BUS620 Ashford Wk 6 On Board Diagnostic Device via Bluetooth Marketing Plan Week 6 – Final Paper Final Paper TOPIC: Portable On Board Diagnostic Device vi

BUS620 Ashford Wk 6 On Board Diagnostic Device via Bluetooth Marketing Plan Week 6 – Final Paper
Final Paper

TOPIC: Portable On Board Diagnostic Device via bluetooth or Wifi such as Carly to diagnose and customized the modification setting of the car.

Develop a 12- to 14-page marketing plan (not including the title and reference pages, charts and/or graphs) for any product of your choice. Your marketing plan must:

Analyze the specific marketplace situation in detail, including organizational strengths, weaknesses, environmental opportunities, and threats (SWOT analysis).
Develop an organizational mission statement, and forecast performance goals using your situational analysis.
Design a marketing strategy based upon your objectives.
Create an appropriate integrated marketing mix, which will include your ability to effectively appeal to the specific market segments you will be targeting.
Develop a written summary and specific recommendations for the implementation of your plan.

Writing the Final Paper
The Final Paper:

Must be 12 to 14 double-spaced pages in length (not including the title and reference pages, charts and/or graphs) and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
Must include a title page with the following:
Title of paper
Students name
Course name and number
Instructor’s name
Date submitted
Must begin with an introductory paragraph that has a succinct thesis statement.
Must address the topic of the paper with critical thought.
Must end with a conclusion that reaffirms your thesis.
Must use at least four scholarly sources from the Ashford University Library, in addition to the text.
Must document all sources in APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
Must include a separate reference page, formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.

