The mobile application HeadyUp

After that survey respondents who use Appstore were asked the question: “Do you follow the application store trends such as the top free/ paid applications, the application of the week to download new applications? The question was made to identify whether this factor is the most influential on users' choice or not. 45% of respondents replied that they don't follow the Appstore trends while 55% said that they keep themselves up-to-date with trends in Application. (see Figure 1.7)

Figure 1.6-The amount of users that took part in the research according to the market they use to download application.

Figure 1.7-The influence of Application trends on users' choice to download the product

Next question was made to identify the most popular category of the application: “What type of applications do you use most often?” On this question 84 % of respondents replied “Social networks”, while other categories that interest users are games, news and photo& video which was 6% of respondents each. (see Figure 1.8)

Figure 1.8-The most downloaded and used types of applications

After that there was asked the set of questions concerning the usage of social networks such as “How many social networks do you have and use on your smartphome?”, “How do you feel when you decide to login or join a social network?” and “Why do you use social networks?” Concerning the amount of networks that people have and use on their devices there were identified several results: 42 %of respondents have on average 2-3 social networks, 32% of respondents have 3-6 social networks, while 16% have more than 6 and 11% just one social network. (see Figure 1.9)

It's known that social networks are habit-forming products, so in this research we found out about the feeling that triggers the user to come inside the social network. 39% of respondents feel bored and 33% feel curious before they decide to login, while 17% feel happy and want to share something, at the same time 10% feel the lack of news. (see Figure 1.10)

Figure 1.9-Average amount of social networks on one user's smartphone

Figure 1.10-The feeling that users have when they decide to login to social network

Another question was about the reasons why people use social networks. Most of the respondents use it for communication with friends and relatives, then educational reason, after that social network as like a time-killer for some respondents, and then the reason of using is to get some news. The weakest reason is self-realisation. (see Figure 1.11)

Next 2 questions: “Do you delete application from your smartphone?” and “Why do you delete applications?” They were dedicated to deleting process of the application. It was created to identify whether people delete applications or not and what are the reasons why do they delete applications. All respondents replied that they delete applications. The biggest reason for deleting applications is too much advertising. Second reason that made them to delete is idea of the application is not the same as in the description or the person is not satisfied how idea was replicated. Another reason why users delete applications is the problem in functionality- the application is too slow or with many bugs. Also 5 % of respondents mentioned the fear of being controlled with location by the application. (see Figure 1.12) At the end there were asked personal questions to group people according to age, place of living and occupation.

Figure 1.11-Reasons for using social networks

Figure 1.12- Reasons for deleting applications

2.2 Qualitative research

Qualitative research is a type of scientific research which traditionally seeks answers to questions, collects evidence, and produces findings that are limited by boundaries of the study. Additionally, it helps to understand the perception of the local population of the presented topic. Qualitative research is essential when you want to get opinions, values, social environments and behaviours. The use of qualitative research in connection with quantitative helps to research the data obtained from quantitative research more precisely. Qualitative method in this case gives better understanding of the results from quantitative research.

There are three most typical qualitative methods that researches use such as participant observation, in-depth interviews and focus groups. Participant observation is used to collect data from behaviours that appear naturally in usual environments. Another method is in-depth interview which is used to collect information about biography, personal stories, and experiences concerning sensitive information. The last type is focus group which is effective in obtaining the information from the specially sampled group of individuals. Through the quantitative study the researcher obtains data in video, audio format or record with the help of field notes.

In the case of HeadyUp were used two qualitative methods- focus group and in-depth interview. The focus group research helps to understand deeper from opinion side the data obtained through quantitative research. The focus group interview consisted of 5 questions on which the researcher received open answers. There were interviewed 6 people at the same time in the format of open discussion. The second part of focus group research had the goal to test the application and find some problems or difficulties the users face while using it.

Another quantitative method- interview was used in the research. The SEO of the company was interviewed where opinion and personal questions were answered to build the motivation strategy in the future.

Focus group research took place in the company “Vgarazhax.ru” which is located in Saint-Petersburg, Russia. 6 people participated in the focus group discussion. All participants are Russian citizens. 6 participants of the group were male. They are males from 22 to 26 years old. The Figure 1.13 shows age structure of the focus group. (See Attachment 2)

Figure 1.13-Age and gender structure of the focus group

Figure 1.14-Educational background of the focus group.

