Marketing Plan Report for Shine - The next generation of activity tracker (excerpt)

Executive summary

As technology evolves, people can become dependent on it and turn into slaves rather than masters. Being hooked on technology is blamed for a range of illnesses both mentally and physically. However, a breed of products born to motivate people to stay fit has been trying to reverse that negative notion. Activity trackers are there to encourage and complement a healthier lifestyle. 

As with any product, there are different needs and requirements. The majority of existing activity trackers available on the market appeal to dedicated sports or technology fans with an emphasis on functionality and data. Nonetheless, they are not as wearable as they should be.

Seeking to fill this gap, Misfit Wearables, a start-up company based in the US, recently introduced what is deemed the next generation of fitness tracker. “It breaks away the complexity of a highly engineered wearable sensors and presents information to the user in a simple and intuitive way”.

Moving away from a rather established competitive landscape, Misfit Wearables can pursue a market development strategy in Australia. Given a relatively stable economic environment, the Australian market is fit for business growth as consumers continue to value their health and well-being. 

An increase in individual and informal exercising, as well as a trend in monitoring personal health mean there are plenty of opportunities in the Down Under. Moreover, Shine is aimed at different market segments from existing competitors, which increases the chance of making profits. 

Shine is positioned to be a wearable and smart activity tracker, with a particular emphasis on its elegant style. Initial marketing efforts and influence will come from online platforms. 

Introduction

For those who value appearance, wanting to lead a healthy life style or have a fondness for experiencing new technology, Shine would be a proper and suitable product. These consumers are different from hard core sports and technology fans, who require more rigid health metrics. Therefore, the durable, all-metal, coin sized Shine brings the “wearable” back to the wireless wearable technology market. 

Product concept

Shine is a physical activity tracker that can be worn anywhere anytime. It is designed to be wearable and helpful in terms of motivating people to become active. In other words, Shine would appeal to those who are not currently suffering from health problems and would like to take preventive measures by staying active.

In terms of design and material, Shine is the world’s first all-metal wireless fitness device crafted from aircraft-grade aluminium. The overall design is simple, elegant yet appealing, which earns it a Reddot Design Award in 2013. Therefore, Shine provides a nice mix of quality and appearance, a factor that many consumers highly regard. 

Since Shine is aimed to be a wearable product, with its relatively small size compared to other activity trackers, it also carries a great amount of technology inside to permit functionality. Specifically, Shine uses a high precision 3-axis accelerometer (type of sensor) to track activities accurately. 

It also uses wireless data synchronisation technology between the device and smart phones which ensures an easy and fast syncing process without Internet connection or cable. The syncing process, in which users place their Shine on their smartphone screen, can be considered a novel and bonding behaviour that has potential to increase consumer usage. 

In terms of functionality, like other activity tracking devices, Shine tracks bipedal motion: walking, jogging, and running to help users reach their specified goals. It also calculates cycling, swimming, soccer etc. but adds a more weighted value to these activities. 

Adding to Shine’s credibility for accurate tracking, when comparing the level of activity tracked by Shine and Nike+ Fuelband after 8 hours of working at a desk, that of the latter was higher (Jung, 2013). That means users really are working towards a goal to achieve real results. 

As there is no display screen on Shine, the only way to know one’s progress without syncing is by tapping on it. A full circle of dots around the surface means that one has completed their daily goal. Tapping once is to know the progress (for walking and running), twice to know the time, and three times to activate the tracking of special activities (e.g. cycling, swimming, sleeping).

The Shine app (available on iOS) offers an acceptable level of data required by casual exercisers, such as distance, calorie count, steps taken. Moreover, it also gives users an intensity graph to illustrate the activity level over time, and highlights including activities, milestones, sleep. Other tools to motivate personal achievement are award badges, streaks and personal bests.

Shine can be worn as a necklace, wristband, watch or a clip-on “button” anywhere - hip, wrist, neck, chest, waist, shoe, bra, etc. Other products may offer similar wearing options but they are not as lightweight and comfortable to be worn on every occasion. 

Other outstanding features of Shine are its waterproof nature (up to 5 atm) and long battery life (up to 4 months).

