Ana Sofia Rego | 56240

Bruno Lima | 50693

Erik Eisenbeis | 56384
Julia Forsberg | 57001
Mohammad Jami | 56772
Tobias Leiste | 56547

MARKETING MANAGEMENT ISEG U.LISBOA

Table of Contents

Introduction ..................................................... 01

Product Offering ............................................. 02

Value Proposition ........................................... 03

Industry Analysis ............................................ 04

Target Segments ........................................... 07

Segmentation ................................................. 08

Targeting ......................................................... 10

Marketing Mix .................................................. 11

Critical Success Factors ................................ 14

Outlook ............................................................ 15

Conclusion ....................................................... 16
 Introduction
We are UNITED. The app to share
healthy moments and habits.
Are you tired of planning when to do
sports, just to have people cancel at
the last minute? If yes, then we have
the right app for you! With the UNITED
app, you can simply search for sports
buddies and find a place to do the
sport and you’re done: You can just
put on your outfit and go!
Here at UNITED, we strive to connect our
users with each other and create a network
of sports buddies. By offering a free base
version, having different skill levels and
including booking options in our app, we
ensure that there is no entry barrier to join
our community and people feel invited to
search for a sports partner. Our mission is
to provide the customer with an complete
application to chase their passion and
socialize with other people.

Inspired by the J.K. Rowling quote "We

are only as strong as we are united, as
weak as we are divided", we created
our vision. The sustainable
development goals are taking a
crucial part in fighting inequality
around thew world. With UNITED we
want to help achieving the third one –
Good health and well-being. Through
our app, we enable people to connect
and train together while contributing to
global health and well-being.

"We are only as strong as

we are united, as weak as
we are divided"

-J.K. Rowling

Marketing Management - Group Work - ISEG Lisbon School of Economics and Management 01
Product offering

The basic usage of our app is to create a profit, select your interests and your sport and
match with a sports buddy nearby. By Rating them with a 5-Star System, you can honour or
evaluate buddies. For more user interactions, there is a possibility to create private groups.
In our advanced Verison, in-app ads will be disabled, a booking system for your favourite
places and courts will be available and in the future, UNITED International as well
Competition world wide, are exclusive available. More information regarding this in our
outlook section at the end.
Our app works with a freemium model and has two main versions. A standard Version in
which the main feature, finding a sports buddy, is free accessible. Further is has an
advanced version, which brings comfort, customizability, and most importantly strong new
features for the user of the UNITED as you can see below.

Standard Version (Free) Advanced Version (Paid version)

• Create your own profile, set your interests • No in-app ads

• Choose a sport • Implemented booking system for locations
• Find a sports buddy • Customize profile (add more things like
• Rate other people rankings, achievements etc.)
• Create private groups (for timetables, • Competition word wide
rankings, challenges) • UNITED International

Marketing Management - Group Work - ISEG Lisbon School of Economics and Management 02
Value proposition
To ensure that the skill level of your sports buddies is to your liking, we ask you to rank
your own sports level and assess this ourselves through a few questions regarding
yourself. Our app helps people to socialize and to connect through sports with new
people, while still fulfilling the need of physical exercise for our customers.

Why you should use UNITED as your sports app?:

Ease of use No time wasted

Our app is designed to be easy to use
and ready from the get-go. After
downloading you only have to insert
some personal information (Name, age,
etc.) and you are ready to go!
Socializing
Sports is one of the easiest ways to
socialize with people and long-lasting
friendships are formed while playing
sports. Whether it is just to do the sport,
or you want to go eat with your buddy
afterwards, it is all up to you and your
sports partner. In case you really liked
doing sports with your buddy, you can
give them a thumbs-up in the app to
show that you liked them. If you really
did not like your sports buddy, you can
open a chat section and contact our
support on why you did not like doing
sports with them.
We see UNITED as an app that helps
you to find people and a place to do
sports the fastest way possible. One of
the biggest problems for our users
would still be finding a place where to
do your sport of choice, but we have
you covered: Through partnering up with
local sports clubs, we offer booking
with the schedules, availability, prices,
and directions for all kind of venues in
our app, whether it’s a football pitch, a
golf course, or a tennis court, we
provide you fast solutions.
Push technological boundaries
Our IT team at UNITED is working
constantly on new ways to experience
sports and we are on the forefront of VR
sports with other people, and we are
confident that we can implement this
premium feature in our app in the near
future. Using VR sports, you can do the
sport immediately with other people,
without having to displace yourself,
while still experiencing the sport to its
fullest.

