
the last four years. There was a 4 percent change of income from 2011 to
2012 as well as from 2013 to 2014. 2012 to 2013 saw a 3 percent
change.94
Technological Environment
Smartphones
o The worldwide market increased 27.2 percent in third quarter year over
year. That has equated to 335 million units shipped.90
o The worldwide smartphone operating system market share shows that
iOS holds 11.7 percent of the smartphone market. This puts them in a
distant second to market share leader Android which holds 84.4 percent of
the market as of 3Q 2014. Other distant operating systems are Windows
Phone and Blackberry which together own 3.4 percent of the market
share.90
Social Media
o A similar social media, Instagram, has been estimated at having about
180 million monthly active users.
o Instagram was purchased by Facebook in April of 2012 for $1 billion in
cash and stock.91
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o The 2014 Iconosphere Conference, a series of lectures sharing
Iconoculture’s analysis and predictions of social and cultural trends, was
held recently in Chicago.22
Trend #1: Households have shifted from a linear, predictable life progression to a
non-linear, unpredictable one. In the next ten years we are bound to see quite the
change in relationships, style, economics, politics, and career options and choices. We
are bound to see this because we live in the generation of change and everyone coming
up sees change as a constant thing.20
Stereotypes and traditional segmentations will become less and less useful. The
ability to quickly change and speak to multiple, diverse audiences will be the
strategic leverage that drives success. The primary focus will need to be on
common interests and values rather than product features, demographics or
behavior.21
Trend #2: Households are making brand decisions very differently today than just
ten years ago. The access to information, the ability to create content and the ease of
sharing anything is unprecedented. And the role of children in these household
decisions is increasing as well. Children have more say in home decisions now
compared to past years. Loyalty is no longer an individual construct, but a family one.21
Millennials in Adulthood
The Millennial generation is blazing a trail into adulthood. Now ranging in age
from 18 to 33. To give an example of who they are and what they are like, they
are unattached to organized politics and religion, they are so linked by social
media, burdened by debt, distrustful of people, in no rush to marry— and
optimistic about the future. 108
They are also America’s most racially diverse generation. In all of these
dimensions, they are different from today’s older generations, such as the baby
boomers. 108
Millennials’ liberalism is apparent in their views on a range of social issues such
as same-sex marriage, interracial marriage and marijuana legalization. In all of
these issues, they are more liberal than their elders. 108
This generation’s religious views and behaviors are quite different from older age
groups. They are less likely than older generations to be affiliated with any
religion, they are also less likely to say they even believe in God. An astonishing
58% say they are “absolutely certain” that God exists. 108
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Digital Natives
They have also taken the lead in seizing on the new platforms of the digital era—
the internet, mobile technology, social media—to construct personalized
networks of friends, colleagues and affinity groups.108
They are “digital natives”—the only generation for which these new technologies
are not something they’ve had to adapt to. Not surprisingly, they are the most
avid users. 108
Millennials are also distinctive in how they place themselves at the center of self-
created digital networks. 55% have posted a “selfie” on a social media site; no
other generation is nearly as inclined to do this. Indeed, in the new Pew
Research survey, only about six-in-ten Boomers and about a third of Silents say
they know what a “selfie” (a photo taken of oneself) is—though the term had
acquired enough cachet to be declared the Oxford Dictionaries “word of the year”
in 2013. 108
Among Millennials, women are more likely than men to have posted a selfie
(68% vs. 42%).19
However, amidst their fervent embrace of all things digital, nine-in-ten Millennials
say people generally share too much information about themselves online, a
view held by similarly lopsided proportions of all older generations18.
Social & Cultural Environment
Sustainability- the ability to maintain or improve the societal, ecological and
economic spectrum. This is a huge trend that is influencing societies, industries
and politics all over the world. Since the recession, economic sustainability is on
top of everyone’s list. However, it cannot be seen as an isolated problem as it is
also intertwined with the other aspects of sustainability. 17
Uncertain Times- We live in uncertain times as many of us know or believe.