Unique selling point: wearable

Points of parity:

·         Category points of parity: tracking a wide range of activities, comes with different wearing options, has an app to display data, fairly priced

·         Competitive points of parity: waterproof, long life battery, wireless sync technology

Points of difference:

• Durable, made of aircraft-grade aluminium
• Light weight, slim, small as a coin
• Minimal user interface with simple data display

 

Riding a foreign wave (cont.)

Part 4: Fancy finding lost treasures?


An upside of independence is you have the time (too much time even!) to research tips and tricks for different areas. Or you have enough motivation to find shortcuts, innovative ways that would save you time (although you have plenty), money (especially when the Sterling is ever strong against your currency) and effort in the future. Over time, I have learned a trade or two. Among those are bargain hunting skill, Internet scouting skill, "student tag" deploying skill and many more...


The main reason behind all these is the ever-growing bond between me and my laptop. Even though I am well aware of the health consequences of glueing my eyes to the screen, somehow it is just an indispensable part of overseas studying. Such a cliche to say but now I can truly understand and value the magical power of technology. I even come to the conclusion that it is a 2-way process: I am dependent on it but it also depends on users like me to thrive. For instance, what is the point of having a website full of money-saving coupons if no one wants them? 

More than just for long-distance communication

Whether it being receiving health treatment, buying insurance, purchasing tickets, I've learned to try my luck by saying: "I'm a student. Am I entitled to some sort of discount?". Most of the time, the answer would be yes. Sometimes when I'm in the "pestering" mode, an upfront no could be swayed! And I swear with all my student's heart, it feels as good as receiving a first class degree.

Riding a foreign wave (cont.)

Part 3: Watch out for rogue waves!


Innocent excitement over time would become cynism. Not that I'm saying I becoming a paranoid person, just more mature. What remains impressive to me is the civilised manner things are dealt with, or at least some efforts are exerted towards that ideal. But the question is, could too much politeness actually be a mask for insincerity? Could there be ulterior motives behind acts of kindness? 


In this material world, especially with the current economic climate, money appears to gain more and more value over everything else. As far as one sees the potential of money inflow, then talking can begin, or resume. If not, expect to hear apologies and warnings of backing off. Too much fairness can sometimes be harsh. 


Sympathy, or to be exact, empathy, is what I need to survive amid the foreign ocean. And sometimes communication breakdown, cultural differences or just personality disparities lead to lots of frustration. But one thing for certain, whatever happens, I have to keep sailing. I'm the captain of my own ship. I chose the itinerary and I must learn to toughen up along the way. 

Willpower does!

There are only storms in your mind!

Riding a foreign wave (cont.)

Part 2: Welcome ab(r)oad!


I still recall the very feeling of touch-down when the aircraft arrived at Manchester Airport. A mixture of bewilderedness and excitement. For a moment, I did not have time to think about what or who I had left behind; family, friends, familiar food...would have to wait. Wait till I breathed in the very first flow of UK air. Wait till I saw the very first British person, who was an airport ground staff. Wait till I heard the very first English word uttered by a native in their homeland. Those were all the very first moments of my new life, the moments that struck me as both real and unreal, or even ethereal. 


On my taxi ride from Manchester to Colwyn Bay, the town in North Wales where I would be staying, the effect from 15 hours of flying long-haul for the first time of my life couldn't stop me savouring the scenery, or anything that came into view. I was assigned, by my college, to stay with a host family, which consisted of an old lady, 73 at the time and an old female dog, 12 at the time. With hindsight, perhaps I should have seen that as a sign.


The house seemed cosy and comfortable. I couldn't help noticing how all the furniture and interior seemed to be so...close-knitted. In Vietnam, as it is a hot country, spacing is very important as it alleviates the feeling of being crammed into a boiling pot! My very first dialogue with the host mother made me worry about my English skills a little bit, but it was actually because she couldn't hear me if I talked too softly. 