Marketing Management - Group Work - ISEG Lisbon School of Economics and Management 03
Industry Analysis
External View
To have a better perception of the external environment we have performed the
following analysis with the five forces of Porter.
The industry has hardly any entry barriers.
The initial capital requirement is relatively
low since the costs of developing an app
are slim, especially when starting with a
geographical restricted app, such as our
own, that incorporates and processes
smaller tranches of information and data
input. Moreover, outsourcing, which can
help cut down unnecessary initial R&D
expenditure, is widely accessible and
affordable seeing that there are many IT
enterprises specialized in applications
development with UI/UX designs. UI/UX
design is the combination of user interface
and user experience, focusing on both
elements that affect the presentation and
interactivity of the product (typography,
color, icons, menu bars, etc.) and
optimization of the overall experience
through structure and consistency.
As for governmental legal boundaries,
digital apps operating in Portugal simply
have to comply with the European Unions’
rules set by The European Data Protection
Board. These are frameworks to
guarantee citizens’ personal data
protection and the possibility to further
limit the intrusiveness of app using and are
currently displayed on the General Data
Marketing Management - Group Work - ISEG Lisbon School of Economics and Management
Protection Regulation (GDPR) and in the E-
Privacy Directive. With this being said,
these legal requirements do not represent
a threat, in fact, they even help our brand
to show the guarantee of a transparent
trustworthy service performance.
Other perceivable entry barriers are set by
the suppliers themselves. At the moment,
within Portugal/the European Union, there
are two main suppliers with whom we
intend to operate with, Google (Google
Play Console Store) and Apple (Apple
Store), which together own the majority of
the market share for app platforms and
therefore set the ground rules, for
example, they can immediately reject an
app from ever being displayed on their
platforms and decide when to suspend a
developer’s account. Additionally, to
publish an Android app on Google Play
there is a small one-time fee charge of
25USD for the account creation, and as
for iOS app submission on Apple
platforms, the fixed yearly fee costs
99USD. Both companies charge a 30%
commission on apps and in-app purchases
of digital services, although if it is a
subscription above 12 months the
commission or if the app developer’s
04
sales revenue is below 1 million USD, it The main threat is the possibility of
reduces to 15%. substitute appearance. Given that
software-based technologies move at a
In order to achieve the lower commission fast growth pace, the risk of our innovation
charge, our plan is to, after having built a being surpass is high, meaning that
strong loyalty-based customer competitors may arise at any point in time
relationship, we will bet on delivering with a better functioning app in which the
deals that incentivizes 12-month or more core purpose is not only delivered but
membership purchases, in an attempt to done better. Therefore, one of our
maximize profit through a trade-off. priorities is to actively monitor the
It is important to note that as developers, customers’ interests and needs, in order
after the app is reviewed and approved, to be able to anticipate changes in
both companies will allow us to tailor all consumption behavior and therefore meet
pricing, territory availability and specify those new needs before a rising
metadata for search optimization through competitor does. This is also why we
keywords, so as company we will most highlight the measurement of long-term
likely not feel any constraints from the success upon the customer loyalty being
suppliers, as both companies gain with our built (number of users that continuously
success. use the app for free or with membership
Regarding the buyer’s power, since the premium programs) instead of the total
interaction between the company and the number downloads achieved.
customers is indirect, their power of
negotiation tends to be narrow, however,
because the switching costs are low and
the search for a new app is done easily, it
increases the rivalry within the market.

The overall app industry is characterized

by having strong competition, high number
of apps available serving the same
purpose, however, currently within
Portugal there isn’t an app that is delivers
the same services as ours, leaving us with
the capacity for having a first-move
advantage in an unexplored market with a
lot of potential seeing that there’s a big
culture surrounding team sports.

Marketing Management - Group Work - ISEG Lisbon School of Economics and Management 05
SWOT Analysis
Internal View

Strenghts Weaknessess
- Market not yet fulfilled - Usage of a new service requires
- Aesthetically pleasing design "customer education"
- Unique combination of features into - Long-term challenge of building and
one single product maintaining consumer trust and
- Well-defined operating region that loyalty
allows better control and inspires a - Initial zero users leads to none to
broader sense of safety and free new adopters
community

Oportunities Threats

- Rapidly increasing market able to - Constant competitive pressure by

reach millions of users (Network Effect) data tools innovations
- Best service gains impressive - Easily copied platforms
outstanding market share -Similar apps exist, although only in
- As individuals increase tech usage, different regions
tech solutions increase their market -Cultural differences in needs and
share wants for future new markets

Marketing Management - Group Work - ISEG Lisbon School of Economics and Management 06
Target market segments
What is important to you in searching How do you exercise?
for a sports buddy?