Educational background of the participants is shown in Figure 1.14. All of the participants are University graduates. 5 of them have Specialist degree (5 years) in Engineering, 1 has a Bachelor degree in IT.

Participants' occupation is presented on the Figure 1.15. Most of the participants are working full time. One is part time employee.

Figure 1.15- Participants occupation

Figure 1.16 presents the data about first description that comes to their minds when they think about the application to download. All of the participants said that they download normally famous or popular applications. Also 3 of them put the “new” as a descriptive term for the applications that they choose.

Figure 1.17 shows influential factors that make the participant to download the application. The triggers for action are most of the time friends - 5 participants agreed. Then 3 participants mentioned reviews of the application, another one other social networks and 4 others said that rating in the Application helps them to choose the right application.



Figure 1.16- The description of qualities that application should have to be downloaded

Figure 1.17-Factors that influence people to download the application

The next data concerns the importance of the brand image of Swiss IT companies while choosing the application. All participants don't know any applications that were produced in Switzerland. 1 participant replied that he downloads only Russian or American. Others don't pay attention to the origin of the application. (see Figure 1.18)

Figure 1.18-Awareness of the “Swiss made” brand for mobile applications in Russia.

Next question was about the most important features that application should have for successful flow of new users. 2 participants of the interview said that the most important is functionality and 2 -simplicity. Another 6 answers were that the application should be free of charge. (see Figure 1.19)

All respondents have negative opinion concerning the future of geo-location based applications. The reasons for stop using location-based applications are: it's not new, not innovative idea (4 respondents), lack of time (1 respondent), lack of motivation(1 respondent). (see Figure 1.20)



Figure 1.19- Features that the application should have to increase the traffic

Figure 1.20- Reasons for not using location-based applications

The second part of focus group research was consisted of questions concerning the testing of the application. Respondents downloaded the application from the Application, tried to use it and then joined the discussion.First question was about the opinion on the applicationearance of the application in the Application.

All respondents agreed that pictures describing application in the Application are standart, neutrial and they don't feel anything negative about people on pictures. Then 2 of 6 respondents mentioned that all text in pictures is in English, which brings misunderstanding about the language of the application. The respondent added that if the application is not translated in Russian, it won't be popular in Russian market. Another respondent admitted that pictures don't trigger the person to download the application, so that he will read the description before the decision to download, adding that the description should be also translated in Russian market.

The next question was about the logo that applicationears on the screens of the Iphones when you download HeadyUp application.

Colours are satisfied all of respondents. 3 of respondents compared the logo with Google maps logo and found similarity.2 others said that the white symbol inside the logo should be bigger.

The third question discusses the idea of the application whether respondents find it interesting or not special. Respondents were neither excited nor disapplicationointed with the idea, they said that the main focus application should make on gaining more users. 4 of them admitted that if the application is popular with a many users they will download it. Other 2 respondents think that if the company makes an influence on advertising the application becomes popular.

Next question was about the opinion of the design and functionality of the application. All respondents like the design, describing it as standard and simple. As for functionality many people in Russia still use the old IOs system versions starting from 7, because they don't like the design of the new version and the speed of the performance.( see Figure 1.21)

The fourth question was about the features that should be developed in the application to make it more engaging. The first respondent liked the application like it is now and said that there is nothing to change. 4 other admitted that in the application should be implemented the possibility to chat with the person you like.4 other opinions were about changing of the direction to be a dating platform rather than news application. Another opinion was about implementation of the friends request feature which brings the opportunity to decide whether to chat or not with the person you like. (see Figure 1.23)

Figure 1.21-Design and functionality satisfaction

Figure 1.22- Features needed in the application for users' attraction and strong engagement

Figure 1.23- Users' satisfaction of design and functionality

2.3 Single case study on the company HeadyUp

The research paper is written for the company so that the best method to use is single case study. One of discoverers of case study research, Robert Yin defines single case study as “an empirical enquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon in depth and within its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident”. [31, p.65]

The single case study was chosen for the thesis because the researching topic is quite deep and the object of the research is unique and specific. In other words, as like scientists prove single case study is an intensive study of one unit. In the case of this research the one unit is company HeadyUp. [36]

The case study gives the information how to come up with the idea of the startup, where to find potential investors, where to produce, analyse what kind of revenue model is better to use, how to monetize the project, how to calculate the evaluation, how to establish the company in Switzerland, how to bring the product online, how to attract and retain users. The real example of the company proves that the information obtained through the HeadyUp case study is reliable.

