Covid-19 has brought about many lifestyle changes for consumers. Every crisis also brings opportunities. In this exercise we ask you to come up with an idea for a new wearable device (i.e. smart watch) and to develop a strategic marketing plan for this product. Specific guidelines will be given during the class sessions and a suggested framework will be available on Blackboard.

Smart watches Contents Executive Summary This report shows an in-depth analysis of the Smartwatch industry. Smartwatches are about to become routine essential according to increasing sales figures and usage patterns. It glanced at the current scenario showing CAGR growth of 21.98%. Smartwatches are one of the best inventions of these times. It is highly driven by innovation and quality. Due to the presence of tech giants in the industry, it is most likely to be forefront. Key players such as Apple, Samsung, Garmin and Fitbit are leading the smartwatch segment. Smartwatches are emerging products. This report highlighted marketing strategies, budget and evaluation ways to successfully roll out the product. Some companies like – Suunto, Fenix, Boat and fossil offer budget-friendly smartwatches. Interestingly, all these companies had targeted the health and fitness segment to enter the industry and introduce products. Introduction Smartwatches are portable gadgets that are designed to wear on the wrist hand. It comes with a touchscreen; allows apps, measure heart rate and many more features. Smartwatches were introduced in the 2010s with features like a calculator and unit converter. Apple, Samsung and Sony were the beginning players to enter the market. However, the Pebble entered like a showstopper in 2013, it rose enough funding and made a record sale of one million units. Later companies like Suunto, Garmin and Fenix entered the smartwatch market with a unique offering. Some cool features or functions that smartwatches can perform are – notifications, apps, media management, fitness tracking, voice command, GPS and good battery life (Silbert, 2021). Current Scenario The global smartwatch market was valued at 68.59 Million units and is forecasted to touch 230.30 million units by 2026. Hence, showing a CAGR of 21.98% growth. The Covid-19 pandemic has sunk the demand for smart Watches. However, online influx results were impressive as it cuts down other costs. The buyers were attracted towards the online prices of smartwatches. Currently, watches are designed with the ability to connect with smartphones and sync information. It pairs via Bluetooth. For example – Samsung watches can only pair with Samsung galaxy series phones and not Apple devices. Smartwatches have witnessed a surge in demand, even with the older population as companies are availing features of the health monitoring system. According to the consumer technology association, the smartwatches sector is expected to grow 8% Y-O-Y in unit shipments. This could be highly driven by the tech-savvy and fashion-conscious customer(Patil, 2022). The sports segment in the sector has a remarkable market share. In 2022, Boat launched the Xtend sports smartwatch. After leading into the audio market, Boat entered the budget smartwatch. Such innovations will leverage the studied market. Furthermore, Garmin also unveiled a smartwatch in 2022. It revealed the world’s first GPS-running smartwatch 955 with solar charging technology and forerunner 255 series in India. Its target markets aim at professionals and mid-level runners and athletes(Smartwatch Market Size, Share| 2022 - 27 | Industry Report, 2021). SWOT Analysis Strength - Beautifully designed with a modern outlook - Less invasive than a phone - It can be synced with the mobile device for a better transition - Easy to review alerts and access notification Weakness - Not well priced - Few applications don’t work properly - Battery-draining chances Opportunity - Different styles to fit every individual - Beginning of the new era - Easy to respond through notification Threat - Extremely competition - Easily replicated - Screen may be damaged. (Iwak, 2022) Target market Segment - Smartwatches are stylish: This customer segment is attracted towards the innovative and trendy outlook of wearables. This segment simply wants to follow the trend and be in front adopt changes. They believe smartwatches are the latest essential fashion accessories. They may not care about features and are most likely to switch watches to keep up with the trend - Track health with smartwatches: This segment finds it convenient to track their fitness goals and routine activities. They use the specific health app on phones connected to the smartwatch. They keep updates on steps walked, calories burnt and heart rate. The Garmin Vivoactive, the Fitbit Ionic and the Apple watch come with loaded fitness features that appeal to this segment. - Deriving productivity through smartwatches: This customer segment wants to use the latest devices in productive ways. For example – check the to-do list, set reminders and check the calendar. The Apple Watch and The Samsung watch are compatible to function both ways. The customer here expected to use smartwatches to their full potential and improve their productivity. They desire productivity rather than health(Target Market for Smartwatches: Who loves this hot gadget? | AMPLIFY XL, 2022). Competitive challenges The competitive scenario is examined along with key players in the industry. Those are – Apple, Fitbit, Fossil Group, Garmin, LG Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Sony Corporation, Withings and Zepp health