1. Taking Bing to the next level in the UK
Increasing Bing awareness and market share through an integrated
marketing communications campaign
4MMC7A9
CAMPAIGN PLANNING PROJECT
Module leader: Anne Barker
Supervisor: Nigel Bradley
Juan Mejia 13549275
September 2012
1

2. Table of Contents
Executive Summary....................................................................................................................................... 5
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 7
Campaign Rationale .................................................................................................................................... 12
Macro Analysis ........................................................................................................................................ 12
PESTEL Analysis ....................................................................................................................................... 12
SWOT Analysis......................................................................................................................................... 12
Micro (internal) Analysis ......................................................................................................................... 13
Market and industry definition and parameters .................................................................................... 15
Market dynamics and trends .................................................................................................................. 15
Competitor evaluation ............................................................................................................................ 16
About Microsoft ...................................................................................................................................... 17
The Microsoft brand ............................................................................................................................... 18
Microsoft’s Marketing Communications ................................................................................................ 19
Marketing and brand analysis ................................................................................................................. 19
Marketing comparison chart .................................................................................................................. 21
Financial Analysis .................................................................................................................................... 22
Microsoft Online services division financial information ....................................................................... 23
Financial performance by company ........................................................................................................ 23
The brand opportunity for Microsoft ......................................................................................................... 26
Strategic Context of the proposition ...................................................................................................... 26
Business Objective .................................................................................................................................. 27
Marketing Objectives .............................................................................................................................. 27
The role of Integrated Marketing Communications in this campaign .................................................... 29
Marketing Communications Objectives ...................................................................................................... 36
Understanding the target audience and background ................................................................................. 38
Market size.............................................................................................................................................. 39
Target market ............................................................................................................................................. 41
Consumer profiles ................................................................................................................................... 41
Branding issues ....................................................................................................................................... 41
Brand aura personality, essence, strength ............................................................................................. 42
2

3. Positioning changes proposed and consumer implications.................................................................... 42
The Campaign Delivery Recommendations summary of agency proposals ............................................... 44
The insight ............................................................................................................................................... 44
A summary of the trends ........................................................................................................................ 44
Implications for this campaign ................................................................................................................ 46
Strategic approach ...................................................................................................................................... 48
Public relations Strategy and Tactics ...................................................................................................... 49
Advertising strategy ................................................................................................................................ 51
Direct and interactive marketing - experiential advertising ................................................................... 56
Public transport spaces to communicate on the go ........................................................................... 56
Static bus adverts ................................................................................................................................ 57
Interactive screens in tube stations .................................................................................................... 57
Large interactive boards in tube stations ........................................................................................... 58
Projection in tube stations .................................................................................................................. 58
Shopping and entertainment experience ........................................................................................... 59
Direct and interactive marketing - Online advertising............................................................................ 60
Direct and interactive marketing - Social media..................................................................................... 63
Direct and interactive marketing - SMS .................................................................................................. 63
Direct and interactive marketing - email ................................................................................................ 64
Club Bing - a loyalty program .................................................................................................................. 64
Viral video ............................................................................................................................................... 65
Events strategy and tactics ..................................................................................................................... 66
Measuring results across interactive media ............................................................................................... 67
Horizontal integration ............................................................................................................................. 68
Vertical integration ................................................................................................................................. 68
Activities by month ..................................................................................................................................... 69
Budget ......................................................................................................................................................... 70
Media plan and budget ........................................................................................................................... 72
Evaluation ................................................................................................................................................... 74
Appendixes.................................................................................................................................................. 75
Appendix 1: Analysis models ...................................................................................................................... 76
PESTEL ..................................................................................................................................................... 76
3

4. SWOT Analysis......................................................................................................................................... 77
Appendix 2: Consumer profiles ................................................................................................................... 78
Background information about Technology target groups .................................................................... 78
The mobile world .................................................................................................................................... 80
Data specifics from the target audience ................................................................................................. 82
Appendix 3: insights and background for strategy ..................................................................................... 89
The smartphone boom and access across platforms ............................................................................. 89
Smartphones are an important means of accessing the Internet .......................................................... 91
Most popular websites ........................................................................................................................... 91
Access of content in smartphones .......................................................................................................... 93
Appendix 4: Mosaic descriptions ................................................................................................................ 96
Group O: Liberal Opinions....................................................................................................................... 96
Group H: New Homemakers ................................................................................................................... 97
ACORN Groups ........................................................................................................................................ 99
References and bibliography .................................................................................................................... 100
Word count: 14,264
4

5. Executive Summary
Despite Microsoft being one of the leading brands in the world, Bing -it's search engine-, struggles to get
a significant market share in the UK. Google currently dominates more than 92% of the searches in the
UK, and this has been a stable trend through the past years, where it has maintained its dominance.
Despite Bing developing a series of campaigns since its launch in 2008, they haven't been able to achieve
a clear proposition and don't have a clear USP in the UK. With a market that invests over £2.6 billion a
year in online advertising, and search being the largest proportion of this investment, Bing has to
urgently increase their market share.
Despite high barriers of entry, other companies such as Apple have already moved into the maps service
and Bing needs to establish itself before others come into this market.
The following document intends to analyse the opportunities for Bing in the UK market, taking
advantage of the move of users towards accessing the Internet in their smartphones, the increase use of
multiple devices, and capitalizing on some other trends that will change the market in the following 12
months.
We have selected a specific target audience called the Tech Enthusiasts, which is technologically savvy
and they are very good multipliers of their knowledge. Furthermore, they represent 39% of the UK
market.
Based on this, we will develop a national campaign based on capitalizing on the touch points of this
target, with a major emphasis in media that are across their daily lives journey. With an average
investment of £15.8 million, the campaign will aim to drive an increase of 2.1 million unique new users
and take the search market share from 4.9% to 10%. The following chart (shown in the top next page)
shows the distribution of the investment of the campaign in the different channels.
5

6. The integrated marketing communications campaign includes advertising (outdoor, free tabloids and
digital, corporate and product public relations, direct and interactive marketing (SMS, email, social
media and a loyalty program), with events, in order to create an experience around the Bing brand.
Lastly, the campaign develops around a communication platform that aims to communicate the aspects
that the analysis identified as trends to capitalize on: mobility (smartphones, tablets and navigation
across devices), the spare time of users during their commute and the importance of social networks in
the UK. The campaign creative concept and brand essence that captures all this in a phrase is "Bing, our
search mate on the go".
This campaign will have duration of three months, from September to the end of November in 2012,
and will be measured through specific objectives, but will also be supported by qualitative and
quantitative research to ensure that the best outcomes are delivered.
Finally, the campaign will be measure with a pre tracking study of brand awareness and another one
developed after the campaign. In terms of other evaluation metrics, there are a series of stated metrics
in each of the direct marketing channels, but also a series of qualitative sessions will be developed to
test message effectiveness, copy, ads, etc.
6

7. Introduction
The purpose of the following document is to present the opportunity that Microsoft has in the UK to
become a leading brand, strengthening its marketing communications and winning in the consumer
market around one of its flagship services and revenue creators: Bing. The aim of this project is to build
a brand and relationship between Microsoft and the consumers in the UK, building a platform to sell the
Bing as an entry point to the consumers’ life, and as a result increase the positioning of the consumer
brand which according the Consumer Superbrands report of 2012 in the UK, is in 45th position of the
ranking.
Despite Microsoft having a very important profitability ratio and a continuous annual growth in revenue,
the Online Services division continues to lose money every year, which means it cannot be sustainable
for a long time. An integrated marketing communications plan is required to leverage all the strengths
that Microsoft has with Bing, but that has not been able to fully exploit, and to achieve Microsoft’s
business objective of using Bing as an interaction platform with consumers.
The following chart shows the search engine share by engine in the UK, as of July 2012, where you can
clearly observe Google’s dominance in the local market.
Search Engine Market Share
July, 2012 (Geographic and Demographic Filter: Country = 'United Kingdom')
Search Engine Total Market Share
Google - Global 88.64%
Bing 5.27%
Yahoo - Global 3.07%
Ask - Global 2.15%
AOL - Global 0.56%
Source: Netmarketshare.com July 2012
7

