Brand Summary August 2010
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Summary: Executive overview p. 3 Profuct Features
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Customer Benefits p. 8 Social Benefits p. 11 Needs p. 14 Situation analysis p. 16 Expectations of Outcome
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Opportunities p. 23 SWOT highlights p. 32 Brand Strategy p. 33 Mission Statement p. 35 Vision, Aspirations p. 36 Strategic Recommendations
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SWOT p. 41 Brand character p. 42 Strategic Advertisement Recommendation p. 54 2
Executive overview
Twitter is a social networking and micro blogging service that enables its users to send and read messages known as tweets. Tweets are text-based posts of up to 140 characters displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers who are known as followers.
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Executive overview
Twitter is a real-time information network powered by people all around the world that lets you share and discover what’s happening now. Twitter asks “what’s happening” and makes the answer spread across the globe to millions, immediately.
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Executive overview
“Twitter is my answer to everything. Any question I have I can throw it out to the Twitter community for an instant response.�
Melanie Notkin, SavvyAuntie.com
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Customer Benefits (Maslow) Product Features What: Twitter is a social networking and micro blogging service that enables its users to send and read 140 letter messages. How: This text-based post are displayed on the author’s profile page and delivered to the author’s subscribers. Senders can restrict delivery to those in their circle of friends or, by default, allow open access. “Twitter Lists” feature make it possible for users to follow (and mention/reply to) lists of authors. Every public update sent to Twitter from anywhere in the world 24/7 can be instantly indexed and made discoverable via real-time search. Uses very little network bandwidth. Multilingual: English, Spanish, Japanese, German, French and Italian. Where: Users can send and receive tweets via the Twitter web site, Short Message Service, or external applications. While the service itself costs nothing to use, accessing it through SMS may incur phone service provider fees. Through SMS, users can communicate with Twitter through gateway numbers. Open Source: access Twitter through more than 50,000 third-party Internet and mobile applications. Who: Twitter has roughly 105 million registered users and is adding 300,000 new users every day. Its site drew 180 million monthly unique visitors on its site in March. Biz Stone, Twitter co-founder Fifty-five million tweets a day are sent. 15 Apr. 2010 Median age of a twitter user is 31. Fairly wealthy, slightly more female than male, more youthful following. Feb. 2010, marketingcharts.com Why: Pointless babble – 41% Conversational – 38% Pass-along value – 9% Self-promotion – 6% Spam – 4% News – 4%
12 Dec. 2009, pearanalitics.com
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Customer Benefits (Maslow) Product Features • 19% of online adults age 18-24 have used twitter or something like it • 20% of online adults age 25-34 have used twitter or something like it • 10% of online adults age 35-44 “ “ “ “ • 5% of online adults age 45-54 “ “ “ “ • 4% of online adults age 55-64 “ “ “ “ • 2% of online adults 65+ “ “ “ “ • 35% of twitter users live in urban areas • 9% live in rural areas • Online American who live in lower income housing are more likely to use twitter • 17% of internet users in households earning less than $30,000 tweet • 10% of internet users in households earning more than $75,000 tweet • 76% of twitter users use the internet wirelessly
socialmediatoday.com
Feb. 2010,
The “index” represents the delivery of a specific audience segment compared to the internet average of 100. Composition, which is represented by the % of audience figure on the left side of the chart, represents the percentage of a property’s total audience that meets a specific demographic criteria. Apr. 2010, quantcast.com
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Customer Benefits (Maslow) Customer benefits Twitter lets you share and discover what’s happening now. Twitter keeps you informed with what matters most to you today and helps you discover what might matter to you most tomorrow. Twitter asks “what’s happening” and makes the answer spread across the globe to millions, immediately. Twitter can help you make better choices and decisions. How you use Twitter is completely up to you. You are in control on Twitter.
twitter.com/about
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Customer Benefits (Maslow) Customer benefits It is simple to use. It is transparent. It is efficient and powerful. It is instantaneous. It’s all there. It helps me. I can create new friendships. I control it. I can decide how to use it. It is transformative and revolutionary. It saves me money. It is free. It gives me a voice. It speaks in my language.