HeadyUp is a location-based photo/video-sharing platform that focuses on allowing users to share photos and videos of what's happening around them with those geographically connected to them. The platform allows users to share places to go, things to do, current happenings, and worth-sharing moments with those around them. This enables and promotes users to have interaction with those around them in real-time. The user's engagement with HeadyUp is then translated into over 70 real-time metrics that provide businesses a more accurate understanding of the customers around them.

The idea of a startup is unique because there are no more alternative applications that can link one person to another on the map, not being a dating platform. Many features can be compared with the application Instagram, but it is not based on the location and it is not possible to see what is happening in the world on live map with pictures. In addition HeadyUp can be used as a means of obtaining real news from ordinary people as pictures can be done only when the location is shared and application doesn't allow using filters. With the wide spread of false information in the social media and mass media people don't trust the information they see and hear. The application HeadyUp can help people to start finding out what is really happening in the world around them.

The 24 hours concept is that the application deletes automatically all posted in the map media after 24 hours. There are two reasons for incorporation of this concept: HeadyUp delivers to users only fresh news and media because otherwise there will be not enough place in the map to post all media without deleting. Secondly, company minimize its expenses on payments for the online storage in the server.

Nowadays there are many location-based applications in the mobile-market. The most popular are Foursquare, Google maps, Instagram. Giants of IT industry introduce new location-based features in their internet products like Facebook or Vkontakte. After the researcher conducted the interview with the CEO of the company, she found out how he with his cofounder found the idea. The idea came into mind of one of founders by accident. Basically, the creator found the solution to the problem that he discovered in reality. According to the answer of one of the questions of the interview, the CEO of the company came up with the idea when he was in one of the Swiss phone retailer's shop. He took a picture on the sample phone in the shop and next day he came again and saw some other people's photo and he got the idea. He realised that he can make an application where everybody can see pictures depending on the place he or she goes. He said: “Every place is a special moment and you share this moment with other people”. (See Attachment 2)

By the law, the company should set the minimum number of founders, which can be either individuals or representing the interests of company. In the company HeadyUp two founders - individuals who have developed a charter company and one shareholder. In terms of investment, incorporated company is the most profitable to invest capital in. Since the incorporation is the subject to public reporting, company HeadyUp discloses data on the number of shares and the evaluation of the company online. From the official sources it's known that the company's share capital is CHF 100,000. The company has issued 10,000,000 shares with a nominal price of 0.01 Swiss francs per share. Shares are distributed between the investor and the company's two founders.

At the seed stage or introduction, the company consisted of two founders and a computer developer of the project. During the seed stage of the project was developed a prototype of the application, and then testing was carried out by inner circle of founders. At that time there was no specific organizational and functional structure.

Then the stage of growth was marked by an official registration of the company and informal links between the project participants. Communication between investors, researchers and founders did not require a formalisation. At the late growth stage, there appeared a sign of functionality of business tasks: Marketing and IT departments. Departments formed a flat hierarchy, providing management with flexibility. When workers were hired to the company there were established formal relationships. In the next step - maturity, the company acquired an organizational structure.

HeadyUp Company has a functional organizational structure as the structuring is made according to functions: the IT development and marketing. The functional structure includes clear, precise subordination. Founders of the company are fully controlling all departments and processes of the company. The company at this stage has functional organizational structure because it produces the same type of products - mobile applications, and in 2015 only one product- project HeadyUp.( see Figure 1.24)

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Figure 1.24- Organisational structure of HeadyUp

It's common for IT projects in the first stage of funding to find the first capital through connections of friends and relatives. The creator of the idea took the same path. Being IOS back engineer, he asked his friend to become cofounder for certain amount of money and percentage. The role of the founder was to program and implement the base of the application- 50% of the design. The cofounder was first investor, who was responsible for marketing activities in the future.

