National Chiao Tung UniversityMarketing Management Credit Class Report

Would Mobile ESPN be popular in Taiwan?Marketing Strategy of Mobile ESPN in Taiwan by consumer value research

9572503 張秀如 Hsiu-Ju Chang 9572504 廖美蘭 Monisha Liao June 2007

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Overview

Introduction Literature review Observational Expectations Research questions Factor hypothesis Methodology Analyze data Survey & conclusion

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What is Mobile ESPN? The new version Mobile ESPN is a cellular phone-based

sports information service offered by ESPN and Verizon Wireless.

What does Mobile ESPN serve via V CAST? will offer real-time sports news, scores and information;

personalization for favorite teams; scoring alerts; video and much more

Introduction

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How can Mobile ESPN fail in America?

Literature review

Mobile ESPN, the MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator) in the USA, owned by Disney, had announced it was discontinuing its service and would sell some of its assets and services to big carriers in America. It is offering refunds to existing customers.

Mobile ESPN had according to industry gossip acquired only 30,000 subscribers in the USA, at a time of strong subscriber growth in that market.

with a very strong brand ESPN in sports world, Mobile ESPN has all cards, how would it possible fail while others were enjoy the success, like Amp in USA and MTV3 in Finland ….etc., and his answer to this was --- there must had been a total, utter, lack of professional competence in its management!

( http://communities-dominate.blogs.com/brands/2006/09/how_can_espn_mo.html)

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Sports lover would be willing to use Mobile ESPN service, but if they need to pay extra, this would be the key factor to discourage them.

Providing more value-added function along would encourage consumer to use this service.

Observational Expectations

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What are the potential consumer segments? Will Mobile ESPN be accepted by Taiwanese sports lover? What will attract target customers to Mobile ESPN? (brand royalty?

peer pressure? The contents? ……etc.) Will an incentive / promotion program make difference to attract more

customers? With what kind of approach / advertisement will be more efficient? Will it make big difference if the service go with different Mobile

phone operator? What are the factors affect consumer? What is the suitable market strategy of ESPN Mobile in Taiwan?

Research questions

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Factor hypothesis

H1: Taiwanese is not very keen on sports, don’t watch sports channel very often (less than 30 hours / per month). H2: Mobile ESPN is not well-known in Taiwan. H3: People get the information about Mobile ESPN from the TV mostly. H4: Sports lover is more interested in using Mobile ESPN . H5: If need to pay extra, it will discourage consumer to use Mobile ESPN’s service. H6: If must chare extra, it would be better charge less than NTD100.00. H7: Using consumer’s current MOVP will encourage them to use Mobile ESPN ’s service. H8: Adding some value-added function will encourage consumer to use Mobile ESPN’s service.H9: Most cell phone users have already use 3G function.H10: Music will be the most popular value-add service people apply now.H11: Man will be more interested in Mobile ESPN’s service. H12: Students will be more interested in Mobile ESPN’s service.

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Who (Target customer): Young Adults age from 18~35. What (Purpose): investigating consumer attitude toward

Mobile ESPN service in Taiwan, collecting data for hypothesis testing.

When: evening of May 3, 2007. Where: (a) NCTU cafeteria (Student)

(b) Office (working people) How many: on each location collects 20 copies of

questionnaire (totally 40 copies).

Methodology

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Analyze data

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Sample size

Sampling customer: age from 18~35. Sample size: 42 copies. Sex: Male – 24

Female - 18 Age: 19~25, around ¼;

26~30, around ½;

31~35, around ¼

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General outcome from the questionnaire

80% people didn’t heard of Mobile ESPN. Most of people don*t consider to use Mobile ESPN,

mainly due to the cost concern. If the extra cost is less than NTD100/per month,

around 57% people will consider to use it. People like to have the service via their current mobile

phone service operation, as part of the value-added function.

6. 

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Reason of reject Mobile ESPN service

0

5

10

15

20

notinterestedin sports

Watchhabit

Service rate notnecessary

to use

wait andsee

doesn’thave 3Gmobile

Others

Reason of reject ESPN Mobile

multi-selected question

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H1: Taiwanese is not very keen on sports, don’t watch sports channel very often

No

33%

Less than 10 hours

44%

11~30 hours

21%

Over 30 hours

2%

No Less than 10 hours 11~30 hours Over 30 hours

Watch Sports Channels Hours per Month

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H2: Mobile ESPN is not well-known in Taiwan.