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Customer Benefits (Maslow) Customer benefits It gives me the opportunity to reach out to people you never have met before! It connects me with the people I really want to be around. I can tell a company (or anyone else) that you’ve had a great—or disappointing—experience with their business. It is a hub where I can discover what’s happening right now, anywhere in the world. I can find so many interesting and useful articles that I would never find on my own. Allows me to exchange ideas, opinions, and communicate better. I can have multiple followers and influence people. With it I found a new job. Whatever I publish it goes right there chronologically. I can find an interesting usage for me. The open Application Programing Interface lets me build a client or app for twitter. It is internet search “2.0”
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Customer Benefits (Maslow) Social benefits In education: Chinese students used it as a tool to train communicative and cultural competence. carstenullrich.net It gives more students the opportunity to express their views in class discussions. twitterforteachers.wetpaint.com Children under 11 will be taught how to use Twitter to “develop an understanding� of different ways to communicate online. telegraph.co.uk In emergencies: Twitter does a better job of getting information out during emergencies than either the traditional news media or government emergency services. newscientist.com The American Red Cross uses Twitter to exchange minute-to-minute information about local disasters. twitter.com/ RedCross
During the 2008 Mumbai attacks Twitter users on the ground helped compile a list of the dead and injured. Different groups made significant use of Twitter to gather news and coordinate responses. cnn.com Also in April 2009, public health departments used Twitter to provide updates on H1N1 cases. reuters.com To survey opinion: CBC News television coverage of the Canadian federal election on October 14, 2008, mentioned on Twitter as evidence of peoples opinion. cbc.ca In campaigning: Democratic Party nominee Barack Obama used it for publicity. twitter.com/BarackObama In protest and politics: In June 2009, following allegations of fraud in the Iranian presidential election, protesters used Twitter as a rallying tool and as a method of communication with the outside world after the government blocked several other modes of communication. thenation.com, smonitor.com, cbsnews.com In public relations: Police and fire departments are beginning to use Twitter to keep the public informed of incidents. environmentmagazine. org
In fund raising: It was used to keep supporters up to date with regard to progress in a charity jailbreak. technicavita.org Ashton Kutcher, Ben Stiller, Diablo Cody and other stars all gathered in Hollywood to raise funds for Haiti. latimes. com
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Customer Benefits (Maslow) Social benefits In business: Is being used as a business promotional tool. Twitter encourages this through ‘Twitter 101’ Helps businesses stay connected to their customers. Quickly share information with people interested in your company. Gather real-time market intelligence and feedback.
business.twitter.com
The open exchange of information creates opportunities for individuals, organizations, and businesses. It makes easy to find out what consumers think. wsj.com I can use it as an easy self-publishing and promotional tool. I can compete on equal terms with larger businesses within the Twitter platform. economist.com Brands are recruiting well-known Twitterers to spread the word about a specific product or service. wsj.com Easy to find out what consumers think and want. wsj.com I can use it to predict how successful a product will be. marketingvox.com, wsj.com, hpl.hp.com It saves money in advertisement.
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Customer Benefits (Maslow) Customer benefits
Why Should I Use Twitter?
“‘Cause I can.”
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Customer Benefits Needs Connection: Acceptance Appreciation Belonging Cooperation Communication Closeness Community Companionship Consistency Empathy Inclusion Mutuality Nurturing Safety Stability Support To know and be Known To see and be seen Trust Warmth Play: Joy Peace: Ease Equality Harmony Inspiration
Physical well-being: Safety Shelter Meaning: Awareness Competence Contribution Creativity Discovery Efficacy Effectiveness Growth Hope Learning Mourning Participation Purpose Self-expression Stimulation To matter Understanding Autonomy: Choice Freedom Independence Space Spontaneity
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Customer Benefits Needs “When I post a Tweeter, I experience creation, fear of criticism and acceptation, error, Evolution, relation to all sorts of people who differ from me, exchange, expectations, faith, freedom, friendship, happiness, inner realization, invisible world, judgement, knowledge, exchange, resonance, likes and dislikes, link, magic, negative states, plenitude, presence, silence, synthesis, thoughts, universality,
And I feel accomplish, altruist, cooperative, creative, curious, deluded, demanding, dominant, egocentric, excited, expressive, fearful, impatient, important, impulsive, inspired, judged, open, pleased, powerful, vicious, worthy,
Because I need, want, desire acceptance, appreciation, belonging, communication, companionship, empathy, inclusion, mutuality, safety, stability, support, to know and be known, to see and be seen, trust, safety, awareness, contribution, discovery, growth, hope, learning, participation, purpose, self-expression, stimulation, to matter, choice, freedom, independence, space, spontaneity
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Analysis Situation analysis Key Issues
Unique visitors to Twitter increased 1,382 percent yearover-year, from 475,000 unique visitors in February 2008 to 7 million in February 2009, making it the fastest growing site in the Member Communities category.
