In my class at the University of Texas at Austin called 'The Business of Sports Media' we were tasked with creating a mobile application about sports that targeted teenage men and women. (In other words develop an application for an audience that is not currently being targeted by any major competitor at the moment)
Business Plan:
1) Executive Summary
2) Business Description and Vision
3) Market Analysis
4) Description of Product and Services
5) Organization and Management team
6) Marketing and Sales Strategy
7) Financial Plan
2) Business Description and Vision
3) Market Analysis
4) Description of Product and Services
5) Organization and Management team
6) Marketing and Sales Strategy
7) Financial Plan
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1) Executive Summary
In today’s world digital interactions have become just as valuable as personal interactions, both for marketers and consumers. Every day new businesses are developed that hope to capitalize on this movement. Considering, the ease of creating websites, apps, etc its easy to throw an idea into the wind and hope it succeeds.
But The Locker Room is not one of those ideas.
The Locker Room is not just an app. It is an experience, one that has been carefully developed by its seven founding members at The University of Texas. The world’s first social network utility designed specifically for the sports fan.
With The 'Locker Room' application sports fans have a centralized place to interact with their favorite sports figures. Fans can see the athlete’s Instagram photos, Facebook posts and Twitter updates and even fastasy stats with the click of a button.
Tapping into the varied backgrounds of its founders The Locker Room has been able to start up with minimal development costs. Its prime outlet for advertising is non-traditional and social media advertising in order to continue to keep the operation costs low.
Growth is expected quickly as the sports fans are a very loyal fan base. Once awareness is high and apps are downloaded, The Locker Room will begin to sell desplay advertising space within the app in order to start recovering costs and making the business venture profitable.
No matter what the profit and loss statements read, however, The Locker Room promises to live by its 5 core principles that are certain to make The Locker Room a well-respected and well-operated business.
In today’s world digital interactions have become just as valuable as personal interactions, both for marketers and consumers. Every day new businesses are developed that hope to capitalize on this movement. Considering, the ease of creating websites, apps, etc its easy to throw an idea into the wind and hope it succeeds.
But The Locker Room is not one of those ideas.
The Locker Room is not just an app. It is an experience, one that has been carefully developed by its seven founding members at The University of Texas. The world’s first social network utility designed specifically for the sports fan.
With The 'Locker Room' application sports fans have a centralized place to interact with their favorite sports figures. Fans can see the athlete’s Instagram photos, Facebook posts and Twitter updates and even fastasy stats with the click of a button.
Tapping into the varied backgrounds of its founders The Locker Room has been able to start up with minimal development costs. Its prime outlet for advertising is non-traditional and social media advertising in order to continue to keep the operation costs low.
Growth is expected quickly as the sports fans are a very loyal fan base. Once awareness is high and apps are downloaded, The Locker Room will begin to sell desplay advertising space within the app in order to start recovering costs and making the business venture profitable.
No matter what the profit and loss statements read, however, The Locker Room promises to live by its 5 core principles that are certain to make The Locker Room a well-respected and well-operated business.
2) Business Description and Vision
Mission Statement:
The Locker Room seeks to connect sports fans with their sports heroes and favorite teams. In a world of digital connections The Locker Room tears down the wall that separates the fans from the players and allows for easy, efficient interactions that can occur at the fan’s convenience.
Company Vision:
The Locker Room strives to develop and be the unquestioned leader of a market category that is presently non-existent - sports social networking.