My room - independence starts here

To me, culture shock didn't happen as fast as expected. Probably I was too excited about learning new things and discovering the lifestyle to make comparisons. Many of my Vietnamese friends couldn't eat British food, or even hated it. But somehow, I enjoyed the experience purely based on novelty, even though it was only frozen food, microwaved and served with cooked vegetables. As far as my memory is concerned, my very first meal was minced beef with rice, potatoes, peas and carrots. Exotic! I thought to myself. Finally I got to know how it felt like to eat food all served in a plate, rather than in a bowl for rice and multiple plates for different components such as meat and vegetables. It was just a convenient thing to have everything in one place. And I got to use a knife and a fork instead of chopsticks too.


The excitement was preserved for my first appearance at the college too. Llandrillo College, or Coleg Llandrillo, as in Welsh, was the largest in North Wales. I could jump up whenever I saw something new, albeit I kept that wild attitude inside my mind. Classes were small, with just about 15 students, unlike 45 in my high school class back then! The college was surrounded with such a beautiful landscape that I could paint a mental picture of the white being the building, amid the blue colour for the sea, the green for grass field and the greenish brown for mountains. Staff were friendly and welcoming. Seagulls seemed to be too as they walked around the campus peacefully. Perfect, I couldn't have asked for more. 

The view opposite my college when it snowed

But would the wonder wear off? Were everything as I thought they were?

Riding a foreign wave

It is a truth universally, or in this case, nationally acknowledged that a kid coming from a family in possession of a good fortune must go abroad to study. In retrospect, after 4 years and a half in the faraway island of Great Britain, I ask myself what brought me here. Not the Boeing 777. But Jane Austen.


Part 1: Choosing your sea


I was 16, a young, ordinary Vietnamese girl who went to high school to receive education and to yearn for more. English was a mandatory subject in the curriculum from primary school, and I somehow seemed to be good at that. In fact, I was among the high fliers in a class specialised in English, in a school that had already been known for its good English teaching. So there I was, exposed to the language almost everyday, that ambition to study abroad started to take shape.


Nonetheless, the outward perspective has become so common among Vietnamese students (and parents I hasten to add!) that it is seen as a "tradition" rather than a trend. Kids go to school, learn English and at some point, they go overseas to seek better education. But for me, it was more than that, I am "passionately curious" about foreign cultures, about discovering new experiences. That burning desire drove me to attend a myriad of seminars, exhibitions, talks and tests, that would bring me closer to my goal. 


I kept my options open, any English-speaking country would do, the US, UK, Australia, Singapore etc. With persistance, luck and a bit of grey matter, I managed to get scholarships and offers from quite a few colleges and high schools through taking part in assessment tests of all sorts. So the next question beckoned, where would I go?


Research. Compare. Select. As simple as that. I have to admit I was perhaps a teeny bit meticulous, in that I would devour prospectuses from schools as if they were my favourite novels! My mother would go on complaining about my stockpiling and I would gladly reassure her that they would vanish through recycling once I made my decision. Among the amount of students like me going overseas, I estimate half of them go because it is their parents' wishes. Lucky in my case, it had always been my idea, which made me the leader of the whole process.


Frankly, the more I drew endless comparisons in terms of costs, length, location and other objective factors, the more I knew the decision had to be based solely on my subjective feeling for the place, or "going for true love", in a sense. I had to thank Oxford University Press for holding that reading competition, in which participants had to write down a paragraph or two reflecting on a book of their choice in the series of OUP abridged classic novels. 


It was fate, wasn't it? I had always loved writing and expressing my ideas. And then I met Jane Austen, my first and also primary source of inspiration at the time. Followed were Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, the Bronte sisters, to name a few. Although the books were only the shortened version, my periods of enlightenment just seemed to  grow longer and longer. Until I was awash with questions such as, "what would it feel like?", "what if I could be there?", "what could happen to me?". The key to all of those was finally moulded after a period of imprinting. I would pick the UK. I would become a writer, just like Jane Austen, just like.

View of Llandudno seashore from the Great Orme

So where in Great Britain did I end up? North Wales. Yes, as random as it sounds. Apart from having a scholarship which entitled me to a 40% tuition fee reduction, I just thought to myself after having seen photos of the place, a picturesque location could be a good start for a writer's cultivation. The sea was chosen. And I set sail.