Difficulty to imitate:

The application code is protected by patent law in Europe and America, which is a proof that it's impossible to create the same product. But the idea of ?location-based advertising may be reproduced in any other application where the option of positioning is in place. It can be concluded that the application is partially possible to imitate because some functions can be copied. Patent law related to social networks and applications poorly regulated in many countries. Slightly changing the idea, new companies can create an application-substitute, provided that the company does not become so popular as Instagram or Facebook in the short term. The market for mobile applications - highly competitive area, substitutes of HeadyUp appear every day, so the human factor in the choice of a product is fundamental.

Organization:

With regard to the criterion of organization of the company, it can be concluded that the company has not enough employees who are responsible for marketing of the project HeadyUp. Companies should hire a third-party marketing agency, which is known for its success in the promotion of mobile applications. If the company develops and gains more users, there should be organized sales department or made a special user-friendly functionality in the company website, for example the same as in Google AdWords, which will load the companies' partners ad content for further publication in the application. The company also has to organize its internal policies and regulations, organizational structure and culture for more coordinated work and for getting positive results.

CONCLUSION

Company HeadyUp passed already 2 steps of launching plan: pre-launch and launch. Now the application is on the after-launch phase. During the first pre-launch stage company made a marketing research, has built an application, tested it and prepared for introduction in the Appstore. Also the logo, slogan, design and the name of the product were created with the help of market and keyword researches. Monetization strategy was created in the continuous brainstorm that took place in the office every working week. Groups and pages in Facebook, Twitter, Vkontakte, Instagram were also created in the pre-launch time. Most influential press in Switzerland, Russia and Europe was contacted and press releases sent for the future publishing when the application was online. Moreover, the application was translated in English, Russian, German, French, Finnish and Portuguese.

Launch period was dedicated to marketing activities. After the company sent press releases, the Swiss press published articles in popular magazines and journals and in online versions of these media. Then the activity in social networks was established and daily posts were launched by marketing department, afterwards the blog about the application was created to increase number of users which is vital purpose of all these PR and marketing activities on this phase. To create product awareness the preview of the application in the Appstore was optimized for Swiss market. Summing up, launch phase of HeadyUp was not implemented with the full power the company could have used. First of all, there were not made creative social media campaigns, Appstore optimization, Mobile Ad campaign, Outreach of PR Database 1, 4 Million etc. Company should have made more effort for marketing the new product. Consequently, the rise of number of users was not that significant.

Currently company HeadyUp is on the after-launch stage, which is the time of analysis of past activities, change and optimization of them. For this purpose company decided to carry out the marketing research with the help of intern from another country. This paper helps company to analyse what's going on with the application and what company should make to gain more users. The detail plan of steps in the after-launch period was established through deep analysis and research. Based on 4P Marketing mix and quantitative and qualitative researches it was made the scheme which is describing what should be change and optimized. In addition, it was created Social media plan that company should follow to make better online presence.



Through VRIO-analysis it was identified that company has temporary competitive advantage, meaning that company resources have values and rarity but it's possible to imitate them. In spite of the fact that company code is patented, other application development companies can take an idea and implement it in different interface and design or built in some features of HeadyUp existing product, creating product-substitute. Summing up the received finding, it can be concluded that HeadyUp should work faster and should develop their creative marketing campaigns on attracting and retaining users.

SWOT-analysis helped to analyse internal risks and opportunities that company can face in current conditions. According to SWOT- analysis there are a lot of strengths that company has such as innovative habit-forming product, geo-targeting technology, actual trend- social networking etc. The strengths of the company help to build opportunities- the advantage of the company is that it doesn't have physical boarders so that the product can faster become global and increase user database. B2B customers of the company -other companies who want to advertise can benefit from the application by advertising their product globally. As for the internal risks or weaknesses- the biggest risk is has is reputation of location-based applications that monitor the location of every user. But according to quantitative research it was found out that privacy issues is not the biggest reason why users delete the application. Threats are that press starts to make negative PR about monitoring of the location-based applications at the same time makes them not interesting for potential users.