Business Objectives:
The following business objectives are meant to be completed in two years, beginning at the launch of The Locker Room App:
-Recover start-up capital through paid downloads and in-app advertisements
-Have top-of-mind awareness within the sports community by garnering at least 100,000 downloads of the app
-Create an easy-to-use and well-designed app that people enjoy, which can be demonstrated by earning at least a 4-star review in the Apple App Store
-Create a strong sense of brand loyalty as demonstrated by selling $1,000’s worth of merchandise
-Create a version of the app that is a paid download in addition to the free download that offers increased content and unique features
-Have top-of-mind awareness within the sports community by garnering at least 100,000 downloads of the app
-Create an easy-to-use and well-designed app that people enjoy, which can be demonstrated by earning at least a 4-star review in the Apple App Store
-Create a strong sense of brand loyalty as demonstrated by selling $1,000’s worth of merchandise
-Create a version of the app that is a paid download in addition to the free download that offers increased content and unique features
Company History:
In the past connections with athletes were achieved by observing them while at a game, watching it on TV or collecting their sports cards for memorabilia. However the world has changed and there is a new medium that allows people of all demographics to connect with one another - digital media.
As seven young sports fans sat in a Business of Sports Media class brainstorming the future of sports media a sudden realization was reached. In today’s world where everyone lives online and interacts with others as much online as they do offline, how is it that there is no medium dedicated to social interactions with sports? Out of this question the concept for The Locker Room was born.
The brains behind this operation include Jeffrey Lefkovits, Steven Gay, Tyson Bramer, Kari Counter, Gabriel Chambers, Laura Carrizosa and Kramer Hickok, each of whom are soon to be University of Texas graduates. The seven founders all have different levels of interest in sports, but each understood the unrelenting force sports played in the daily lives of people around the world. These young entrepreneurs wanted to embrace the sports market and provide a new dimension of interaction previously unavailable.
The Locker Room was originally incepted in October of 2012 as a single destination for all things sports. However, the founders understood that The Locker Room needed a niche in order for it to be successful and that is where the big idea came from.
The world’s first social networking app for sports.
The Locker Room Company Principles:
The Locker Room abides by 5 important company principles’ in all aspects of business
-Innovation is always welcome, as innovators in this genre we must strive to always be at the forefront of sports social networking
-Act in the best interest of our consumers and business will benefit accordingly
-Give back to the sports community in order to continue the legacy of sports
-Treat employees like family and never take anyone for granted
-Profits are important, but a non-wavering commitment to quality is more important.
-Act in the best interest of our consumers and business will benefit accordingly
-Give back to the sports community in order to continue the legacy of sports
-Treat employees like family and never take anyone for granted
-Profits are important, but a non-wavering commitment to quality is more important.
3) Market Analysis Summary
• The Locker Room offers services that appeal to a large range of sports fans that don’t mind taking time to search for information and are constantly on top of sports news. The Locker Room will concentrate on top sports apps.
• Our primary competitors would be apps that focus on all sports like ESPN Sport center and Bleacher Report. The apps NBA Time, KYCK, MLB.com at Bat apps are our secondary competitors because they only focus on specific sports not on all the sports, but making it competitive to obtain their audiences.
• SWOT analysis
-The Locker Room’s strength is bringing convenience to its consumers by combining three popular social medias, stats and news over their favorite athletes allowing for effect use of just one app instead of 4 or more. Also, integrate women’s basketball and future pro women’s sports.
- A weakness would be to improve our website to have more information and connect with our app. As we can see in pie chart 1 websites are still very important and in high use. We would lose audiences who do not have smart phones or if there are technical difficulty they cannot reference to the website.
-The Locker Room is a small company that has the opportunity to modify our app and website anytime without the permission of outside influences. Since we have many freedoms we have opportunities to improve and learn every time without harming other investors. The women’s professional sports industry will allow us to expand our audience to women and advertisers.
-This is a very competitive and open market there is always the threat of other apps that have fixed our weaknesses and created a more functional app. Since this a small company we are exposed to technical difficulties due to the small cast of employees. Finally, the constant change of website or apps in big company are more innovating because of their larger finances, which make it difficult to compete.
• The needs of our existing market would be 24/7 constant reliable sports news over their favorite athletes or teams and up to date stats.
