BookShare is a peer-to-peer book sharing and lending platform that allows users to create reader profiles, follow other readers, recommend and review books, and access crowd-sourced reviews and feedback. It aims to connect readers within communities by enabling them to borrow books from those willing to lend through matching lenders and borrowers. The target market is readers of all ages and backgrounds. BookShare faces competition from e-book platforms but has an opportunity in the growing Indian book market. The marketing plan involves promoting the app through online and offline advertising targeting millennials to build a large customer base.

1. Marketing Plan for an App

4. BookShare is an app and website based book
reading social community and book sharing
utility for communities
Mission statement: “Connecting readers
through technology”

5. The business “BookShare” is a peer to peer
book sharing and lending platform, and a
reader social media vision by letting users
create their reader profiles, follow fellow
readers, recommend and review books, get
access to crowd sourced reviews and
feedbacks on books, and more.

7. Company Overview
BookShare aims to build an online portal which
enables readers within communities to
borrow books, from the ones willing to lend,
by matching the lenders and borrowers.
It allows the readers to build reader profiles –
follow other readers, get followed,
recommend books, review books – all at one
place.

8. BookShare will group registered readers into
communities based on their location data.
Books can be exchanged very seamlessly
within a community, and might involve a small
delivery charge on book exchange needs
across communities.
This is besides the signing up charge for
BookShare service.

9. Market
Overview

10. Market Statistics
• According to the 2009 National Youth Survey, a quarter of
the youth (about 83 million) in the country identify
themselves as book readers.
• India’s book market, currently worth Rs 261 billion making
it the sixth largest in the world and the second largest of
the English language ones, is expected to touch Rs 739
billion by 2020
• More than 70 per cent of publishers in India have digitised
their content to produce e-book versions - smartphones
and e-readers offer consumers opportunities to access
digital content.

11. • Books have emerged as an instrumental category for e-
commerce business, accounting for 15 per cent of the overall
e-commerce trade, just trailing behind electronics (34 per
cent) and apparel and accessories (30 per cent).
• A consumer data survey shows that on average people read
books 2.1 times a week while nearly two-thirds read the book
occasionally; interestingly, 56 per cent of the respondents
bought at least one e-book a year and nearly half of these
bought at least 3-4 e-books a year indicating a growing
demand for digital books.
• Fifty-five per cent of trade sales are of books in English. Books
in Hindi account for 35 per cent of Indian language sales

12. Reading preferences based on age

13. • Books form 9.3% of
all online retail
sales worldwide
and 7.1% in India
• That makes books
one of the top most
bought and sold
commodity in our
country

14. Our app faces
threat of loss of
business due to
growing
popularity of e-
books

15. Competitor Analysis
• Thebusiness idea is unique.This marketsegmentis
very unpopulated.Thereare noplayers in the
market,exceptfor one or two.
• Amongthem,prominentis Goodreads
- Only reader communitiesand profiles.
- Nobooksharingutilityincorporated.
- Availableabsolutelyfree.
- Can be displacedfromthe marketthrough a
more value addedservice app

16. Target Customers
Readers of all age groups, gender, income levels, backgrounds, genres, localities, interests,
lifestyles, opinions and more. The age group of target audience will largely be dominated
by the millennials, with age group being 10-35 year old.

17. • Start theservice ina nichemarket – Delhi
• Expand theservice furtherafter nichemarket success
• Overtake thenumber of downloads of the Goodreads app in
a time frame of 3 years with5 million+downloads of
BookShare

18. Financial Analysis and Goals
2018 2019 2020
Income
Revenue (Membership) 50000 250000 500000
Revenue (Publisher Collaborations) 50000 500000 750000
Revenue (Advertisements) 100000 750000 1000000
Revenue (Delivery) 15000 20000 25000
Revenue (Sales) 100000 600000 1000000
Total Revenue 315000 2120000 3275000
COGS 0 0 0
Gross Profit 315000 2120000 3275000
Expenses
Marketing 10000 20000 50000
Salaries 50000 120000 500000
Rent 25000 30000 35000
Taxes 30000 200000 300000
Operational Costs 20000 25000 30000
Total 135000 395000 915000
Net Profit 180000 1725000 2360000

20. Value elements in the Venture
• Maintenance ofwarehouse for books storage
• Maintenance ofan inventory of books
• Delivery service for books
• Onlineuser interface:The mobile application
• Advertising
• Workforce size

21. Blue Ocean Strategy
Value Elements
Competitors/Industry's
Investment/Offering Levels
Proposed for Blue ocean strategy
move for BookShare App
Maintanence of Warehouse High Low
Maintanence of Inventory High Low
Delivery Service Medium High
Online user Interface Medium High - User Engagement
Advertising Medium High
Workforce Size Low Medium

22. Low. Very
few players
and with low
market share
exist in the
industry
Medium to high.
Since there are less
barriers to entry, low
capital investment
needed, low switching
costs and less existing
competition.
Medium to high. We
face threat from
libraries, book stores
online and offline,
ebook market esp
kindle, and local book
sharing among
friends.
Medium. Lenders
may be hesitant
in lending books,
and may need a
good enough
incentive for the
same. The
logistics suppliers
also need to be
given a good
incentive for the
work.
Low to medium.
They have low
switching costs, and
an existing system in
place for this purpose
which needs to be
overtaken.