During the second stage of funding founders of the company found the investor. There is an event that is called “Startup conference” that is happening every year in the ETH University, where young IT entrepreneurs find investors and workers for their startups. The CEO of the company was searching for IT people for his team in this event and at the same time found the investor for the startup. The investor was impressed not only by the idea but also by the young entrepreneur capabilities, who spoke 5 languages and knew 6 coding languages. The first investor invested 6 digit numbers and the business evaluation came to 10 million francs. Now the company is on the 3d stage of funding. It is searching for private investors or Venture Funds that are ready to invest in the startup. Below is presented the calculation of the percentage the next investor receives if he or she invests $100 000. ( see Table 1.3)

Table 1.3- Calculation of the investor's percentage (HeadyUp Management Team)

*Pre-money valuation = $10 000 000 *VC investment= $100 000
Post-money valuation= $10 000 000+$100 000= $10 100 000 The VC investor %= $100 000/$10 100 000=0,0099=0,1%

After having found more investors company wants to grow and expand the customer bases. Later if it becomes successful founders with the board of investors plan to sell to one of the IT giants or if the company generates revenue to go for the IPO.

The company signed contracts with the major retailers in Switzerland such as Migros, Coop and Denner concerning location-based advertisement in the application in the future. The concept of location-based advertising is that the application saves the information about the location of the user while he or she uses it, HeadyUp processes this information and when the visitor is located near the point of sale, sends location-based advertising - for example, special offers of the partner company, which user visits. Company partners make budget and pay CPM-cost per 1000 impressions. The company plans to make partnerships with fashion boutiques, cafes, restaurants and famous hotels in Switzerland and Europe, and later in Russia. The process of selling advertising space in the application consists of several steps:

- The Company makes a contract with a partner that every time the user is viewing the application in 30 meters from the advertised business, the user receives a bonus or special offer, if a mobile application is in the online mode.

- The partner company provides HeadyUp with advertising content for publishing in the application

- HeadyUp advertises the partner company in the application every time when users are in the 30 meters area from the partner's place or event

- The partner company pays the fix price for the 1000 views

Figure 1.25-The process of selling advertising space in the application

Considering the SWOT-analysis of business process of selling advertising space and time in the application Heady Up, strengths of the business process is that location-based advertising - is a new marketing tool that will not create a negative, irritating effect on the visitor, because it is adapted in time and place. Secondly, mobile application HeadyUp is a habit forming product. Its purpose - to form a habit to switch on application every time a person goes out and wants to know what is happening in the world or around himself or herself in the place which he or she cannot see in reality. Having formed the habit, the company receives the loyalty of users. At the same time, users are interested in using the application, receiving reward, bonuses in the form of accumulation of points, discounts or gifts from partner companies for their work- publishing some media content and visiting different places.

Table 1.4- SWOT Analysis of selling advertising place in the application

Strengths	Weaknesses
Geo-targeting advertisement Users receive rewards in the form of discounts in partner companies New way of advertising cheaper than traditional	Users only with Apple smartphone can download the application Not well-organized process of the selling process ( partner companies can't upload ads in the website, they need to send to moderator of the application If the phone is switched off user can't receive notifications Negative reputation about location based applications
Opportunities	Strengths
If the application will be popular around the World, the scope of partner companies customers' increases- the product advertised globally. Company builds a positive reputation without using aggressive methods of advertising.	Negative reputation can decrease number of users. If the number of users decreases because of negative reputation- application can't earn money with advertisement.

With regard to the weaknesses of a business process, only those users who have Apple smartphone may be involved in the game of earning rewards. The company has not yet come to the idea on ??how you can automate the download of advertising content in the application website so now developers are actively working to resolve this issue. Currently they have already established the algorithm that exhibits advertising at the time when the user is 30 meters from the point of sale, but there is no feature that gives an opportunity to download the advertising by the partner online. If the phone is switched off, it does not receive notifications about discounts and promotions of partner company. Additionally, some bloggers formed the negative reputation about location-based applications, admitting that they violate privacy concerns of people and see their location.

Opportunities of business sales process of advertising space and time is about the fact that if the application will be popular around the world, anyone with the application will be able to view information about the company and being in the point of sale, will receive special bonuses. Also, with the expansion to new markets the company will have bigger profit. In addition, as the number of users in the company increases - the partners automatically increase the number and the company builds a positive reputation without using aggressive methods of advertising. The more loyal users the application has the more loyal customers the application brings to the partner company.

Concerning threats, companies do not want to enter into the partnership due to the low efficiency of the instrument. Also the reason for decrease of the number of users may be that the privacy rights of people are violated, because the company is aware of their location. Another threat includes the possibility that people won't like the application and the number of users decreases.

The number of users of the company HeadyUp grows every day around the World. To the end of the 2015 year company plans to have 1 000 000 users.