• The Locker Room’s target audience is mainly males from ages 12-45 who are or were athletes and who are constantly informed and are still active. For older males it is a way to live threw their favorite athletes and for younger males it is a way to connect with their idols. Also, trying to reach women from ages 18-45 who are or were athletes and enjoy watching sports with their partners or a family event.
• Our share of the market will be 0% because we are a new app. Yet, we hope to anticipate at least 1,000 users like the app KYCK shown in pie chart 2. They are a new app with 4,000 users but with great positive feedback from its users. We hope to anticipate those exact reviews to build up our audience.
• The Locker Room offers services that appeal to a large range of sports fans that don’t mind taking time to search for information and are constantly on top of sports news. The Locker Room will concentrate on top sports apps.
• Our primary competitors would be apps that focus on all sports like ESPN Sport center and Bleacher Report. The apps NBA Time, KYCK, MLB.com at Bat apps are our secondary competitors because they only focus on specific sports not on all the sports, but making it competitive to obtain their audiences.
• SWOT analysis
-The Locker Room’s strength is bringing convenience to its consumers by combining three popular social medias, stats and news over their favorite athletes allowing for effect use of just one app instead of 4 or more. Also, integrate women’s basketball and future pro women’s sports.
- A weakness would be to improve our website to have more information and connect with our app. As we can see in pie chart 1 websites are still very important and in high use. We would lose audiences who do not have smart phones or if there are technical difficulty they cannot reference to the website.
-The Locker Room is a small company that has the opportunity to modify our app and website anytime without the permission of outside influences. Since we have many freedoms we have opportunities to improve and learn every time without harming other investors. The women’s professional sports industry will allow us to expand our audience to women and advertisers.
-This is a very competitive and open market there is always the threat of other apps that have fixed our weaknesses and created a more functional app. Since this a small company we are exposed to technical difficulties due to the small cast of employees. Finally, the constant change of website or apps in big company are more innovating because of their larger finances, which make it difficult to compete.
• The needs of our existing market would be 24/7 constant reliable sports news over their favorite athletes or teams and up to date stats.
• The Locker Room’s target audience is mainly males from ages 12-45 who are or were athletes and who are constantly informed and are still active. For older males it is a way to live threw their favorite athletes and for younger males it is a way to connect with their idols. Also, trying to reach women from ages 18-45 who are or were athletes and enjoy watching sports with their partners or a family event.
• Our share of the market will be 0% because we are a new app. Yet, we hope to anticipate at least 1,000 users like the app KYCK shown in pie chart 2. They are a new app with 4,000 users but with great positive feedback from its users. We hope to anticipate those exact reviews to build up our audience.
4) Description of Products and Services
The Locker Room is a first-of-its kind app that allows for social networking between athletes, teams and fans everywhere. As a collateral service, there will be a Locker Room website that has the same content as the app in addition to selling merchandise and any other branded material that may eventually be produced.
Inception of The Locker Room
In today’s digital age everyone is wired. From the low-income sports fan in Detroit to the highest paid NFL player, nearly everyone has basic access to the internet. In 2012, over half of cell phones are considered “smart” phones, meaning they have internet access and app capabilities.
While the level of connection is high, people interact with the web in a variety of ways and it results in a very decentralized medium. For example, look at social networking sites. Social networking is predicted to be a $16.1 billion dollar industry, with over 1 billion users across such sites as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Myspace and many others. With such a prosperous and decentralized market we asked ourselves: “How can use this digital medium to give sports fans a sports experience they can not receive anywhere else?”
Our answer: “The Locker Room”
What is The Locker Room app:
The Locker Room app is a centralized place for sports fans to go to socially network with their favorite players and teams.
While many players and teams utilize social networking already for marketing or personal purposes a fan has to be active on many sites in order to stay connected. The Locker Room solves this problem by becoming the centralized place for all athlete’s social networking feeds. The Locker Room’s unique program pulls athlete’s activity from all of their social networking sites and brings them together into one site. So for athletes and teams, it is simple. They do not have to make accounts or switch to a new site, they continue what they’re are doing and The Locker Room centralizes all of their activity.
