Park Amex Global Prepaid Product Development Position - PASS Marketing Concept II

8/9/2019 Park Amex Global Prepaid Product Development Position - PASS Marketing Concept II

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AMERICAN EXPRESS PASS

MARKETING PROPOSAL

Created by Kyung J Park

May 25, 2010



TABLE OF CONTENT

FIVE PHASES OF PASS MARKETING• PHASE I Get as many PASS cards out there as possible

o Introduction

o Viral Marketing for T&YA

o T&YA Related Vocabularies

o T&YA Facts

o Social Network Marketing

(1) Utilizing current social networking sites(2) Specialized product for viral marketing

(A) SMS/MMS social networking game

(B) Forum for T&YA

(C) Saving & Shopping

• PHASE II Get teens to start using PASS to purchase anything and everything

• PHASE III Get parents to auto-fill PASS cards

• PHASE IV Get teens to make use of long term deposits, such as CD’s, savings• PHASE V General marketing to the public

CONCLUSION

*This presentation will focus on topics in this box



FIVE PHASES OF PRODUCT PASS MARKETING

PHASE I Get as many PASS cards out there as possible

PHASE II Get teens to start using PASS to purchase anything and everything

PHASE III Get parents to auto-fill PASS cards

PHASE IV Get teens to make use of long term deposits, such as CD’s, savings

In this presentation, I will focus on Phase I of the marketing stages, How to“Get as many

PASS cards out there as possible”.

Every product have different types of marketing plans and stages throughout its lifecycle.

Some stages are more effective with targeted marketing, and some are more effective

with general public marketing. In the case of PASS, I have analyzed and developed five

stages of marketing phases as follows.

PHASE V General public marketing



PHASE I MARKETING – INTRODUCTION

In order to expand the market share, it is important to find out what the market is like

and who the product is targeted for.

As for PASS, it is a new concept of prepaid credit cards targeted for teens and young

adults (hereinafter “T&YA”), ages between 12 through 20, which the accounts are

governed by their parents.

Thus, two choices are given for the targeted marketing : target parents with T&YA, or

target T&YA directly. Although it would be easier to capture an attention of larger crowd

by targeting both parents and T&YA simultaneously, it cost more while wasting

unnecessary amount of marketing budgets into an inefficient advertisement.

Therefore, each of the marketing Phases I through IV will concentrate on targetedmarketing either for the parents or the T&YA, but not simultaneously. For example,

Phase II and IV’s marketing should be targeted for T&YA for better ROI, whereas Phase

III’s marketing should be targeted for parents.



So the question remains, whether to have Phase I marketing targeted towards the

parents or the T&YA.

As PASS is still in the infant stage, the marketing budget should be kept low, but still

effective. This should be the stage where the company (American Express) should

carefully analyze the reaction from the consumers, measure the effectiveness of the

marketing, decide if the product is heading in the right direction, and/or determine if theproduct needs any changes.

The best way to fulfill all these criteria is the viral marketing. Small investment, highly

effective when done correctly, and easy to gather market reactions without special

surveys. Often viral marketing reactions are posted on the web.

And the best target for viral marketing if often the tech-savvy, social-network-lifestyle

T&YA, who often are the targets and backbone of the marketing.

PHASE I MARKETING – VIRAL MARKETING FOR T&YA



PHASE I MARKETING – T&YA RELATED VOCABULARIES

In order to create a viral marketing amongst T&YA, we need to first know what teens

want, what they like, and the facts to stand behind.

The following is a brainstormed vocabularies which I collected and compiled through

researching online regarding T&YA.

Fashion

CarsSocial Networking

Showing off

Puberty (Trouble)

MySpace

Facebook

myYearbook

Friendster

Pop-Cultures

FriendsParents

Gadgets

Curiosity

Dating

Hanging out

Mall

SMS/MMSShopping

Movies, Music

Instant Messaging

Fantasy Sports

Relationship

Sports

Future

Advice

EducationSAT

Math

Science

English

Boys/Girls

School

TeachersPopularity

BBF

Grades

Motivation

Exam

Prom

Marching Band

Grounded

GamesOnline

Allowance

Curfew

Cool Factor

Expression



PHASE I MARKETING – T&YA FACTS

Following is a list of facts regarding American T&YA

33.8 million teens in the U.S.

71% percent see their parents as their chief role model, 40%

teachers. On top of that, 59% say their parent is their best

friend. They are the first generation to share music taste with

their parents

Dream jobs: Entrepreneur (13%), Musician (11%), Doctor (8%)

If a teen is inherited $20 k, would spend it on a college

education (by a large margin). Also would want to contribute to

society through their consumer choices

Most important item is always a "cool car"

The cell phone is the last item they would give up if forced

87% of teens are online and 35% of teen media consumption is

online

Survey shows most teens want to connect with their friends,

carve out an identity, and be creative. User-generated-content

is easily the biggest buzz term going

15% of Virgin Mobile users (mainly teens) admitted to breaking

up with a boyfriend/girlfriend via text message.

