1. MARKETING
COMMUNICATIONS
PLAN of «UP by
Jawbone»
MKT2501 - Marketing Communication
Teacher : Chris Woollaston
Date of submission : 26/04/2013
Student number : 1209752 date of submission : 26/04/2013
2. Using the MCPF structure as discussed by Fill (2009, p.309)*, prepare a Marketing
Communications Plan for a product or service of your choice. You must explain and
justify each stage of your plan with reference to relevant academic concepts and
theory.
• Brief introduction (c.150-200 words)
We will talk here about the UP by Jawbone. UP is a new generation of wristband
intented to analyze your lifestyle. Its goal is to improve your lifestyle. In fact, the Up tracks
your sleep cycles, your steps and your moves to help you to better know your sleeping
time and the daily number of steps you do. Moreover, the wristband calculates the calories
spent, the distance covered and can be used as an alarm-clock. It’s entirely connected to
your smartphone and you have anytime access to the data of the wristband through a
dedicated application. Finally, on the application, the customer can have statistics of his
last performances.
Jawbone is a is privately-held company founded by Alexander Asseily and Hosain
Rahman in 1999 and headquartered in San Francisco, CA. The firm is specialized on
wireless products. Known for the Jambox, a mini bluetooth speaker built for mobility, they
are primarily manufacturers of hands-free kits for phones with very special noise cancelling
which is produced by the jawbone’s vibration. After a disastrous launch in 2011 due to its
lack of solidity and many hardware problems, Jawbone came back in 2012 with a new Up
wristband, completely revised.
• Context analysis on this occasion focusing on (c.600 words)
◦ The offering and the key message
The message conveyed by Jawbone is very simple: «Know yourself, live better».
For the company, the self-knowledge is the better way to live better. Thus, Jawbone offers
Student number : 1209752 date of submission : 26/04/2013
3. the consumer to learn how to know better itself in order to live better. The fact to know the
number of his steps and his sleep cycles allows the user to know his body better. Well-
being is one of the five requirements necessary for the individual according to Maslow. Up
wristband gives the possibility to the consumer to master data that he could not know until
then and to go further in well-being search. He can now quantify the messages sent by his
body. The product allows the consumer to find the well-being and to have more control on
his life.
• Customers (segment characteristics; levels of awareness, perception and
attitudes towards the brand/offering; levels of involvement; perceived risk)
The Jawbone Up wristband targets a certain type of people. First, the firm seeks
people who want to track their lifestyle, their bodies. That means people who want to learn
to decode the messages sent to them by their bodies. There are also people who want to
lose weight, who wish to follow their daily «burn calories», in real time. Also, people who
need a visible element, quantified their daily stresses. Potential customers could be those
who wish to have a glimpse of their sleep and their sleep cycle and an alarm clock «well-
being», because they suffer from a kind of insomnia.
The population targeted is young, accustomed to new technologies and who want
to make profits from these new technologies for a better health and well being. Finally,
they must possess a smartphone or a tablet (iOS or Android) and make regular use of it.
• Competition
The market of smart wristband is currently not well developed. Indeed, it is an
innovative and really little known technology by the general public. Thus, «Up» by
Jawbone has significant monopoly power in the market for bracelets of well-being.
However, there is a product that could be likened to a formidable competitor: the Nike
Student number : 1209752 date of submission : 26/04/2013
4. Fuelband. Although the FuelBand is a wristband more focused on sports performance, its
technical specifications are similar to the Up by Jawbone. Indeed, the FuelBand gives an
overview of calories burned or the number of steps in the day for example. But the idea of
performance is much more present, especially when the wristband stimulates the user to
improve his performance every day, and leads to surpass himself. However, the FuelBand
is less accurate than the Up on calorie counting. Furthermore, the well-being dimension is
totally absent. In this way, the Up is much more complete and has more features than the
Fuelband. We can estimate that the Up and Fuelband target different market segments, a
very sporty people for FuelBand and for the Up, people more interested in well being.
• All culminating in setting out the communication needs
Therefore, Jawbone must increase its communication on the fact that the «Up» is a
product of «well-being». However, the knowledge of this new technology is low and there
is little competition in the market. In this way, Jawbone will have to initially promote the
technology and explain it to increase demand for the product (Jakki J. M., 2009). In a first
time, the brand must target a special type of population, techie and who search the well
being, then it should try to democratize the «Up» to the general public (Artech House,
2004).