For users, The Locker Room is simple to use as well. Every athlete who has an active social networking account is stored into the app. Users choose which athletes to follow and they will receive “digital sports cards.” On the front of these cards will be any pictures uploaded by the athletes. On the back, instead of stats, is their most recent social networking activities and a space for users to reply back to posts using their own social networking accounts. Users can collect as many players and teams as they want and reference them at the drop of the hat by scrolling through their “player cards.”
The app will strive to be as simple as possible, using the typical “sports card” as an inspiration for this simplicity. Functions of the app include: a list of accounts the user is following, a search tool to find more accounts, the player/teams “player cards” which have a front (pictures) and a back (social networking feed), and finally a page for Locker Room merchandise that links to our website.
How will The Locker Room be successful in the market?
As previously noted, social networking is a gigantic marketplace with few companies dominating the market share. While each of the companies are providing great services and operating successfully, none of them have the niche that The Locker Room serves.
The sports fan is arguably the most loyal consumer when it comes to their favorite teams and players. By targeting these types of people it will be easy to illustrate the importance of The Locker Room because they already have an inherent interest in the players and teams that can be found on our app.
The Locker Room will operate in profitable margins once we have a solid customer base. This is proven time and time again as advertising space continues to trend upwards in cost when it comes to media on or relating to sports programs. The sports fan is a very valuable and hard to reach audience, hence why companies are willing to pay over $3 million for a 30 second commercial during the Super Bowl. Because of the previous demand for advertising space on sports programs, we believe that companies will be flocking to advertise on The Locker Room once we can prove we have attracted a large amount of consumers.
5) Organization and Management Team
By the end of the first year of operation, The Locker Room will have ten employees. Of these, seven are the founders; two will be account managers and one will be an administrative assistant (yet to be hired). The plan includes two producers, two designers, and two programmers and one social media specialist.
The Locker Room Organizational Chart--
Producer (2)
Programmer (1)
Designer (1)
Account Manager (2)
Social Media Specialist (1)
Account Manager (2)
Administrative Assistant (1)
Programmer (1)
Designer (1)
Account Manager (2)
Social Media Specialist (1)
Account Manager (2)
Administrative Assistant (1)
As producers, Gabriel and Steven’s general responsibilities will be: finance, legal, accounting, general business guidance, and ensuring that the final design meets the customer's expectations.
Gabriel Chambers is a junior at the University of Texas originally from El Paso, TX. He is majoring in advertising and also studying business foundations at McCombs School of Business. He hopes to pursue a career in the alcohol distribution business in which he has family connections. His favorite hobbies include paintball, snowboarding, reading, and watching the NFL or NBA on TV.
Steven Gay is a sophomore at the University of Texas at Austin. He is an economics major as well as studying for the business foundations certificate issued by the McCombs School of Business. In addition to finance and law, Steven is planning on helping with the public relations aspect due to him working towards a minor in advertising.
As the programmer, Kramer’s general responsibilities will be: write, test, debug, and maintain the detailed instructions that the app must follow to perform its functions. They will also conceive, design, and test logical structures for the app.
As the designer, Kari’s responsibilities will be: coordinating the work of the designs and is the main visionary of the app. As the designer, Kari will ensure that the team communication makes large design decisions, and present design outside of the team.
Kari Counter is a junior at the University of Texas originally from Houston, Texas. She is a double major in journalism and government who plans on attending law school after completing her undergraduate studies. She currently interns for TheOldCoach.Rivals.Com where she's gained valuable sports journalism experience. Her favorite hobbies include running, writing, cooking, and watching any and all things sports related.
As account managers, Jeff and Laura’s overall responsibilities will include: overseeing development and client relationships. Jeff will also negotiate and oversee the partnering relationships with our partner companies.