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Analysis Situation analysis Key Issues
Currently, more than 60 percent of U.S. Twitter users fail to return the following month, or in other words, Twitter’s audience retention rate, or the percentage of a given month’s users who come back the following month, is currently about 40 percent. For most of the past 12 months, pre-Oprah Twitter has languished below 30 percent retention.
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Analysis Situation analysis Key Issues
About 60 percent of people on Twitter end up abandoning the service after a month. The year-long retention curve looks very much the same as the one for just Twitter.com Far less than 10% of my activity on twitter happens at Twitter.com
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*David Martin, Vice President, Primary Research, Nielsen Online
Analysis Situation analysis Key Issues
Even when Facebook and MySpace were emerging networks like Twitter is now, their retention rates were twice as high. When they went through their explosive growth phases, that retention only went up, and both sit at nearly 70 percent today.
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*David Martin, Vice President, Primary Research, Nielsen Online
Analysis Situation analysis Key Issues
By plotting the minimum retention rates for different Internet audience sizes, it is clear that a retention rate of 40 percent will limit a site’s growth to about a 10 percent reach figure. To be clear, a high retention rate doesn’t guarantee a massive audience, but it is a prerequisite. There simply aren’t enough new users to make up for defecting ones after a certain point.
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*David Martin, Vice President, Primary Research, Nielsen Online
Analysis Situation analysis Twitter will not be able to sustain its meteoric rise without establishing a higher level of user loyalty.
Key Issues
Users leaves the service soon after been registered because: They don’t understand its functionality. They don’t understand its added value. They don’t find their friends or people to follow. They don’t find it interesting.
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Analysis Situation analysis To raise retention and loyalty.
Expectations of Outcome
To increase user rates. To clearly differentiate the product from competitors. To increase value. To make people understand why is Tweeter good for them.
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Analysis Situation analysis Only 22% of 18- to 24-year-olds used Twitter.
Opportunities
“My generation is significantly under-represented on Twitter. I am one of the youngest people that I know of on it, which is crazy because I am 25.” “Amonst my friends twitter is still considered uncool.” Kelly, blog user
Of those who did use Twitter, 85% said they follow friends, 54% follow celebrities, 29% follow family members and 29% follow companies. Caroline McCarthy, a CNET News staff write
“If [18-24 year olds] are texting, using social networks, what is the social value of Twitter?” Michael Della Penna, a co-founder of Ait
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Analysis Situation analysis Opportunities
“Using Twitter can be frustrating if others aren’t playing along. Earlier this year, Oliver Bogler, an associate professor in the department of neurosurgery at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, tried to use Twitter to communicate with his lab. He felt it would be handy for sharing updates about meetings or interesting research.” “But his team didn’t take to the service and never really began checking it. He suspects they didn’t spend enough time at their desks to check Twitter online, and they failed to activate the service on their mobile phones?” Oliver Bogler, an associate professor in the department of neurosurgery at the University of Texas
Many users claim that, even if they reach some of their “followers”, they get frustrated because most of them doesn’t check Tweeter regularly, making it unusable.
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Analysis Situation analysis Opportunities
“I think some people are signing up and expecting amazing things to somehow magically happen. That’s not how it works. You have to do the legwork. Make the connections. Learn the lingo”. “Tweeter does require a time investment. If you’re not willing to put that in, you’ll more than likely leave within the first month!” Mike Frizzi, blog user
Many users claim to get frustrated soon after sign in up on Tweeter, as they don’t understand its use or added value.
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Analysis Situation analysis Opportunities
“I have tried Twitter myself and gave up the same day. It’s full of nothingness really, something like posting for posting sake. It’s great to have the technology that allows us to exchange ideas, opinions, and communicate better but it’s also abused by many who all of a sudden have to compete for ’influence’ and ‘followers’” Alan, blog user
Many users claim that Tweeter doesn’t have any added value for them.
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Analysis Situation analysis Opportunities
“Twitter isn’t self-explanatory, mostly because there are so many different ways of using it: connect with friends, follow unfolding discussions, keep coworkers in the loop, increase your visibility, discover interesting people, plain old spamming, contributing to the polarization of extremes virally spreading information, questionable facts, opinion and nonsense.” Alan, blog user
Many users claim that Tweeter could have so many uses that they don’t understand what it is its real use.
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Analysis Situation analysis Opportunities
I don’t think Twitter is useful for consumer to talk to other consumers. Facebook is better for that. It’s richer. Your friends and family can see your status updates, but also the photos that go with it and the activities you are doing on FB. Jennifer Joyce, blog user
Many users can’t differentiate Tweeter from other social networks. They doesn’t understand what is the functionality of Tweeter. They usually compare it with other popular social networks which has different functionality. Tweeter is, in essence a simpler platform which makes it what it is. But for potential user and those who doesn’t understand its functionality, Tweeter is just redundant and uninteresting in favour of other social networks.
