This is an enormous growth industry, the Apple store has surpassed 1 billion downloads worldwide. These numbers are only going to increase. The trend in the cellular industry is an increase in smart phones sales with double digit increase in market share in each of the last 3 quarters, 35% total growth in the past year. Smartphone sales now make up 19.3 percent of the total market (Gartner, 2010). By being an early entry into the market we would like to establish a strong brand presence. As the Mobile Advert grows we will be able to expand market beyond Ireland to include all of Europe. We will also be able to offer more services and attempt to secure contracts with larger companies that will provide a consistent stream of revenue.
According to IDC, sales of Smart phones equipped with the android designed by Google jumped 50%. He has sold 63 million of these phones in the second quarter 2010, making a total of 118.3 million since the beginning of the year, an increase of 54% in one year. Google CEO Eric Schmidt told CNBC television channel that he was selling over 200,000 units per day under the Android operating system designed by Google.
There are so many SME businesses in Ireland and Europe that we only need to capture a small percentage of the market to become profitable. As our company expands we will have the opportunity to expand our target market to include Europe which will further increase our business and profits. We anticipate demand to increase significantly after we prove our advertising concept with our early clients. The largest barrier to our company is educating potential clients of the importance of having advertising presences in this emerging market. Based on sales of smart phones we believe that a mobile application will become as necessary as a webpage for companies.
Our largest threat will be new entrants into our market. Once this business model is proved profitable it is likely to be copied. To combat this we will have to “get big fast” allowing us to offer our clients a wider range of services at a lower price than new entrants would be able to offer. Our target is SME (Small and Medium Enterprise). L’OECD (organization for economic co-operation and development) divided firms in three parts: micro-enterprises, small enterprises and Medium enterprises. Micro-enterprises are the societies of less of 10 employees. Small firms are society between 10 and 49 employees. Medium firms take on from 50 to 249 persons.
Industry: Our product can be effective for any type of company. The business sector of SME can be in catering, culture, sport, ready-to-wear clothing and all sectors which can be interested in our business. Location: At first, our strategy aims the local market with Dublin. Our team will begin with companies within the city to generate market awareness and networks with potential clients. Our second stage of expansion will be to advertise nationally, with a strong push to attract business in Galway and Cork. After proving our business concept at the national level we will seek to expand to the rest of Europe. We have a strong advantage during this phase as the ownership group has members from Poland, France, and Slovakia.
Key Markets in Ireland In year two we will work to establish a national presence. We will be able to use our contacts and success to expand to Cork and Galway. This will represent centers of 3 areas to conquer the national market. And finally we explore Europe with our different languages. We will discuss in greater detail the costs of our marking plan. The key to our strategy will be low cost effective marketing. Being a young ownership group we will use our knowledge of social networking and marketing to establish low cost and free advertising models.
Sales are expected to vary with the types of businesses requiring more advertising at different times of the year. For example retailers will be more likely to purchase our product in the months leading up to Christmas, or accounting firms may want to release and application to correspond with tax season. We will account for this by tailoring our advertising method specific to each industry. The majority of our costs will be labor as there are essentially no variable costs and extremely low fixed costs associated with our business models. The majority of our advertising will be through free or low cost means. However, we reserve some budget for leaflets, advertisements in trade journals, the creation of letterhead, brochures, and for the ongoing management of the business.