From the quantitative research it was identified that the best ways to advertise the product are Application Online magazines and journals and other social media platforms, then less effective are video ads and e-mails.

From the Financial bubbles part of the analysis, the price for different types of applications change up and down depending on which phase of the financial bubble the application is. The highest prices for popular applications are before the burst of the bubble. Now there is the trend that big IT companies buy small IT start-ups with big prices to compete with other giants. When the bubble bursts only these giant companies can predict, because they are creating the financial bubble. Now the time that can be described as peak of financial pyramid or the time before the burst of IT bubble, meaning that it's advised in financial profit purposes to sell the startup to the giant company in 2-3 years, when the prices are at the highest rate.



Figure 1.30-Social Media Plan for HeadyU

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ATTACHMENTS

Attachment 1 Focus group research questions

First question of focus group research

What kind of applications do you download most of the time? Can you describe in 2 -3 words?
Ilia:	Famous and which have a lot of users.
Denis:	Famous and new in the application market.
Karen:	I download famous in my community applications.
Dima:	Popular, which have a lot of users.
Oleg:	The same as Denis.
Dmitri:	Me? I download popular aps.

Second question of focus group research

What does influence you to download the application? Where do you get to know about new applications?
Ilia:	I get to know from my friends. Most of the time my best friend says about newcomers in the application market. Most of the times it goes like this: I have a need in something, for example to chat for free and not to pay for sms, so than I check free application for chatting according to ratings and reviews.
Denis:	There is exists the feature in the application - how many people downloaded the application. I choose by these criteria.
Karen:	From the social environment, for example from online social networks, from friends also. There are some people who are instantly sitting, checking out applications, like my friend Dima.
Dima:	I check application trends. But I think most of the time people get to know about new applications through friends.
Oleg:	I ask Dima to tell me about new applications.
Dmitri:	I choose by reviews, rating and then say my friends to download.

Third question of focus group research

What brand image do you have concerning Swiss IT companies? Do you pay attention to where the application was produced?
Ilia:	I don't know any application that was created in Switzerland.
Denis:	Well, I never check the producer of the application.
Karen:	Most of the time I download American applications. But it doesn't matter where it was produced.
Dima:	-
Oleg:	I download Russian or American.
Dmitri:	Most applications are created in US in Silicon Valley, so I think most of my applications are American.

Fourth question of the focus group research

What is the most important in the application that makes you to download the application?
Ilia:	Functionality. In other words the application should be made simple. For example, to take the picture you need to click 6 times- it is irrational application. The next is the number of stars the application has. If less than 3 stars I don't download. Then I read reviews. If there are first 2-3 reviews are good -I download.
Denis:	The application should be free.
Karen:	Only if it's free I download and then I watch the functionality.
Dima:	It's really important that the application is free and simple.
Oleg:	In Russia the application should be free- otherwise nobody downloads. But by the way I paid for whatsapp , because all my friends used it.
Dmitri:	The application for 1,5 $ is very expensive. Actually, I never paid for the application. I think the most important are reviews and description.

The fifth question of the focus group research

What do you think about geo-location based applications?
Ilia:	They are already long time ago invented. I don't think they will be popular.
Denis:	For me it's ok to share my location, I just don't have time for this.
Karen:	The time for location-based applications is gone
Dima:	As I know , for example Foursquare young people stopped using. It was trend for 1-2 years.
Oleg:	I don't use Swarm or Foursquare just because I'm too lazy to click the button of checkin in special place. It's not interesting to make a checkin anymore.
Dmitri:	Well, now instead of Foursquare there is the application Swarm, but I don't see my friends who use it.