8. For Bing to be able to be able to increase their market share in the UK market, they need to take
advantage of one of the major opportunities in the current environment: smartphones and mobile
platforms.
According to UKOM (2012) report “in 2011, expenditure on mobile advertising rose to £203m, more
than double that of 2010, and representing like-for-like growth of 157%88. Since 2008, mobile
advertising revenues have grown seven-fold and in the same time the proportion of adults using their
mobile phone to access the Internet has doubled (20% to 39%).”
Furthermore “the UK Communications Market Report 2011 highlighted the rise of the mobile Internet
and the likelihood that smartphone take-up was the primary driver of the increasing use of data services
available on mobile phones89. It is also likely that smartphone take-up is the driver behind the growth
of mobile advertising. Smartphones appear to facilitate the use of the mobile Internet, increasing the
mobile Internet audience and making the platform a more attractive proposition for advertisers.
Furthermore, the technological capabilities of today’s smartphones, such as touchscreens, large high-
definition displays, high-speed processors, and operating systems capable of installing apps, present a
wider range of creative opportunities for advertisers.”
8

9. And the advertising income and investment is not increasing for just any reason. Advertising investment
follows consumers and what they do. As the following chart shows, the ownership of portable devices in
the UK is very high and is due to get as high as that of PCs and laptops.
Furthermore, the use of data services from mobile devices has increased rapidly and is due to continue
growing significantly as consumers upgrade into devices like smartphones and tablets, which allow users
to user data services wherever they are.
9

10. Currently, Google is clearly the leader in the search market in the UK, with Bing only getting 4.9 percent
of the real unique audience. But the truth is that even though all the other categories (Social Networks,
Online Shopping and News and Information) have already made a big entrance in the mobile arena,
none of the search engines has done so. Both Google and Bing have currently mobile apps and mobile
sites which offer the same functionality as their websites, but none has really explored this as a
communication approach to try to capture their mobile audiences in a more compelling way.
According to UKOM (2012) “Search on desktop and laptop computers seems to be levelling off. There
has been little growth in the unique audiences of search engines on desktop and laptop computers.
Between March 2011 and March 2012 Google Search remained the most popular search engine in the
UK. The average number of unique visitors per month was 31.9 million. In the same period Google’s
competitor search engines Yahoo! Search (6.1 million unique visitors per month on average) and Bing
Web (6.1 million) attracted less than a fifth as many visitors, while Google Image Search had
approximately twice their unique audience (11.9 million). Yahoo! Search and Bing Web experienced
declines in unique audience of 32% (to 5.1 million) and 40% to (4.9 million) respectively between March
10

11. 2011 and March 2012. Competitor Google’s search and image search have not obviously benefitted,
with both also declining slightly, by 3% and 12% respectively. “
“Possibly in a bid to mitigate these respective declines, Yahoo! Search has been entirely powered by
Bing Web since October 2011 and there is a revenue-sharing deal on search advertising in place
between Yahoo! and Microsoft. The top-level measure of total search reflects the trend, seen across
Yahoo!, Bing and Google, of growth apparently levelling off on desktop and laptop computers. This could
be due in part to search transferring to mobile devices. In PC and Mobile UK Internet Trends H2 2011,
Enders Analysis claims that while there are still fewer search engine page views on mobile, the intensity
of use is now greater than on desktop and laptop computers. In the UK in December 2011, 5.1 page
views per hour were the average on mobile, compared to 4.1 on desktop and laptop computers.98
However, Figure 4.48 below also suggests that social networking might be beginning to rival search
engines in terms of directing web traffic.”
This means that the market is shaking and even though Google remains as the overall leader, the mobile
platform could be a game changer that would make a difference in the market share in the next year.
Furthermore, the UKOM report says that “nearly two-thirds of the entire online audience in the UK are
on Facebook. Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the UK, with a unique audience for
March 2012 of 25.7 million. In that month, 64% of the entire online audience went on Facebook.
Globally, Facebook had 901 million active users by the end of March 2012. That is equivalent to nearly
half of the two billion people currently online in the world. Therefore, Facebook’s popularity is more
concentrated in the UK. Twitter (6.2 million unique visitors per month), LinkedIn (4.0 million), Google+
(2.5 million), Myspace (1.5 million) and Friends Reunited (0.7 million) are much smaller social
networking sites in comparison.”
This is an important opportunity for Bing, as Facebook signed a deal for Bing to be the provider of all of
its searches, which is something that the brand needs to capitalize on and communicate further.
11

12. Campaign Rationale
Macro Analysis
As we have seen, there are certain opportunities to be explored as this is a very dynamic market that
changes in less than a year. The following sections, will explore different issues that of the Macro
environment where Microsoft can capitalize with Bing and win in the medium term.
PESTEL Analysis
The following analysis summarizes the current situation of the competitive landscape for Bing and
Microsoft in the UK. Further thoughts about the opportunities and in depth views of the implications are
explored in the following section.
According to the PESTLE analysis, there is an opportunity for Bing due to the end of the search services
provided by Yahoo, and due to the dominant position of Google that is currently being under question
by the EU. Another opportunity is the move of people accessing the Internet from mobile devices,
where Google hasn’t made much emphasis. The alliance of Bing with Facebook provides a platform to
take advantage of the social sharing trend. Price is the same for all competing products. Importance of
exploring and taking advantage of the trend of mobile search while shopping. For the full development
of the PESTEL analysis, refer to Appendix 1.
SWOT Analysis
According to the SWOT analysis, Microsoft has a lot of strengths that it has to leverage to be able to win
in the search engine category. Although the market share of Google is dominant, the technology
landscape is changing rapidly and this could imply that there could be a new winner in a short term.
Other companies with the technological capabilities and financial strength, such as Apple and Oracle,
12

13. could easily enter this market if Google continues to be the only significant player, as online advertising
revenues continue to soar, these companies might find it an interesting business.
Therefore, the opportunity for Microsoft is now and it has to leverage all their existing assets for Bing in
terms of mobile sites, inter platform resources and enhanced technology with Facebook interaction, to
position itself in the search business and gain market share.
In summary, from the SWOT Analysis, Microsoft still has a strong brand, but very its position is very low
in the UK. The change of names in its search engine has made difficult the positioning and the current
penetration of this service is very low (around 3%). In terms of interesting opportunities, the mobile
devices trend provide great opportunity to leverage the Bing app due to an increase share in
smartphones and Internet usage on the go. People looking to search on the go for comparing products is
a major trend to be exploited. To see the entire development of the SWOT analysis, please refer to
Appendix 1.
Micro (internal) Analysis
The search industry on the global basis is quite small. There are very few competitors with a global
reach, as the needs, costs and infrastructure to support search in different countries, languages and to
develop a global reach, is not an easy task to do. The main players in this industry are Microsoft, Yahoo
and Google.
Much has been analysed in terms of the differences between search engines, with the overall conclusion
is that they perform very similarly and each one specifically has some strong points and some weak
points.
The nature of the business behind this service is paid advertising. Nevertheless, it must be said that the
usage of the search services are free for users. Therefore, the advertisers invest in placing their
13

14. messages in the search engine depending on the amount of users and specifically from their target
audience, that the specific search engine can reach.
For this reason, advertising buyers (media agencies and clients) are currently more concentrated
towards Google because of their large share of the UK searches. Google has a dominant position in the
UK of more than 90% of the searches and a brand which is also very important in the UK (Best Consumer
Superbrands in the UK, 2011)
Even though, as we mentioned, there are definitely important barriers of entry for local and smaller
players, some of the largest companies with established brands and the technology capabilities could do
it (ie. Apple, Oracle). One recent example of this, is how Apple decided to end their relationship with
Google as their maps provider, and acquired a smaller company to develop the capabilities to launch a
new maps service for all its platforms.
14