Other With other people (more than once a

1% week)
knowing them from
before 13%
20%

living close to With other people (once a

them week)
36% 12%

Alone
58%
With other people (once a
month
Being on the same skill level as
17%
them
43%

We used marketing research to develop Additionally, we could observe that for

the segments for our application by more respondents, it is crucial to be on
conducting a survey, which returned 57 the same level as their partners and that
results. We could observe that more than they live nearby. As a result, we will focus
80% of respondents were willing to use an on providing nearby sports buddies with
app to search for a sports partner, while fitting venues, that they can book through
84% said that they would do more sports our app for ultimate convenience.

if they had someone to do it with. Furthermore, 74% of respondents said

that they either do not know who to ask to
Currently, 58% of respondents exercise
do sports with or do not know people in
alone and thus, there is an oppurtunity for
the same age group that are interested in
UNITED to fulfill that need among people
their sport. Through our matching system,
to find sports buddies.
we can focus on people searching for
sports buddies in the same age group and
connecting more people with the same

83%
would use an app to
84%
would do more sports if
sports interests.

get to know others to they had other people to

do sports with do sports with

Marketing Management - Group Work - ISEG Lisbon School of Economics and Management 07
Segmentation
To better understand the market for our solution we made a market segmentation to find a
group of customers who share a similar set of needs and wants. This was done from several
different perspectives to get a full view of our customers, by using geographic, demographic,
psychographic and behavioral aspects and making sure the segments chosen are fulfilling the
criteria of being measurable, substantial, accessible, differentiable, and actionable.

We consider two primary segments when it comes to our solution, one being the users that
will download the application and the other being ad buyers that on release will be the main
source of income to provide the app with our freemium model. The segment description below
will mainly focus on the user point of view.

Geographic

As a start, we divided the market geographically since this

has implications for the development of our service. This
was initially done by choosing to focus on a segment of
customers living in Portugal, and by the fact that our solution
targets connection between individuals, our main focus is on
Portuguese people living in Lisbon and other urban areas. By
only choosing one country our marketing does not have to
take into consideration the cultural changes and legislation in
different countries, but we still plan for the development in
later stages.

Demographic
The demographic segmentation gives us further
knowledge by looking at age, gender, and life-cycle stage.
UNITED is available for all ages and genders since it is a
poor predictor in regard to the needs and wants to have a
healthier and more connected lifestyle. But since different
generations react to solutions and messages in different
ways, we aim at primarily focus on the millennial and
generation for our solution. Studies have showed that
Millennials find it important with work-life balance meaning
they might be highly motivated to sports and other leisure
activities. They also have a big lifetime value making them
a profitable group for our solution.

Marketing Management - Group Work - ISEG Lisbon School of Economics and Management 08
 Psychographic

The psychographic segmentation gives even more

insight into segments to target. We want to focus on
consumers that want to achieve a healthy lifestyle
and connect with others. The application will focus on
the user wanting to have a healthy lifestyle and
especially those that show interest in
gaining/maintaining lifestyle habits connected to
health. By using the VALS segmentation tool we have
concluded that the segments that our service can
meet at the initial phase are the ones Classified
Experiencers. These are people, who not only have
high resources, self-expression motivation, a wish for
a variety of excitement, but also like physical activity
and see themselves as very sociable.

Behavioral

Regarding behavior, we will look for the segment

of digital platform users with high usage rate of
apps and online interaction. They will use our app
2-3 times a week since this is the most common
among the users that showed interest in our app in
the survey. We would further classify the
segments targeted as brand loyal or shifting loyalty
since they might be on other social apps, because
they are seeking community and try to find the
services that best suit this need.

Marketing Management - Group Work - ISEG Lisbon School of Economics and Management 09
Targeting
From analyzing the segmentation of the market plus the results from our online survey, we
decided that business should target the following audience:

Highly active athletes

These are people that work out regularly, sees them self’s as athletic
and that participate regularly in events to compete and are goal oriented.
They have more skills than most of their friends and want to find people
on the same level to work out with to get the challenge they are
searching for and improve in their skills. These are absolutely interested
in paying for a premium version to get access to more functions since
sports are that important for them.

Sports Enthusiasts
Person who engages in exercise sports several times a week and
occasionally participates in large sports competitions with a focus on the
fun of participation. These people mainly want an easy way to find a
buddy for sports, less dependent on the level of the buddy and not that
interested in additional features.