Jeffrey Lefkovits is a senior at the University of Texas originally from Coppell, TX. A double major in Advertising and Radio-TV-Film, Jeffrey enjoys the universal gratification of good storytelling. While continuing to flex his film muscles on weekends and vacations, Jeffrey is currently pursuing a career in Advertising and hopes to begin working at The Richards Group in December. His two favorite things in the world are traveling and skiing.
Laura Carrisosa is a senior at the University of Texas originally from Mexico City, Mexico. She is majoring in Art History focusing in Latin American art and hopes to double major in Public Relations. She wants to combine both Art History and Public Relations to promote and manage upcoming artists. Laura hopes one day she can own a Public Relations company that manages artist and upcoming fashion designers.
As the social media specialist, Tyson’s general responsibilities will include: maintaining and expanding the client’s social networking presence. Tyson will ensure that all profiles and information is current, especially for dynamic clients.
Tyson is a senior studying Journalism at The University of Texas and currently holds an RTF degree. He is originally from Houston, TX and has lived in Austin for the last six years. Tyson has previous social media experience from Q1 Media here in Austin. He has also gained social media experience from Texas Monthly Magazine. He enjoys writing, films and, of course, social media.
The founders have a very extensive and varied background surrounding our sports app. We have come up with a truly unique and different idea that will draw users to download The Locker Room. These young entrepreneurs wanted to embrace the sports market and provide a new dimension of interaction previously unavailable.
6) Marketing and Sales Strategy
Target Market:
Our potential customer is someone who is already interested in certain athletes or teams. They are likely to be younger, tech savvy and a user of social media. The majority are likely to be male. Our company is comprised of avid sports fans, thus we use our own insight into what we ourselves would want in our application. Our potential customer wants something streamlined and easy to use in mobile platforms. They want something that can be checked in a few seconds and alerts them to news and other information they would be interested in. Demand will start out low, but we are quite confident in our product and its value. Sales in online marketplaces often skyrocket with a valued product, and this is exactly what we expect with ‘The LocerRoom’.
Channels Of Distribution And Retail:
The locker-room is an application that prides itself on compatibility with as many platforms as possible. It will be available on every major digital application marketplace. This includes (but is not exclusive to) the following:
-The iPhone and iPad Appstore
-Google Play (android)
-Google Web Store (pc)
-Xbox Live
-Amazon Appstore (android, kindle)
-Windows Phone Appstore
-Mac appstore
-BlackBerry App World
-Samsung Apps
-Facebook Appstore
-Google Web Store (pc)
-Xbox Live
-Amazon Appstore (android, kindle)
-Windows Phone Appstore
-Mac appstore
-BlackBerry App World
-Samsung Apps
-Facebook Appstore
The LockerRoom is not planning on distributing any of its merchandise through any physical location, as sales volume of these items is not projected to be high enough to justify the overhead required. The demand for these products will be satisfied through sales through our website. All retail operations will be carried out at The LockerRoom headquarters.
Sales Strategy:
- Pricing- The LockerRoom app will be offered for $0.99 across all platforms, though special promotions may be held at times offering the app at a lower price.
- Promotions- The LockerRoom will have special promotions across all platforms offering the app at a lower price or possibly even for free as a prize.
- Product- The LockerRoom is a social network aggregating application that deals specifically with athletes. We will also sell The LockerRoom merchandise through our online store.
- Place- The LockerRoom app will be offered in the digital marketplaces mentioned earlier, and any physical merchandise will be offered at a low price [As the purpose of such merchandise is mainly to spread our brand name].
- Promotions- The LockerRoom will have special promotions across all platforms offering the app at a lower price or possibly even for free as a prize.
- Product- The LockerRoom is a social network aggregating application that deals specifically with athletes. We will also sell The LockerRoom merchandise through our online store.
- Place- The LockerRoom app will be offered in the digital marketplaces mentioned earlier, and any physical merchandise will be offered at a low price [As the purpose of such merchandise is mainly to spread our brand name].