15. Market and industry definition and parameters
Microsoft is a global company that operates in a lot of different segments. For the purpose of this
project, we will only focus on Bing, Microsoft’s search engine which was once called MSN and Live.com,
and has tried to compete with the growth of Google, but still struggled to succeed as a brand.
In this industry which includes several major players, the most important companies that compete with
Microsoft in the search engine market. These brands are: Google and Yahoo. Despite Microsoft being
the longest standing company in this industry, the proposition of its search engine in the UK hasn’t been
very good, with Google now having over 90% of the search in the country.
Market dynamics and trends
The technology consumer market is very dynamic, and has changed a lot during the past ten years.
Microsoft enjoyed a market leadership in the 1980s and 1990s, but in the past decade new players have
taken a front scene and threatened the position of the brand. Specially Google has strengthened its
brand during the past five years getting to a position where it is now in the list of the ten most valuable
brands in 2011 (Interbrands, 2012).
The opportunity remains to be immense as Microsoft still owns the major portion of the market share of
personal PCs (laptops and desktops), there are still more than 50% of people in the UK (Mintel, 2012)
that don’t own a smartphone (which is great opportunity for the new windows mobile operating
system), and for the web services there is still room for a lot of growth. The Xbox has become number
two in number of consoles in the UK market and the Kinect is the most desirable accessory in the market
(Mintel, 2012). As all these different entry points of digital interaction, Bing becomes the most natural
entry service and a way to enhance the consumer experience of all the other platforms.
15

16. Competitor evaluation
As mentioned before, for the purpose of this project we will work on the analysis of the main
competitors of Microsoft in the search engine space. For this reason, the competitor analysis will focus
on Google and Yahoo. The global search engine business remains based on this three major players
except for some specific competitors in local markets in China, India, etc. But, for the purpose of this
project, which will be based on UK, only these three search engines dominate the market.
Google is the youngest brand in the group but the fastest in catching up. In the Superbrands report,
Google is the number 3 brand and way ahead of all of its competitors. In terms of global brand value,
Brandz places Google in position number 2 with a brand value of 111,498 million dollars, and Interbrand
ranks it in position 4 and with a brand value of 55,317 million and a 27% increase over last year. As
Interbrand describes it, “Google’s position as one of the world’s pre-eminent brands is growing and
nothing seems to stop it.
Finally, Yahoo was the first and most popular search engine, but it failed to keep up with the growth of
its competitors. Currently, Yahoo is more focused on its content creating strategy capabilities than in
search. Due to this business decision, in 2009 they made a deal with Microsoft to get Bing to power the
Yahoo search engine and therefore focus on the content development area. Yahoo has had a couple of
very tough years with a series of CEO stepping down and with not much stability. From 2007 to 2011,
revenues fell 37%, although they have managed to increase their profit by 93%. Perhaps, the focus of
Yahoo in their content business has lead them to compete in another market, aware of the power of
Google and Microsoft in the search engine space. Yahoo currently holds position 169 in the Superbrands
consumer report 2012.
16

17. About Microsoft
According to the Microsoft corporate website (2012) "our mission and values are to help people and
businesses throughout the world realize their full potential".
Bing is Microsoft’s search engine which was originally named Live Search, and then changed to Windows
Live Search and MSN Search. Bing was officially launched on May 28, 2009 and started working in June
of that same year. Bing currently provides search services for information, news, images, videos,
shopping and maps. Its offer is comparable to that of Google search engine.
In 2009, Bing agreed with Yahoo to power their search engine. By 2012, all search users of Yahoo will
migrate to Bing. Also, Bing is supposed to be working towards becoming the most effective search
engine with new index serving technology. Finally, Microsoft has developed an alliance with Facebook,
to provide an enhanced search experience that is supported by your friend’s recommendations and
feedback. This allows Bing to become part of an online community with more than 900 million users and
become a relevant brand for search.
According to the Microsoft’s shareholder letter in their 2011 annual review, “Bing made strong strides
this year. It's redefining the way people find information and make decisions – Bing Internet search
share grew over 30% in the United States during fiscal 2011, to 14.4 percent. It has also played a key role
in making other products better like Windows, Windows Phone and soon Xbox. […]During the fall of
2010, we completed the integration of Yahoo! search with Bing, and by the close of fiscal year 2011,
Bing and Yahoo! together powered more than one-quarter of all U.S. searches. In May, we announced a
new partnership with Facebook that enables us to deliver personalized search results that are based on
friends' opinions. This data helps people make decisions more quickly and easily based on
recommendations that are personal, more relevant, and reflect the wisdom and experience of known
and trusted friends.”
17

18. Furthermore, in terms of plans, the company establishes as their future strategic plans that “for
consumers, we're focused on Skype, Bing, Windows Live and Xbox Live. [---]Bing will have a broad
impact beyond search as we apply its understanding of the world's people and knowledge to scenarios
that help individuals accomplish a task. Imagine that instead of trying to print a boarding pass by finding
a website and typing in a confirmation code you could simply say "print my boarding pass." There are so
many opportunities to fundamentally improve how we interact with the range of devices and services by
pushing the capabilities of natural user interfaces.”
The Microsoft brand
According to Interbrand, Microsoft has position 3 in the global brand ranking with a brand value of
59,087 million dollars and a decrease of 3% compared with the previous year. The report says that “A
new partnership with Nokia is likely to shine bright light on Microsoft's mobile software, which has had a
tough history with both consumers and providers. This, along with the recent acclaim for the Xbox
Kinect, the Windows Phone Mango OS, and a tablet-ready Windows 8 designs, indicates that Microsoft
has all the pieces in place to build a strong consumer business.”
Despite having the needed innovation and good products, the competitors have done a better job in
building their brand with marketing communications. In the UK, Microsoft ranks on position 45, with
Google being 3rd, and Yahoo is number 169. In the search arena, Google dominates more than 90%
according to Comscore report as of May 2012 (See Table) and Microsoft has only a 3.86% of the market
in the UK.
Source: Digital strategy consulting (2012)
18

19. Microsoft’s Marketing Communications
Despite being one of the most valuable brands in the world, and because of its market leadership,
Microsoft has not done a good marketing communications approach in the past few years. The largest
competitors (Apple and Google) have built differentiation through their brand positioning, making it
attractive for the consumer market. Microsoft’s strategy has been very defensive (as with the campaign
responding to the Mac vs. PC of Apple), or very product oriented such as Xbox, losing the ultimate
connection of the consumers with the Microsoft brand, although almost all people have a daily
interaction with a Microsoft product. Recently, the focus of Microsoft has been in the Windows Mobile
platform, but still fails to connect the brand with the consumer overall.
The strategy with Bing has not quite been successful. This product has been renamed four times and
even with its current name, it doesn’t have a clear brand proposition. The functionalities and services
provided by both search engines Google and Bing, are almost the same, and according to several IT
reviewers, the performance and search results are very similar. For these reasons, the marketing
communications of Bing needs to build clear differentiation determining a specific segmentation and
targeting, a strong brand essence and proposition, and a straightforward proposal to the user. Bing has
to give consumers a reason to change from Google, otherwise it will be difficult to win any market share
from that 90% that Google currently has.
Marketing and brand analysis
The three technology brands unfortunately don’t have a lot of marketing tradition. Microsoft´s strength
with other products has always been through a good management of partners, channels and
developers. Google has built a brand around its functionality and with little advertising spend has
become one of the most global valuable brands. One of its signature brand icons are the doodles, which
are the images they display on their main search site every day and that is based on an event, topic, or
19