Lightly active people

These are people who want to start a new sport but don’t have the skills
or company to try it out. They might already be in other sports but want
to find someone to show them how it is done and find people interested
in the same thing.

Advertisers
Advertisers of brands related to health and wellbeing will be the target
of the ad sales in the application. To keep a cost-effective solution and
avoid big overhead costs these will not be targeted by the company
directly but the inventory of ad space in the application will be sold by
automatic ad networks.

Marketing Management - Group Work - ISEG Lisbon School of Economics and Management 10
 Marketing
mix
Product
With the pandemic, many people that stopped
doing sports cancelled their gym membership
and started training at home and even outside,
yet many people stopped training because
they didn't have anyone to train with. This is
where UNITED makes a difference in people's
lives. With an elegant and user-friendly design,
UNITED has several convenient features.
It has both free and premium features. Firstly,
everyone can create a profile with their own
sport interests, than it serves as a meeting
point for people who want to connect with a
sports buddy. Here you can also add the level
of experience you have as wee as choosing
among an friends that have "beginner",
"intermediate", or "advanced" skills in the sports
of personal interest.
We believe safety is crucial, so to make
UNITED as secure as possible, we include a
feedback system at the end of each training
where you can give your rating through a 5-Star
system for each training partner or club. Also, it
is possible to create a private group where
athletes can share their challenges
schedule the next training session through
timetables.
On the premium option athletes have access to
an online platform where they can get to know
every worldwide major competition.
Marketing Management - Group Work - ISEG Lisbon School of Economics and Management
Besides that, in a timeframe of five years, it
will also be possible to connect through
UNITED to the International community
“United Internationally”, a place that will
include an unlimited number of new possible
experiences and where you can find and
interact with people from around the world
using new technology and VR.
Place
The name of the brand “United” was thought
since the beginning to easily became
recognizable internationally. But since we
are a new venture, we want to make sure we
can get a good grasp of the environment in
which our app is suitable to operate in. To
do this we will start off with launching at the
home market of Portugal. Here we can get
local knowledge and test out what features
are mostly demanded before going global.
Since it is a free app, it will be free to
download in the major smartphone platforms
such as Play Store, Apple Store and Huawei
AppGallery in Portugal.
and
11
Promotion
Promotion is an integral part of the marketing
mix. It is important to attract attention but also
to find ways to motivate them to take action
and download our app. For that to happen we
must show in a clear way all the benefits.
Once the main purpose is to connect people
with each other, it makes sense to create a
proximity with the users in the promotion. By
joining and supporting sport events and
competitions (like marathons or surf
competitions for instance) the brand can
become more recognizable and trustworthy
among athletes.
To connect our offer to the feeling of
community that we want to be top of mind for
our potential customers we also consider
organizing events ourselves targeting
university students where they can meet up by
using our app.
In order to increase the number of premium
clients, a free trial of 1 month would give the
opportunity for athletes to know and take
advantage of all United features, opting after
the free trial to maintain the premium
subscription.
Marketing Management - Group Work - ISEG Lisbon School of Economics and Management
Price
Initially we estimated that sales are going to
be dominated by ad-sales but are aiming at
revenue also coming from the customer
buying premium with a distribution of 70% free
and 30% premium users. Our premium will be
priced in the market using the price to
package strategy. For the ad part of the sales
the pricing will be customized by supply and
demand using price to positioning strategy
since we will at the beginning make use of
direct automatic/programmatic ad sales.
People
Another essential element is people. This
includes everyone who is involved in our
application or service whether directly or
indirectly. Not all of these people get in touch
with the customers. But all these people have
their own roles to play in the production,
marketing, distribution, and delivery of the
products and services to the customers. This
aspect can refer to those who are employed
by the company as well, for instance
designers, developers, and manufacturers of
the application. Aside from the management
team, there are people who are responsible
for coming up with the products and services
of the United. We will take time to hire people
who have the competence and expertise in
the industry they are operating in. Investing in
high caliber people will allow United to come
up with the best products and services for our
target customers. Having these people
represent the app will also give the app a
positive image in the eyes of the consumers. It
goes without saying that such positive image
attracts sales and result in more downloading
our product.
12

