Product Marketing & Launch Strategy: MyFamilyGiftList

Laura Kastilani, Mishika Narula, Dakota Calvert, Matt Ney

Professor Kumar Sarangee, Marketing 187
Survey Demographics

Our concept test survey was sent out to 85 different users. We strived to use a “snowball”

method of sampling, meaning that we trusted each individual to send the survey to another. We

used different mediums to transmit our survey. We created Facebook posts asking friends to send

the survey link to their families, as well as sent individual messages to our mothers and family

friends to ensure that our results were reflective of a wide demographic. The latter method

allowed us to find respondents who were not directly in our social circles. A little about our

demographics: 46.2% of our survey respondents were male and 50.7% were female. The

remaining percentage is comprised of individuals who prefered not to state their gender. The

majority of our respondents were 20-30 years old -- a range that reflects individuals that are

commonly proficient in technology. Individuals older than 60 years made up 5.9% of our total

respondents. The bulk of survey takers were students, encompassing over 57.6% of the total

responders. In respect to occupation, 8.2% of respondents were self employed business owners

and 24.7% were working professionals. The additional 9.4% checked the box titled “other,” so

we suppose they do not work.

For your reference, the concept statement displayed for respondents read as follows:

“GiftGen is a mobile application that allows users to build personal profiles to include significant

attributes and details about themselves that are particularly useful in the gift giving selection.

These attributes include clothing sizes, favorite foods and activities, birth date, and important

milestones. GiftGen takes these unique preferences and curates gifts personalized to individuals,

and provides a list of sellers with the best deals and coupons available. Moreover, users can enter

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social circles where they can access all these user profiles, and will receive push notifications for

upcoming gift-giving opportunities.”

Concept Test Results

Our concept test revealed that, 71.8% of the respondents had a ​“Very Positive” ​(27.1%)

or ​“Somewhat Positive”​ (44.7%) first reaction to the product with the balance going to ​“Neutral,

Somewhat Negative, or Very Negative.”​ This finding gave an initial impression that the concept

may stand on solid footing and be viable. However, the Top 2 box score for trialability only

contained 38.9% of the respondents. Surprisingly, the Top 2 box score for how likely the

respondents are to recommend the product increased to 48.2% of respondents. The 9.3%

difference between the trialability and recommendations is an anomaly and could be explained

by the age of our respondents. 57.6% of our respondents are students who lack a discretionary

income and may have thought to recommend the app to their parents who have a higher

discretionary income. The survey revealed that 74.1% of respondents select gifts by ​“Prior

personal knowledge of recipient’s preferences.”​ Combined with the 65.8% Top 2 box score

attributed to gift personalization, the results confirm our findings from the initial report that

personalization is an important factor when selecting gifts.

However, when respondents were asked about their need for GiftGen only 4.7% selected

“I need this product,”​ with the remainder 77.6% responding ​“I don’t really need this product

but it might come in handy,” ​and 17.6% responding ​“I don’t need this product at all.”​ When

asked why or why not they would use the app respondents said, ​“If I’m giving a gift to someone,

I know them well enough that this app won’t help me,” “Gifts should come from the heart,” and

“I could just ask the person.”​ These responses reveal that the app may not give a feeling of

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personalization that the giver wants. Even though the app would create a personalized list of

presents, we recognize that the the giver wants to feel as though he or she is individually picking

out a gift. Using an app strips away the “effort,” or thought process, one generally remembers

from the gift selection process.

The viability of this app relies on the adoption of it by the target users. Since the app

requires gift givers to have the recipient download the app it would be difficult to create a strong

user base. With respect to pricing, a few respondents voiced their concern that the app should be

free and should use, ​“advertisements on the website to generate revenue.”​ In order for the app to

be viable, widespread adoption is needed. Generating the user base needs to be the top priority

and may be hard to acquire repeat users since a majority of respondents said, ​“I don’t really need

this product but it might come in handy”.

Post Market Research: Our Proposed New Product

Our secondary market research proved that individuals (irrespective of age) wish to

provide people with meaningful, personalized presents. Gift-giving is difficult, but when

searching for a personal present, it gets even harder. Our primary research indicates that 65.3%

of individuals believe gift personalization is central to the gift giving process, particularly to

make the recipient feel truly appreciated. Thus, the pain point is the absence of a tool to simplify

the gift selection process (note: not the organization process).