People’s minds are focused on global warming, overpopulation, terrorism etc. We
don’t know what is going to happen next, and how long the uncertainty is going to
last. This uncertainty has many profound social psychological effects that may
change consumer behavior completely. 17
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Blurring Reality-Over the past decade our perception of what is real (and what is
not) has blurred. This is partly due to new technology and globalization that
brought the world things such as Photoshop and plastic surgery or things like this
from China. People have begun to experience a declining trust in the messages
of corporations and politics. Although consumers seem to long for trust, realness
and authenticity, this is only partly true. Society’s relationship with ‘fake’ and ‘real’
is so blurred. There is also a huge difference in perception across generations. 17
Visual Culture- We are in the middle of the rise of a new visual culture, created
by a young ‘visual’ generation. This generation grew up surrounded by a total
abundance of images. This generation thinks visually and learns in images. Their
way of working with images also differs from older generations. 17
Connected Society- The digitalization that has taken place over the past fifteen
years has fundamentally changed society. Everything and everybody is – to a
certain degree – connected. This has changed not only our behavior, but also the
fundamentals of virtually every organization. This trend is about people
connecting with each other, with products (and services) and with
organizations. 17
Health to Happiness- This trend comprises all the latest on our physical and
mental wellbeing in the 2010’s. Health, wellness and happiness are converging
into total wellbeing. People in the western industrialized world are demanding
quality of life and a healthy work-life balance. People are trying to slow down
their lives in a world where most things are going faster than ever. 17
Power of Play- Games and playfulness are everywhere around us. They have an
increasing impact on education, business and society in general. Technological
advances such as mobile phones (i.e. compact game devices) and intuitive
control have broadened and increased the gaming crowd. Everyone likes to play
and the reasons why are quickly becoming clearer. Game principles have proven
to be highly motivating – and sometimes even addictive. 17
Abundance- ‘The more the better’ has been the mantra for a long time, but things
have changed. The industrial revolution, mass production and the internet all
have contributed to a growing amount of both ‘things’ and ‘information’. We’ve
entered the era of abundance, research shows there is an ideal number of
choices, which is far lower than one might expect. Consumers feel overwhelmed
and need filters in this abundant world17.
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The Competitors:
1. Pinterest
2. Wanelo
3. Etsy
4. Luvocracy
5. Fancy
6. Polyvore
7. Imgfave
8. The Hunt
9. Spring
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Competitors Marketing Mix
Among Mashalot’s top competitors, this is where each lies in comparison to
where Mashalot currently lies. Mashalot competes on promotion and price currently
and most of its competitors compete on Product, Price, and Place.
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37
Strengths:
Visual content marketing is clear and
simple
Shelf life is higher, content gets
repinned
More likely to have the intent to buy
something
Promoted pins is a good money maker
30% bump in money
Large female market 85% of
Pinterest’s users38
Weaknesses:
Considered a site for women
Larger adult population than other
competitive sites
Since anyone can pin anything it can
also be filled with spam39
Opportunities:
Trying to appeal to men
Don Faul, major Pinterest operations
head left company40
Threats:
Gender neutral search
Tapping into the male market
Multimedia connections, people are
connected with Pinterest even without
an account
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41
Strengths:
Save products to personal profile42
Appeals to both men and women
Simple and easy to use
100+ Nordstrom Stores have Wanelo
displayed
Weaknesses:
You can’t buy products specifically on
the Wanelo site, they have to be
purchased offline
Opportunities:
Available on android and iOS
Mainly for mobile users43
Consumers can connect with
retailers44
Threats:
It’s not trending
It’s old news
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45
Strengths:
More than 400,000 shop owners that
use the ecommerce sight
Since it launched it has brought in
180.6 million dollars of merchandise
Focus on being community driven,
human interaction
Weaknesses:
Sellers are considered a business
even though they aren’t contributing to
the economy
Lack customer demand, just sell cute
things
Only sellers have profiles not the
buyers
Opportunities:
Going public IPO 1.5 million worth of
shares46
Packaging- more consumers want
high end packaging
Government programs-certain profits
benefit countries or programs
Linking to other social media outlet
Threats:
Emerging sights where buyers have
profiles
Going public can change the focus
Sellers will go on own once they get
enough customers47
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48
Strengths:
Simple and clean, easy to use
Profiles with collections that can be
created
You can buy straight off of Luvocracy
site
You can have a collections page
Weaknesses:
Glitchy, slow to load
Must sign in to view content and pilot
website
Mainly female driven with hearts for
loading symbols
Too much like Pinterest
Opportunities:
Fix technical difficulties
Mobile app is glitchy sometimes
Social media marketing
Threats:
Lots of faster websites that get to
places faster
Competition
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29
Strengths:
Social and ecommerce site
Earn "credit" on site by favoriting
items
Gift cards available
Available on iOS, Android, Amazon
Fire, Windows Phone and Google
Glass
Can sell from the site
Weaknesses:
Currently sells niche items
The products are very expensive
Interface is difficult to use100
Opportunities:
Expansion to different types of
product markets
Received $20mil more in funding
Reaching people on the global
level.61
Threats:
Inconsistency on product image
You as the consumer will spend lots of
money because it is easy buy.62
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30
Strengths:
Trendy
Made in America
Broad appeal to both bloggers and
marketers
Weaknesses:
Brand Awareness
Lack of Variety
So much style not enough time
Hard to get noticed on the site
Opportunities:
They can add more applications to
the website to help compliment their
products
Social media marketing
Threats:
Very saturated market
Sudden change in taste and
preferences
Increase in competition
Product is poor quality101
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31
Strengths:
Connected to Tumblr, Facebook,
Twitter, and Pinterest
Has amazing reviews
Has gone global
Clean and easy to use
Weaknesses:
People are not able to comment on
favorited image
Not able to add multiple images to a
collection at one time, you have to do
it one by one
Android app is different than iPhone
app, it doesn’t have the same
features
People are not able to delete their
photos or their account63
Targeted toward women, not many
men use it
Opportunities:
When people post onto Pinterest,
Twitter, Tumblr, and Facebook, it
shows that it came from Imgfave, this
promotes Imgfave because people
want to see what it is
Threats:
Pinterest (closest competitor) added the
option to add your own photos69
There are 50 alternatives to Imgfave70
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32
Strengths:
Mobile optimization
Load when you are out and about
Lots of cute items on the app
Able to post a picture of an outfit and
let others help you find the items.
