Moller Skycar promotional strategy and market positioning plan

Moller Skycar Promotions Plan for 2013 Product Introduction

The Moller Skycar is a disruptive innovation that once launched will disrupt the auto, ultra-light aircraft and low-end private aircraft industries by completely redefining the personal travel experience. The success of the product launch is heavily dependent on how well integrated and synchronized product, pricing, distribution, pricing and the unique value proposition of the company are consistent with each other. The most critical success factor of launching a disruptive product is how integrated each functional team is to the product strategy and the unique market position it occupies, all centered on communicating clearly and accurately what makes the new product unique and highly differentiated (Brettel, Heinemann, Engelen, Neubauer, 2011). The Moller Skycar is rich with product differentiation and unique value proposition potential because it can easily symbolize freedom and flexibility, agility and responsiveness. All of these are excellent messages and emotions to associate with the brand.

Promotion Plan for the Moller Skycar

The promotional plans and strategies fulfill a vital link between product-driven communication that is very feature and function-based on the one hand, and the need to associate the product with its branding attributes and emotions on the other (Delre, Jager, Bijmolt, Janssen, 2007). Excellent promotional strategies can do this while also driving interest, trial or first use of a product, and eventually serve as a catalyst of customer loyalty. A strong promotional strategy and program can serve to galvanize all aspects of the marketing mix into a single, unified message that connotes unique value to prospective customers. For the Moller Skycar the emotional value of the brand is rich with opportunity of freedom, agility, responsiveness, and exploration of areas not reachable by car or even private aircraft, expect at very high costs. The following areas of the Skycar promotional plan provide guidance on messaging, promotional strategies and the critical nature of cross-functional communication throughout the company to ensure a successful product introduction.

Key Influencer Strategy & Media Tour

Critical to gaining the attention and trust of prospective customers is getting key influencers to endorse a new product or service (van Eck, Jager, Leeflang, 2011). The Skycar needs to create a foundation of trust with potential customers through the use of a global key influencer strategy that invites thought leaders in aerospace, private and commercial aviation, and travel to test drive and potentially have a Skycar for 30 days to use. The goal of this key influencer strategy is to create excitement about the Skycar and also fuel the creation of stories and short vignettes of how these thought leaders chose to use the car during the evaluation period. The second goal of this strategy is to gain recommendations form key thought leaders and influencers that will further give the Skycar credibility and lead to potential purchase. A media tour will also be completed to each automotive, ultra-lite, personal aviation and commercial aviation magazine, website and blog with videos delivered and interviews with the founder of the company provided in person. This will ensure strong media coverage the day of the official launch of the Skycar.

Social Media Promotional Strategy for Skycar

The promotional strategy needs to be multichannel focused in order to reach the greatest number of potential prospects, yet also tailored t the specific communication channels early adopters of new technology products use. Demographics and psychographics of social media users align with the early adopters of new technology products, with disruptive technologies being ideally suited to high-income professionals who rely on social networks (Bernoff, Li, 2008). The following tactics need to be completed as part of the social media strategy. First, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts need to be created and content strategies defined for each. A social media manager is highly recommended to manage all of these accounts and also devising a content generation strategy for them as well. Social media creates the opportunity to connect and converse with prospects and customers are a much more focused and fundamental level than traditional media (Bernoff, Li, 2008). Included in this strategy is the precise targeting of influencers throughout each network that can create significant interest in the Skycar. The reliance on influencers is critical, as they are trusted advisors to the entire process of promoting products (Even-Dar, Shapira, 2011).

Launch Event Promotional Strategy

The most telling event for any company is how effectively they manage the launch of new products (Vel, Sharma, 2010). For the Skycar, the launch event must communicate the excitement, opportunity for personal freedom, safety and exploration potential of the vehicle. The focus of the launch event has to be the enthusiastic endorsement of the Skycar by the press, thought leaders and key influencers who taken together will bring exceptional trust to the Skycar as consumers evaluate it. The launch event must also bring together each aspect of the marketing mix and position the Skycar as an exciting, fun and safe alternative to daily commuting and weekend exploring. Finally the launch event must show how each aspects of the vehicle's daily use has been anticipated and worked out, including the landing areas, service and support, and licensing. All of these areas must be taken into account as part of the concerted launch strategy. The social media strategy also needs to drive this event and create excitement online surrounding the event. Using online streaming technologies, the entire event needs to be broadcast in real-time globally across the Internet as well.

Conclusion

The promotional plan for the Skycar must focus on how to build trust with prospects and also excitement by having key influencers across social media, automotive, ultra-light, private and low-end commercial aircraft involved in the product launch. In addition, the promotional strategy must also take into account the unique value proposition of the Skycar and continually reinforce its messaging through online and offline channels. The digital marketing aspects of social media can provide real-time metrics of performance of these strategies. Creating a dashboard to capture the performance of strategies over time is going to be critical in ensuring the Skycar product introduction is successful. All aspects of the product introduction need to unify the marketing mix for the launch to be a success.