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Analysis Situation analysis Opportunities
“Twitter curve up over the long run is all about content. Whether its consumers or peers, content needs to be interesting and compelling. I “unfollow” tweeters who tweet about having coffee, watching a great sunset, or getting kids from school. This just does not motivate me to continue following them, it doesn’t provide me with anything of value.”
Yasmin Bendror, blog user
Many users claim that they are not interested in what the majority of users post on Tweeter.
Content of tweets: Pointless babble – 41% Conversational – 38% Pass-along value – 9% Self-promotion – 6% Spam – 4% News – 4%
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Analysis Situation analysis Opportunities
“The problems with Twitter and the defections are not all people who don’t get it. Twitter has some serious issues they lag in solving. Direct messages (DM)is out of control: It has become a Direct marketing venue. Many account holders don’t even check them anymore.” “Maintenance of your account and follows become a job, a real job, a daily job. In the end it’s just not worth it. The lack of ethical or moral principles and conduct are rarely seen among the statistics gathered, as to why many people avoid becoming a part of many online sites like Twitter or why they leave after giving it a shot.”
Babak, blog user
Many users claim that it requires a lot of time to get something from Tweeter.
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Analysis Situation analysis Opportunities
“A web site doesn’t have to do everything all at once. I like that Twitter does one thing and does it very, very, very well. Those of us who use it daily, and use it properly, aren’t leaving and I think that would be more important to the long term sustainability of Twitter. With Twitter, it’s not you friends (okay, them too, of course) you post for - it’s for the whole world to see - you post something on Twitter, and soon after, it’s picked up by someone else, who ReTweet it, and there you have it the ball is rolling. Twitter has search functions, and the invention of #hashtags also helps to keep the convos together. Lots of people have gotten noticed on twitter, and then gone to be on radio, TV-shows and being picked up by the newscrowd. Twitter is about short updates, yes, but it doesn’t have to be “small-talk”. Important issues are discussed in depth on a daily basis. US elections? Swineflu? War across the globe? It’s all there, and it gives you the opportunity to reach out to people you never have met before!” Calysta Rose, blog user
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Analysis Situation analysis SWOT highlights
Strengths: 105 million registered users and is adding 300,000 new users every day. Simplicity. Everywhere every time. Weaknesses: Its something big and free as the Internet and new as a just born baby. Retention. Perception of its social value. So big, new and open that the majority of people don’t understand it. Opportunities: Miss perception of its added value. Usage: Pointless babble – 41% / News – 4% Retention. Threats: People will use other social networks. Tweeter could lost all its value. It wouldn’t be able to generate revenue. It then would be observed by competitors.
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Brand Strategy
To generate brand equity: Increase consumer appeal. Increase awareness. Increase quality. Increase performance. Deliver on consumer promise. Generate new usage occasions. On-going marketing support.
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Brand Strategy
Why? Because loyal customers provide a steady revenue stream, higher profit margins and confirmed evangelists who virtually—and sometimes virally—do much of their marketing for them. Loyal customers provide a steady revenue stream.
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Brand Strategy Mission Statement To give a voice to everyone around the world to inform and be informed with what matters most today and what might matter most tomorrow.
To provide a transparent way to the world where to inform and be informed about what matters most today and might matter most tomorrow.
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Brand Strategy Vision, Aspirations Anybody can inform and be informed without limits or censorship.
The entire world is now connected with you.
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Brand Strategy Vision, Aspirations If brand equity is raised: Retention and users will grow exponentially. Twitter would increase market value. It would be profitable. It would expand services. It would eliminate competitors. It would transform society.
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Brand Strategy Strategic Recommendations
Make new product development decisions based on the most up-to-date, multifaceted models of in-market success. Measure and optimize all that matters to success by covering the entire consumer adoption process. Generate Buzz.
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Brand Strategy Strategic Recommendations.
Offer a distinct consumer benefit. The message needs to be understandable, focused and translatable. Provide a unique solution to a substantial need/desire, be credible and be free of barriers. Achieve lasting consumer adoption with strong reuse strength. Success is about doing most everything well enough, not about really excelling at one facet. Success is about doing most everything well enough, not about really excelling at one facet.