Weaknesses:
It always crashes
Hard to use102
App is not clearly defined when new
account is made
Opportunities:
Can't see what you are following
No automatic refresh button
Threats:
Because it has more than one place of
operations it is hard to use and if you
are in the UK you cannot shop because
the stores are in the US
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33 34
Strengths:
Raising $7.5 million in capital
Seamless interface
Jewelry is the #1 biggest seller
Find the trends for the latest season
Weaknesses:
No shopping cart function
Repetition in the feed with following
few people
Need to build more of an audience
Expensive
Only available on IOS
Opportunities:
They work with upstart designers as
well as established companies
Become more popular
Threats:
Saturated market have to be different
Work with Levi
Use e-commerce site87
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Marketing Objectives:
The Objective of Mashalot is the following:
Mashalot wants the most users and the most content in the shortest amount
of time.
Measurable Marketing Objectives:
Monthly active users
Daily active users
Age and geographic location-target market
Average posts per day or month
Some ways to measure such things that are relevant and important to our Target
Market are:
41% of cell phone owners are women social networking on their phones 6
55% of online shopping came from a mobile device 104
63.5% watch YouTube daily 106
71% of teens say YouTube influences culture 106
From doing research on when the best times and places to promote this app
here is a detailed summary of where and when. To create the best “Opportunity-to-See”
you will see best results on these particular social media sites at these times.
Twitter: Has its strongest engagement on weekends specifically for our
Target Market so you will get the most reaches between the times of 1-
3pm. 110
Facebook: Has its strongest engagement on weekdays specifically for
our Target Market during the times of 6-8am and 2-5pm. 110
Pinterest: Saturdays for sure are going to be a prime day as well as
Fridays after 3pm are best for fashion and retail 113
About Twitter and how to measure reaches and impressions:
288 million monthly active users 5
500 million Tweets are sent per day 5
80% of Twitter active users are on mobile 5
77% of accounts are outside the U.S. 5
Twitter supports 33 languages 5
21% are women users, 37% are ages 18-29 and high school age or less
is 17% 6
Facebook:
Monthly active users 1,310,000,000 and 680,000,000 are mobile users 2
48% of 18-34 year olds check Facebook when they get up 2
28% of 18-34 year olds check Facebook before they even get out of bed 2
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77% of the users are women ages 18-29 are 87% and high school or
less are 70% 6
Pinterest:
42% of the users are women ages 18-29 is 34% and high school and less
are 22% 6
The most average time spent on Pinterest is 15.8 minutes this is the most
as compared to our other options of social media 113
1.36 million views a day 113
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I am East Coast Jane!
I go to an Ivy League
School and am now
hoping to land myself at a
job doing business where I
can someday become the
CEO.
I tend to be polished,
more on the serious side,
jewelry and handbags are
my accessory.
I go on YouTube daily and
am enthralled with
watching One Tree Hill and
Gossip Girl.
I along with 69% of the girls
on the East Coast look to a
magazine model for the
perfect body image.
I am currently in a
relationship.
I workout about 2x a week
I do a mixture of Ballet and
Yoga or Pilates.
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117
I’m Jane from the West Coast!
I do 55% of my shopping online or from
a mobile device.
My preferred style is now called
"California Cod", this is casual but
creative and chic I love to accessorize.
I work out at least 3x a week and my
workouts consist of lots of cardio.
I eat healthy, I am an organic food guru
and I would take a salad over a burger
any day!
I watch about 4 hours of TV day I stay
caught up on Pretty Little Liars and
Vampire Diaries.
Even when I am watching TV I am on
my phone, I barely ever put it down.