Text messaging continues to be on fire, with 65% of Virgin

Mobile users being "active text messagers," an increase of 33%

over last year. More importantly, the mobile phone is the teens’

most prized/required possession: they would give up all other

items ahead of their phone.

And "pimping the phone" is a big part of why they love them:

•42% have downloaded ringtones and ring-back tones

•30% have downloaded graphics

•The number of users that downloaded a ringtone in the

last month is 28%, way up from 17% in previous year

•Negative opinions about ads on cell phones are

loosening: 58% don’t want them vs. 71% last year

Social networking - 44% of teens have different friends offline

than online. 58% also feel positively towards social networking

sites. 28% say it’s a great place to express creativity.

Nielsen survey shows that 2,272 text messages was sent and

received on average by a teen per month

Excerpts from Ypulse.com, July 14, 2006

http://www.ypulse.com/

http://www.ypulse.com/



PHASE I MARKETING – SOCIAL NETWORK MARKETING

Deriving from the information above, I concluded that using some kind of social network

would create a good viral marketing opportunity.

Two types of social network marketing can be applied to create a viral marketing for PASS.

(1) Utilizing current social network (MySpace, Facebook, myYearbook, Friendster, etc) :

• Advantage :

Short production time (estimated 2 weeks) Controllable budget

Easy to manage

• Disadvantage : Not as effective (avg. # of fans in Facebook fan pages are in 1,000’s, not millions)

No big impact on the market, and can become “one of many others”

(2) Creating a new specialized product for viral marketing purposes

•

Advantage : Can create big impact in the market

Can be used for other products and/or modified for new business models

• Disadvantage : Long production time (estimated 6 months)

Risk on ROI, if not planned thoroughly



PHASE I MARKETING – (1) UTILIZING CURRENT SOCIAL NETWORK

Utilizing current social network, such as MySpace, Facebook, myYearbook, Friendster,

Teenhut, and other T&YA sites to create marketing advertisements for product PASS

Creating social network fan pages, advertisements, prizes, etc is a

straightforward task and will not be discussed in this presentation,

but rather will focus on creating a specialized new product.



PHASE I MARKETING – (2) SPECIALIZED PRODUCT MARKETING

Viral marketing can be a hard task and end up as a bad investment if not done right.

However, if done correctly, it can create a big impact for the product it markets and the

company overall as well.

A specialized product marketing can be a video or a website with specific functions

created to promote a product, in a long term or short term basis.

Some of the success stories on a specialized product marketing are “Subservient Chicken”

by Burger King, “We’re sinking” by Berlitz Language School, and “Elf yourself” by Office

Max.

Three samples of specialized products (long term basis) for PASS viral marketing are being

presented in this presentation in order to promote PASS in the Phase I of marketing :

(A) SMS/MMS Social Networking Game

(B) Forums for T&YA - Mix of Education, Games, and Social Networking

(C) Saving & Shopping - Enhanced Online Shopping for T&YA



PHASE I MARKETING – (A) SMS/MMS SOCIAL NETWORKING GAME

The following five T&YA related vocabularies were carefully chosen to create a

specialized viral marketing for the product PASS.

(a) Text/Picture (SMS/MMS) messages – most used means of communication amongst T&YA

(b) Friends through social networking – teens make friends offline and online

(c) Games – on average, teens play 8 hours of games per week

(d) Cool Factor – main reason why a T&YA would accept or try out for him/herself

(e) Showing Off – main driving force to spread the words between T&YA

With the above vocabularies in mind, I have created a social networking game which

uses SMS/MMS messaging, giving a cool factor to the players (T&YA), while they can

show off to their friends.



HOW IT WORKS

The concept is simple. A hybrid of social network games and a twitter will be created,

targeted for T&YA. Both the twitter and social network games have been gaining

popularity in the recent years and the idea is to use these two themes to create a viral

marketing.

This website will send out questions and tasks via SMS/MMS messages to the registered

members, alike twitter, to those who participates in the game. Questions can be simple

but addictive, or hard with educational purposes. Only PASS card holders will be able to

become a registered member.

Having topics on education, SAT’s, random facts, pop-cultures, friends and more, aregistered member can either choose to join a game room or create their own game

room.




When joining a game room, they can either choose to play a game with their friends or

network with people they haven’t met.

When creating a game room, they can choose from default topics/questions provided by

the webmaster, create custom topics/questions, or choose topics/questions from other

PASS members.