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Brand Strategy Strategic Recommendations
Principles for creating loyal customers: Twitter resist focusing on the most valuable customers over the long-term, preferring to acquire as many customers in as short a time as possible as their venture capital is structured to reward that objective. To achieve long-term success: • Identify key customer segments • Create target groups of similar segments • Prospect for look-alikes in target markets and your own customer database • Deliver differentiated messages and experiences • Implement the approach throughout the departments within your organization • Measure the effectiveness and adjust your strategy
Nielsen Claritas
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Addendum SWOT For a fairly wealthy, slightly larger female demographic than male, older urban adult, Twitter is the brand of choice for real-time information powered by people for social networking, micro-blogging, posting news and keeping up to date with others, including news, products, TV shows, musicians, fashion blogs, friends and strangers alike. One of the reasons that compels users is that is free and easy to post and read free text based messages. It keeps people informed on what everyone wants to share live as it is happening in the world and is accessible via most mobile devices, the Internet and any other application used that is tied in with the Twitter network. Resonating brands include Facebook, blogs like www.blogspot.com, web-logs like www.techcrunch. com, celebrity gossip networks, web-news sources such as www.popsugar.com, TV channel Oxygen, MTV, magazines and newspapers like The Onion and People, www. zappos.com, JetBlue, bands like Coldplay, Whole Foods Market, cosmetics companies like Aveda and MAC and fashion brands such as Zara. The brand character, brand personality is Oprah Winfrey with Ashton Kutcher and Al Gore. Another brand character the bartenders of Cheers, or the Holly tree in Avatar.
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Addendum Brand character Responsive to change Democratic Agile New thinking Open source thinking Technology Genius Innovation Invention Freedom Iconoclastic
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Addendum Brand character
Al Gore
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Addendum Brand character
Leonardo da Vinci
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Addendum Brand character
Professor Charles Francis Xavier
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Addendum Brand character
Cheers
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Addendum Brand character
Bob Dylan
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Strategic Advertisement Recommendation We recommend that Twitter implement a niche advertisement plant targeting teenagers with ages between 11 – 17, who want to bee popular and cool and influence others.
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Strategic Advertisement Recommendation Background
• While social networks meant to be adopted and populated mainly by early adopters, Twitter average user age is 31. While the usage of social networking between people aged 15 to 54 grew 60% in last year, a retention rate of 40% will limit the sites growth to about 10% reach figure. • A misunderstanding about what is twitter, to differentiate it to other social networks and to communicate its benefits to teenagers, mainly causes this. • Young people claim that their peers are not on twitter, that his generation is underrepresented on it, that it is uncool, and that they can use other ways to do the same.
(David Martin, Vice President, Primary Research, Nidsen Online)
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Strategic Advertisement Recommendation Recommendation/ Rationale
1. Teenagers represent the 17.4% of the USA population (53.4 million) and an annual spending power of $176 billion. They clearly represent a long-term opportunity for twitter, mainly if they don’t want to loose retention rate. (According to a survey by advertisement firm WPP) 2.
Teenagers send an average of 4050 texts monthly.
(Roger Entner, Senior Vice President, Research and Insights, Telecom Practice)
3. Teenagers have an average of 30 hours of screen time a week, 4 hours 17 min a day. (Morgan Stanley, Hoe teenagers consume media)
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Strategic Advertisement Recommendation Program Details
This campaign will take place in tv networks and tv programs (focused on urban areas). In this programs, young celebrities would be shown interacting and posting things on twitter, as where will they secretly perform next week or where they would be signing autographs net morning. The people who follow them would get that information, and could spread the word with among their followers. Also, their answers could be shown on a banner on the tv in real time. Some especial events for “idols� followers could be done too, where screens would show in real time what the people who are attending the event are posting about it.
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Strategic Advertisement Recommendation “WOW” tactic
A special event with American Idol’s could be done, where during a day a user could ask by twitter anything they want. It would be broadcasted real time by Internet.
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Strategic Advertisement Recommendation Next Steps
To increase brand value, and add campaign some young idols telling how they use twitter and how it help them to be in touch with their friends and to get cool information.
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Our Methodology
We help enterprises create value by developing long term business strategy and corporate identity, leveraging both tangible and intangible assets to achieve sustainable, competitive growth, and increase value. Our creative yet practical approach unites business strategy with brand expression, resulting in outstanding work with sustainable brand value. Further, we identify emerging market opportunities and develop products or offerings, seed innovative culture, and deliver business strategy to enable organizations to transform and build the capabilities required to innovate routinely. In order to achieve remarkable success, process must be optimized for any given team/project. Further, it must be agile and responsive to changes including people, technology and markets. We offer brand analysis, valuation, and long term vision. We recognize the talent and requirements that may be needed to succeed in many diverse areas.
brandscience.us
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Twitter Brand Summary August 2010
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