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Proposed Marketing Mix Position
Mashalot’s competitors compete near product because it is an app. The app is a
product itself and most apps are free. With product development, Mashalot can also
compete on product while also sticking to it’s promotion position.
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Product Strategies
Core Product:
Being social with friends and brands about recent purchases and new found
deals and discounts.
Connecting with friends over mobile devices.
The application provides social shopping which is the main focus of the
application.
Actual Product:
An Apple iPhone application for mobile use.
Offers the ability to post, favorite and re-mash photos for the user’s followers
to see and interact with.
The product allows a user to share their own personal content and view posts
of other users that are followed.
Augmented Product:
The ability to create an identity through social networking.
Unique Value Proposition: Mashalot offers an application that allows its users to see
what their friends are buying, the deals they are finding, and where their friends are
making their purchases.
Mashalot currently only offers one application in its product line. With
additional Venture Capitalist funding another app can be developed for the
Android mobile operating system.
Development:
Mashalot will need to go through a redesign to better relate to the target
market. Currently the Mashalot logo is representing a market that is outside of
Mashalot’s target market.
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72
72
1. Color
According to a study done in 2003 by Joe Hallock, 9 percent of women chose
red as their favorite color71.
Blue is the top favorite color in women with 35 percent however this color is
more commonly associated with men which makes it less of an option to truly
target Mashalot’s target market. Blue is a more common color, relating to
most ages and genders which would not be focused enough for Mashalot’s
female target71.
The most notable difference between men and women in color is the color
purple. 23 percent of women stating that purple is their favorite color while no
men chose purple. By using purple as the primary logo color, it will be more
attractive and noticeable for women while they scroll through the App Store71.
Women are more attracted to softer colors rather than men who are drawn to
brighter colors. Women also have been found to prefer tints of colors rather
than shades.
A color that encompasses this research that would benefit Mashalot is one of
these soft, tints of purple71.
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73
2. Font
Certain fonts have the tendency to appeal more toward a gender than the
other. More rectilinear fonts appeal to more men and women prefer a curvier
font with more prominent tails.
When marketing toward women, sex appeal is often created by using softer,
curved fonts and choosing italic fonts increases that message74.
3. Additional Improvements
Design has gone toward a more minimalist look and feel. At its current state,
Mashalot is very busy with not much space. With the redesign, simplicity
needs to be taken into effect. Minimalism is stripping down design to the
essential elements. In this case, less is more.
This focus on minimalism in design is especially important for the user’s
profiles, which are currently cluttered and confusing. These profiles need to
make content easier to find75.
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Product Development
1. Fashion, more than just shopping
A product objective that Mashalot holds is the need to gain more
content within the application on a more consistent basis.
To increase a new kind of content, Mashalot should build a feature that
allows Mashalot users to follow specific blogs in the category of
fashion, health and beauty. This feature would be a swipe away from
the main feed. This would allow Mashalot users to scroll through recent
articles and blogs relating to them and read them from within
Mashalot’s application.
The posts would have the functionality to be “ReMashed” or favorite.
By interacting with these articles, they would make their way into user’s
home feed.
Mashalot users would be able to scroll through their feed to find their
friend’s new shopping adventure while also discovering the articles and
blogs that their friends have been following.
Possible Fashion websites/blogs
o Racked
o Teen Vogue
o Seventeen Magazine
o InStyle
o Glamour
o Etc.
2. Lists
The list feature is a valuable feature for Mashalot and needs to be
capitalized on to truly stand out as a differentiated functionality.
The lists should be properly featured on a Mashalot users profile for
their friends to see.
A user should be able to create as many lists as they choose and give
them a specific name for their use (i.e. B-Day Gift Ideas, Christmas
Wish List, and Future Shopping Haul). After a list is subscribed to, the
user should receive notifications when content is added or removed
from the list.
Information about other people’s lists can also be updated within the
main Mashalot feed.
3. Mashalot.com
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The current Mashalot.com is not being updated or representing the
target market. Mashalot.com needs to be helping Mashalot’s brand
image and play a role in increasing downloads.
Mashalot.com should turn into an informational splash page that
shows off the application features and gives the visitor links to the
App store for download.
92
This photo is an example of how Instagram handles their own website. It
contains a brief description of the application, large images of the app and
then the download links.
This website can also feature product videos and informative how-to videos
on how to use the product.
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Product Transformation:
Developed Core Product:
A complete social fashion experience with the latest blogs and articles
about the most recent trends alongside a feed of all your friend’s recent
purchases and shopping wish lists.
Connecting over mobile devices on multiple platforms (i.e. iOS and
Android).
Professional fashion, health and beauty content available in one app.
Social interactions with a friend’s personal content.
Developed Actual Product:
An Apple iPhone application for mobile use.