Positioning Strategy:
How will we differ from competitors?
While the main social media services such as Facebook and Twitter only carry their own user generated content, The LockerRoom collects the info from all social media sites and filters them according to our user preferences. No other product or application delivers this type of service. We will be the first.
How will we advertise to our intended audience and target market?
Since our target customer is most likely to be a young, tech savvy man, we will target our advertising to this demographic. Ads with pop culture, and sports references are expected to do best. ESPN advertisements that use sports symbols such as mascots or prominent athletes should be emulated.
7) Product Plan
Who are the target customers?
Males age 14-30. This is the age group that is most intrigued by sports. The social interaction element will allow for more women than most sports apps but the main target demographic will still be teenage and young adult males.
What is the whole product?
The whole product is a sports social media app that will provide users with the experience of conveniently and efficiently interacting with their favorite teams and players over all social media outlets with one simple click of "following" that team or player.
What are the customer development channels?
The customer development channels for The Locker Room will be placing ads on other sports and social media apps to attract people already interested in the two areas our app focuses on. We will also place ads on sports websites that are frequented by sports fans to pull them into our unique sports social media world. With a social media specialist on our team we will be able to also get free advertising and public relations through his efforts to promote our app over social media, somewhere our target audience is already widely available.
What are the competitive advantages?
Our competitive advantage is the fact that we will be the only app of its kind available. For people who enjoy sports and social media we will be the first app to integrate the two, allowing fans to not have to go through 4-5 sites to get all the information, updates, and statuses they want. For the first time they will be able to go to one place for all these goods.
How will the whole product be developed?
We have the capabilities in house to develop the product. This will allow us to not have to spend any start-up cost on hiring an outside company to develop our product and give us more start-up revenue to devote to publicizing The Locker Room.
What exactly is the business growth strategy?
Our business growth strategy is to target customers that will be most interested in what our product is. Since our product is a sports product (majority male customers) and a social media product (majority young customers) our target customers are younger males. To target this demographic we will place advertisements on sites, apps, etc. that they already frequent, mainly sports and social media related entities. We will also utilize other social media outlets to spread the word about our new app. We will self-promote our app to our target audience across outlets like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. As members of our target group catch on to our new and unique concept our customers will increase. The demographic of younger people that we are targeting are a generation that likes to constantly be "in" on the latest and coolest thing. Once we can get some traction in this group we will be able to quickly increase our numbers of users. As our numbers of users increases that means the number of eyes on our app increases. The more eyes the app has the more likely we are to generate more profit from advertisers. As we get more advertisers we will have more revenue to focus on building a newer, better, more detailed paid version of the app.
Barriers to Success:
-Social Media is an already developed area. There are many social media outlets and social media tends to have a short shelf life. Barriers would include all current social media including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. How do we convince users to use our site to get their updates from these sites, rather than just go to each site individually?
-Other barriers would include the already high volume of sports-related apps. While we have a unique angle, sports social media, there are many other already successful apps related to sports that sports fans will already have. How do we convince users that our app is necessary to further their love of sports?
-The unique angle of sports media could also be a barrier. No one has ever done what we are doing. There are no apps focused solely on social media and sports. Because of this, we have no one to turn to for prior examples of success and failure. We also have no real way to gauge how much the public is interested in this idea.
-Technology also presents a barrier to success. Technology is a rapidly changing industry. Apps who do not provide constant updates quickly become obsolete. This will present a barrier for us as we will have to constantly stay on top of the newest technologies and be willing to change formats/layouts/designs/etc. as new technology warrants.
-Lastly the sheer number of apps presents a barrier. With thousands and thousands of apps across the many app stores, how do we get ours to the top? There are many developed apps that never take off simply because they don't garner the necessary attention to become a top app. We will be competing with every other app out there, especially ones who are already widely popular and ones currently increasing in popularity.