20. specific issue happening on that day. This has been a major asset for the brand within the users but it
struggles now to surprise as consumers get used to it.
As the following chart shows, there is little differentiation across all the Marketing areas in the three
companies. Clearly Yahoo! Has made their content focus their own differentiator and this allows them
to target clearly their consumers and have a very determined offering for them. The three companies
seem to have varied results in Social Media, with none of them having a significant presence in the UK.
In terms of advertising, none of the three has a structured long term brand building approach. Bing has
had more than 5 different disconnected campaigns during the past year with no consistent positioning
or message. Google has had two different campaigns oriented to specific products and issues
management previous to their cookies policy being launched. Yahoo has not developed anything major,
other than a specific campaign with Visit Britain to promote their travel sites, oriented to a specific
portal and target.
None of the three brands have a clear brand essence and positioning, but definitely Google has the
major awareness. Different sources say its because they were the first to make it all around search and
that their usability allow them to capture people, and since then people are just used to Google. With no
other portal with a specific offering, people just go to Google by default.
Finally, even though this industry has always relied upon a PR plan to multiply their releases, news and
brands, I found no structured evidence of a consistent management for the search engines product in
terms of journalists, bloggers, analysts and media in the UK.
20

21. Marketing comparison chart
Marketing Area Microsoft Google Yahoo
Search engine Yahoo
includes search for
information, news, images,
videos, maps and shopping
Search engine Google includes
Search engine Bing includes search (soon will be powered by
search for information, news,
Product for information, news, images, Bing)
images, videos, maps and
videos, maps and shopping
shopping
Now focused on content
development portals by
topics: Style, finance, etc.
Place Internet, mobile, Xbox, apps Internet, mobile, apps Internet, mobile, apps
Price Free Free Free
Promoted with PR, online forums Promoted with PR, online Promoted with PR, online
Promotion: PR
and experts forums and experts forums and experts
Rudolph campaign for Internet safety "Good
Christmas to know"
Help your Britain campaign
Promotion: for supporting charities
Visit Britain
Advertising Putting people first "Google Google+ TV ads
attack" campaign
JayZ decoded campaign
Bing is for doing
UK Facebook fans:
287,000 (in different users
Facebook fans: 9,700 UK Facebook fans: 250
ie. Yahoo Finance, Movies,
etc)
Promotion: Social Global Facebook fans: 2.6 Global Facebook fans: Global Facebook fans:
media million 9.7 million 9.4 million
Global Twitter followers: Global Twitter Global Twitter followers:
242.000 followers: 4.7 million 361,000
UK Twitter followers:
UK Twitter followers: 2.662 UK Twitter followers: 5
2,200
Promotion: Direct
No structured No structured No structured
Marketing
As we can see in the chart, the Product that Bing offers to the consumers in basically the same as the
competitors, with not much difference in terms of characteristics. In terms of place, Bing provides an
extra functionality that hasn’t been exploited: it supports a connection with Xbox and Facebook. In
terms of promotion, Bing has had several campaigns during the past year, but no clear USP or brand
positioning, Google has also had campaigns oriented to security and features. In terms of social media
outreach, we can see that Bing has had a moderate social media presence in the UK, and Google
manages their social media on a global basis, which has a most impactful reach, but less customized
local messages.
21

22. Financial Analysis
Even though Microsoft is a very profitable and a growing company, its Online Services division which
includes Bing is in serious problems. The following chart shows the current situation of this area, where
Microsoft is almost losing the same money that it’s creating. The financial information of the three
companies doesn’t have a breakdown per countries, but it is believed that this situation is consistent
with what is happening in the UK, where Google retains more than 90% of the searches of the country,
and this is reflected in their financial data. Bing, on the other hand, only has a 4% share of the UK
searches, which is a very small proportion.
According to IAB and PwC (Ad Spend study 2011) Online ad spend grows to £4.784 billion in 2011., an
increase 0f 14.4% in like to like period. Furthermore, the report highlights that it is now 27% of the
media spend budget of companies in the UK. Also, it highlights that the paid for search accounts for
57% of this investment, with a spend of £2,767.2 billion, an increase of 17.5% towards the previous
period .
If we know that the overall advertising revenue in the UK is £2,767.2 billion, and we know that Bing has
a 5.27% of the search engine market in the UK, we could infer that the current revenue for Bing is
around £145.5 million. In this regards, to be able to achieve a substantial market share increase,
Microsoft UK should do a significant investment to obtain at least an additional 10% market share,
22

23. which will take its revenues to £422.5 million. The recommendation is to develop a campaign of £50
million that will ensure high impact and deliver the expected results. This investment will correspond to
approximately 12% of the estimated total revenue.
The Ad Spend study report also highlights the prospects for growth in the online advertising business as
the following chart shows:
Source: Mintel (2012)
Microsoft Online services division financial information
Indicator 2009 2010 2011
Net revenue (millions USD) $ 2.110 $ 2.200 $ 2.528
Income (loss) -1749 -2410 -2638
Profit ratio -83% -110% -104%
Financial performance by company
When comparing the three main players we have described as relevant for these purposes, we can see
that Microsoft is definitely the largest one and has a profit ratio of 33% in the past year. If the Online
Services division was not losing the amount of money it has been, probably Microsoft’s profitability
would be much higher.
23

24. The following charts display the financial analysis of the four key players in the industry, showing how
the position of Microsoft is threatened by the other players.
As the chart shows, Yahoo has had a flat revenue growth during the past few years, while Microsoft and
Google have rocketed. Furthermore, Microsoft has been the leader in profit ratio every year from 2007-
2011, while Google has grown more in revenue (138% in the same period), while maintaining an average
profitability ratio of 25, 4%.
The following tables summarize the financial history of the three players, showing the dominance of
Microsoft and Google in the category, with a highlighted rapid growth of Google in this period, and due
to the market share they currently have, its likely to continue to grow exponentially.
Indicator 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 Growth/Average 2007-2010
Microsoft Net revenue $51.122 $60.420 $58.437 $62.484 $69.943 37%
Yahoo Net revenue $6.969 $7.208 $6.460 $6.324 $4.381 -37%
Google Net revenue $16.593 $21.796 $23.651 $29.321 $37.905 128%
Microsoft Net income $14.065 $17.681 $14.569 $18.760 $23.150 65%
Yahoo Net income $639 $419 $598 $1.231 $1.049 64%
Google Net income $4.203 $4.227 $6.520 $8.505 $9.737 132%
Microsoft Profit ratio 28% 29% 25% 30% 33% 29%
Yahoo Profit ratio 9% 6% 9% 19% 24% 14%
Google Profit ratio 25% 19% 28% 29% 26% 25%
24

25. 25

26. The brand opportunity for Microsoft
As a consequence of the analysis developed in Section A of this paper, the recommended path for
Microsoft is to develop an Integrated Marketing Communications program over the next six months that
capitalizes in the change of the consumer behavior towards mobile devices. This will allow them to
capitalize on all the strengths and opportunities, achieving them an increase in the users of the Bing
search engine, and therefore incrementing the revenues invested by advertisers in the Microsoft
Advertising services.
Strategic Context of the proposition
Analysing the strategic context of Microsoft currently, we found that based on the Ansoff matrix, Bing
should clearly aim at the consolidation phase (existing product in existing market) in the UK. This is due
to the low percentage of the UK search market, and it clearly needs to be geared towards achieiving a
larger market share in order to be able to develop other things.
Furthermore, in terms of Porter’s generic strategies, Bing should choose differentiation to achieve a
wider market scope, but differentiating from Google through a proposition of device integration and
multiple platforms available. This is especially important bearing in mind that product differentiation is
very little, and Google is already the default search brand for most people in the UK. For this reason, you
need to focus on some other assets that Bing can differentiate such as multiple platforms and mobile
apps.
Finally, it is critical that Microsoft invests largely in positioning itself as the leader in mobile search, as
there are other companies that have shown they have the capabilities and funds to enter this market.
With Apple already in the Maps business, it is not very far from the search business, and this is following
the advertisers spend in mobile which is increasing at a very high rate.
26