An Android smartphone application for mobile use.
Offers the ability to post, favorite and ReMash photos and articles for the
user’s followers to see and interact with.
Allows the user to share their own personal content and view other user’s
content.
A fashion blog reader for following the most popular blogging sites.
Create lists to categorize items or for other users to follow.
Receive notifications on new content added to the lists being followed.
Developed Augmented Product:
The ability to create an identity through social networking.
Opportunity for learning about fashion and style.
New Unique Value Proposition: Mashalot offers a complete social fashion and style
experience with the latest articles and blogs relating to fashion, health and beauty
available within the app to interact with, including posts by user’s friends and fashion
icons.
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Place Strategies:
Mashalot provides both a tangible and intangible product. Mashalot is able to
provide the tangible product through the iOS App store. Mashalot is available for
anyone and setting up a profile is no difficult task. Mashalot does so by the means of
Indirect Distribution. Although the App itself is available for download at all times, the
most benefited users will come from Selective Distribution during the sweepstakes of
the company.
Since Mashalot is an App and has no storefront, Mall of America will be where
Mashalot holds their sweepstakes for the summer months. Having these sweepstakes
taking place at the Mall of America. This will not only generate users from the high traffic
facility hosts, but also create brand awareness and associate the App with Premium
shopping that the Mall of America offers. Mall of America receives an average of 42
million visitors a year, of which 16 million are worldwide.115
Furthermore, Mashalot will also generate an ambassador program. This will help
generate more content for the most influential universities in the United States. At the
launch of the program there will be a total of 558 positions opened.116 This will also
create brand awareness across the United States. However, these individuals will not
be compensated in monetary means. The individuals will be compensated with resume
development as well as experience with the Brand.
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1. Mashalot Media Buzz
In the social media world there are different hashtags for each day of the week:
e.g. #ThrowbackThursday, #ManCandyMonday, #TransformationTuesday,
#WomanCrushWednsday, etc. All these can relate to fashion in some way, shape, or
form. Creating new hashtags for the app Mashalot can help in building content.
Some Examples:
#MashMonday
#BargainBuy
#FashionFriday
#WednesdaysWeWearPink
#ootd or #ootn –Outfit of the Day or Outfit of the Night
These hashtags are not anything new but they can create content that users
want to engage in. The hashtags encourage users to be interactive with the app.
Tweets with hashtags receive two times more engagement than those without
hashtags.109
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2. Interactive Runway
To get people excited about Mashalot, a runway wall/window decals can be
dispersed through malls and transit stations throughout the country. The decal will be a
photo op for onlookers to take selfies at.
The decal will have the middle panel of the runway displaying Mashalot’s logo
like how designers showcase their brand. This way the runway will promote the brand
while still creating a fun backdrop for photos. A hashtag can be placed in the lower
corner to categorize the photos on social media.
Below is a mock runway.76
M ashalot
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3. SXSW-South by Southwest Conference
The South by Southwest is a music, film and interactive conference and festival
that brings both creative and professional groups together for discovery of new music,
indie films and one the verge technologies. This event is described as a launching pad
for new creative content in all these areas. It offers buzz-generating exposure across
the creative and business audience77.
In 2012 the SXSW entrepreneur-related events were merged into what is now
the Startup Village. This focused all the programming into one venue for convenience.
The Startup Spotlight is the event that Mashalot would apply to participate in. The event
is to spotlight a lineup of upcoming startups. This event is an opportunity to generate
buzz and potential investor interest.
78
The 2015 festival saw a general attendance increase of 6 percent. That was
84,385 registered participants. The interactive section of the festival saw a 3.1 percent
growth from the previous year with 33,825 participating79. The Startup Spotlight Party
has also been ranked as the fourth best attraction at the SXSW Festival by Advertising
Age95.
This event is only available on acceptance by the Startup Central Application
Review Board which features distinguished group of investors and industry experts97.
The application has a $55 fee and finalists are announced in early August for the next
year’s event. The due date for the application is Friday, June 26th 201596.
The primary focus of SXSW has been music however technology is a growing
interest among attendees. 20 percent have said that the reason for their attendance is
for emerging technology. Men tend to be more aware of SXSW than women (40 percent
vs. 31 percent) however in simply attendance numbers, just as many women attend the
festival as men do79.
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Some notable success stories from SXSW are the explosion of interest in Twitter
and the launch of Foursquare80.
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4. College Campus Marketing
This strategy selects students from various college campuses to be student
representatives. They will be ambassadors for Mashalot and promote the product
throughout the campus. It is important for a student to represent and create
awareness of the product because “students are more likely to trust fellow students with
whom they feel they have a lot in common.” Thus, it is important that a student is the
one promoting the app. These students will create online and in-person interactions that
will positively impact Mashalot.