Predictors of Success:
-Many of our predictors of success relate to our barriers of success. While social media is an already developed industry, the success of other social media outlets, particularly new ones, shows that this is an area still growing. We have many examples to look to of what works in the social media sphere and what does not work.
-Going along with this predictor is the fact that today's society revolves around social media and social interaction through the internet. People use this for everything from news gathering to planning events with friends to simply updating people on the newest accomplishments in their own lives. Any chance for interaction with others over social media seems to be a great temptation for people, especially younger generations. Our apps availability to interact with superstars, aka athletes, is sure to be luring to the social media and sports junkies of today.
-The already wide success of sports related apps also provides a predictor of success for us. This shows us how much people like sports related apps and want to use them. Again we have a great range of apps to look to for examples of what works and what does not work. We will be able to learn from them without being a direct competitor of them.
-Our unique approach to the sports app industry is also a predictor of success for us. No one else has created an app simply focused on sports and social media, two areas that people are highly passionate about and already deeply involved in. If people are as interested in this as we think they are, this would be a great success and the app would have a monopoly on the sports social media world. We would indirectly be competing with both social media apps and sports apps however we would not be a major threat because they both offer other aspects that have nothing to do with our goal. Our ability to look to them for guidance without being a direct competitor to them is a great advantage.
-Another predictor of success is the increasing popularity of gadgets like smartphones that rely on the use of apps. The number of people with smartphones increases by the day, therefore increasing the number of potential customers we would have. More customers, more ads, more revenue. People use apps on everything now a days from phones, to gaming consoles, to computers and more. This increased flow of people in app stores is a predictor of success for us because the market we are entering is a growing market.
8) Projected Profit/Loss Statement:
Who are the target customers?
Males age 14-30. This is the age group that is most intrigued by sports. The social interaction element will allow for more women than most sports apps but the main target demographic will still be teenage and young adult males.
What is the whole product?
The whole product is a sports social media app that will provide users with the experience of conveniently and efficiently interacting with their favorite teams and players over all social media outlets with one simple click of "following" that team or player.
What are the customer development channels?
The customer development channels for The Locker Room will be placing ads on other sports and social media apps to attract people already interested in the two areas our app focuses on. We will also place ads on sports websites that are frequented by sports fans to pull them into our unique sports social media world. With a social media specialist on our team we will be able to also get free advertising and public relations through his efforts to promote our app over social media, somewhere our target audience is already widely available.
What are the competitive advantages?
Our competitive advantage is the fact that we will be the only app of its kind available. For people who enjoy sports and social media we will be the first app to integrate the two, allowing fans to not have to go through 4-5 sites to get all the information, updates, and statuses they want. For the first time they will be able to go to one place for all these goods.
How will the whole product be developed?
We have the capabilities in house to develop the product. This will allow us to not have to spend any start-up cost on hiring an outside company to develop our product and give us more start-up revenue to devote to publicizing The Locker Room.
What exactly is the business growth strategy?
Our business growth strategy is to target customers that will be most interested in what our product is. Since our product is a sports product (majority male customers) and a social media product (majority young customers) our target customers are younger males. To target this demographic we will place advertisements on sites, apps, etc. that they already frequent, mainly sports and social media related entities. We will also utilize other social media outlets to spread the word about our new app. We will self-promote our app to our target audience across outlets like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. As members of our target group catch on to our new and unique concept our customers will increase. The demographic of younger people that we are targeting are a generation that likes to constantly be "in" on the latest and coolest thing. Once we can get some traction in this group we will be able to quickly increase our numbers of users. As our numbers of users increases that means the number of eyes on our app increases. The more eyes the app has the more likely we are to generate more profit from advertisers. As we get more advertisers we will have more revenue to focus on building a newer, better, more detailed paid version of the app.
Barriers to Success:
-Social Media is an already developed area. There are many social media outlets and social media tends to have a short shelf life. Barriers would include all current social media including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. How do we convince users to use our site to get their updates from these sites, rather than just go to each site individually?
