Questionnaire investigating potential for internet service expansion in local communities

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Questionnaire to Investigate the Potential of Launching Internet Services in Your Local Area

In our highly global and technologically advanced business environment, it is no longer acceptable to initiate business ventures in a 'business as usual' manner. The bar keeps getting raised and new marketing expectations and standards are the result. Today, the ISP market is now considered a middle aged entity in the product life cycle and but growth potential in this area is still on the rise. One might think that maintaining existing customers provides a substantial income for an organization, but the key is that new markets must be found and they must be entered in a seamless and efficient manner. The world has changed and will continue to change and shareholders have an expectation of continued steady growth. To meet this growth, organizations like Cyberware will have to continuously reinvent themselves in order to capture new and future business opportunities.

The essay therefore attempts to present a review of Cyberware, a U.S. based Internet service provider's creation of a marketing questionnaire for developing new markets. The underlying objective therefore is to design a questionnaire to investigate the potential for launching Internet services in a local area. The report discusses the approach that would be taken in regard to the New York area with the research for the local geographic area considering a sampling and a structural design for the questionnaire and the nature of the questions that would need to be asked. The goal is to present a well reasoned argument that can viably explain the reasons behind the approach and the questions.

Questionnaire:

I. What are Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT Analysis) for Cyberware?

The initial aspects of the questionnaire would deal directly with the company. For example, a thorough SWOT analysis would ascertain the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats for Cyberware. Any sound marketing plan entails a look at the company first because certain strengths and weaknesses can be used to the marketers advantage while creating the approach to land new customers. Once the complete company analysis has been completed, we can then focus on how to apply those Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats to the basic 4 P's of marketing:

Product

Price

Placement

Promotion

II. How do we apply the 4 P's?

Success for any business is a matter of attracting and retaining customers. "It is well recognized that a key issue in gaining brand awareness, trial, and subsequent loyalty is to reflect deep-seated values in advertising and augmented product offerings. When marketers address consumer values, target consumers sense that the product's purpose is to benefit their individual lives." (Durgee, O'Connor, and Veryzer)

Because our product and services are not yet world renowned in the same way that our competitors such as America Online are known, we need to find where and when we can literally be considered to beat the competition in head to head product strategies. This approach has been successful in many other markets throughout the nation where new online services are introduced into local markets and should continue to prove successful in this new market.

Pricing will be dictated by acceptance and marketing strategies. The aim of product pricing is to meet profitability objectives, to gain market share, and to make Cyberware an acceptable alternative for current ISP's for the everyday life of all local citizens. "Brands and products can offer new benefits and play new roles in peoples' lives if marketers know how to identify and track key values, understand their impact on consumption behavior, and apply them to new products and advertising." (Durgee, O'Connor, and Veryzer)

Placement however, will be a much more targeted approach. Placement may affect pricing but the main objective will be to gain market share in the local areas and advertise the success of these areas to wider areas over time. Through implementation of this plan, the immediate local can be saturated through a duel marketing approach of word of mouth from new subscribers to more distant markets which will be coordinated through a mass media approach. In regard to promotion, the local area has experienced some periods of concern due to the 2001 terrorist attacks but we will not use a fear approach that is related those horrific events at any cost. Cyberware should be considered a modern and sophisticated organization because of the result of the mass media marketing campaign that will position us well for promoting our services and products.

III. How computer literate is the area population?

We will need census data as of January 2005. The local area has been reported as having a total population count that will be a key in our demographic studies. WE will need to acquire the growth rate and an estimated birth rate per every 1,000 members of the population. WE will need a demographic of the death rate per 1,000 members of the population and also a normal distribution of the infant mortality rate such as live births and a life expectancy from birth for both males and females. These figures will help us decipher our future growth potential from existing population census figures.

Obviously the key statistic about the area will the number of potential internet users. The national, state and local age structure can also assist in this area. Knowing the percentages of area's population between the ages of 15-64 and their educational levels and hobbies will all play a vital role in understanding our potential audience. We are aiming for an overall population that is young and computer literate.

IV. What are the economic statistics and activities?

The area has been designated a highly literate grouping with a local per capita purchasing power that is well above the rest of the nation. Employment is benefited in this area because of it being rich in both opportunities and natural resources. The highly literate population has a strong trend towards consumerism and the local agricultural sector and urban area all are diversified industrial bases.

Over the course of the past twenty years or so, the area has not suffered from any cyclic economic problems stemming from issues like inflation, debt, capital flight, urban sprawl of high local and state governmental budget deficits. The area has in fact excelled from record exports from the manufacturing areas that have fueled the local economic growth and has reduced unemployment figures.

Unemployment in the area has fallen in direct proportion to the increased output for the past four years. It is also important to get a feel for the national economic outlook. The nation has raised its real GDP growth rate at an annual of near two and half percent and although there are concerns with the trade imbalance, oil import ratios, social security and healthcare, the national economy seems to be doing well enough to not raise risk concerns.