It is important to target college age students because research shows that if
students are introduced to a brand in college and start using and associating
themselves with that brand, they will continue to use it in the future. This is also
important because these college students will influence friends from high school and
younger siblings81
Some of the colleges that will have ambassadors are among the most
influential colleges in America82
1. Harvard
2. Columbia University
3. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
4. Princeton University
5. Stanford University
6. New York University
7. University of California-Berkeley
8. University of California-Los Angeles
Other colleges that receive the most applications from new students
include:
1. University of California-San Diego
2. University of California-Irvine
3. California State University-Long Beach
4. University of California-Santa Barbara
5. St. John’s University New York
6. San Diego State University
7. University of California-Davis
8. Pennsylvania State University-University Park83
These colleges are chosen because they are the most influential and popular in
the United States. This means that once the app is promoted throughout these
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campuses, other colleges will follow the trend. They will influence other colleges
throughout the United States.
Ambassadors will be found and chosen through their presence on social media.
These ambassadors will be monitored to make sure that they are effective. They will be
reimbursed whether with money, college credit, free merchandise from Mashalot, or
with services such as job counseling, resume writing and polishing, and
recommendation letters. Because students’ interests and effective ways to reach them
change often, Mashalot will have to be flexible with their ambassadors so that they can
reach the ever changing market of college students84.
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5. Contests
Contests are a fun and scalable way to build content for a product. They also
provide a way for a brand to engage and develop a long-term relationship with their
customers. For each contest, goals need to be determined, parameters need to be
outlined, the contest needs to be easily accessible and promoted well, and the method
of choosing a winner needs to be laid out clearly.85
Sweepstakes increase the amount of social media followers as well as help the
company meet its objectives. They can cause the amount of social media adoption and
participation to be accelerated, they can increase brand awareness, drive product and
service usage, and recognize and reward customers or prospective customers.
Steps that need to be taken when creating sweepstakes are very similar to
creating a contest. These steps are to follow the law, decide what kind of sweepstakes
to have, decide what technology the sweepstake will use, chose a prize for the winner
that matches the effort the contestant had to put in order to enter, promote the
sweepstake, and then choose and promote the winner86. Mashalot will have several
different contests. Each contest will have a specific tag to go along with it, which
Mashalot will have to create in order to be used in the contests.
1. The first contest will be a type of sweepstakes. This will require
contestants to create an account on Mashalot and post their most recent
shopping find on Mashalot with the tag #MashalotSweepstakes.
Each person who creates a profile and posts a picture with this tag
will be entered into a drawing for a $100 visa gift card. The winner
will be drawn randomly.
2. Another contest will be a where applicants post a picture of themselves
with a runway, whether it is the runway background that Mashalot will
have set up or a different way.
They will have to post this picture on Mashalot and share it to
Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter with the tag #MashalotRunway.
The winner will be chosen by a specified employee of Mashalot
based on whoever has the best and most creative runway picture
that fulfills all the criteria laid out.
The winner will receive an iPad mini. Mashalot will also announce
and promote the winner over social media.
3. A contest to create brand awareness will be held where contestants post a
picture of the Mashalot logo, whether it is a selfie with one or the logo
made out of something creative.
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They must post the picture with the tag #SocialShopping on
Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.
There will be two winners for this contest. One will be whoever has
the most likes/favorites on other social media platforms, the other
winner will be chosen by a Mashalot employee based on the most
creative entry. This contest is to create and spread brand
awareness.
The winners will each receive a $100 visa gift card.
4. During Halloween there will be a contest of who has the best Halloween
costume. It will be organized just like the past contests where the person
will post a picture of their Halloween costume and link it to Facebook,
Instagram, or Twitter with the tag #MonsterMashalot.
Whoever has the most likes/favorites on these social media
platforms will win a $150 visa gift card.
These contests will encourage those using Mashalot to participate
and invite their friends to like/favorite their pictures so that they can
win. This might even cause their friends to participate themselves.
5. Mashalot will hold an Easter outfit contest where contestants will post their
best Easter outfit on Mashalot with the tag #EasterMash.
The person entering this contest will have to say where they
purchased their outfit below the picture.
Their information will be entered into the contest and a Mashalot
staff member will chose the best Easter outfit.
The winner will receive an Easter basket from Mashalot.
6. Black Friday Selfie contest will be held two days before Black Friday until
a week after Black Friday. This contest will require contestants to post a
selfie with their best Black Friday deal telling where they bought it from
and the tag #DashTillYouMash.
The best deal with the most creative selfie will be chosen by
Mashalot staff and receive a $50 visa gift card.
The winners will also be promoted on Mashalot and connecting
social media sites.