corporation. The key players have adopted strategies – merger and acquisition, agreements, collaborations, marketing tactics and product portfolio expansion. It is an innovation-driven market, innovative products rule the market. However, it has not yet become an essential accessory but companies are trying hard and want people to adopt it. Smartwatches are either sold separately or along with the purchase of the new smartphone. Customers can get smartwatches at heavy discounts while buying a new phone. Currently, each company’s offerings are unique and exclusive and have a specific target market. Like Target market for Apple watches would be different than Fitbit watches. Companies are pumping money to better understand the smartwatch market and consumer behaviour and bring a unique offering that can fill the market gap. There does exist competition on who takes away the highest market share. Apple is leading with 23%, Samsung with 14%, and Amazfit with 6% as of Q3 2012. The industry is already awaiting a new smartwatch from Samsung. Samsung is one of the largest owners of wearable patents. However, another popular brand Xiaomi is also targeting budget-friendly smartwatches(Smartwatches Market Size, Share & Growth Report, 2030, 2022). Financial and marketing goals The company must require huge funds to roll out smartwatches. However, marketing goals will help the organisation to achieve better financial results. Each quarter company must review their finances and aim for better in the next quarter. This could happen if only they review their marketing and sales plan. Their marketing goals must be clear with the core objective should be to reach out to maximise their target market. Furthermore, the marketing plan will derive different methods to the market product through social media, commercials or collaborations. Key players allow heavy discounts on smartwatches on buying new smartphones. Let us understand the 4Ps marketing mix strategy of Apple - Product: Apple watch is high tech and luxury brand device with premium value and innovative design. Some of the seamless features the Apple iwatch offers are – fitness and workout tracking, heart rate monitoring, making calls and sleep tracking. However, it is also compatible with oxygen sensors and hand wash monitoring on Apple series 6. Additionally, the customer also gets a selection of bracelets to choose from. - Price: The price of the Apple watch is considered based on the penetration price policy that enables the company to capture exceptional market share. Despite its product being high priced, the products perform pretty well. Their USP is a superior value, with the latest features and unique design. - Place: Apple watches are widely available in many places such as – India, Singapore, Dubai, the US, Australia etc. Its aggressive strategy of diversified global network helps them to reach the maximum customer. However, customers can buy Apple watches from retail stores as well as online at their doorstep. It has made related accessories available on the online platform. - Promotion: Apple watch is a successful wearable device that attracts a large number of customers. Promotional tactics used by Apple improve brand awareness and reliability. Magazines and electronic medium are their major marketing routes. However, it does market through giant hoarding and banners across cities. Apple watch’s remarkable market response makes it the best invention in the world (The 4 P’s Of Apple Watch Marketing - Learn How This Inspires Marketers - Style Vanity, 2022). On summarizing marketing strategy, the company develop a product that is genuinely worth buying. That includes product value, quality, well price. Aggressive marketing for low-quality or less trendy products is a risk. No doubt people will be considering buying on the bases of the marketing efforts, but it will not last long. However, the strategic marketing plan desires to fulfil the company’s objectives. That comprises of sales figures, customer satisfaction, marketing methods etc. people always get attracted to discounts. The company must consider exclusive offers on occasion or on buying the primary product. For example – the Samsung series 4 watch is Rs 26000 and Samsung S22ultra is Rs 1,00,000. If any customer buys both products at the same time, Samsung provides a heavy discount on the series 4 watch for just Rs 3000. Adding to it, there are numerous routes to market Smartwatches through social media, hoardings, banners, occasional discounts and more. A marketing budget The marketing budget for smartwatch wearables is expected to touch $68.6 Million as tech giants have already tapped the market segment. Such as Apple, Samsung, Garmin etc. companies must look for new and modern advertising methods to gain a return on investment. Banners ads are traditional methods, now the time is for social media marketing, AI-based and mobile videos. Shorts clips tend to bring more effective results than big hoardings. Additionally, it is a cost-effective approach. Customers can easily retain information from video ads that are a combination of visual and audio. Apple brand users are quite loyal, due to consistent innovation, product quality and value. It has become a status symbol. To prepare a concrete marketing budget plan expense list includes – research on the product, references, competitive analysis, focus groups, paid research and others under the head of the budget, actual and deviation. Another big cost goes towards testing on a product that includes – unit testing, security testing, integration testing, software