27. Business Objective
Microsoft has confirmed in the Stakeholder letter of their last fiscal year that they will continue to
develop Bing as a platform to grow their interaction with consumers. This may be due to the great
advertising revenue potential of this business, where it makes real sense to increase the user base, to be
able to create further advertising income, which is the backbone of this industry.
Marketing Objectives
Based on the understanding of Microsoft’s overall objectives, the market circumstances and the industry
parameters, the following objectives have been outlined based on the SMART methodology.
Increase the market share of online searches from 4.9% to 10% over a period of 8 months.
According to latest reports, Google has over 92% of the UK searches, and therefore they account
for the revenues. Nevertheless, as the technology market is usually changing, and with the new
trend of people searching in smartphones and tablets, Bing could double their market share in a
short period of time taking advantage of all the people buying new smartphones and the high
usage of apps in these devices.
Create revenue growth in the advertising business by providing an increase in the unique
monthly users of Bing from 4.9 million to 7 million.
As we mentioned at the beginning of the report, advertising revenues follow the users. There is
only so much media agencies can do to convince their clients if the user numbers and the share
of searches of Bing is not good for the advertiser’s purposes. Therefore, we believe that with the
successful implementation of this campaign, Bing could obtain 2.1 million extra users. This is
also based on the overall market share points. It has to be clear that when you talk about UK
searches, that include all the times that a search is performed, regardless if one user searches
once and another searches every day of the month. Therefore, the number of users and the
27

28. market share is different. We believe that the increase of unique users by 43% is achievable,
even though it is ambitious, it takes advantage of an opportunity not capitalized by Google and
that at the moment leaves a large enough gap to take a large piece of the market.
Create loyalty amongst new and existing users, ensuring the return of at least 25% of all new
unique visitors.
Google and other search services have never really capitalized on the retention and loyalty of
their users. This is especially important as the advertising revenues depend on them. Breaking
the type of relationship that users have with a established brand such as Google, and offering
them benefits for using another search service may be the best approach to trying to capture all
the users that just use Google because it’s the one in their top of mind, and further develop a
connection around things that are important for them.
Develop a database of 2.5 million users that can be used to develop the loyalty program.
In order to be able to achieve a successful loyalty program, you have to understand the people
who are interested in being part. This campaign promotes that people need to sign in with their
Microsoft account (ie. Hotmail, MSN, etc.). This information, together with their behavior and
analytics of the items they search will help shape people’s interests and therefore a much more
effective segmentation that could group the loyalty program subscribers into different groups.
In this way, you can more easily communicate with them with relevant messages and benefits.
Based on the estimates that currently Bing has 4.9 Million unique visitors per month, the target
of this database is only aiming to get around 50% of the current base, without considering the
extra 2 million delivered through the campaign, which should be more interested in adhering to
the program as they are the target of the communications.
28

29. The role of Integrated Marketing Communications in this campaign
According to Shimp (2010, p.30) “The primary forms of marketing communications include traditional
mass media advertising (TV, magazines, etc.); online advertising (Web sites, opt-in e-mail messages, text
messaging, etc.); sales promotions (samples, coupons, rebates, premium items, etc.); store signage and
point-of-purchase communications; direct-mail literature; public relations and publicity releases;
sponsorships of events and causes; presentations by salespeople; and various collateral forms of
communication devices.”
The mix of these tools has been largely discussed over the past decades towards B2B and B2C
organisations, and mass media advertising has been the predominant tool in terms of investment and
usage. Nevertheless, the last decade has brought a series of changes in the availability and nature of
media, driving a media explosion. As Belch (2003, p.2) explains, “in today's world there are a myriad of
media outlets—print, radio, cable and satellite TV, and the Internet—competing for consumers'
attention. Marketers are looking beyond the traditional media to find new and better ways to
communicate with their customers. They no longer accept on faith the value of conventional advertising
placed in traditional media.”
Also, the pressure of the circumstances of the economy during the past years have forced Marketing
Communications managers to find “new ways to communicate, but are having to do so on reduced
budgets and they must account for their communication spend” (Fill, 2009)
Furthermore, due to the large media diversification and access, the consumer is being bombarded with
advertising messages and information, making it more difficult to gather its attention. For this reason,
Shimp (2010, p-9) states that “IMC is a goal worth pursuing because using multiple communication tools
in conjunction with one another can produce greater results than tools used individually and in an
29

30. uncoordinated fashion”. And it is not only because of the media diversification and the disperse
attention of consumers, but also because it creates synergy and increases results.
The Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) approach recognizes that there is much more than the
product or the service. “Corporate branding is now recognised as an integral part of the overall
communication effort.” (Fill, p.24) The consumer is no longer only concerned about what the product is
and does for him, but also about who the producer is and what it stands for. Furthermore, the global
market has put competitors from all over the world at the reach of any consumer, making easy to
compare and decide. This is where Microsoft can capitalize on having a brand that is very close to the
consumers and their families, and with important ambassadors in the world like Bill Gates.
As a result, Fill (2009, p.24) says that this all “leads to a new form and role for marketing
communications and a vision that an organisation's entire marketing communications should be
planned, coherent and consistent. This word consistency applies to internal policies and strategies, to
messages to and from internal and external stakeholders, consistency with the values of their customers
and with the relationships they forge with key suppliers and distributors.”
Taking this into consideration, Shimp (2009, p.30) states that “IMC is a communications process that
entails the planning, creation, integration, and implementation of diverse forms of marcom
(advertisements, sales promotions, publicity releases, events, etc.) that are delivered over time to a
brand's targeted customers and prospects. The goal of IMC is ultimately to influence or directly affect
the behavior of the targeted audience. IMC considers all touch points, or sources of contact, that a
customer/prospect has with the brand as potential delivery channels for messages and makes use of all
communications methods that are relevant to customers/prospects. IMC requires that all of a brand's
communication media deliver a consistent message. The IMC process further necessitates that the
customer/prospect is the starting point for determining the types of messages and media that will serve
best to inform, persuade, and induce action.”
30

31. Nevertheless, it is not only a communication issue. Regarding this, Belch (2003, p.16) says that
“however, the promotional program must be part of a viable marketing strategy and be coordinated
with other marketing activities. A firm can spend large sums on advertising or sales promotion, but it
stands little chance of success if the product is of poor quality, is priced improperly, or does not have
adequate distribution to consumers. Marketers have long recognized the importance of combining the
elements of the marketing mix into a cohesive marketing strategy.”
The best current approach for marketers and companies is to develop IMC programs, Belch (2003, p.17)
says that “Consumers' perceptions of a company and/or its various brands are a synthesis of the bundle
of messages they receive or contacts they have, such as media advertisements, price, package design,
direct-marketing efforts, publicity, sales promotions, websites, point-of-purchase displays, and even the
type of store where a product or service is sold. The integrated marketing communications approach
seeks to have all.”
Furthermore, Belch (2003) says that there are five steps to developing effective IMC programs, which
include understanding and determining who the customer or prospect is; develop multiple relevant
contacts or touch points; manage all your communications through a “single voice”; focus on developing
relationships with the consumers; and finally seek to have a direct effect on behavior.
In the current context, as Belch (2003, p.18) explains “Consumers not only passively receive Marcom
messages, but now they are active participants in creating messages via consumer-generated media
such as those noted immediately above [Internet, social media, etc.].” Besides this, “Television and radio
programs and magazine and newspaper pages (collectively, the mass media) are not always the most
engaging contexts in which to place marketing messages.” And finally, he also explains that “it is widely
acknowledged that marketing communications are governed by a key reality: The consumer increasingly
wants to be in control! Marcom practitioners must accept the fact that marketing communications must
31