Managers
App developers and designers
App marketers
Customer service
People definitely have an impact on the
overall customer experience. In the realm of
marketing, giving customers nothing but the
best experience in using United and dealing
with our users is the key to gaining more new
customers and keeping more of the existing
customers.Patronage and loyalty are end
results of great customer experience brought
about by the entire marketing mix.
Processes
After all, no business has survived without a
proper plan in place to back it and no
advertising campaign has been successful
without proper processes of execution. We
just have to make sure that we follow through
with our own plans, so that the foundation of
our app will be strong.
First step of the process is to download our
app. People will recognize United by our logo
or QR code that we made for the app. By
scanning the QR code it will give them
information about the app and a link to
download. It is getting popular these days and
a lot of people feel that this way is convenient
to access an app just by scanning a QR code,
because it gives them a sense of virtual
reality.
Not only should the developer create
products and services that we want, he also
should keep in mind that the services and
products he makes should be the ones that
would fulfil United users.
Marketing Management - Group Work - ISEG Lisbon School of Economics and Management
Physical Evidence
Physical Evidence is the final element of the
three additions to the basic marketing mix as
proposed by Booms and Bitner (1981). Authors
define it by ‘The environment in which the
service is delivered and where the United and
customer interact, and any tangible
components that facilitate performance or
communication of the service'.
Physical evidence comprises of the elements
which are incorporated into our app to make it
tangible and somewhat measurable. At the
same time, it also helps in the positioning of
the brand and for targeting the right kind of
customers. We have high skilled, occasional
and casual users.
The app itself
The visual identity, such as design and
logo and color of the application
People recognizing our brand in social
media. #UnitedApp
Differentiating the premium version United
from the regular version United. To create
such differentiation physical evidence is
used.
13
Critical Success Factors
Critical Success Factors (CSF) establish the metrics and key indicators that we need to keep the
business on track and to get at fully working business model. Critical Success Factors can be
used in all organizational areas of our app. As a result of the wide range of influences on the
management process, CSFs need to be part of the planning process so the organizers can
recognize, define, identify, and measure the progress of each of these factors. A necessary part
of this process is that we identify the CSFs after they have defined the success factors of the app
and the necessity for managers to do this implies a micro level perspective to understating this
aspect of CSFs. Knowing the success factors, we will be able to select the most critical ones that
could influence the success of United.

As earlier stated, we have considered the value proposition in regard to the customer needs as
well as compared to other solutions on the market. we also here state the points-of-difference
(PODs) and points-of-parity (POPs) given this market analysis that form the has formed the basis
for our positioning. The points-of-difference (PODs) are benefitting that consumer strongly
associate with a brand and believe they could not find to the same extent with a competitive
brand. The POP’s on the other hand are the things that are necessary but may be shared with
competitors and not enough for being the brand chosen by customers.

Points of Parity (POP)

Fair pricing in line with Security issues of the Making continuous

other solutions app considered and improvement to stay up to
handled date with new technology

Points of Difference (POD)

Ease-of-use when Sense of community Smooth interaction with

connecting to likeminded being part of all aspects other parts of planning a
sport-interested people of the business sports activity such as
location booking and
transportation

Marketing Management - Group Work - ISEG Lisbon School of Economics and Management 14
Outlook
In this tech industry a straight timeline with different milestones is
important in order to expand the app range and measure the
progress. The app is in the introduction phase of its life cycle and
the launch is soon. We have set our going live date for 01.01.2022.

The goal of the first phase is to gain our first users and to establish new partnerships with
clubs, training grounds etc.. This will expand our network and increase our appeal for the
extended version. The goal is to use our marketing mix as efficiently as possible to
penetrate the market. It is of utmost importance to reach as many reaches and users as
possible in the early stages.

From this point on, we have planned different time steps in our timeline. In year one, for
example, our first expansion is planned, in year three we already want to expand across
Europe and in year 5 our target UNITED International, a metaverse version of our app, will
be released.

Soon
• Development of the application and “going live”
• Acquisition of first customers
• Get new partnerships with training grounds

Year 1
• Gain users and range
• Expand to Spain
• Develop new features

Year 3
• Expanding across Europe
• Going into esports to connect people willing to play
the same game and learn

Year 5
• UNITED International (Metaverse)

Marketing Management - Group Work - ISEG Lisbon School of Economics and Management 15
 Conclusion
Good health and well-being are
crucial factors for a sustainable
and happy way of living. Through
connecting people to share
healthy moments, we incentivize
them to act and improve their
lives by using our app. We strive to
deliver easy access to doing all
kinds of sports, while taking into
consideration the individual
capabilities and schedules of our
app users. We will continue to
work hard to provide the best
service to our customers, raise
awareness of SDG 3 and create a
network of sports buddies.

Our team:

Marketing Management - Group Work - ISEG Lisbon School of Economics and Management 16