MK0905A

Unit 1

Stonesoop Report and Analysis

Group 5:

Amy Judge, Christian Pauli, Christopher Reid, Douglas Johnston, John Moore, Mathew Milne, Nicky Richardson

Word Count: 3181

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Table of Contents

Abstract .................................................................................................................. 3

Introduction ............................................................................................................ 4

Current offer ........................................................................................................... 5 Overview ....................................................................................................................... 5 Evaluation ..................................................................................................................... 5 App ................................................................................................................................ 5 Website ......................................................................................................................... 6

Recommendations .................................................................................................. 6 Concept ......................................................................................................................... 7 Branding ........................................................................................................................ 7 Website Redesign .......................................................................................................... 8 App Redesign ................................................................................................................. 8

Marketing ............................................................................................................... 8 Offline ........................................................................................................................... 9 Online ............................................................................................................................ 9 Projections .................................................................................................................. 10

Monetisation ........................................................................................................ 11

Timeline ................................................................................................................ 12

Budget .................................................................................................................. 12

Conclusion ............................................................................................................ 13

References ............................................................................................................ 14

Appendices ........................................................................................................... 15 Appendix 1. ................................................................................................................. 15 Appendix 2 .................................................................................................................. 19 Appendix 3. ................................................................................................................. 20 Appendix 4. ................................................................................................................. 21 Appendix 5 .................................................................................................................. 22 Appendix 6 .................................................................................................................. 23 Appendix 7 .................................................................................................................. 23 Appendix 8 .................................................................................................................. 24 Appendix 9 .................................................................................................................. 25 Appendix 10 ................................................................................................................ 26

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Abstract

This report aims to provide an integrated online and offline Direct Marketing campaign which will raise the profile and market the offer of Stonesoop. This has been done by evaluating Stonesoop’s current offer, through their website and app, The Report will then discuss the development of the service going from Stonesoop to Social Mealia (the re-brand), the thought process that went into the branding, the app that is in development and the website that has been developed. It will also explain the online and offline marketing campaigns surrounding the implementation of Social Mealia. These campaigns will be budgeted and time-lined and a further explanation of the monetisation of the service will be discussed coupled with projections over the next three years.

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Introduction Stonesoop is a meal sharing service that allows users to connect to other users and host a meal share. This offers a significant physiological benefit of social interaction. This initial brief has allowed the development and engineering of a brand that allows the same benefit to be offered but eradicates any security issue of hosting a meal share in private. Social Mealia is the service that connects users to each other and then to local restaurants, which allows a more community focused and sustainable business model to be developed. From a user perspective the benefit of sharing a meal with other people, in a local restaurant and receiving a discount of the meal by using the Social Mealia service is an extension of significant value offered by the service.

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Current offer

Overview

The initial concept of Stonesoop encouraged a meal share to take place, hosted by a user who would invite other service users to their home through the app. This allowed people who enjoyed eating and cooking good food with company to do exactly that through the usage of the app. The owner has recently rebranded Stonesoop to The Mealsharing Community, but is using the same concept.

Evaluation

When we conducted a market research survey (See Appendix 1), only eight people clicked ‘yes’ to having heard of Stonesoop, out of sixty-five respondents. When asked what they thought the company ‘Stonesoop’ was, none of the respondents had any idea. Some answers were “no idea!”, “Clothing brand?” and “Cafe”. Of all those surveyed 55% suggested that they would be interested in partaking in the concept whilst 44% were either unsure or disliked the concept. From the survey, we can see that the initial idea of mealsharing as a way to meet new people was popular, however the respondents had a lot of safety concerns. For example some of the comments were “My honest reaction is no as I'm not sure about having strangers in my home, there are all kinds of crazy nutters out there!” and “Because I don't want a stranger cooking me food.”