23. Operational Plan
Logistics partner – Ekart
Two people decide
on the exchange of
a book
Person A packs the
book
Ekart picks it up,
ensures packaging
Person B gets the
book and reads it.
Ekart picks it up
again and
transports it back
to Person A

24. Tactics

25. Visuals of how the app
could look

27. 4 Ps Marketing Mix
Product
Promotion
Place
Price
4 PS
MARKETING
MIX
BOOKSHARE IS SUPPOSED TO SERVE AS
A BOOK READING SOCIAL COMMUNITY
AND BOOK SHARING UTILITY FOR
COMMUNITIES.
Product
ONE YEAR SUBSCRIPTION AT $10 AS
THE LAUNCH PRICE. EACH BOOK
BORROWED YIELDS FEE IN PROPORTION
TO THE COST OF THE BOOK AS WELL.
Price
TARGETING ALL READERS ACROSS ALL
PLACES ESP. URBAN. APP AVAILABLE
FOR DOWNLOAD ON THE GOOGLE PLAY
STORE. WE HANDLE LOGISTICS OF
EXCHANGE OF BOOKS.
Place
INTERNET ADS, BOOK STORE PRINT
ADS, YOUTUBE ADS, SOCIAL MEDIA
MARKETING. INCENTIVES ON STUDENT
SUBSCRIPTIONS.
Promotion

28. Revenue Analysis
• Bothaccessmodesto theapp/portalwill berolledout,namely freeandpremium. A feeswill be
levied fromusersonup gradationfromfreetopremium account.
• Greateractivityin theappbya userwill
berewardedwithvoucherpointswhich
canberedeemed forin-apppurchases.These
purchasescanalsobemadevia small payments.
• Free version ofthe appshall comewith
advertisementsandlimitedfeatureswhile
otherpremium appfeaturesremain locked,
which canbeunlockedbymakingsmall
paymentswithinthe app,orbyupgradingtoa
premium accounton theapp.
• Tieups withlogistic partnersundera profit
sharingmodel issustainable.

29. Advertising Plan
• Online advertising on Facebook, YouTube, GoogleAds, Twitter,
Instagram and the Amazon website
• Subscription letters with
magazines
• Freebie incentives for signing
up to acquire a large customer
base
• An active and relevant blog,
with book introduction sections
and relevant articles
• Incentives encouraging student
subscribers

30. Advertising Ideas
• Advertisingwithpostersat strategiclocationslikeoutsidelibrariesand
bookstoreswillbevery effective.
• Thepostershouldappealto
thevery ideaBookSharestands
for,thatofgivingreadersthe
convenienceofhavingbooks
cometothemattheir doorsteps,
insteadofthemsweatingitout
lookingforbooksoutdoors.
• Authorswithconnectwiththe
readers willbegreat as
spokespersonsforthenewventure,
oncewecanincludethatin.

31. Visual of a
sample poster
that will draw
great traction
towards
BookShare,
when used for
advertising at
strategic
locations.

32. Advertising Avenues - Media
• Deciding the media used for advertising is a crucial decision
• Since the customer base for
BookShare is readers, we must
advertise at avenues which
readers likely visit or notice.
• Based on thorough market
research on the media that
readers consume, it becomes
clear that the millennials who
form the target customer base,
need to be targeted through
TV advertisingand online advertising.

35. Risk analysis
InternalRisk
1. Riskin theorganizationalhierarchy
2. Problemsofcost managementand expenses.
3. Lessconsumers.
ExternalRisks–
1. Riskdue tochanges inthe politicalsystem
2. Introductionofnewtaxationor other IPRrelatedpolicies
3. Therisk ofincreasing competitionis alsoalways prevalent.

36. Market– Not a hugeinitialmarket and chances of
defaultby customers. Weeven have a strong
competitionwith e-book marketlike kindle,
playbooks etc.
Customers – There is always a risk involved with
customers adapting to a new technologyand even
few customers would prefer libraries, and
sometimes people don’t like sharing their books
withstrangers.

38. OrganizationalPlan
PRESIDENT
Vice President
-Operations
Logistics
manager
Strategy
manager
Vice President
– Marketing
and Finance
Marketing
and finance
manager

39. Processes
Managing a holistic Marketing Organisation for the long run
Designing and Managing Integrated Marketing Communications
Designing and Managing Integrated Marketing Channels
Developing Pricing Strategies and Programs
Setting Product Strategy
Setting up Strategic Business Unit
Identifying Market segments and targets and crafting the Market Positioning
Defining the Android App’s mission: Identifying core competencies and choosing value
Analysing Business Markets
Analysing Consumer Markets
Scanning the Marketing Environment, Forecasting Demand, and Conducting Marketing Research

40. Schedule
Task Lead Time
Market Research 4 months
Analysis of Consumer and
Business Markets
3 months
Crafting Market Positioning 6 weeks
Setting up Strategic Business Unit 6 months
Setting Product Strategy 5 weeks
Developing Pricing Strategies 4 weeks
Designing Integrated Marketing
Channels
4 weeks
Designing Integrated
Communication Channels
4 weeks

42. Disclaimer
Created by Sameer Kumar Singh, BITS Pilani, as a part of
marketing internship under Prof. Sameer Mathur, IIM
Lucknow