testing and others on the heading of budget, actual and deviation. Analysing this whole derives actual profit once a unit is sold. Overall, the marketing budget shows expenses made on marketing a product. The company must look for reducing marketing costs and marketing effectively. A high marketing budget for any product doesn’t always mean sales will boom. Correct timing, strategic marketing plan, product offering, right target market, pricing, etc are the key element that matters(How to Develop a Marketing Budget for 2022 & Beyond | Gartner, 2022). Sales and revenue forecast The global smartwatch sector is expected to spike by 21.5% annually and touch $109.76 billion with annual unit sales of 722.12 million units in 2030. This report is based on the whole global smartwatch market, including sub-segments and in-depth classification. Exhibit 1 shows the sales volume forecast from 2019-2030. However, exhibit 2 shows the smart watch forecast in terms of revenue and growth from 2019-2030 (Insights, 2020). It depicts high sales revenue and growth rate various between 15.1% and 19.4% in 10 years. Whereas, the sales forecast shows a marginal boom from 16.8 million to 67 million in 2030. Let us discuss market opportunities available to smart watches to meet forecasted figures. - The software sector is expected to grow at a faster pace hen the hardware sector. - In terms of end-user, the commercial segment is likely to showcase strong growth than household users. However, the elderly population is the fastest growth segment in the household domain. - Higher competitive market pushes innovation, diversity and consolidation. Increasing start-ups, strategic collaborations, acquisitions and mergers among key players. - Smartwatches have the fastest growing market in middle-east, Africa and Latin America region. - The United States is the market leader in the segment, going to hold the consistent biggest market share and long-run growth. Monitoring and evaluation Identify program goals and objectives: our marketing plan is fulfilling the gap between company and customer via branding, awareness, promotion and collaboration. However, with a clear budget, we expect to market products in a way that bridges the gap between the company and the customer. We have adopted modern marketing strategies rather than traditional ones. That comprises social media, collaborations, occasional discounts etc. once the target unit is achieved at a particular location, management will review the response. The analysis will provide detailed customer behaviour and on based of that company must take future steps. Indicators: there are two types of tracking indicators. Process indicator and outcome indicator. The process indicator will make sure that our action plan is well implemented. Every action plan will be conducted at different places in the major cities. Frequency of rolling out social media campaigns. The outcome indicator will review the process and derive differences from activities. It could be tracked by sales unit, prior bookings, feedback etc. Data collection method: data collection is an important element of any research. It is crucial to understand the right source to collect data that can provide accurate results. Customer experience data should not be collected from retailers but from actual customers. There can be multiple sources of data collection. Such as – questionnaires, surveys, online forms, AI-collected data etc. Identify M&E roles and responsibilities: Once the data is collected, the M&E plan has well prescribed how the work is allotted. Once the concerned person will collect data from each indicator, it will go for review and analysis. Smartwatches being in the global market must equip with high-tech software’s to store and process data. Create an analysis plan and report: post the data is analysed. The data manager will frame it for better presentation. Data will be internally reviewed and externally reported. Different ways to present it includes – graphs, tables, chart, verbal presentation and more. It will help executives and management to take future decisions(How to Develop a Monitoring and Evaluation Plan - The Compass for SBC, 2022). Exhibit 1 Showing sales volume forecast 2019-2030 in million units Exhibit 2 Global smart watch market in terms on revenue and growth rate 2019-2030 References Silbert, S., 2021. Smartwatches: A Beginner's Guide. [online] Lifewire. Available at: [Accessed 9 October 2022]. Mordorintelligence.com. 2021. Smartwatch Market Size, Share| 2022 - 27 | Industry Report. [online] Available at: [Accessed 9 October 2022]. Iwak, D., 2022. Swot Analysis Of Smart Watch , Png Download - Swot Of Smart Watch, Transparent Png - kindpng. [online] KindPNG.com. Available at: [Accessed 9 October 2022]. AMPLIFY XL. 2022. Target Market for Smartwatches: Who loves this hot gadget? | AMPLIFY XL. [online] Available at: [Accessed 9 October 2022]. Style Vanity. 2022. The 4 P’s Of Apple Watch Marketing - Learn How This Inspires Marketers - Style Vanity. [online] Available at: [Accessed 9 October 2022]. Grandviewresearch.com. 2022. Smartwatches Market Size, Share & Growth Report, 2030. [online] Available at: [Accessed 9 October 2022]. The Compass for SBC. 2022. How to Develop a Monitoring and Evaluation Plan - The Compass for SBC. [online] Available at: [Accessed 9 October 2022]. Insights, T., 2020. The Research Insights. [online] Theresearchinsights.com. Available at: [Accessed 9 October 2022]. Gartner. 2022. How to Develop a Marketing Budget for 2022 & Beyond | Gartner. [online] Available at: [Accessed 9 October 2022].