-Other barriers would include the already high volume of sports-related apps. While we have a unique angle, sports social media, there are many other already successful apps related to sports that sports fans will already have. How do we convince users that our app is necessary to further their love of sports?
-The unique angle of sports media could also be a barrier. No one has ever done what we are doing. There are no apps focused solely on social media and sports. Because of this, we have no one to turn to for prior examples of success and failure. We also have no real way to gauge how much the public is interested in this idea.
-Technology also presents a barrier to success. Technology is a rapidly changing industry. Apps who do not provide constant updates quickly become obsolete. This will present a barrier for us as we will have to constantly stay on top of the newest technologies and be willing to change formats/layouts/designs/etc. as new technology warrants.
-Lastly the sheer number of apps presents a barrier. With thousands and thousands of apps across the many app stores, how do we get ours to the top? There are many developed apps that never take off simply because they don't garner the necessary attention to become a top app. We will be competing with every other app out there, especially ones who are already widely popular and ones currently increasing in popularity.
Predictors of Success:
-Many of our predictors of success relate to our barriers of success. While social media is an already developed industry, the success of other social media outlets, particularly new ones, shows that this is an area still growing. We have many examples to look to of what works in the social media sphere and what does not work.
-Going along with this predictor is the fact that today's society revolves around social media and social interaction through the internet. People use this for everything from news gathering to planning events with friends to simply updating people on the newest accomplishments in their own lives. Any chance for interaction with others over social media seems to be a great temptation for people, especially younger generations. Our apps availability to interact with superstars, aka athletes, is sure to be luring to the social media and sports junkies of today.
-The already wide success of sports related apps also provides a predictor of success for us. This shows us how much people like sports related apps and want to use them. Again we have a great range of apps to look to for examples of what works and what does not work. We will be able to learn from them without being a direct competitor of them.
-Our unique approach to the sports app industry is also a predictor of success for us. No one else has created an app simply focused on sports and social media, two areas that people are highly passionate about and already deeply involved in. If people are as interested in this as we think they are, this would be a great success and the app would have a monopoly on the sports social media world. We would indirectly be competing with both social media apps and sports apps however we would not be a major threat because they both offer other aspects that have nothing to do with our goal. Our ability to look to them for guidance without being a direct competitor to them is a great advantage.
-Another predictor of success is the increasing popularity of gadgets like smartphones that rely on the use of apps. The number of people with smartphones increases by the day, therefore increasing the number of potential customers we would have. More customers, more ads, more revenue. People use apps on everything now a days from phones, to gaming consoles, to computers and more. This increased flow of people in app stores is a predictor of success for us because the market we are entering is a growing market.
8) Projected Profit/Loss Statement:
Start-up Expenses:
Cost of creating a basic, table-based app $100
Rights to material (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) $500
Integrating database capabilities $1,500
Web services for app development $1,000
Advertisement and promotional efforts $1,000
Accounting and Legal $200
Miscellaneous $500
Total $5,700
Rights to material (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram) $500
Integrating database capabilities $1,500
Web services for app development $1,000
Advertisement and promotional efforts $1,000
Accounting and Legal $200
Miscellaneous $500
Total $5,700
Revenue:
Monthly
Advertisements $500
Earnings from app downloads $500
Total $1,000
Earnings from app downloads $500
Total $1,000
Annualy
Advertisements $6,000
Earnings from apps $6,000
Total $12,000
Earnings from apps $6,000
Total $12,000
Profits:
First Month -$4,700
Second Month -$3,700
Third Month -$2,700
Fourth Month -$1,700
Fifth Month -$700
Sixth Month $300
First Year Total (BOS)* $6,300
Second Month -$3,700
Third Month -$2,700
Fourth Month -$1,700
Fifth Month -$700
Sixth Month $300
First Year Total (BOS)* $6,300
*BOS = Before Owners Salary