7. Leading up to Christmas, Mashalot will hold a contest for contestants to
take a picture of their biggest Christmas wish and post it to Mashalot and
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link it to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. They will have to use the tag
#ChristmasMash.
This contest will also have a Mashalot employee pick the winner.
This winner will receive $100 dollars to go toward their Christmas
wish.
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6. Search Engine Optimization
Google AdWords offers Mashalot an opportunity to be seen more often from
sponsored Google searches. These sponsored searches appear based on set
keywords that are being searched for. This means that potential customers are the ones
that will see the advertisements. These ads can be tailored for specific geolocations if
an area wants to be targeted. These advertisements will connect people from across
the country as well. Each advertisement would be available on the web, mobile phones
and tablet88.
89
A benefit of using Google AdWords are the measurable tracking that is provided
from Google. These metrics include how many notice the ad, what percentage click on
the website or call88.
The advertisement that is seen can be created just to the liking of Mashalot.
There is a title link, then two lines of additional text that can be made. These ads will
appear above or next to relevant searched that are being made on Google88.
An attractive part about using Google AdWords is that the cost is strictly
determined on how many clicks Mashalot receives. If no one notices the ad, Mashalot
pays nothing. The cost is determined by setting your own budget88.
The first step in creating an AdWord promotion is setting the daily budget. After
that the target audience can be adjusted. For Mashalot the whole United States would
be best. An important part of creating an AdWord promotion is setting the most relevant
keywords that represent Mashalot88.
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This promotion will last all year. With a daily budget of $25 per
day or approximately $9,125 for the whole year. Google guarantees
207 or more clicks and 192,000 impressions with this budget. This will
continue to give brand awareness for Mashalot as well as push 207 or
more clicks to the website that will lead to downloading the app.88
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Action Plan
This plan of action is to create more brand awareness for Mashalot to stimulate for
installs and increase the number of users actively participating on the app. Through this
plan, Mashalot’s content will increase as well.
Step One: Redesign and rebrand the application to better connect with the target
market.
o This would be to build off the suggestions given in the redesign section of
product development. The name can stay the same but the look and feel
of the whole app needs to be updated to fit the needs of the target market.
o This includes revamping the website to be a portal for downloading the
app.
Step Two: Build new features to expand the purpose of the application.
o Once the redesign gives Mashalot a high-end feel, more features need to
be added to capitalize on this relaunch. This includes adding the fashion,
health and beauty blogs and articles as a new discovery feature, beef up
the list feature that is fairly hidden in the current version of the app, and
update the profiles to be more organized and display relevant information
in a better way.
Step Three: Begin Pay-Per-Click advertising through Google AdWord.
o This will begin to create impressions through relevant Google searches
and guarantees a couple hundred clicks daily to the website.
Step Four: Hire Ambassadors for college campuses to share and endorse the
newly updated app.
o These Ambassadors will be hired across multiple college campuses in the
United States to create some word-of-mouth marketing.
Step Five: Create multiple social media promotions over Mashalot, Facebook,
Twitter, and Instagram
o These are to initial interactions with users online as well as attracting new
ones. Multiple promotions have been outlined that will take place
throughout the whole first year at Mashalot.
Step Six: Advertise in the Mall of America skyways
o The Mall of America holds all of what Mashalot stands for: shopping,
fashion and friends. By advertising here Mashalot could gain more brand
awareness in a relevant place with people from across the world visiting.
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Budget
ROI Calculations with Explanation
The total amount of females that can be calculated for the campaign are
9,963,694 worldwide with a guaranteed 5% of subscribers. Total amount of new
users will be 498,184. With a total of $169,014 in Campaign spending, Mashalot
will be able to generate 3 users for every one dollar spent (3:1). Aside from
having these users join Mashalot, the company will also attain worldwide
recognition. Mall of America is the #1 Shopping destination in the United
States.58 40% of their visitors are from outside Minnesota, making the total
number of potential newcomers to the brand awareness 16,800,000.58
The Expenses for the campaign were calculated with the Mall of America
Lease Documents60. The costs for the renting of the skyway systems are
$32,000 for all of the skyways per month.60 Mall of America also leases out their
transit vestibule for advertisement. The leasing cost for this space is $10,000 per
month.60 Since Mashalot will be using these leases for four months, we can
conclude the total cost for the campaign at Mall of America will be $168,000.
Mashalot will also host a series of Sweepstakes. On these events,
Mashalot will be giving out various prices to its users. The prices consist of a
series of Visa gift cards and an iPad mini. The appropriate values for each
sweepstake are as follows;
Sweepstakes, $100.
Mashalot Runway, iPad Mini ($364).
Logo Contest, $200 (two winners of $100).
Halloween Contest, $150.