Therefore we spent a long time attempting to figure out methods to truly ensure user’s safety. Verifying users and guaranteeing safety would be a difficult task bordering on the prohibitive. The idea of inviting strangers into your house did not appear an inviting prospect amongst survey respondents. While similar concepts such as Tinder and Couchsurfing haven’t encountered many problems as far as we can see, we weren’t convinced that the extensive measures we’d have to take to ensure user safety would be conducive to user uptake of the service. Due to this we have little confidence about the concept working in practice.

App

The client is currently developing an app using the software Phonegap. On the app users can set up their own profiles then browse hosted meals and see what is being served, by who and when. Users can specify what meals they’d like to participate in by a simple swipe with their finger and they are able to state what they’ll bring if they are accepted as a guest, which can be food, drink or some other kind of entertainment. The app allows users to see other users with similar food preferences to help them in their decision-making.

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Users are also encouraged to rate each other anonymously as an incentive to be a good host or guest.

Website

The client currently has a website at http://www.mealsharingcommunity.com which we have taken the time to evaluate. The site informs viewers of what the company is about and encourages viewers to download the app. The site has a modern layout; this is down to a theme selected by the client. There are several dynamic elements of the site, the header is one of these but there isn’t enough content in it to interest or captivate users. The website has buttons that link to other pages on the site, however these links are not live yet. The founder info panel near the bottom moves too fast, which makes it difficult to read. We felt the colours used in the site are a poor choice, specifically the teal colour used as an accent. The colour doesn’t seem to tie into the concept of food, community and social gatherings and it makes the site feel a little cold.

Recommendations

Going forward from the evaluation of Stonesoop’s current offer, we would recommend a total rebrand, and business model restructure (see appendix 10) The new idea for branding is ‘Social Mealia’, a social networking site encouraging people in the local community to be more social through their love of good food. In the survey we carried out, when we asked, “What do you think a company called Social Mealia does?” the response was much more accurate. For example, some of the answers were “Organise social dinner events”, “Social network for foodies?” and “Promotion of social gatherings, from the name I'd say it involves dinner parties or eating out at restaurants, cafes and pubs.” The main recommendation we would make is to change the business proposal from encouraging members to meet up and cook meals in each others’ homes to encouraging members to meet up in local restaurants. We feel that by encouraging members to meet up in a public setting, it will guarantee member safety and abolish any concerns members might have. We also feel that smaller group sizes of around three or four may be more conducive to encouraging and including members in conversation than a large group of people would.

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Concept

Our new concept could be described as a Social Media platform for food lovers. It is based around connecting users to each other then to local bars and restaurants through our app. Users are encouraged to meet up at local bars and restaurants for a meal in groups of three to six. This is similar in regards to the original concept but in a safer, more controlled environment whilst still allowing users to meet new people and enjoy a good meal. On the app, users can pay a fee of £5 to become a permanent ‘Tayster’ or an ‘Edinburger’, by doing so members will receive a set discount at all Social Mealia participating restaurants. This also benefits the participating businesses as it gives them more awareness and allows them to reach a greater audience, which should increase the patronage of their establishments. The app would also allow users to communicate via a forum, allowing them to share recipes, reviews of local businesses, and details of food related events in their local area. User generated content would also be present on the website to give a taste of what is going on to interested and prospective users. Social Mealia’s target market will be food lovers in Edinburgh and Dundee aged from 25-50. However anyone with a smartphone can download and enjoy the app.

Branding

Since the original brand name ‘Stonesoop’ evidently failed to adequately get the concept across to users we had to come up with an alternative. As we have already mentioned above, the new brand name we have created is ‘Social Mealia’, a play on ‘Social Media’, which is central to our concept of bringing people together as a community using food and eating together as a medium. Our new concept is heavily brand intensive so a clear and memorable brand is important. The typeface is bold, sans serif and is white to give a clear, strong and bright impression. Replacing some of the letters are iconography of a knife and fork which clearly represents eating, being common tools in the activity, and are prominent and easily recognisable icons to promote brand recall. We chose a vivid orange since it is warm, energetic and represents adventure and social communication. As a result this was a natural choice for us to make. The benefit of a single colour keeps the branding simple yet powerful enough to unify the website, app and marketing efforts.