Yes17%

No83%

Yes

No

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H3: People get the information about Mobile ESPN from the TV mostly.

Data collected: 50% of people heard Mobile ESPN from TV.

ESPNwebsite

20%

friends30%

TV50%

ESPN website friends TV

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H4: Sports lover is more interested in using Mobile ESPN.

Data collected:(1) sports lover v.s. non sports lover, 45%: 55%(2) sports lover: 19 people (among them, 7 persons would like to use Mobile ESPN, about 36.8%)(3) non sports lover: 23 people (among them, 5 persons would like to use Mobile ESPN, about 21.7%)

45%

55%

sports lover non sports lover

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H5: If need to pay extra, it will discourage consumer to use Mobile ESPN’s service.

Data collected:If need to pay extra, about 42% don’t want to use Mobile ESPN, while only 25% want to use it, and 33% no reply to this inquiry.

25%Yes

42%No

33%No reply

3

5

4

00.5

11.5

22.5

33.5

44.5

5

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H6: If must chare extra, it would be better charge less than NTD100.00/monthly.

Data collected: If need to pay extra, 57% would like to pay less than NTD100/monthly.

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H7: Using consumer’s current MOVP will encourage them to use Mobile ESPN’s service.

Data collected:(1) most people use Chung-Hwa Telecom, around 23.67%.(2) around 79% consumer likes to use Mobile ESPN via their current MOVP.

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H8: Adding some value-added function will encourage consumer to use Mobile ESPN.

Data collected:To add Electronic Map would be the most popular value-added service to encourage consumer using Mobile ESPN.

4

14

1

12

0

6

10

11

15

1

23

17

10

8

9

1

0 5 10 15 20 25

Add local sports channel

Music

Social

Financial service

Fortune-Telling

Online Game

Language learning

News channel

Buy Movie ticket

Mobile community

Electronic Map

Life information

Internet surfing

PDA

GPRS

Others

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H9: Most cell phone users have already use 3G function.

5%

95%

Yes

No

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H10: Music will be the most popular value-add service people apply now.

0

2

4

6

8

10

Inte

rnet

Soci

al

Fortun

e-

Lan

guag

e

Buy

Mov

ie

Ele

ctro

nic

Oth

ers

1數列

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H11: Man will be more interested in Mobile ESPN’s service.

58%

42%Male

Female

24

H12: Students will be more interested in Mobile ESPN’s service.

2

7

01 1

0 0 01

012345678

Stu

dent

Pub

lic

serv

ant

un-

empl

oyed

or

1數列

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Survey & conclusion

Observational Expectations Data Collection

Sports lover would be willing to use ESPN Mobile service, but if they need to pay extra, this would be the key factor to discourage them.

Providing more value-added function along would encourage consumer to use this service.

80% people didn’t heard of ESPN MOBILE.

Most of people don*t consider to use ESPN MOBILE, mainly due to the cost concern.

If the extra cost is less than NTD100/per month, around 57% people will consider to use it.

People like to have the service via their current mobile phone service operation, as part of the value-added function.

Observational Expectations VS. Data Collection

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Congruency

Your perceptions of the research issues

Consumer perceptions of the research issues

Congruent

The result of data collection and the Observational Expectations are nearly congruent.

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Marketing Strategy

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Create a Strategic Plan for Mobile ESPN

Product and market selection Price Distribution (Place) Communications (Promotion)

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Product / Market Selection

ESPN’s brand name. Adding local sports program, or sports news related to

local player. Adding information regarding location of sports bar ne

arby. Cooperating with ChungHwa Telecom.

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Market Segment

A set of potential customers alike in the way they perceive and value the product.

Sports lover Young people Urban citizen

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Skimming vs. Penetration Pricing

1. Skim: price high to reach segments for which the product has the greatest value (then bring price down over time)

2. Penetrate: price low to achieve high market share before competitors can react and break into the market

**** In this case, we suggest the penetration policy, offering low price.

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Pricing

1. Extra NTD100/monthly, as one of the value-added functions.

2. Extra cost if participating FAN CLUB or related events.

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Channels of Distribution

TV advertisement. DM to all Telecom. Distributors and stores. DM along with ChungHwa Telecom’s bill. Making promotion in campus.

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Market Communications

Push Strategy (promote – push to end users: technical support, sales training, in-store support, in-store display, cooperative advertising, high resale margins, selective franchises)

Pull Strategy (create end market demand – branding)

**** In this case, we suggest to using both push and pull strategy, branding and promotion ….etc.

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Thank you.