Then, they will choose other options such as the length of the game, number of players,

number of questions to be asked, multiple choice or short answers, and/or prizes if any.

Once the game starts, the players will exchange text messages between the website and

play against other players.

The players will also be able to discuss about the games among other players via

integrated forums, instant messaging, chatting, as well as private messaging services.




JOIN MEMBERSHIP.

PASS CARD REQUIREDMEMBER PAGE

LOGIN

CREATE A GAME JOIN A GAME

TOPIC BY OTHER

MEMBERS

DEFAULT

TOPIC

CREATE A

TOPIC

CHOOSE WHAT TO DO

CHOOSE TOPIC/QUESTIONS

CHOOSE OTHER OPTIONS

LAUNCH GAME

PLAY WITH FRIENDS

Options can include game types, age

requirements, length of game,

number of questions, friends

requirements, invitation, game time

frame, and more.

Topics can include education, SAT related questions, random facts,

pop-cultures, friends, current events, math questions, school

work, simple tasks, or anything T&YA can have interest on.

MAKE NEW FRIENDS

CHOOSE TOPIC &

OPTIONS

START PLAYING GAME

(SEND/RECEIVE

SMS/MMS)

DISCUSS GAME AND

MAKE NEW FRIENDS.

WINNER (POSSIBLY)

RECEIVED PRIZES

Sample questions & tasks can include…

- Any SAT questions

- Take a picture of a dog

- First president of the U.S.

- Math questions (251+14)

Expected outcome…

-T&YA will play the game in school or outside of school, while making new

friends online.

- Friends will find it interesting, trying to join, only to find that they need to be a

PASS member to join the “circle”.

- T&YA will ask for parents for PASS cards.


WINNER CAN BE

PICKED BY THEGAME CREATOR OR

AUTOMATICALLY

BASED ON CRITERIA

Here is the basic outline of the game.



Educational & social networking forum, one like OPEN for small business from American

Express, but for T&YA, would create a buzz between T&YA.

As much as adults would like to learn how to run their businesses, T&YA want to learn

about their school work, SAT’s, specialized high school, colleges, tuition, tutoring, and

more.

Providing an open forum for T&YA with such access to information, dedicated for PASS

card holders only, T&YA would ask their parents to join for PASS membership.

The forum can include school related work (ie. Physics, chemistry, biology, math, English,

SAT’s), dating related topics (one of most discussed topics between T&YA), chatting

options (to make friends online), music, video, UCC, and more.

To differentiate from the current T&YA forums, providing live online classes (SAT’s or other

educational classes) for free exclusive for PASS card holders would definitely create a buzz.

Both T&YA and parents will find it essential to join PASS membership for various purposes.

PHASE I MARKETING – (B) Forum for T&YA



After all, PASS is a hybrid of credit cards and prepaid gift cards. It is important to increase

the use of the PASS card for purchases from the members (credit card), while having to

keep the money in the PASS card as long as possible (gift card). Below two business

models fulfill these requirements

(i) BULK PURCHASE PROGRAM

- T&YA are new to online shopping. By offering a safe place to shop online, while providing products at a low

cost, teens will find PASS online shopping experience the place to shop.

- In order to provide a low cost to T&YA’s favorite products, the online shopping site will sell products in bulk.However, the bulk quantity will not be for one T&YA, but to a group of T&YA.

- Once a certain number of buyers are reached, the sale of the product will close.

- A T&YA would need to place an order, however, it’ll not be shipped until a certain number of buyers are

reached

- Withholding the amount from PASS card from the time of purchase (which can be retracted) to the

shipment of the product (end of sale), American Express can benefit the unused money withheld.

(ii) SAVINGS PURCHASE PROGRAM

- T&YA wants to purchase an expensive product as much as adults. However, without much source of income,

T&YA needs to save allowances to make a large purchases.

- Having a monthly savings tool within the online banking- automatically taking out certain amount of

allowance each month aside until it reaches a certain amount- can help T&YA to reach the goal of making a

large purchases.

- Withholding the amount from PASS until the amount reaches certain level, American

Express can benefit the unused money.

PHASE I MARKETING – (C) Saving & Enhanced Shopping Experience



CONCLUSION

This presentation was give a brief introduction of what I can do for American Express

GPP Division, PASS Team. From an idea to a concept, then to create a detailed product

structure to an actual product, I can help American Express’s PASS to go into the next

level.

Although I wanted to provide an innovative solutions to improve a process management

currently being used by PASS, with the limited knowledge of the product processes, I

took the next best route which is the marketing of the product PASS.

I hope you find this presentation useful and interesting, and hope to see you in the

second round of interviews.

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Park Amex Global Prepaid Product Development Position - PASS Marketing Concept II

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