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Website Redesign

When we evaluated the current website, we felt that the modern design worked well with our concept. Therefore we kept the same template as it was one of the most popular Wordpress themes and we added the Social Mealia branding. We incorporated the vivid orange from our logo, which is warm, energetic and works with the concept of food and social gatherings. The design of the website is clear and easy to navigate (See appendix 2). At the top of the page we have included social media links. We also have a large image gallery at the top, which presents more meaningful content to users, such as a link to download the app and promotional images. Our tagline is below this with details on what the app can do for users. At the bottom of the page we have a preview of the app along with a promotional video. On the website we have also added a blog which will host user generated content such as reviews of local businesses, recipes and anything else relevant to food and community.

App Redesign

The design that was chosen for the application follows a modern design pattern (See appendix 3). This has allowed for a large amount of content to be included, in a relatively small space in an organised manner with clearly defined pages and sections for different parts of the content. The designs are vibrant and bright which ties in with the concept that has been created. The colour scheme that was chosen as part of the design process has been incorporated throughout the app design to aid with ensuring that the link between the website and the app is obvious to all users. One of the main features of the new Social Mealia app is the ability for members to create their own profiles. On the app, members can sign up and add their own details and personalise their profile. This allows for customer personalisation and a memorable customer experience.

Marketing The marketing campaign will encompass both off and online methods to generate as much promotion as possible within the budget. Coupled with the logo iconography and design it can be argued that these are our three main initiatives for completing our marketing strategy. The three main initiatives were decided upon as three is argued to be the best number or activities to drive business focus and communication efforts. (Calkins, 2008) “A number of factors will determine the media selected for a particular product:

Target Audience

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Product Characteristics

Product Awareness

Cost effectiveness

Atmosphere

Regional Facilities” (Bureau, 1981) With the above it has been decided that our marketing campaign follows an integrated on and offline direction. These will be as follows:

Offline

The offline direct marketing campaign will promote the Social Mealia logo to increase brand awareness and recall as much as possible. “A target segment is one that a firm has selected in the broader market….Target segments are defined on the basis of several variables. For instance a department store in a particular city might target residents of the metropolitan area (Geographic segmentation) (Lovelock, 1996)

With this in mind we will launch at the Foodies Festival in Edinburgh and at the Flower and Food Festival in Dundee. This will allow us to directly target our audience of food lovers of all ages in Edinburgh and Dundee. At the festivals we will make use of our offline marketing campaigns by handing out our one time use Edinburger cards and Tayster cards (See appendix 4). This will allow the owners of the card a one-time discount at a Social Mealia participating restaurant, as an incentive to sign up. At the festival stands we will also have iPads set up to allow members to sign up for Social Mealia.

Another offline marketing method will make use of stickers than can be placed in restaurant and bar windows as a cheap and subtle way of increasing brand awareness and brand recall, they will also tell Social Mealia users that the restaurant is one of the many participants within the Social Mealia community.

Posters can be used in a similar way, being placed in easily visible places, such as on the high street, which will be visible to thousands of daily commuters and citizens, and is likely to generate interest. These may also have QR codes for the same reasons stated above.

Radio advertising is a relatively inexpensive way to reach a large audience. Thousands of people commute daily throughout Edinburgh and Dundee and many listen to local radio stations such as Wave 102 and Tay FM and Capital FM, which makes this a lucrative way to increase brand awareness.

Online

“Internet marketing is a powerful way to start and strengthen relationships with customers”. (Strauss et al., 2003)

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Our online marketing effort has a heavy social media presence. Social Mealia accounts have already been set up on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram and Youtube and these have had a very positive response.