Carefully review the Grading Rubric (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site. for the criteria that will be used to evaluate your assignment. Running head: MARKETING FOR ROKU
Marketing Plan for Roku
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Bus620: Managerial Marketing
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MARKETING PLAN FOR ROKU
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Introduction
A marketing plan is an essential tool for all companies. The plan is used to plot your
marketing strategy to give your new product maximum exposure to the target market. It is also a
way to plan the marketing for your new or existing product and or services. It includes
information about your target market, competition, as well as how to implement marketing goals
set by management. It is a living document that is here to help you build awareness of your
product, help you build your marketing, it helps you attain your marketing goals, and it helps you
build a more successful business. “Technology has changed the entertainment landscape since
the advent of widespread Internet-based distribution networks such as Netflix in 2008.1 Cord
Cutters, or entertainment consumers who no longer use traditional cable or satellite outlets as
content suppliers, now make up over 13% of all consumers under age thirty-five” (Halsey, Pfaff
& Hendrickson, 2015).
This marketing plan is for Roku’s newest product the Roku I, it is their first box that will
stream live international TV, international movies, and television content globally. The decision
to come out with a new device comes at a time when the local market has become saturated with
devices that do the same thing. This new device will set itself apart from the competition because
one device will serve multiple rooms, screens and devices. This marketing plan will illustrate a
marketing communication mix and a successful implementation plan with the intent to
successfully market and position our product within the new target marketplace.
MARKETING PLAN FOR ROKU
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Company Overview
Roku has a very interesting story on how they came to be a company. In 2007 Netflix
decided to get into the hardware business and started designing a Netflix player which paid
subscribers would connect their televisions to the media box to stream Netflix movies and
television shows. “Netflix wanted to dominate the living room, a war still waging today between
industry giants like Apple, Google, and Microsoft” (Carr, 2013). The project was code named
“Griffin”, just weeks away from launching the device, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings decided to
scrap the project. The problem? “Hastings realized that if Netflix shipped its own hardware, it
would complicate potential partnerships with other hardware makers. Reed said to me one day, ‘I
want to be able to call Steve Jobs and talk to him about putting Netflix on Apple TV,’ recalls one
high-level source. But if I’m making my own hardware, Steve’s not going to take my call” (Carr,
2013). Instead, Reed decided to break off the entire team from Netflix and form a separate
company called Roku. This would allow Netflix to be available on the rebranded Roku box and
they were also able to pursue other devices. In 2008 the first Roku box was released and Roku,
Inc was created. At which time, they only streamed Netflix content, they did not have true HD
streaming capability until 2010 when they released Roku HD.
MARKETING PLAN FOR ROKU
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Executive Summary
The marketing plan for the Roku I, is designed to increase sales of their devices and an
increased brand awareness through increased social media promotion. Roku has been a pioneer
in the streaming TV business, our aspirations are to power every TV in the world. Roku is
recognized for its innovation in streaming which is shown by our ever growing and highly
engaged customers who love our devices because of our popular content selection that our
competitors seek to possess.
As of June 30, 2017, Roku has 15 million monthly active accounts. “Due to the explosive
growth of the home network technologies and the prevalence of various mobile devices (e.g.,
smart phone, tablet PC, and personal media players), there has been a significant increase in
demands and interests for audio and video streaming applications, such as device collaboration
services” (Dongchil & Kwangsue, 2012).
There are environmental factors affecting Roku such as legal factors, regulations,
competition, and political. All these factors amongst others have either positively or negatively
impacted Roku, these factors will be explained in the SWOT analysis. Besides the external
environmental factors the SWOT is done to describe the company its new product and the
industry itself.
Our mission at Roku is to provide, convenient and inexpensive access to the top online
entertainment networks. We believe all content on television should and will be streamed which
will provide for a better television experience that has ever existed. Roku I is a compact device
that will provide local and international customers with a wide variety of live international
television content as well as international sports, along with the ability to rewind live television
up to 30 minutes while still enjoying 500+ live channels all in HD.
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Roku targets a mass market, which is aimed at acquiring subscribers of all ages across the
world. Our marketing efforts are aimed at getting as many people to purchase our product.
Another reason we do not have specific segments would be the profits, since the unit is what we
are selling it will not be profitable to go after a single segment. Even though we target a mass
market, our customer base is extremely diverse to achieve any meaningful segmentation.
A one year implementation plan has been prepared to show when the marketing activities
should be finished. Evaluations have been conducted to show the members of the marketing
team along with all the past plans. This will give the team a good overview of all marketing
promotions and whether they attracted new customers or improved upon the brand awareness
which are the main objectives of the plan.
In the conclusion, will be a summary of the marketing plan and what we are striving for
after the implementation of the plan.
Situation Analysis
The Roku I is a new product that is yet to generate sales for its company Roku, Inc. Roku
I is the next generation TV platform, which will bring programming to multiple rooms, complete
with Ultra HD content with just one box. The services we will be providing with this box will
include 500+ live channels, access to 60 international free view channels, 80 sports channels in