32. be consumer-centric interactivity is changing the way organisations choose to communicate with target
audiences and is also changing the way audiences choose to interact with brands.”
But this is not only a challenge for marketers, it is also an opportunity. As Fill (2009, p.42) adds,
“consumers are now willing, motivated and able to contribute to marketing communications”. This is a
major reason why IMC is a determining factor in the current landscape, as the engagement of the
consumers through the integration of different tools, may achieve a higher involvement and their
relationship with the brand, leading to recommendation, social sharing, etc.
The opportunities for IMC are stronger now as “many marketing communicators now realize that
communication outlets other than the mass media often better serve the needs of their brands.”
(Shimp, 2010, p.32). Furthermore, the new tools allow for “interactivity [which] means that consumers
are devising and delivering content through the messages they create.” (Fill, 2009, p.42) But even more
critical, the IMC approach allows “adaptation by marketers to a changing environment, particularly with
respect to consumers, technology, and media.”
In the current economic, technological and social landscape, “the objective is to contact customers and
prospects effectively using touch points that reach them where, when, and how they wish to be
contacted. […] Mass media advertising is not always the most effective or cost-efficient avenue for
accomplishing this objective.” (Shimp, 2009, p.32) According to Fill (2009, p.32), all these trends have
combined and as a result it means that “the marketing communication mix has evolved to the point that
it can be said to consist of three main elements: tools, media and messages.”
Regarding the new reality for marketer, Belch (2003) says that there are a series of trends that are
affecting the way IMC works, including a major emphasis in consumer and trade sales promotions; less
use of mass media because of high costs and lack of effectiveness; the use of more targeted tools like
event marketing, sponsorships, direct main, and Internet as part of their IMC mix; an increasing power
of retailers pressing a major investment in large promotional fees; technology tracking tools that allow
32

33. retailers to analyse the behavior of each brand’s promotions; and the increasing use of very complete
consumers databases that allow further understanding of the target audiences.
Moreover, Fill (2009, p.42) says that “the move to integrated marketing communications also reflects an
adaptation by marketers to a changing environment, particularly with respect to consumers, technology,
and media. Major changes have occurred among consumers with respect to demographics, lifestyles,
media use, and buying and shopping patterns.”
As a background to all the IMC framework, Fill (2009, p.43) describes it as “a basic level marketing
communications, or promotion as it was originally known, is used to communicate elements of an
organisation's offering to a target audience. […] This offer might refer to a product, a service or the
organisation itself as it tries to build its reputation.”
As Fill (2009, p.44) explains, “planned marketing communications incorporates three key elements:
tools, media and messages. The main communication tools are advertising, sales promotion, public
relations, direct marketing, personal selling and added-value approaches such as sponsorship. Messages
can be primarily informative or emotional but are usually a subtle blend of both dimensions reflecting
the preferences and needs of the target audience. To help get these messages through to their
33

34. audiences, organisations use two main types of media. One refers to traditional media such as print and
broadcast, cinema and outdoor. The other refers to the increasing use of digital media and the Internet
in particular, in order to listen to and converse with their audiences.”
With the consumer as the center of the model, according to Belch (2003, p.82) “a successful IMC
program requires that marketers find the right combination of communication tools and techniques,
define their role and the extent to which they can or should be used, and coordinate their use. […] In
developing an integrated marketing communications strategy, a company combines the promotional-
mix elements, balancing the strengths and weaknesses of each, to produce an effective promotional
campaign. Promotional management involves coordinating the promotional-mix elements to develop a
controlled, integrated program of effective marketing communications.” Furthermore, Shimp (2009,
p.35) says that “IMC practitioners need to be receptive to using all forms of touch points, or contacts, as
potential message delivery channels, […and] the challenge and related opportunity are to select those
communication tools that are best at accomplishing the specific objective that has been established for
the brand at a particular point in time.”
The IMC approach reinforces the element of understanding the consumers and stakeholders of the
brand and organisation to plan integrated strategies. All of this is achieved through a comprehensive
and thorough analysis that includes an internal analysis (products, services, firm), capabilities and
abilities to implement promotion programs, the current image of the firm in the market, relative
strengths and weaknesses of the products or service (advantages, disadvantages, USP, packaging, price,
etc.); and an external analysis, that includes profile of the customers, consumer attitudes and
behaviours, market segments, positioning strategies and competitors. (Belch, 2003)
For these reasons, the recommended approach for Microsoft’s campaign for Bing is an Integrated
Marketing Communications Plan. This has proven to be a very effective model in terms of managing the
environment (understanding, controlling, monitoring and planning for it), increasing the impact (through
34

35. a coordinated approach to tools, messages and effective targeting based on understanding the
consumers) and maximizing the results for companies and brands (creating a single positioning to all
stakeholders, making efficient investment of resources and achieving business goals).
35

36. Marketing Communications Objectives
For achieving the goal of increasing the market share and user base of Bing in the UK, we will develop an
integrated marketing communications plan that will achieve a consistent and high impact brand
proposition for the consumers in the UK, furthermore, it will allow to effectively develop a targeting
strategy that allows Bing to concentrate in segments of the market and be more successful. This plan
should also communicate the new capabilities of Bing and increase usage on different platforms,
specifically on mobile devices and it should engage with the target audience to create a brand
experience and acquire new users.
Based on the Marketing objectives, we have determined five key SMART objectives that will measure
the effectiveness of the integrated campaign tools:
1. Achieve 1 million downloads of the Bing app in different devices in the period from September
to December 2012. The aim of this objective is to measure the effectiveness of the advertising
campaign, the digital campaign and the overall experience with the messaging platform.
2. Achieve 1 million user Likes in Facebook of the Bing UK page in the period from September to
December 2012. This objective will allow measuring the user engagement and the approach to
developing loyalty within the target reached in the campaign.
3. Obtain 5 million monthly additional searches in Bing in the period from September to December
2012. This is the key objective of this campaign as we are aiming to increase market share in UK
searches. The results achieved in this specific objective should reflect the effectiveness of
managing an integrated approach of the Marketing Communication channels and capitalizing on
the touchpoints.
36

37. 4. Ensure the return of 700,000 of the new unique visitors achieved through the campaign, from
September to December 2012. This specific objective relates to how much are we able to deliver
on the loyalty program and ensure that people keep interested and have the desired behavior.
5. Increase the usage of Bing across all its platforms in 10% of the overall unique monthly visitors
(700,000). This objective related to having a high loyalty with at least 70,000 unique users that
will be part of the target and that become the platform to get new users engaged. This will
ensure measurement on the engagement of this group, especially measuring the results of the
Facebook private group for Club Bing users only.
37

38. Understanding the target audience and background
After a deep research in consumer behavior based on secondary sources, we have selected to focus on
the group of Tech Enthusiasts in the age group of people in all the UK from 20-34 as they are the ones
who have greater ownership of mobiles, spend more time online and have the profile that we want to
make this campaign more successful. Also, this group has one important characteristic and is that they
become preachers of new technology amongst their friends and family, being one key element of
further results with this campaign.
Based on this research, we have decided to focus on the segment called the Tech Enthusiasts, which
Mintel says they “like to keep up with technology and – as younger, wealthier consumers – are able to
purchase on impulse. These consumers will be looking to own high-end, innovative products which they
consider worth the price. Enthusiasts use the Internet for a combination of functional and
entertainment purposes, but engage with their products more, reflecting their enjoyment of exploring
the devices they own to the full.”
Furthermore, Tech Enthusiasts “like to keep up with technology and – as younger, wealthier consumers
– are able to purchase on impulse. These consumers will be looking to own high-end, innovative
products which they consider worth the price. Enthusiasts use the Internet for a combination of
functional and entertainment purposes, but engage with their products more, reflecting their enjoyment
of exploring the devices they own to the full.”
To see further information about segments, the research done to support this choice and some other
market statistics, please refer to Appendix 2.
38