Facebook and Twitter allow direct communication with the targeted user base. New features and content, events and promotions and much more can be quickly transmitted to users. Our Instagram would allow sharing of user content, namely photos and images, and official photography. Pinterest would allow collections of recipes, photos, food-related blogs, news, both user-generated and official, and more in one place for easy access. Our Youtube channel will host official promotional videos and user-generated content, from guides to cooking, carrying out recipes, reviews of local businesses, news, commentary and more. We will also advertise our launch at the festivals in Edinburgh and Dundee through our social media. This will create a hype for the launch and attract more traffic to the events.

Projections

The number of business sign ups in year one is based on the number of businesses who took part in our video. It was the only probable figure we could use.

Social Mealia Advertising projections

Dundee Specific (DD1)

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3

Number of Businesses Signed on 30 50 100

Amount per business to pay 50 50 50

Total business contribution 1500 2500 5000

Amount of customers signed on 200 450 800

Amount per customer 5 5 5

Total Customer Contribution 1000 2250 4000

Total Gross Advertising Profit 2500 4750 9000

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The number of customers in year one is based on the number of Facebook likes for the same reason as above. These have been extrapolated over the course of a further two years to optimistically demonstrate a natural growth of the business. Over the first three years it is estimated that the advertising gross profit in the DD1 postcode could reach over £8000. (See appendix 6) Over the course of three years this is what we want the business makeup to look like. Where the number of users significantly outweighs the number of business signed up. This adds more value to the new business model and as a result makes it a more sustainable. This also gives the model more scope for expansion and gives the business more control and power over business signups where we can use the large customer base to drive up prices for advertising and listing in the future after the first three years. However, in contrast to this the profit contribution of the business over the first three years will make up the majority of the profit for the business as demonstrated below. (See appendix 8) This is because it costs significantly more for a business to use our service to lis0t and advertise with social mealia than it costs for a customer to sign on to the service. This is the only way we could make the above possible (More customer makeup than business) We could not charge customers a premium for using our service when we had no benefits to pass and we could not charge a business a premium to list when we had no established user base.

So optimistically we have achieved a sustainable business with increasing profit credentials and further increasing scope over the course of an initial three-year span.

Monetisation

The first year of revenue will come mainly from adverts that will be placed on the website, which will generate income on a click-by-click basis. The other form of revenue will come from user membership – an annual charge of £5 to be a ‘Tayster or Edinburger’ will be required. The other main form of revenue for Social Mealia is business membership fees and user membership. The business membership fee will be delayed for a year, meaning that businesses will be able to sign up for free while the user base grows. After a year an annual fee will be set for the businesses to remain within the application.

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Our revenue from our business memberships will be in two streams – through business listings (advertising) and the ability to purchase higher ranked spots within the listings. We will also offer different forms of packages, which offer different benefits. There will be an annual/monthly fee set in place for these businesses depending on which package they choose. The premium will cost more and will allow the business to display menus and images.

Timeline

To ensure Social Mealia is a long-term sustainable business, the website and app should be launched by no later than June 2015. Once both the website and the app are live and running smoothly, it would be recommended the launch is advertised through social media and radio adverts. Social Mealia is then officially launched at the Foodies Festival Edinburgh in August 2015 and then at the Flower and Food Festival Dundee in September 2015. After one year of trading, business membership fees would then be introduced.

Budget

The budget for the marketing campaign of Social Mealia is £10,000. We haven’t used the entire budget as we feel that because there won’t be a lot of revenue from the first year, it would be wise to keep some of the budget aside, for unforeseeable costs. (See Appendix 9)

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Conclusion

In conclusion, the evaluation of Stonesoop revealed a significant issue among potential users. This being the safety concerns of inviting strangers into the users home to have share a meal. This highlighted a serious flaw in the initial business proposal. With this in mind we removed this issue completely by hosting meal shares in public places. By altering the initial business concept we were able to create Social Mealia: a rebranded and enhanced service when rivalled with Stonesoop (The Mealsharing Community).