Using MyFamilyGiftList’s “social circles” concept, and considering our newly defined

pain point, we came up with ​Gift Generator​ (for the purpose of our report, we changed the name

created by Nicole and Beth to better align with the product outlined below). ​Gift Generator​, an

application, allows users to build a profile with information such as shoe size, likes/dislikes,

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preferred shops, pastimes, and social causes individuals are passionate about. That being said,

when asked to explain concerns for the GiftGen concept, fourteen survey respondents noted

“privacy” as their primary concern. In order to mitigate the perceived “intrusive” nature of the

app, we will use Facebook login for our login system. In this case, a user signs up for the app

using Facebook login, an account is created for him or her, and the authentication step is taken

care of by Facebook. This method will allow GiftGen to retrieve user profile information through

Facebook, reducing any security skepticism. Profile information will include, but is not limited

to, one’s birthday, gender, Facebook friends (allowing you to create your “social circle”), and

hobbies/interests (if listed). It is worth noting that if a user has willingly shared this information

on Facebook, the user is aware of the personal information he or she has selected to disclose

(shoe size or shirt size in this case would no longer be incorporated into the product idea).

GiftGen will not request information beyond the details on one’s Facebook profile.

A supplementary component to ensure maximum security would be the removal of an

in-app purchasing function. Rather, to purchase a product, the user will be redirected to the

store’s online shopping basket to begin the checkout process.

Upon creating or joining a social circle, ​Gift Generator​ would curate options for you

based off of your friend’s or family member’s (Facebook) profile preferences. Each item

suggested will have several alternatives so the purchaser can take into account discounts,

location of store, etc. The same notion applies for services. All external links will be from secure

and reputable websites. This will enhance the credibility of ​Gift Generator​.

This adapted concept tackles logistical problems. It is no longer necessary for a consumer

to stress over decisions such as sizes and duplication (as the app will not list suggestions that

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other friends in the social circle have already purchased). Our VOC results indicated that

consumers shop heavily for presents during the holiday season. This positions ​MyFamilyGiftList

as a seasonal business. ​Gift Generator​ is not a seasonal app, despite one of our survey

respondents recognizing that the app “could certainly be helpful during the process of deciding

what gifts to give someone during the holiday season.” Push notifications on the application will

be implemented to alert consumers of upcoming birthdays of members in their previous holiday

social circles. Alerts will also be published for upcoming holidays or events that oftentimes call

for gift giving activities: anniversaries, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Valentine’s Day, etc.

Our primary research indicates that GiftGen would have to find alternative methods to

monetize the app, as 45% of our respondents said they would not purchase the application. While

one respondent proposed seeking referral commission, the bulk of our respondents said they

would not be bothered by advertisements. Thus, to generate revenue, advertising space would be

allocated to companies promoting goods and services. An additional monetization strategy would

be to cap the number of individuals per social circle. A dollar value of $0.99 per additional

person can be incorporated. We propose this tactic because not all respondents refused to pay for

the application. The remaining 55% were willing to pay from $0.99 and $30 for GiftGen.

While we have captured the best possible features of GiftGen, the overall response for the

app was lukewarm. Collectively, our team would refrain from pursuing the concept, as our

audience believes in their capacity to select and purchase a gift. As one respondent noted, “The

idea of creating a wishlist feels presumptuous. I prefer a more organic way of giving.”

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Brand Name Rationale

“GiftGenerator” provides a simple, concrete image the consumer is easily able to

understand. The name can be shortened to GiftGen to be communicated succinctly. Using a

simple name that shows the function of the app mitigates any confusion. GiftGen captures our

value proposition: we nurture gift ideas personalized to people's individual tastes. GiftGen gives

off the impression that the app is time-saving. This appeals to the working professional,

stay-at-home mom, and student.

​Target Market

The target market is based on survey respondents who stated that they would use or needs

GiftGen. The target market was identified as business owners or working professionals between

the ages 40 and 60, and used prior personal knowledge and pryed for gift ideation. For this

group, they saw creating and viewing profiles as well as gift personalization important, with the

ability to create networks in close second. Their disposable income allowed them to spend $.99

to $10 for this online application.

Buyer Persona

After working in hi-tech companies for five years, Nancy became the owner of a cupcake

shop in Palo Alto, California. She is 53-years-old, and has a huge family, which includes her

seven siblings and their children, her three kids, and her husband’s side of the family. It is

November, and Christmas is coming up soon. She is starting to think about what she wants to get

her relatives, and normally uses prior personal knowledge about that person to get them a gift, or

calls them to pry.

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The Problem:​ ​Nancy feels that sometimes she has to guess in order to buy her relatives a gift,

and because of this uncertainty, it makes gift giving difficult.

The Need: ​Nancy wants to give personal gifts to her relatives.

Ultimately, Nancy spends a lot of time thinking about how the presents she gives this

Christmas can be personalized, and would like a streamlined process to ensure that her presents

this holiday season are received with great joy.

Positioning Statement

For the middle-aged working professional with a large social network, who puts

personalization at the forefront of their gift buying decisions and struggles with giving them an

thoughtful present, the GiftGen is a gift ideation application that utilizes users’ profile

information to generate unique, personal gift concepts, unlike Santa’s Bag, it creates potential

gift options for users instead of just organize self-generated ideas.