39. Market size
In terms of market size, we have based on the previous age definition to quantify the amount of people
in this group. Nevertheless, the even though this gives a reference number, the target market definition
is more focused on lifestyle and approach to technology products as the previous section and Appendix
2 explain.
For the purposed of quantification of the segment, we have consulted the latest data available.
According to the statistics of the ONS (2012), there were 12.5 million people in the segment of 20-34
across Great Britain in 2011 (Refer to attached table). This will be our overall target audience.
Nevertheless, as the Mintel (2012) report states, the Tech Enthusiasts represent around 39% of the UK
population, which is around 23 million people. For the purposes of this campaign, we have decided to
take an average of both, considering that even though the main target is 20-34, we are basing our
campaign around a message that is directed to this segment, but that could appeal to people of other
ages that belong to the Tech Enthusiasts group.
Population projections by the Office for National Statistics
Great Britain
PERSONS, thousands
Projected populations at mid-years by age last birthday in five-year age groups
Ages 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018
———— ———— ———— ———— ———— ———— ———— ———— ———— ————
0- 4 3.734 3.810 3.881 3.932 3.990 4.037 4.068 4.079 4.074
5- 9 3.334 3.401 3.491 3.594 3.669 3.747 3.822 3.893 3.943
10-14 3.446 3.389 3.326 3.301 3.310 3.348 3.415 3.504 3.606
15-19 3.789 3.715 3.665 3.620 3.572 3.524 3.466 3.402 3.376
20-24 4.180 4.228 4.260 4.244 4.224 4.169 4.094 4.037 3.986
25-29 4.122 4.211 4.326 4.439 4.509 4.554 4.601 4.623 4.598
30-34 3.774 3.869 3.971 4.079 4.179 4.275 4.363 4.470 4.578
35-39 4.080 3.948 3.823 3.753 3.760 3.821 3.913 4.011 4.115
40-44 4.503 4.461 4.394 4.306 4.188 4.081 3.949 3.822 3.750
45-49 4.438 4.502 4.548 4.549 4.528 4.471 4.429 4.362 4.274
50-54 3.868 3.978 4.083 4.186 4.293 4.397 4.460 4.506 4.507
55-59 3.481 3.498 3.547 3.620 3.693 3.784 3.893 3.998 4.100
60-64 3.670 3.673 3.520 3.413 3.372 3.351 3.369 3.418 3.490
65-69 2.852 2.975 3.215 3.362 3.432 3.469 3.472 3.330 3.230
70-74 2.404 2.397 2.412 2.470 2.546 2.633 2.751 2.979 3.120
75-79 1.951 1.969 1.998 2.039 2.082 2.110 2.110 2.129 2.188
80-84 1.456 1.480 1.503 1.525 1.540 1.562 1.588 1.622 1.665
85-89 914 913 921 933 953 979 1.009 1.036 1.064
90-94 358 394 422 443 458 466 473 485 498
95-99 97 100 101 101 107 120 137 149 157
100 & over 12 13 14 15 17 18 19 20 21
Source: Office of National Statistics
39

40. In summary, we will take a total market size which is an average of age and other characteristics
associated to the Tech Enthusiast group. Therefore, the total market size is of 17.75 million people
across all the UK.
40

41. Target market
As we explained, we will be focusing on the age range from 20-34 from all Great Britain. In terms of
social class, we will be oriented to ABC1, males and females. According to statistics, of this group 77%
have a smartphone already.
Consumer profiles
According to the information introduced previously, we will focus on Tech Enthusiasts on this group of
20-34. These are people with a medium to high economic income, they are mostly employed, they
already have a smartphone and tablet (or are planning to buy one soon), and some have a gaming
console and access the Internet across different platforms.
Most of this group is people that don’t have much time and have busy lives, they use public transport
mostly on a daily basis to go to work and they live on the go. For this reason, they search and access web
on the go, and also uses their smartphone to access coupons, discounts and compares prices.
This group tends to spend a lot of time in social media and their main shopping activities are for clothes,
electronics and food. In terms of Mosaic groups, we will focus specifically Group O: Liberal Opinions and
Group H: New Homemakers. For ACORN classification, we will focus on Wealthy achievers (Flourishing
families), Urban prosperity (Prosperous Professionals, Educated urbanities and Aspiring singles) and in
Comfortably off (Starting out, Secure Families). For more information about these classifications, please
refer to Appendix 2.
Branding issues
In terms of brand, Bing has not had a very clear USP and positioning. Furthermore, the search engine has
had three names during the past twelve years: Live Search, Windows Live Search, and MSN Search. The
name Bing was introduced by Microsoft in 2009 with a very important brand campaign mostly in the US.
41

42. This was aimed at getting better results in the overall market share of search. Even though the campaign
in the US was successful and the market share in that country is much better, the brand in the UK has
not had any clear communications platform. As mentioned in Section A, they have had several
campaigns during the past year but with no clear message or proposition for the consumer.
Brand aura personality, essence, strength
The current brand wheel for Bing is just around being a search engine. There is no clear personality as
they haven’t had a consistent campaign and the benefits and values are not clearly stated.
The only difference current of Bing with Google is that they have a different daily image as a background
in their site. They try to make some differentiation with this, but with no clear meaning behind it.
In terms of the new proposed brand essence: Search anything, anywhere. In terms of Benefits we want
to communicate that Bing is useful, easy, fast, and reliable. Regarding Attributes, we want to say that it
is your search engine that can be used on the go, on mobile and in multiple devices. We also want to say
that it is an enhanced search with social interaction with Facebook. The Values that we want to have are
that Bing makes you feel more efficient (because you can use it on the go), it fits your needs and
supports your lifestyle. Finally, in terms of Personality, we want to communicate that Bing is smart,
efficient, active, modern and trendy.
Positioning changes proposed and consumer implications
The challenge with this integrated marketing communications plan is to establish a clear positioning
around Bing. As we saw in previous sections, this doesn’t have a clear USP, so we propose that the new
positioning is based around the following concepts.
The first concept we want to communicate is that Bing is the best search engine for mobile, trying to
promote the use of the mobile app everywhere. The second positioning message is that Bing gets more
42

43. intelligent and it improves your search results when you use it for searching across all your devices: PC,
tablet, smartphone (anywhere).
To make this effective, as we saw in the IMC section, the consumer needs to experience the new brand
through different touch points. This will require a campaign that aims at reducing the barriers of
services, specifically at Tangibility and Inseparability.
Finally, we want to create a loyalty program that rewards behaviours of users in the short, mid and long
term, so that we ensure that users return and keep using Bing services across platforms and as their
permanent search engine.
43

44. The Campaign Delivery Recommendations summary of agency proposals
The insight
Based on the research we have developed about the consumer profiles, lifestyle trends and activities,
we have identified a series of different things that need to be explored as the macro concept for this
campaign. The following section summarizes some of these trends and will analyse their importance in
the campaign development. All of these issues will be used as insights to input into the messaging,
choice of media and strategy, in order to capitalize on the opportunity that lies in the market for
Microsoft.
A summary of the trends
According to Mintel (2012) the smartphone industry is to continue growing over the next months,
achieving a high penetration across all ages in the UK. A high amount of users plan to upgrade in this
period. Furthermore, the report explains that increasingly, users are using their smartphone to surf the
web and it’s quickly catching up with the Internet access in traditional devices like PCs.
But this report also explains that users are using different devices to access the Internet searches, for
different moments, places and purposes. Also, the availability of different devices has driven users to
use more the Internet than before. Furthermore, the Mintel consumer research says that “the three
most developed online activities are checking emails (99%), using a search engine (95%), and shopping
online (89%).”
In addition to this, the UKOM (2012) says that "More than four in ten smartphone users (42%) agree
with the statement: “my phone is more important to me for accessing the Internet than any other
device”. This demonstrates the increasing importance that smartphones are gaining in the Internet
access for people.
44