According to the data from the similar application that is made in US, the average amount of views of one user per month is 1200 views. Based on user-driven mobile applications market average, the CPM is from $1,48 to $1,78 and there are 14400 views per user per year. The Average pre-revenue for the 2 first years when the business grows rapidly is 57 million received from investors. The advertising revenue comes to zero in the first years, that is why there are many IT startup companies don't make revenue first years and have losses. The second or third years company starts to make advertising revenue which is calculated from the formula of CPM.

Table 1.4- The formula for calculation of advertising revenue [17]

Advertising revenue= number of users*number of views/1000*eCPM

Advertising revenue minus expenses is Net Income . The net income of successful startups grows every year. At the same time the price for the IT product also grows up. Other IT giants or investors can buy the project on the price of Project Valuation. Company HeadyUp doesn't give an access to financial statements or cash flow, so that it's possible only to predict but not to calculate with real figures financial revenue in the research. Company plans to attract users from other platforms such as Vine, Instagram, Twitter to increase traffic in the application. ( see Figure 1.26)

To introduce IT company to the World the website of the company was created and the link how to download the application was adapted in the website. The website included the description of the application, pictures and ways how people use it. Additionally, after launching the application, marketing assistant managed the blog where she posted some popular pictures users uploaded in the application. The site was easy to navigate, with the simple web address the same as company name. Also there is contact information, fresh interesting content with friendly design and style.

One of the tools that were used to analyse the product performance and perception is Marketing Mix 7P. It consists of 7Ps: product, price, place, promotion, people, physical evidence and process. 7P is very important to make when the company introduces the new product to the market. In case of the company HeadyUp the new product is the mobile application.

Product

Mobile application is a location-based photo/video-sharing platform that focuses on allowing users to share photos and videos of what's happening around them with those geographically connected to them. The quality of the product is very high, there are not much bugs and the application doesn't crash. Concerning the usability- an average consumer can use the application and face no difficulties because the design and interface are familiar and made like in other social networks, where user has a profile with pictures, comments, likes, a newsfeed etc. From the prospective of habit-forming products, it's advised that the default screen of the app is changes to the camera option, so that the user understands that the main activity is to take a picture or video and share with the whole World. As about versions of iOS, the product is built for the latest iOS version, which makes it not possible to download for users who didn't refresh the system. Additionally, the application is optimized only for holders of Iphone 5, Iphone 6 and Iphone 6+, which narrows the scope of users. Company should think how to adapt the app for earlier versions of the iOS and build the app for holders of Iphone 4 and Iphone 4S. Design is simple and minimal and how it was found in the qualitative research people are satisfied with it. Geo-targeting technology is incorporated in the product that makes it as an interesting marketing tool for partner companies. Also the company wants that users make the word-of-mouth advertising, so that more people would be willing to tell friends and family about the new application. The trigger for the action to download and open the app are curiosity and boredom, so that the company should take into account what kind of notifications to incorporate for engagement of users

Price

The price for the application is free in order to secure users that they don't have any risks to download the application. But the company in the future wants to make revenue with location-based advertisements that users are going to see on their screens. The price that companies are going to pay will be for 1000 views of the advertisement calculated with eCPM formula. CPM component should be adapted by location where the advertisement is viewed, number of users and number of views per one user. Then the special algorithm should be made to calculate the price according to currents indexes.

Place

The product is sold in the Appstore that is only on Apple devices. According to the survey made for this research paper Word-of-mouth and Appstore trends are the most often used sources, from where users get to know about applications.

Concerning Appstore trends, there are 9 reviews of the app in the preview page which estimate the app with the 4+ rating in the market. From the survey it was found that people download application that has at least 3+ rating. The application is not in top ratings yet, but it's possible to find it by the name. It was identified that if the application is free of charge and with interesting idea users download it. Then they pay attention to the description, which should be translated to the language of the Appstore and with good pictures. Analysing HeadyUp Appstore preview, it can be concluded that it's free, with description only in English and neutral pictures. Company should adapt the language in which description is written to the language of users, and find pictures that influence users to download the application.