The local area in fact has strong purchasing power parity when compared to the rest of the nation and has a mixed blessing of the bulk of its citizens being well over the poverty line. Thus, with a labor force that is strong and household income and consumption also strong, this market would initially appear to be ideal.

Ethnicity is diverse. WE will require a sound breakdown of both nationalities and religious factions in the area so that direct marketing can address individual needs.

V. Internet System and infrastructure

High speed internet or DSL is where the future is for Cyberware. "Cable companies, which market broadband services over cable modems, currently have more than half the market for broadband service. About 5.1 million U.S. consumers subscribe to broadband service, according to Cahner's in-Stat Group, a technology research firm in Scottsdale, Ariz. While 3.1 million of those have signed up for broadband service from cable companies, the remaining 2 million have signed up through phone companies marketing the service via digital subscriber lines. About 48 million households - or 47% of all households - subscribe to slower dial-up service." (Glanz, "Internet speedup may favor the Bells")

It will be crucial for Cyberware to become the largest local ISP in the area and the migration into the area will need to go smoothly. Cyberware does not want to go through what other organizations that have come into areas and not provided what was promised. An example is the debacle suffered by SBC. "DSL has faced one hurdle in attracting new business: Subscriber lines often are incompatible with older copper phone lines, making proper conversion costly and time-consuming. Consumers have complained loudly. Websites bashing DSL providers abound on the Internet, often targeting large companies such as SBC (formerly Southwestern Bell Communications) and Verizon." (Lemke)

Also, since high speed internet access seems to be the new approach to obtaining and maintaining a strong customer base, it may be a good idea to partner with some or all of the local providers. That way Cyberware may be able to utilize existing companies Internet marketing to promote its own area introduction and getting the word out. Focusing on the marketing and messaging that yields the highest returns for Cyberware may be in an approach that uses those companies already established in the areas such as the cable networks, the network of local Bells and other providers.

By maximizing these relationships, Cyberware can forge new and stronger customer relationships. In other words, Cyberware as an ISP can use the internet in other interesting ways in their attempt to maintain customer relations. Partnering with internet related organizations and/or other companies working to make the internet a powerful new business tool is one marketing approach that is sure to work for the company. "In September 1998, for instance, Dell announced its ConnectDirect (SM), a wide-ranging technology initiative to provide Dell customers with easy, fast and personalized access to the Internet. The initiative included agreements with at&T World Net Service, Excite, Inc., and SBC Communications, Inc. To provide services to Dell customers." (Steinbock)

VI. Is the area media strong?

The local area has a very modern telecommunications and media market system and infrastructure. There is a great deal of national investment incorporated into the systems so they will offer a great many technologically advanced opportunities for Cyberware including increased levels of bandwidth and the fact that over ninety five percent of the homes are already telephone, satellite of cable ready.

The area encouraged the growth of modern telecommunication technology; fiber-optic cable trunk lines have been installed between all major areas in the community and the major networks are entirely digital and the available telephone service is at a point where it is better than the majority of the country. The area also has several local television broadcast systems and internet use is very strong. The area's radio stations are mostly unlicensed but the licensee stations attract well over ninety percent of the listening audience.

VII. What are some competitive concerns and who is the competition?

A thorough analysis of the existing competitive strengths and weaknesses will be needed. Through a simple survey process, we could attain the existing service providers and their strengths and weaknesses in the opinions of the consumers. For example, similar to the Free ISP survey listed below, we would also need the basic competitive scenario data:

ISP New Jersey - Area Code 201

City

ISP

Cost

Rating

Platform

Bayonne mFire

Cheap

SBC Yahoo

Free Trial

Earthlink

Cheap

NetZero Platinum

Cheap

AOL

Free Trial

Bluelight

Cheap

Juno

Free

NetZero

Free

Cliffside mFire

Cheap

Earthlink

Cheap

Bluelight

Cheap (All Free ISP, 2005)

VIII. What are some innovative marketing approaches?

Any approach to increase the level of new customers must be presented in such a way that it does not turn off existing clientele. The acquisition strategy of choice for new customers therefore should be a combination of 'Buzz Marketing' and 'Word-of-Mouth' advertising. Cyberware as an organization is just now grasping the power of organizationally created Word-of-Mouth advertising. "But buzz is no longer a hit-or-miss proposition used exclusively by fringe marketers. These days, plenty of big players are trying hard to systematize buzz techniques." (Khermouch & Green, 2001)

History proves that almost all products and services are more influenced by Word-of-Mouth than by any other form of advertising including television and radio. Cyberware has approached customer recruitment through an saturating markets with marketing materials, events, and salespeople. "Word of mouth is the reality that intervenes between your communication and sales." (Silverman, 1997)