Marketing Communication Plan: Bumble Bizz Jasmine Han, Tatum Harvey, and Justine Kim MKT 405 6 December 2018 1 CONTENTS Executive Summary …………………………….2 Rationale .…………………….……………...…………….3 Situational Analysis Historical Context …………….……..4 Cultural Context .…………….………...5 Industry Analysis ..…………………….6 Competitor Analysis ………………..7 Consumer Analysis ……….………...9 Target Market …………………………….…………...10 Objectives ...………….………………….………………..13 Strategy Message Strategy …..……….……….14 Promotional Strategy .…….……...14 Media Strategy …..………...…….……..18 Measure of Effectiveness ......……..……..22 Bibliography …………………………...……………….24 2 I. Executive Summary A primary player in the digital dating space, Bumble has recently expanded its offering to include professional networking in the form of its platform called Bumble Bizz. Bumble Bizz leverages the same swipe mechanism, user profile, and match system to facilitate business networking and the creation of meaningful and productive relationships. Despite its growing user base, Bumble Bizz lacks brand awareness in the younger, specifically Gen Z, female demographic, which much of their current messaging and promotional strategy is already targeted to. As the market for professional and personable networking applications is growing, and younger, female college students are looking to define their careers as entrepreneurs and self-starters rather than in traditional roles, it is imperative that Bumble speaks more effectively to this audience. In order to communicate with this target, Bumble must leverage social media, campus partnerships, and experiential marketing efforts to increase brand awareness for Bumble Bizz. What we hope to achieve from this communication plan is to establish Bumble Bizz’s credibility as a professional platform that yields results, and ultimately sparks product trial and conversion. II. Rationale Founded in 2014 by Whitney Wolfe Herd, also co-founder of Tinder, Bumble is a platform that brings together dating, friend-finding, and career-building into 3 a single, multi-use platform. Ranked on Linkedin’s Top Startup List of 2018, Bumble has grown to be a major competitor in the dating/networking application space along with players such as Tinder, Linkedin, and Hinge. Revenue in this segment is $571 million in 2018 and it is expected to show an annual growth rate of 4.8%. By 2023 revenue is projected to be worth $723 million and boast a user base of 265.9 million. Per this projection, it is evident that there is a growing market and demand for dating/networking applications. In such a space, Bumble holds a unique position as a platform that boasts capabilities for both dating and networking. The brand has substantial brand awareness in the space as a unique offering that is characterized by a female-driven approach to dating apps, however, its sub-platform Bumble Bizz, does not have notable brand awareness among the brand’s target. From our primary and secondary research, we have found that current marketing efforts for Bumble Bizz are limited and that current college students do not view it as a viable networking platform in place of more traditional platforms such as Linkedin. Therefore, our rationale for an integrated communication plan is to increase brand awareness and trial of Bumble Bizz. Despite the lack of brand awareness, it poses a valuable opportunity for Bumble to position their brand in the target’s mind as an application that offers more than dating. Our goal is to build credibility for Bumble Bizz as a networking 4 platform, and to get current users of Bumble to try Bumble Bizz in the short term. In the long-term the goal of this campaign is to acquire new users through increased trial of Bumble Bizz. III. Situational Analysis A. Historical Context Founded by Whitney Wolfe Herd in 2014, Bumble is a women-centric platform that has amassed over 22 million registered users and currently boasts more than 70% year over year growth. Ranked on Linkedin’s Top Startups of 2018 and mentioned on Time’s 50 most genius companies, the company has grown to 70 employees, approximately 85% of which are women. Bumble’s mission is to be a platform and community that creates empowering connections in love, life, and work, which they do through their three integrated platforms of Bumble, Bumble Bizz, and Bumble BFF. As a platform that requires that the woman starts the interaction, Bumble’s vision is to promote accountability, equality, and kindness in working to break down archaic gender roles and misogyny. Bumble Bizz was launched in October 2017 and now has 17 million new matches a week and 64,000 new users joining each day. Similarly to other dating/networking applications, Bumble Bizz uses an individual profile showcasing and the swipe mechanism to create matches and kick start 5 conversations. What is different about Bumble Bizz is that the profile is strictly professional in that it showcases job experience, skills, and connections to best facilitate professional yet personable networking among its users. Bumble Bizz’s unique offering comes at an opportune