Promotion

For the promotion of the application there are used different marketing and PR tools. At the beginning company started to promote itself with such PR tool: the Swiss and Russian press were contacted for writing the article about the founder and the company for free. Then expert opinion blogs joined to promote the application. Company has a budget to spend on marketing. HeadyUp wants to pay to some technological websites to appear in their pages such as Techcrunch, Mashable etc. Also it's creating the Application video for posting it in YouTube. After making some partnerships with companies that want to be advertised in the application HeadyUp appears in their printed material magazines in points of purchase and in their websites. According to the research next the most influential and often used sources are online articles and social networks. HeadyUp is present in some online media, but it needs to take more effort to be present in English, Russian and US online media. The company has its company pages in Twitter, Facebook, Vkontakte that don't have daily update of posts- HeadyUp should make the SMO marketing plan that will show what should be done to attract new users. Additionally, company should put the budget and spend on Facebook ads for the targeted advertising.

Physical Evidence

The application is for free so that B2C customers don't lose value while downloading the application. But as for B2B customers the quality of the product should reflect the price for the advertisement and innovativeness of the product. The eCPM should be adapted to the county where advertisement is sold, to the number of users and number of views per one user. The application should be tested by outside company and test research made to improve the quality of the application. Concerning appearance, users like the logo of the app and colours, the one thing to change is the small size of the icon. Design is simple and minimal and how it was found in the qualitative research people are satisfied with it.

People

As it was found out from the single case study company background, there are 4 programmers which are all specialist for creating IOs application. Company should recruit people who will be developing Android version of HeadyUp, because of the reason that half of respondents that complete the survey have devices that operate in the Android platform. The people component can be described also in a way that the application is the replacement of people who distribute fliers nearby points of purchase. HeadyUp can replace this job in the market. Only people who want to have special offers -receive them. Additionally, company should employ marketing specialist or outsource marketing activities to specializing in mobile application promotion PR and marketing agency.

Process

As about interactions between the user and the company there is a company website with contact details, Appstore reviews and other social networks' company pages and groups. The company wants that the user will form the habit of using the application every time he or she goes out or discover new places. Results of the survey shows that social network that enables to communicate with friends, spend free time and get news -the product that people want. HeadyUp provide people with World news but it should implement the feature to communicate with other users. It was identified that people were not exited with the idea but everybody agreed that they are going to use it if only there would be more users. Another thing was found is that people compare HeadyUp with othr location-based applications and don't see differences and don't understand the idea, so that marketers should find the strategy on how to communicate the uniqueness of the idea. Concerning B2B customers- partner companies - the process of uploading the advertisement material and calculation of the price per 100 views should be optimized by implementing special feature in the website of HeadyUp.

Articles in influential Swiss magazines can push the traffic to the application. People get to know the success story about the company and the main information about the application and download the product. To measure how many users company received after press-related PR activities there were made calculations.



Figure 1.27-The business process of publishing of the article about HeadyUp in Swiss press

To identify whether the articles in influential magazines bring new users to the application and consequently revenue, we need to calculate the number of users in the application before and after the usage of PR tool and PR tool expenditure.

PR tool expenditure

Table 1.5-PR activities' expenses

Phone calls	10 CHF
Professional photo session	80 CHF
Professional photos of people and mock-ups	10 CHF
Total:	100 CHF

Table 1.6- Number of users before and after publishing of articles

	30.03.2015	26.04.2015
Number of users before publishing of 2 articles	100
Number of users after publishing of 3 articles		985

985 -100=885 - Number of users attracted with the help of PR tool.

According to the statistics about advertisement in startups, that use CPM monetization method (Average fixed price for 1000 impressions) dated to 2013 year, the average fixed price for 1000 views is $1,43. In the popular application every user views the advertisement 14 400 times a year, meaning that he or she views the ad 1200 times a month. Not popular application has 300 views a month.

Table 1.7-Calculation of the revenue received from accomplished PR activities

885 users*300 impressions=265 500 impressions
265 500 impressions\1000*$1,78 =$427,59 (403,57 CHF) a month

Table 1.8-Calculation of the effectiveness of accomplished PR activities

Effectiveness =Revenue from the accomplished PR events \expenditure on PR events Ef.=403, 57 CHF \100CHF=4

From the calculated results it can be concluded that publishing of articles in Swiss press is economically effective tool for increasing the number of users and consequently revenue of the startup.