With Social Mealia we have been able to develop a brand that promotes recall, opens a sustainable source of service monetisation and income generation which can be introduced to every major city in the United Kingdom with the pretext of appropriate marketing campaigns much like the one outlined in this report. This will also benefit from the community involvement with the social media platforms and the blog which promotes user generated content which allows people to relate to the iconic brand that has been engineered. Lastly the implementation campaign comprising of both online and offline sources allows a complete and well-rounded advertising and marketing campaign strategy to be implemented which is unique to Social Mealia and as such complements the brand. The use of social media complements the social platform and interaction that Social Mealia offers and this is backed up by our offline campaign which attempts to drive and direct traffic to the website, social media platforms and the app. By doing so what has been created is a completely unique user experience which involves people, creates a community, locally and potentially nationally and is centric around the idea of the psychological benefit offered by sharing a meal.

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References

Bodnar, K. 2011. [Online]. 5 Methods for Connecting Online and Offline Marketing. [Accessed 17 April 2015]. Available from: http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/17694/5-Methods-for-Connecting-Online-and-Offline-Marketing.aspx

Bureau, J. 1981. Brand Management. London: The Macmillan Press ltd. p62-63. Calkins, T. 2008. Breakthrough Marketing Plans. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. p36-37. Colour Wheel Artist. 2015. The Many Meanings Of Orange. [Online]. [Accessed 15 April 2015]. Available from: http://www.color-wheel-artist.com/meanings-of-orange.html

Foodies Festival. 2015. Stand Opportunities. [Online]. [Accessed 12 April 2015]. Available from: http://www.foodiesfestival.com/stand-opportunities/

John Lewis. 2015. Apple iPad Mini. [Online]. [Accessed 12 April 2015]. Available from: http://www.johnlewis.com/browse/electricals/ipad-tablets/view-all-tablets/apple/_/N-5nlvZ1z13zz4?Ns=p_price.extravaganzaPriceListId%7C0

Lovelock, C. 1996. Services Marketing. 3rd ed. USA: Prentice Hall. p165.

Management Study Guide. 2013. What is Brand Awareness? [Online]. [Accessed 15 April 2015]. Available from:http://www.managementstudyguide.com/brand-awareness

Strauss, J. 2003. E-marketing. 3rd ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. p364 Vistaprint. 2015. Posters. [Online]. [Accessed 10 April 2015]. Available from:http://www.vistaprint.co.uk/posters.aspx?couponAutoload=1&GP=3%2f17%2f2015+5%3a57%3a34+AM&GPS=3459271765&GNF=0

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Appendices

Appendix 1.

Social Mealia Market Research Survey 65 Respondents

1. What is your gender?

Male= 18 responses 27.69%

Female= 45 responses 69.23%

Other= 2 responses 3.08%

2. What is your age?

18-25= 24 responses 36.92%

26-33= 16 responses 24.62%

33-40=10 responses 15.38%

41-50= 10 responses 15.38%

50+ =5 responses 7.69%

3. Have you ever heard of Stonesoop?

Yes= 8 responses 12.31%

No= 57 responses 87.69%

4. If you have heard of Stonesoop, where did you find out about it? 13 Responses

University x6

From a friend

From the ‘Fleet Collective’s’ website

Haven’t heard of it x5

5. If you have not heard of Stonesoop, what do you think it is? 54 Responses

Something you eat

Something to do with soup x6

Don’t know x22

Fake diamonds

A medical condition x2

Art

Online gifts

Kitchenware

Weightloss food

Designer Clothing Label x2

App

Food Company x5

Recipe Website x2

Social Media x2

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Computers

Soap x2

A band

Folktale

Magazine 6. What do you think a company called Social Mealia does?