Goals and Measures

Ideally, if the launch plan was executed correctly, there would be 5,000 downloads in the

first month after launch. Because the concept test survey stated that 27.1% rated their initial

response to this product as “very positive”, ideally there would be 1,500 repeat users.

The launch should generate at least 10,000 unique clicks, double the download goal, and

this would be measured by clicks on the website or social media page, per link, image, or other

media. After the launch, GiftGen’s click rate should increase steadily, and result in around 100

unique clicks per page. GiftGen’s success would continue up until Christmas, where the

download rate would be expected to slow down. At that point, GiftGen should begin to re-focus

its efforts on user retention.

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Launch

GiftGen’s launch would focus primarily on creating micro social networks for users to

enjoy the benefits of GiftGen’s social circle functionality. The launch would first be introduced

on Black Friday at brick and mortar stores, but would promote the application through broadcast

advertising as well as social media. GiftGen would create their own content as well as curate

user generated content on social media platforms. The ultimate goal would be to have a platform

of active users who utilize their social networks’ profiles to buy gifts for any occasion, and the

launch would kickstart this behavior.

Tactics

Special Event​: Pre-launch, GiftGen would partner with brick- and- mortar retail stores such as

Best Buy, Target, Walmart, Old Navy, and malls or shopping plazas in major cities in the United

States where they would gather inventory information and use each the respective store’s

inventory to create a product database for each store. GiftGen would officially launch on Black

Friday, as this is the biggest shopping day in the US, and GiftGen representatives would target

groups waiting in line before opening and ask them to trial the application. These families or

friends in the queue would use the application to create profiles and generate gift concepts that

they could buy each other at each respective store. This would give them incentive to follow

through with their intended purchase, and also set them up for future GiftGen uses. If successful,

this would create a database of users and influencers, who would then already have a social

circle they could use the application with. Because GiftGen is inherently a collaborative,

user-generated application, users must have social circles in order to potentialize the

application’s benefits. To this point, a survey participant said, without these networks, “How

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would people know you are on this app? Would you have to send it to them? That seems

presumptuous.”. Ultimately, the Black Friday launch plan’s goal would be to spread awareness

about GiftGen and ensure that users have a network to use this application with, as well as get

the satisfaction of purchasing these presents immediately.

Broadcast Advertising​: Radio broadcasting for stations targeted towards middle-aged business

professionals in the United States could promote GiftGen through radio advertisements. A flood

of advertisements could be implemented close to the Christmas season as this is a heavy

shopping period, and these broadcasts could be played starting in November. Examples in the

Bay Area would be KQED 88.5FM and STAR 101.3FM, popular radio stations for commuting

working professionals aged 40-60. They could hear this while they’re driving to work, so we

should advertise between the hours of 8-9 AM and 5-6 PM while they’re stuck in traffic.

Social Media​: In addition to the Black Friday launch plan, GiftGen would integrate social media

that would focus on spreading GiftGen to their social networks into their launch efforts. For

instance, if a user used GiftGen for gift ideation, they could use the hashtags #GiftedWithLove

or #AGiftGenPresent on Facebook or Twitter to promote the application online. Moreover,

Facebook and Twitter advertisements targeted towards men and women in the age range of

40-60 years would be used to promote GiftGen. Advertisements would increase during the

Christmas season. Similarly, GiftGen would utilize Google Adsense to have searches for “gift

ideas” and “gift apps” appear at the top of the queue.

Video​: A video campaign focused on capturing people’s reaction when opening a GiftGen

present, with a prize to the person who submits the best reaction would be implemented on social

media, and these videos could also be used as promotion content.

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Communication Plan

Audience​: GiftGen’s audience is 40-60 year old working professionals who have large social

circles and families. They also have a relatively high disposable income.

Strategy:​ GiftGen’s marketing campaign would essentially communicate the value of having

their family and friends’ gift giving preferences and an application that can generate gifts

according to their interests.

Possible Difficulties:​ ​Because there is a lot of competition in the gift-giving industry, there may

be many difficulties in being able to prove value as there are so many gift organization and

e-commerce applications. A huge obstacle that may difficult to overcome is ensuring that users

are actively using GiftGen as this may be a seasonal application. Because GiftGen heavily relies

on users to be active and create accurate profiles of themselves, it will be difficult for GiftGen to

prosper without social circle activity.

Projected Effectiveness:​ GiftGen is one of the earliest applications in the gift-giving industry that

offers personalized gift ideation for social circles. GiftGen could be a potential leader and disrupt

the way gift givers and recipients experience gifting.

Closing Statements:​ GiftGen has the potential to be an application that adult working

professionals primarily use to pick out gifts during the holiday season, as well as for important

holidays like birthdays and anniversaries.

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Appendix A:

Appendix B:

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Appendix C:

Appendix D:

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Appendix E:

Appendix F:

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Appendix G:

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