4K resolution, along with the ability to rewind live television up to 30 minutes. This will help us
differentiate our product from what is on the market today. “Situation analysis is at the heart of
marketing’s endeavor to identify new opportunities to satisfy unmet customer wants and needs.
Opportunities typically stem either from finding new ways to serve the needs of existing
customers or uncovering new markets for existing product or service lines” (Finch, 2012).
MARKETING PLAN FOR ROKU
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Environmental Factors
Roku has environmental factors affecting it like economic, political, regulatory and legal
factors. These factors amongst others will either affect the company adversely or positively, but
the four major factors explained below have the greatest impact.
Economic Factors
This industry is affected by the way how consumers spend their money. This can be
influenced by numerous things such as unemployment, interest rates, and tax increases. When
cash flow is at a minimum, consumers tend to find ways to decrease them spend. They start
looking for ways to decrease their cable bills so they tend to turn to streaming devices such as the
Roku.
Social Factors
Consumers that have more free time are more likely to watch more media content. As
cable prices climb, consumers will be more likely to look for other options to cable service,
options that get them out of a monthly subscription but a onetime charge to free up their cash
flow. “A representative Cord Cutting website proclaims: “A revolution has begun. Fed up with
constantly increasing prices, endless fees and taxes, and programming packages that include
forty channels you don’t want for every one that you do, cable and satellite customers across the
US are kicking their service providers to the curb by cutting the cord and sourcing their TV
programming elsewhere” (Halsey, Pfaff & Hendrickson, 2015).
Technological Factors
As the internet now serves more functions and consumers are figuring out what they can
do with it, video streaming devices such as Roku has become more popular. Consumers will
continue to look to the internet for new services and will bring about a new opportunity for the
MARKETING PLAN FOR ROKU
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industry. Increased use of smartphones, tables and computers have also increased opportunity for
the streaming media industry.
Political Factors
The possibility of regulations to mandate the use of apps that allow consumers to view
pirated content has been a subject of fierce debate especially in the United States. Apart from
content piracy there are other laws which are not in favor of the industry such as the Video
Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) which has been rejected as being biased by all streaming media
companies.
Legal Factors
Due to increased license usage for streaming contents and contracts with channel
providers, also customer piracy issues there is a potential for numerous lawsuits against
companies within the industry. Cablevision had filed a lawsuit in Mexico against Roku over
third-party Roku channels that allow the streaming of pirated content. These apps are not made
by Roku and not found in the Roku Channel store but can be added to Roku players. Roku was
Strengths
Weaknesses
• Experienced Business Units
• Strong Reputation
• High Profitability
• Convenient
• User Friendly
• Inexpensive
• No Monthly Fees
• Lawsuits
• Diversity
• Competitive Market
• Lack of Promotion
Opportunities
Threats
• Global Franchising
• Demand
• New Products & Services
• Growing Popularity of Online
Media
• Lack of Direct Competitors
• Increasing Costs
• Increase in labor costs
• Regulations
• Possible streaming media
substitutes
• Too dependent upon success
of other channels
MARKETING PLAN FOR ROKU
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ordered to stop sales and shipments to Mexico in 2017. On June 23rd Roku won the appeal to
once again sell their products within Mexico. This however does nots top other cable companies
to file their own lawsuits in different countries.
Strengths
• Experienced Business Units – Roku, Inc. has been in business for 9 years and has
successfully marketed other such devices. The entire production staff is currently in place, from
marketing to shipping. They already know their customers and what they want.
• Strong Reputation- Roku, Inc. has a strong and recognizable brand with an extensive
customer base. Roku has built most of its reputation on making high quality streaming boxes and
an extensive content library. Roku is also the only streaming media device that offers a customer
care plan, it offers incident specific support.
• High Profitability – Roku pulled in $400 million in revenue in 2016. Roku has sold as
many devices in the past 18 months as it did in its previous 5 years. In September 2014, they sold
10 million units. 44% of U.S. homes that have a streaming device uses Roku.
• Convenience – Roku has made it convenient for cable customers to watch their favorite
shows on a streaming media device without the high cost of a cable bill.
• User Friendly – Roku devices are extremely user friendly. The initial setup calls for the
user to create a Roku account and select your favorite channels, you will then link your device to
your account. That’s all it takes to start enjoying the convenience of the remarkable device.
• Inexpensive – Roku has always been competitive in their pricing; a Roku stick or Roku 3
still sells for less that an Apple TV. Even though the Chromecast may come in a little less than
the Roku streaming stick, that device does not support the content which Roku provides to their
customers.
MARKETING PLAN FOR ROKU
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• No Monthly Fees – Roku does not charge monthly fees as other competitors do, IT is a
onetime purchase price, the customer then decides whether to use the free or pay for the
premium channels.
Weaknesses
• Legal Issues –Cablevision has brought about a court case to block the sale of Roku players
in Mexico. The suit claims that Roku allows third parties to offer and stream pirated content and
therefore benefiting economically from pirated content on Roku (Bouma, 2017). There are
numerous other law suits that have been filed against Roku for unauthorized usage of content.
• Diversity – Roku lacks a diverse product line, currently they only manufacture Roku boxes
and sticks. As customer needs change, Roku needs to evolve alongside so they don’t become
obsolete along with dozens of other streaming device companies.
• Competitive Market – Roku continues to fend off a line of competitors from Amazon to
Apple and those in between. Roku has seen competitors come and go but still they have fierce
competition from well-known brands.