• Communication goals (c.200 words)
The purpose of communication for this product is to try to promote it to the mass
public. Indeed, this wristband is an innovative technology that is in its beginning. So, only
few people are aware that this type of product exists. The main challenge of this
communication plan is to democratize the use of this product, and to introduce it to an
uninitiated public.
Student number : 1209752 date of submission : 26/04/2013
5. So, Jawbone has to emphasize the fact that this wristband allows a new use and
has very innovative features. In addition, the company will also solicit consumers who
already know the Jawbone products, especially thanks to their bluetooth speakers (that
were already a major innovation in the field of «mobile music»). Thus, Jawbone will try to
appeal to their loyalty and their previous experience with a Jawbone product (Chen, Y.
(2008). The company must promote all the many features available with the Up, to
differentiate itself from the competition and to increase sales of smart wristband. Jawbone
should also try to fade the bad launch operated in 2011. It had to guarantee to its
customers a irreproachable completion and proves that this bracelet has evolved.
The goal to be reached by the company is to praise the material quality of the Up
and all the innovations it has used to offer this product.
• 3Ps of communication strategy (c.450 words)
There are three techniques in marketing strategy : PUSH, PULL and profile
strategies.
- The marketing push, or push strategy is the process of pushing the product to
consumers. Jawbone can use push strategy directly to consumers or through the
distribution network. It use its power of sale and trade promotion activities to create
demand for a product. It promotes the product to wholesalers, wholesalers to
retailers, and retailers to consumers (Fill, C. 2005). Jawbone has to select resellers
carefully. Building a selective retailers network, especially for upscale sports stores
will emphasize the image of a high-end product.
- The pull marketing or pull strategy includes actions aimed at bringing consumers
to the product. Marketing pull basically translates into advertising media
communication campaigns and direct marketing. Jawbone must use this strategy
even if it requires high spending on advertising and promotion to build consumer
Student number : 1209752 date of submission : 26/04/2013
6. demand for a product. Indeed, if the strategy is successful, consumers will ask their
retailers for the product, the retailers will ask the wholesalers, and wholesalers will
ask the manufacturers.
- The Profile Strategy is when you want to target a range of stakeholders, but by
using different messages for each.
With the Up wristband, Jawbone penetrates a brand-new market. There is little
competition and the mass public has no particular knowledge of the product. However,
customer loyalty to the brand is high because they have been seduced by Jawbone’
previous products. In this way, Jawbone must use the 3Ps together in order to have
maximum impact on the client, because the different characteristics of its product require
it. They have to balance the two strategies to create a great marketing mix that strongly
encourages customers to buy their products. Some customers respond to a certain type of
strategy, depending on the stage of decision making.
• Co-ordinated communication mix (c.450 words)
The «Up» by Jawbone is a product that can be classified in the category of the new
technologies products. We said that the targeted customers for the product is a population
that daily uses the new technologies of information and communication. Jawbone will
therefore have to use uppermost the new medias, including the internet, to promote the Up
because this population mainly uses these channels. In this way, the company must sollicit
bloggers specialized in new technology products (Russell, S., 2009). These should be
targeted as influential bloggers, and Jawbone could send them a Up wristband and ask
them to write a serie of articles on their websites. Jawbone could invite them to give their
opinion on the product. But this approach could be double-edged because it gives to the
consumer a objective view of the product. If the blogger believes that the «UP» is a bad
Student number : 1209752 date of submission : 26/04/2013
7. product and writes it on his blog, he can quickly create a bad-buzz around the product.
Then, the brand must really carefully select bloggers, considering their editorial lines for
example. Jawbone could also participate to exhibitions to present the products, promote
the new technology which is unknown. These shows can also be an opportunity for them
to create many partnerships with other companies to improve the functionalities of the
smartphone application as well as their wristband. Partnerships could be built with food
companies to improve the functionalities like tracking of meals and consumed calories.
Jawbone could also create partnerships with companies specialized in mobile geolocation
to improve its smartphone application for example. Jawbone must also participate
exhibitions to present the products and to promote an unknown technology. Therefore, the
«Up» is an accessory of well-being, Jawbone can also sponsor «well-being» events (like
«Health and Wellbeing Days» in UK for example) or sports events (like marathons...) to
show their commitment to the quest of «well-being». It’s really important that the name of
the brand is associates to the idea of sport and well-being. Jawbone could involve high-
level athletes and doctors to justify the effects of the product for good health.