45. In terms of web properties, according to comScore (Mintel, 2012), “Google remains the top web
property with 91% of UK Internet users visiting websites operated by Google during the month of April
2012. In March 2012, Google, which includes the likes of YouTube, gained an audience reach of 92%.”
On the other hand, “the second most visited web property is Microsoft, which includes the search
engine Bing, MSN and email client Hotmail. Microsoft saw 86% of UK Internet users visit in April 2012, a
slight fall of 3 percentage points compared to March 2012.”
Nevertheless, Bing is the less popular on this property, being the MSN portal and Hotmail the most
relevant to the public. According to the UKOM (2012) report, “the three most popular search brands in
the UK are Google, Yahoo! and Microsoft. However, each of these brands offers a range of services
besides search, including web-based email, maps, news, instant messaging, social networking, and
communities for sharing pictures, videos and music. […]For Microsoft, Windows Live Hotmail (12.5
million unique visitors per month), Windows Live Messenger (11.4 million) and the MSN homepage (6.8
million) are all more popular than Bing Web (4.9 million). Again, Bing Web is embedded within the MSN
Homepage. In contrast, Google Search is, by a considerable margin, the most popular of Google’s search,
email and reference services (31.2 million unique visitors per month), and this popularity extends to
other search-based services such as Google Maps (17.1 million) and Google Image Search (12.2 million).”
Furthermore, according to the facts shown above, smartphones are becoming one of the most
important ways to access and consume content for the Internet. Nevertheless, as the Mintel report
explains “the constant development of mobile applications and mobile platforms helps to make other
functions of phones become more interesting or easier to use. For example, the mobile application
Instagram, which allows users to take a picture, choose a filter and then share it on social networks, has
just been released on the Android platform in addition to iOS. After a day on Google Play, the app had
been downloaded 1 million times and reached 10 million downloads after 22 days. [And] As more
websites and browsers become optimised for mobile, the amount of surfing the web on mobile devices
45

46. will naturally increase, while new, more powerful devices with larger screens will also encourage more
web browsing.”
In conclusion, there are four key trends to be capitalized: the rise of smartphone penetration, the use of
the smartphone as a device to access the Internet, the increase of use of multiple devices to access the
Internet (including tablets and video game consoles) and the high proportion of users that already use
Microsoft sites and services, as well as services like Skype, Yahoo and Facebook (search powered by
Bing). For further information about this trends, please refer to Appendix 3.
Implications for this campaign
We want to build a campaign that reflects the characteristics of the consumer behavior, but that also
capitalizes on the changes that are happening in the environment. For that reason, we will summarize
the implications of these trends for the Bing strategy.
Over the next six months, a significant amount of people will acquire a smartphone. With current
penetration around 50%, this will probably peak by the end of 2012 with a total of around 70%. As the
statistics show, search is now done on the go more than ever before, and with the new wifi access in all
the tube stations of central London, this will continue to increase.
Furthermore, another trend suggests that people access the Internet across different devices. This
means that on the go they search, but they also search at home, in their tablet, in their laptop, and even
in Xbox. Taking into consideration that one of the strengths of Bing is the multiple devices it can work
on, this is something really important to capitalize on. Another thing that becomes a really important
selling point is that the Bing search engine becomes better as people use it more. For this to happen,
they have to sign in, and the search engine captures data across all your devices.
The third trend to capitalize on is the high penetration of the Microsoft websites and their traffic in the
UK. Even though Bing powers the search of these pages and the ones for Yahoo, which is a great
46

47. advantage. Bing also powers the search engine for Facebook. Nevertheless, people don’t use Bing as
much or even realize about this. For this reason, we are proposing to develop a more prominent
branding across these sites.
Finally, we consider that due to the large user base and engagement of people in the UK with Facebook,
and considering that Bing is their search engine, we need to capitalize on this and develop a massive
campaign where Facebook is the central point of interaction.
47

48. Strategic approach
The strategy for this campaign is to focus on the mobile component of Bing and its functionality across
different platforms. The center of all the communication will be to show how the Bing apps allow you to
search on the go, easier, better and it connects across all your platforms.
This concept of mobility, will be developed across all the different IMC channels, allowing to build an
experience for the user and obtain the awareness required to achieve the objectives.
With a clear communications platform around the creative concept “Bing, your search mate on the go”
we aim to relate to each person specifically, it reflects that they are usually on the go, and the word
mate (which is used in all the British context to talk about friends) gives it a local flavor and relates
closely with each individual, reflecting the message that friends learn more about you as you interact
with them. The different IMC channels will maximize the impact through the different approaches to the
same message.
The following section will outline the strategy in each of the IMC channels and how it matches the entire
campaign.
48

49. Public relations Strategy and Tactics
In terms of public relations, we will have a combined approach through two different campaigns that
work to a single objective: Position Bing as mobile search engine and as a Microsoft product. This
combined approach will achieve a connection in the minds of the consumers, positioning Bing as a
leading product, but also supporting it by the corporation behind it, which has a lot of good brand
assets.
In Corporate PR, we propose to develop a campaign to promote some of the significant inputs from
Microsoft in the global market and in the UK. This will be developed around the following activities:
Interviews of the UK CEO of Microsoft talking about the prospects of the company, outlook,
number of people working for the company in the UK, revenue, social responsibility programs,
etc.
A series of articles highlighting the role and works of Bill Gates, his foundation, his vision of the
world, etc.
Profiles of UK Microsoft employees that have been involved in different important projects in
the company.
Articles summarizing the views of Microsoft of the future and how the company is working to
improve the lives of humanity.
In terms of Product PR, we are proposing in develop a strategy very much based around the
activities of the campaign. The PR campaign will aim to support the general message of mobility and
cross platforms. The following activities are planned to support this:
Launch event for the campaign for the media and important stakeholders. In this event, the
Microsoft UK CEO will demonstrate the Bing app, how it works across platforms and will also
launch the public searchboards.
49

50. Press releases will be issued talking about the functionalities of the Bing search app, the
cross platform connection, the public search boards, and finally the rewards program.
We will engage with a series of identified bloggers in the UK to get them to try the apps and
share their experiences. Different profiles of bloggers will be selected so we show the
versatility of the app: from fashion, to city activities, specific hobbies, etc.
50

51. Advertising strategy
Our advertising strategy will be focused on touching points of people on the go. Taking into
consideration that people from the Tech Enthusiasts are always on the go, and we want to have an
impact of the activities they develop whilst this happens, one of the key things is to understand key
touchpoints throughout the day. Also, the campaign focuses on reaching the largest amount of people
while they are around their cities, so the choice of media is based more on having the numbers of
readers from the target audience, to capitalizing in the behavior of people on the move in their everyday
lives.
The following chart from IPA touchpoints technology shows that our target audience is particularly
“doing nothing specific” during the early morning and at the end of working hours. This may probably be
the time when people are actually commuting.
Furthermore, we can see that they are usually in shopping mode at the end of the working day, which is
a great opportunity to exploit in terms of offering the search app which is a tool to find what they want.
The campaign concept, as explained before will be around “Bing, your search mate on the go” will be
the overarching theme throughout the three months of the campaign. Nevertheless, we have several
51

52. messages we want to communicate and we believe they can give dynamism to the campaign flow during
this period.
This campaign is based on the new brand wheel that we have created for Bing, differentiating it from
the competitors and having a clear USP.
We will maintain a look and feel that will give consistency across the campaign so people relate the
different messages, but we will evolve the message across the span of the campaign. The following
pieces show some examples of the print and static advertising concept. The advertising has very
straightforward messages, the Bing logo on a black background, and the icons of a smartphone and a
tablet, so people associate Bing with mobile platforms.
Based on all the insights and research about the mobile trends, the following messages have been
developed. These are thought as ways to cut-through and challenge users to take an action. They
provide a question to the everyday activities of the Tech Enthusiasts group and provides an answer
given by Bing.
52

53. The first ad (above, left) asks the user to why they keep on using their mobile browser while there are
now apps for almost everything. One example of this is that people now use the Facebook app to access
their account in smartphones and just a small proportion uses the mobile site. For this reason, the copy
appeals to question something that users may have not thought about but has a point. Also, it puts the
app as a center point of the messaging, which is something we have as a KPI in the campaign and it is
our major asset.
The second version of the ad (top right), also uses the question approach but in this case we want to
communicate that the Bing search gets better and understand the user more as they use it. This aims to
start creating a relationship with the user and supporting the concept of “mate”, which is an important
part of the overall campaign message.
53