Marketing department of HeadyUp established the Social Media plan. First of all, there was created the internet page where potential users could have found information about the application. Secondly, pages in influential online social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Vkontakte were created and promoted by marketing department. After that it was advised for founders to change their pages of social networks in professional way. The reason is that nowadays people treat and trust company by evaluating the picture of the CEO in social networks and information he or she shares. The next step was implemented to become close to customers. Founders of the company made professional pages in Linkedin to talk with potential investors and users. Other social network is one of the best tools to promote a small business. Twitter gives the opportunity to become close friend with your customers and value them. So that it was created the personal page of the CEO of the company in Twitter where he twitted news about the company and retwitted interesting content from users of the application. Additionally it was created the page of the company that was promoted in different Twitter groups to gain new users. Then the HeadyUp team measured which social media channels are the most efficient and focused on developing these areas.

Finally, after the first investment company had a capital and it was possible to invest it in marketing. To choose the best strategy for advertising the product the marketing research was conducted. Marketing assistant created the survey and distributed among Universities and posted online in different social networks. During this research the collected data is analysed and conclusions on which marketing channels to use were implemented. The information on the best marketing channel is presented in the conclusions part of the research.

A SWOT analysis influenced by critical thinking can show the overall situation of mobile applications market and can help in making strategies for entering this market. Also, it is really useful tool for analyzing current performance of the company and if needed for finding ways how to improve it.

Looking from the prospective of strengths of HeadyUp this company can be described as a pioneer in the online applications market. HeadyUp has a patent on the code of the application and brand name, which already well-known in Switzerland because of big presence in local newspapers. Furthermore, HeadyUp has one of the best programmers who were involved in creation of PayPal before, that created the application, the resource base is unique and with big experience. The company which is working together with HeadyUp and providing server is well-known around the world and bring connections to advertise and fund the start-up. The idea of the product is unique and there are not much analogues to existing application. The new geo-targeting technology is implemented making the application progressive application in the market. From the marketing perspective, the product is developed in the European market, in comparison to majority created in US that makes it attractive for European users and European investors. The product is global meaning that every person who has the smartphone can use the application which expands the scope of customers and at the same time the advertising opportunities for corporate clients. Users of HeadyUp are already in most countries in EU, North America and Russia. The real time news idea is the way on how people can get the independent information from first hands. This can change the way how people receive information and change the picture of nowadays media channels.

Concerning weaknesses of the application the product wasn't tested by many users and there was no marketing research that identifies the drawbacks of the product. There are some bugs in the performance of the product that applicationeared because of lack of testing. Also Apple didn't applicationrove the video feature due to privacy issues. Application works only on Apple devices that make the scope of the market narrow. The product doesn't have clear monetization strategy or financial model. The marketing plan is needed to be improved.

As about opportunities HeadyUp can develop the Android version that will help to gain more users and expand customers' bases on other mobile devices. If the customer bases expand to global level, big IT giants like Facebook or Google will be interested to buy the company. Additionally, the application code is protected by the law so other companies can't make the copy of the product. Geo-targeting technology can change the way of marketing research in many companies. For example, with the application corporations can track how many people came to the point of purchase, where did they spend the most of their time, how many times there were in particular place etc. With offered monetization strategy the application can earn money all around the World, but it's difficult to implement it.

Based on the unique idea of independent news it can be a revolutionary application that will change perception of traditional media channels. Companies can use HeadyUp as a new advertising tool based on the location of the customer.

Threats analysis shows that privacy issues can be a negative sign that makes people stop using the application. It's not allowed to film people without their permission by law in many countries. The current research can find out features that users don't like that will result in higher costs for developing of the application. Privacy issue can make newspapers to post negative information about the company, spoiling the brand image of the company. If financial model doesn't work, the company won't generate the revenue from advertisement.

All in all, the climate of developing the start-up with such unique idea is positive. There are more opportunities than threats and strengths than weaknesses. The research on the company is essential, because it will help to identify the wants and wishes of currents users that lead to improvement and better adaption of the product to the user.

First of all, to find prospective workers and investors HeadyUp was present in many University events. In one of the events which was called StartUp Conference in ETH HeadyUp founder found first private investor. The next step was to contact all printed and online media in Switzerland to advertise the company across the country and attract new investors and users. Articles about the company and CEO were published in almost all influential printed media in Switzerland, France, Germany, Austria and Russia such as Walliser Bote, 20 Minuten, Blick am Abend, Startup.ch, Heute.de, Metro.ru, etc. Additionally, influential tech bloggers made posts about the new application to evolve the popularity of the product. Then venture companies around the World were contacted. Now the company negotiates deals with private investors that found HeadyUp through media presence and Venture Funds.