Jawbone can use the press as support to promote his product, through adverts in
dedicated sports magazines. The company could also create and publish contents on the
internet or on TV commercials for example. Using video support could give full visibility to
the user on how he can use the wristband (Wiley, J. & Sons (2009). In fact, the technology
is new, it must explain to the public how the product works and in what circumstances.
Jawbone can thus create promotional videos on its website to attract the customer and
give him ideas to use the wristband. Finally, these videos could give the consumers some
reassurance about the material quality of the wristband.They must explicitly show that the
mistakes made by the past have been fixed. For example, the company could show
through a video the different phases of design and production of the product as well as
many quality tests made before the product launch.
Student number : 1209752 date of submission : 26/04/2013
8. • Implementation, control & evaluation (c.300 words);
➤ Implementation :
Jawbone must begin the launch of the product by creating a dedicated page on its
website that describes the product and its features (Gurau, C., 2008). Then the firm could
encourage demand by streaming lot of videos of the product. In this way, interviews of
high-level athletes and doctors could be published. Athletes and doctors could speak
about different benefits of the product as well as users who have tested the product in
preview. The brand must praise the strength of the product and insist on it to reassure the
customer. First, the firm must send copies to influential bloggers to invite them to write
posts about the Up. The product launch will be first in the U.S. Jawbone has to focus first
on the market they know the best. When the brand is sure to be operational for an
international launch, it must use the advice of U.S. users about the product and multiply
the adverts by making "teasing" to other countries. Jawbone has to translate any
documents, packaging or application to adapt the product to the targeted market and thus
to make easier the use of the product by non english speaking person (Gurau, C., 2008).
Jawbone can also promote its product to the doctors, or nutrisionist for example, and it can
shows them all the benefits of medical uses of the Up.
➤ Control :
The firm has to pay attention to the first feedbacks of U.S. users, particularly
regarding to the reliability of its product to avoid past mistakes. It must have total control of
its communication strategy and be able to react quickly. Indeed, it must be very attentive to
notes written by bloggers. It has to contact them quickly if their opinion about the product
does not highlight or discredit it. It must also check the opinions of its users on social
networks with brand monitoring.
Student number : 1209752 date of submission : 26/04/2013
9. ➤ Evaluation :
Jawbone can assess its communication strategy by controling the level of sales and
its evolution. It can also measure if there is an increase of members in the community of
the «Up» social network. Analyzing the engagement of users on social networks, blogs
and specialized websites by a brand monitoring strategy could be a good tools to evaluate
the performance (Bampo, M., 2008).
• Brief conclusion (c.150-200 words).
Thus, the new technology used by Jawbone enables them to monopolize the wristband
market. The Up by Jawbone is a real innovative technology. But, Jawbone has to pay
attention to the fact that this technology is currently unknown by the mass public. They
have to to focus on the promotion of this technology. In the first time, they have to show to
the consumer how this product can make his life better and how he can improve his well-
being. Then, the brand has to try to conquer new markets, such as medical devices, for
example, through a promotion to doctors.
Finally, they have to base their strategy on different supports of media communication to
reach as many people as possible, through promotional videos, interviews or interactive
contents for example.
Words : 2402.
Student number : 1209752 date of submission : 26/04/2013
10. Bibliography :
Fill, C. (2009) Marketing Communications: Interactivity, Communities and Content, 5th
Edition, Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd.
Wiley, J. & Sons (2009) The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media,
Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly
Russell, S. (2009) New Communications Approaches in Marketing: Issues and Research
Directions, Journal of Marketing Interactive
Chen, Y. (2008) Online Consumer Review: Word-of-Mouth as a New Element of Marketing
Communication Mix
Bampo, M. (2008) The Effects of the Social Structure of Digital Networks on Viral
Marketing Performance
Fill, C. (2005) Marketing Communications: Contexts, Strategies, and Applications
Jakki, J. M. (2009) Marketing of High-technology Products and Innovations
Artech House (2004) Successful Marketing Strategy for High-Tech Firms
Gurau, C. (2008) Integrated online marketing communication: implementation and
management
Student number : 1209752 date of submission : 26/04/2013