Easter Contest, $50.
Black Friday Contest, $50.
Christmas Contest, $100.
The total amount for the expenses on the prices of the sweepstakes will be
$1015.00
Mall of America receives about 42 million visitors a year, 40% of which
are from outside of Minnesota. Mall of America total market is 83,383,408
individuals. From those individuals, 19,815,871 are minors.58 Given that the
world ratio is 1.1 male to 1 female49 the total market that Mall of America offers
Mashalot is 9,907,935 female minors. Aside from Mall of America, Mashalot will
also conduct and Ambassador Program within the nation’s most influential
Universities. These Ambassadors will help generate content for the University as
well as help promote the brand. The following list consists of the Universities as
well as their female population for undergraduates:
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Harvard University, 5,267.50
Columbia University, 3,786.51
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2,042.52
Princeton University, 2,603.53
Stanford University, 3,528.54
New York University, 13,546.55
University of California Berkeley, 1,3469.56
University of California Los Angeles, 11,518.57
The total market for the Ambassador Campaign will be 55,759 undergraduate
females.
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Metrics
When monitoring the current state of the application on any given day there are
metrics that should be considered. These metrics each offer unique data to give
Mashalot a snapshot of where there users are and how they are using the app. Tracking
these metrics will give insight which helps in making key decisions about driving growth
on the app. 90 percent of developers have implemented a third party analytics SDK into
their app to track this data. Some key metrics to follow are listed below98.
Installs:
1. Tracking installs of the app is an easy figure to track. Most app stores (i.e.
the Apple App Store, Google Play) track the number of installations for the
developer. This number is a good starting point for how effective certain
marketing strategies have been and the reach that is taking place.
Session length
99
The engagement a user has in the app is an important metric to understand. If
users are spending large amounts of time in the app, they are most likely fans of
the app and want to continue using it. If the session lengths are very short the
user must be having issues. These could be performance issues (app crashes)
or just lack of interest in the app.
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Addendum
1. http://www.adweek.com/socialtimes/best-time-post-twitter-facebook/500286
2. http://www.statisticbrain.com/facebook-statistics/
3. http://www.statisticbrain.com/twitter-statistics/
4. http://www.fastcompany.com/3036184/how-to-be-a-success-at-everything/the-best-and-
worst-times-to-post-on-social-media-infograph
5. https://about.twitter.com/company
6. http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/01/09/demographics-of-key-social-networking-
platforms-2/
7. http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/new-social-stratosphere-who-using-
facebook-twitter-pinterest-tumblr-and-instagram-2015-and-beyond-1622
8. https://www.pinterest.com/pin/234257618087475827/
9. https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/products/youtube-demographics.html
10. https://tubularlabs.com/blog/demographics-on-youtube-males-and-females-18-34/
11. https://about.pinterest.com/en/advertising-rules
12. http://www.copyblogger.com/pinterest-marketing/
13. http://www.mcngmarketing.com/how-to-advertise-on-pinterest/#.VSMFf0JX_ww
14. http://www.tintup.com/blog/how-to-use-pinterest-to-promote-your-business/
15. http://marketingland.com/library/pinterest/pinterest-business-use-advertising
16. http://marketingland.com/5-pinterest-strategies-drive-big-traffic-117359
17.http://www.trendsactive.com/#!/our-trends/societal-trends/
18.( Lee and Barry Wellman, 2012, “Networked: The New Social Operating System,”
MIT Press, April. ↩
Data were collected a week before the March 2 Academy Award telecast that
featured a “selfie” that Host Ellen DeGeneres took with a group of movie stars.
The record-breaking tweet got more than a million retweets in an hour and was
widely covered in the traditional media. ↩)
19.http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2014/03/07/chapter-2-generations-and-issues/)
20.http://www.callahancreek.com/state-of-consumer-research-2014-3-key-social-
and-cultural-trends
21.http://www.callahancreek.com/state-of-consumer-research-2014-3-key-social-
and-cultural-trends
22.The 2014 Iconosphere Conference
23.http://blogs.constantcontact.com/best-time-post-facebook/
24.http://smallbusiness.foxbusiness.com/marketing-sales/2013/11/14/6-steps-to-
promoting-your-small-business-on-facebook/
25.http://www.marketingdonut.co.uk/marketing/online-marketing/social-media-and-
online-networking/action-list-how-to-use-facebook-to-promote-your-business
26.http://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2013/04/15/facebook-marketing
27.http://www.pcworld.com/article/243138/how_to_promote_and_maintain_your_fac
ebook_business_page.html
28.http://hackerspace.lifehacker.com/10-useful-tips-to-promote-your-business-on-
facebook-1468255177
29. http://blog.3dcart.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/fancylogo.jpeg