Part 2. Testing of the application

The sixth question of the focus group research

You have tested the application; Could you tell us what do you feel about it? Do you like pictures of the application in the Application?
Ilia:	It's better to translate in Russian.
Denis:	-
Karen:	In the application on pictures the signs are in English. So that if the person from Russia wants to download the application, there appear misunderstanding. He or she probably thinks that it's in English and interface is also in English. And this person decides not to download the application.
Dima:	There are cool, beautiful pictures. The description in English is a big disadvantage.
Oleg:	People are neither positive nor negative. Pictures are standard, neutral. I don't feel anything negative. I would read the description of the application after.
Dmitri:	Pictures are normal, nothing special.

The seventh question of the focus group research

Do you like the logo of the application? (Colour, form, size)
Ilia:	It looks like Google maps a bit.
Denis:	HeadyUp? I think the white icon should be a bit bigger.
Karen:	I like the point in the logo like in Google maps.
Dima:	Really good logo. I like it maybe the icon should be bigger. Colours are ok.
Oleg:	-
Dmitri:	It's like all together - Instagram, Google maps and Foursquare.

The eighth question of the focus group research

What do you think about the idea of the application?
Ilia:	The idea is a bit old, but everything depends on users. If the company invests in marketing, gains users- people start to use it.
Denis:	Word-of-mouth advertisement will help to gain users.
Karen:	If there would be users- I will probably download it
Dima:	If it will be popular and in Russian- I will download it.
Oleg:	If you have free time- why not to use application, meet, chat with some new people.
Dmitri:	-

The ninth question of the focus group research

What would you change or develop in the application?
Ilia:	The company should make a chat inside this social network. If it will be possible to chat I download it. So there would be not only comments but also possibilities to chat with the person you like.
Denis:	Maybe if she or he don't want to chat with you first you need to add his or her to friends, if she or he accepts you then you can start chatting.
Karen:	For example, you see the map and you click the area where you want to find people to chat around. Then you choose some and start to chat with them if they don't want they don't reply or block you.
Dima:	Depends which direction the application follows. It will be cool if it would be like a dating platform.
Oleg:	Nothing. I like it, it's simple, but the user needs to have time to sit in it.
Dmitri:	I think for Russia it's the most actual if it would be like a dating application.

The tenth question of the focus group research

What do you think about design or functionality of the application?
Ilia:	I like the design. It's made the same as most of social networks.
Denis:	-
Karen:	I like the design of the application and functionality. But I, for example use my Iphone with IOs 7 system, the old version so that the application doesn't work in the old version.
Dima:	I like the design. It's really standard.
Oleg:	Design is simple.

Attachment 2 The interview with CEO of HeadyUp

How did you come up with idea of the application?	“I came up with the idea when I was in one of the Swiss phone retailer's shop. I took a picture on the sample phone in the shop and next day I came again and saw some other people's photo and I got the idea. I realised that I can make an application where I can see pictures depending on the place I go. Every place is a special moment and you share this moment with other people”.
It was difficult to find investors?	“No, when you are young it's much more easier to find investors, our first investor we met in the event.There is an event that is called Startup speed dating that is happening every year in the ETH University, where young IT entrepreneurs find investors and workers for their startups. I was searching for IT people for my team in this event and at the same time found the investor for the startup.”
What qualities do you think young entrepreneurs should have to start their own online business?	“They should be crazy, have courage to take risks and ability to build great teams.”
Do you think it's important to have IT knowledge, the knowledge how to code?	No. There is no big thing behind it, if you can code it doesn't mean that you would be the best and make successful application, especially when u still did not finish the University. “If u can code- it's amazing, if you can't -find people who can do it for you. (Instagram, Twitter, Spotify, Airbnb -none of founders of these companies had an IT knowledge)
What will you advise to do first when you already have an idea?	“To stop everything that distract you and focus on turning the idea into reality”
What is the main reason why you decided to start building startup?	“I just like to build things, I think it makes the World more interesting”
Why the name of the company is HeadyUp?	“We came up with this name just because it sounded great, nothing special behind it.”

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