• Lack of Promotion – Roku does not do a good job at promoting its product. It relies on
repeat customers, internet searches and word of mouth to sell their products. This is a big
weakness for Roku that will be addressed with this new product.
Opportunities
• Global Markets – “Between April 2013 and September 2014, Roku’s global user base
doubled from 5 million to 10 million devices in the United States. Over the same period, viewer
engagement rose from an average of 35 hours per month to 48 hours per Roku per month; both
numbers were higher than the average number of hours people spent watching any form of TV in
the United States” (Frost & Sullivan, 2015).
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• Demand – Consumers are more so than ever trying to find ways to cut the cord from cable
companies and have been turning to streaming devices for help. This gives Roku the opportunity
to market to these consumers looking to get away from the high cost of a cable bill.
• New Products & Opportunities – Roku has been toying with a new service called Roku TV.
Roku has partnered with television makers such as Haier and TCL where Roku provides their
blueprint that allows television makers to incorporate Roku’s technology into its operating
system. Consumers will no longer need to purchase a Roku device to reap the benefits of Roku
services.
Threats
• Increasing Costs – The costs of raw materials use to make up the components of the Roku
devices has risen over the years and Roku has always been able to absorb the increase without
having it affect their profit margins. When will Roku be unable to continue such practice, and
share the burden of the cost increase with their customers in the form of a product price increase?
• Increase in Labor Costs – With the economy on the rise and the unemployment rate down,
the labor market has gotten smaller. Today that has manifested itself into companies having to
raise workers’ pay to recruit or retain labor. This increase in labor costs will start eating into the
profit margin at companies such as Roku that relies heavily on workers to assemble their
products.
• Regulations – The streaming industry is under attack from cable and satellite companies to
stop allowing apps on their devices that stream pirated content. Lawsuits have been filed while
may prompt the Federal government to crack down on certain apps that allow the pirating to be
viewed. The Federal government may levy fines against Roku and they could lose thousands of
customers because of this.
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• Dependent Upon Other Channel Success – Roku revenue stream is highly dependent on the
continued popularity of premium channels and their content. If consumers no longer watch
premium channels Roku sales will decline.
Customer Description
The target market for Roku are kids starting from the age or 3 years old to approximately
40 years old and they are located with the United States and in 45 countries where we currently
operate.
Roku customers are highly diverse in the preferences for apps, so we currently offer over
500 apps for our customers to choose from. To be able to understand our diverse customer base
we collect and retain certain information about our customers. The information collected from
the website; email addresses, names, age, credit card information, internet protocol addresses,
devices and software data and associated apps.
Customers may also choose to purchase subscriptions to premium channels and or social
networks such as Facebook and YouTube. If they do, Roku will use and retain information from
their social network accounts.
Marketing Strategy
Roku has positioned itself as the low-cost streaming media device that provides
entertainment for the entire family. Comparing our products to our competitors, Roku offers
streaming of movies, TV content and live TV without a monthly subscription. It has the largest
selection of channels and apps compared to our closest competitor and we now offer
international programming. Every customer is given the ability to download as many apps as
they want with the use of a micro SD card that is made available in each of our devices. Our
devices are easy to use and has available content for all.
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We intend to increase the brand awareness both in the United States and in new
international markets. We will highlight our competitive pricing along with the new international
channel offerings as well as the live TV options compared to our competitors by including these
details in every message. We intend on increasing our sales from 10 million units to 25 million
units.
We intend on increasing our brand awareness by creating an aggressive ad campaign both
in the social media and with traditional sources. We will increase the frequency rate of all current
advertising messages by 80% and extend outreach internationally. We will also be using mobile
ads to increase awareness of Roku and our products.
Marketing Mix
Roku could offer more free content in their app store to pull customers away from cable
and satellite companies. Consumers want free movie and live streaming content so they can
make an easy switch from cable or satellite to a streaming media device. Roku also offers
gaming options even though it is now a game console. Adding more games to the store for the
children in the household will help in Roku sales.
Sports related content is a potential market, Roku currently has 50+ sports channels but
they all need some sort of subscription. Between 21.6% and 22.4% of all sports fans in the
United States spend up to four hours searching the internet for sports clips and sports news.
Roku should also make it easier to set customer favorite channels so they do not have to
search through all the downloaded apps for the handful they continuously use.
Marketing Communication Mix
Roku in the past has only advertised within social media, to increase brand awareness and
the awareness of our new product the main vehicles that we are going to use to advertise are
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national broadcasting networks, social media, blogs, pop-up ads on the internet and smartphones
and some digital vehicles such as billboards, buses and benches. We are trying to create a
demand for our product using advertising vehicles. “The popular conception of marketing tends
to focus on its role in creating demand for products and thus increasing consumption in general”
(Reich & Soule, 2016).
Increasing brand awareness is key, “in an ever-increasingly cluttered and competitive
message environment, advertisers are seeking ways to get their messages known and
remembered” (Kim, Haley & Koo, 2009).
Per experts, television ads reached more people than t…
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