The third stage of networking process in company HeadyUp is that representatives of the startup attend different networking events in the role of speakers. One of the events that CEO is going to participate is called Web Summit 2015 that takes place in Dublin, Ireland.

One of the most frequent questions that small companies try to find answers on is how to attract customers. To solve this problem in HeadyUp management team followed the plan on how to gain users online and offline that was built with the help of different sources.

First of all, the team made the descriptive content that gave a feeling for prospective users that they would download the application, appropriate pictures and mock-ups were ordered from professional web designer. The message that the advertising had was focused on target customers. Examples of post in Facebook, that HeadyUp created is in the attachment 4.

Secondly, referrals were also important in building users network. The aim of the startup is not just gain users but also to make them use the application all the time. Referrals in HeadyUp case were users who liked the application. They were asked to share the information about the company in their social environments.

Currently, the company seeks for other companies who have the same target audience, so that they can share their customers' database in exchange of benefit they receive from HeadyUp. The last point of the plan -strategic alliances was not implemented, because company is not that big and doesn't have a profit yet that it can collaborate with big companies.

Through the conducted quantitative research we identified what company should change to attract new users in Russian market and engage current users. First of all, the application in the Russian Appstore should be optimized in the way that the description, reviews, the text on pictures should be translated to Russian language, because people think that if the information of the application presented in English, the user experience also will be in English. It was found out that HeadyUp has standard, not attention-grabbing pictures in the Application preview so that the company should find such pictures that trigger users to download the application. One of the most important factors of download is that the application will be free of charge, so the user doesn't have a risk to spend money on the application that he or she doesn't like. As for the design and logo respondents were satisfied with offered solutions, just some of them marked that the white symbol of the logo should be bigger to see it more clearly. Focus group respondents were neither excited nor negative about the idea of the application. They mentioned that there are many location-based applications in the Appstore. From this finding HeadyUp can make the conclusion that they need to change the direction of the application. For example, to make it similar to dating platform but at the same time people can have a possibility to get to know about World news.

Concerning the functionality it was found that in Russia many users with IOs devices didn't refresh the system of the device to the new version so that many new applications they can't download in their system. Developers should think about finding the solution to this problem. Having changed the direction of the application, features such as chat, private profiles and follow requests should be implemented in the application. The chat option is a big disadvantage of the application. To attract users there should be also carried out different marketing activities. It was found in focus group research that friends' advices, Appstore trends and other social networks are biggest influencers and sources of the information about new applications for Russian users. The results of the quantitative survey are presented in the scheme below.

In order to determine whether resources and capabilities of the company are its weakness or strengths in existing environment of threats and opportunities it was made VRIO-analysis. Company HeadyUp was assessed by 4 criteria: value, rarity, difficulty to imitate and support by organization. (See Figure E1). These 4 criteria are the most important for the formation of competitive advantages of the company HeadyUp. Through the analysis we have identified that HeadyUp has temporary competitive advantage.

Value:

Application HeadyUp benefits its users because it provides them with honest news in the form of photos and videos from around the world and helps to establish contacts with people around the world. The application helps companies to deliver advertising to the future customers, which is adapted by place and time. From the companies' point of view, location-based advertising increases the flow of visitors and respectively, sales of partner companies. Another valuable advantage is the ability of companies to know the statistics of visits to specific point of sale: the date, time, duration, frequency of visits of the customer, which is very important for the study of conditions the client will most likely buy a product or service, as well as to predict the number of visitors during the day.

Rarity:

The idea of a startup is unique because there are no more applications that can link one person to another on the map, not being a dating platform. Many features can be compared with features in the application Instagram, but it's not based on the location and it is not possible to see what is happening in the world on live map with pictures. In the future, in the application- partners can place location-based advertising, which is also a unique idea that has not yet been used in the world. So far, targeted advertising on the Internet is used in corporations such as Facebook and Google and Vkontakte, but there is no company that would be using targeted and location-based advertising in the real world, which is based on the application. Also ads that will appear in the application will not irritate the users as they are adapted in time and place. As a consequence, users for the frequent use of the application will be awarded with points that they can exchange into discounts or gifts at points of sale.

The developers of the company HeadyUp are rare and with high qualifications because they have from 5 to 10 years of experience each which is an advantage over other companies.

Figure 1.28-VRIO-Framework. [21]