time where more traditional modes of business networking are falling short for younger individuals. According to Statista, 77% of Linkedin users are over the age of 30 and are looking to recruit from larger corporations. From our primary research, which will be outlined further, we were able to find that college-age individuals see Linkedin as a rather formal and dry mode of connecting. Bumble Bizz plays to the changing perception networking as not something limiting, but about a constant daily routine of cultivating/growing one’s base, and the application itself speaks to the need for a casual platform to manage formal relationships. B. Cultural Context Networking is far from a new phenomenon, however, professionals are coming to realize its undeniable value. Professionals cite networking as “essential” to their career development and professional networking as a key component of high career success. With social media and applications such as Bumble Bizz, much networking has transferred to online channels, Linkedin being one of the primary platforms. Linkedin, however, shows an older, male demographic. As of January 2018, the percentage of US Internet users who 6 use Linkedin is 56% men and 44% women. From these users, 24% of women and 20% of men agreed that there is a need for women only or female-driven networking. Bumble Bizz has ridden this wave of online, professional networking and now speaks to an emerging need for platforms specifically catered to female audiences. C. Industry Analysis Because of the high rate of career success, a strong emphasis has been placed on professional networking in all stages of career development – it has become a key component. In recent findings, 70% of people in 2016 were hired at a company where they had a connection (Doyle). As networking has proven to have a huge influence in career success, more individuals believe in the positive effect that professional networking has. As of 2018, 80% of professionals consider professional networking to be important to career success (Doyle). Online networking services, such as major player LinkedIn, have provided working professionals with a source of instantaneous networking. Currently, 61% of professionals agree that regular online interaction with their professional networks can lead to possible job opportunities (Doyle). Professional social networking services essentially cultivate networking relationships for their current users whose aim is to achieve career success. 7 D. Competitor Analysis The primary competitor that we have identified is Linkedin. Linkedin’s mission is to be “a community that can help you realize your definition of success”, and its goal is to create a business network of aspiring and growing professionals. It is framed as a community that can help an individual realize his/her definition of success. Founded in 2003, the network has a total of 562 million users, 56% of which are men and 44% of which are women. These users are relatively active. 260 million of the user base is active monthly and 40% are active daily. Linkedin communicates a professional tone that caters to business professionals. This is reflected in an older user base of which 61 million are senior level influencers, 40 million of which are in decision making positions. On the other end of the spectrum is Tinder. Founded in 2012 it is a fast growing startup in the dating application space, that was launched to address social and physical barriers of forming new relationships and friendships. It uses social data to connect people nearby that have mutual interest. Its tone is more playful and casual, but it still boasts a user base of 50 million users, 10 million of which are active daily, and 3.8 million of which are paying subscribers. In comparison to Linkedin, their users skew younger. 79% are millennials and 35% are between the ages of 18 and 24. Ripple is a professional networking application started by Tinder which also leverages 8 the swipe mechanism. Unlike Tinder, however, it focuses less on photos and more on content, specifically job history, skills, mutual connections, and more. Ripple’s mission is to “unleash the full potential of your professional life”. Hinge has a smaller user base, but offers a similar product to Tinder. It is positioned as the ultimate platform for dating, specifically described as the “dating app made for dating”. It has a funny, conversational, and quirky tone. At the center of this spectrum, ranging from professional networks such as Linkedin to casual dating applications such as Tinder lie two applications called Shapr, and Mixer. Shapr is positioned as a platform that is made to meet people from different industries in a casual setting. Its mission is to “meet inspiring people and shape your life”, and to use the platform to meet a potential business partner, mentor, and to find career opportunities. Shapr is specifically targeted towards entrepreneurs who are looking for cofounders, ideas, and other professionals. It is similar to Bumble’s offering in this way, however, Bumble has a larger user base.