65 Responses

Don’t know x14

Mealsharing x15

Twitter feed

Food x7

Recipes x2

Soup Kitchens

Chat Page x2

Social Media x10

Weight Loss

Marketing x3

Come Dine With Me Concept

Free Meals

Cold Calling

Way to meet new people x4

Provides info on places to eat

Takeaway service

7. The concept of these companies is to signup, make friends, meetup and share meals at each others houses. What is your initial reaction to this concept? 63 Responses

Dislike= 10 Responses 15.87%

Unsure= 18 Responses 28.57%

Sounds Interesting= 29 Responses 46.03%

I want to find out more= 6 Responses 9.52% Comments:

All three of my friends thought the concept may prove interesting to some but none of them would go to strangers’ homes for a meal. Two of my friends suggested meeting at a neutral location and sharing a meal but only if you knew the people in the first instance. One of my friends asked, what would be the incentive to leave your home to meet strangers? i.e. where is the selling point of this concept in its current form?

The idea is interesting but there is the potential barrier of having strangers in your home, the need to find out their respective screening processes would be helpful in this instance.

Like come dine with me or dinner date except not on t.v. Maybe good for people that are new to an area. It is definitely an interesting idea!

Depends on security of it...

Sounds ridiculous for myself but Can see a good idea for lonely people too meet friends

I'm not sure about having random people around my place, but I might be willing to go out to someone else's. I like the idea of meeting new people though, eating with others can be fun.

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8. Would you sign up for this service?

Yes= 16 Responses 24.62%

No= 49 Responses 75.38%

Comments: Not for me

All of my three friends said they would not sign up for this service because it involved going to a strangers' home. Two of my friends did say that it may appeal more to women and couples.

Weird, creepy not for me but could see some people using it.

The concept does not appeal to me although I would be more interested with the company name of SocialMealia over Stonesoop.

It wouldn't be for me but that is not to say that it isn't for everyone. I see this filling a gap and demand in the market particularly among those suffering from food allergies, encouraging them to be part a wider community and exchanging tips etc.

Live with my son and family

Have enough friends and not interested enough in cooking

It would suit elderly, homeless, hidden homeless, living alone rather than people with a wife/Husband and/or family

Busy lifestyle and social life already. Don't feel I could commit to something regularly would be as and when. Have family round for meals often already and is tiring hosting when you work full time and have a family to look after.

I like to meet in person after bad experience of social media

It sounds interesting but I don't know if I would be confident enough. I have never had an online friend but I'm sure lots of other people might have. If I was meeting up with friends that I would go to dinner with I would probably just call them!

I don't like the idea of meeting up with strangers

Meet new people

My honest reaction is no as I'm not sure about having strangers in my home, there are all kinds of crazy nutters out there!

I would be concerned about spending lots on the meal I put on and then others not being so generous or pulling out before it's their turn to cook

Hopeless cook!

Signed up to enough services thanks.

Meet new people and have good food for less than the cost of eating out

Because I don't want a stranger cooking me food.

Not a fan of meeting unknown people. I struggle to see the friends I have for dinner!!

If it was free I would give it a try but not something I would pay for

Sounds creepy and I would be worried I didn't like the other people

Security aspects

Interesting and new to me. Always willing to give new things a try. Work unsociable hours most of the time so would hopefully open up opportunities to meet new people and to try new ventures with current friends

I'd be too worried of inviting strangers into my home

Good way to make new friends. And meet different people

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I don't like the idea of strangers in my house

Sounds fun

Sounds Dodgy

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Appendix 2

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Appendix 3.

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Appendix 4.

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Appendix 5

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0

1000

2000

3000

4000

5000

6000

7000

8000

9000

10000

1 2 3

Total Gross Advertising Profit

Total Gross Advertising Profit

Number of BusinessesSigned on

Amount of customerssigned on

Appendix 6

Appendix 7

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Contribution for year 1

Totalbusinesscontribution

TotalCustomerContribution

Appendix 8

Contribution for year 2

Totalbusinesscontribution

TotalCustomerContribution

Contribution for year 3

Totalbusinesscontribution

TotalCustomerContribution

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Appendix 9

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Appendix 10