Prepared by: Mahdi Fahda,

Jackson Dietz, Connor Borgmier, John

Kendrick, Michael Tornabene

Company Overview
Haller is a mobile app that helps enhance the first year experience for students at universities and colleges all over the world. Hallers
private social media platform provides a central location for students to easily have access to resources crucial for their social and academic
success within their institution. All of this is done in an attempt to assist students with one of lifes most pivotal transitions. Ultimately, this
leads to higher involvement on campus, deeper relationships with fellow students, and a greater commitment to academic success.
Product: Private Social Media Platform Mobile Application
Customers: Universities and Colleges
Users: Students
Benefits: Assists in improving first year students success by providing them the necessary resources and social support in order to create a
home away from home.
Marketing/distribution: Haller reps collaborate with our clients to create customized rollout plans that compliment their current initiatives
for first year students. The rollout plan also lays out a marketing strategy, which university staff members use in order to get students on
board as they begin the school year.
What separates Haller from the competition is that Haller provides a superior engaging environment by providing cohort groups that are
linked by strong and meaningful circumstances. The bond created by these more meaningful links produces a more cohesive unit, which in
turn will enhance each contributors university life. Resulting in an overall increase in the retention rate for first year students at
universities.

Activity:
Date:

By January, 2017

By May, 2017

By Aug, 2017

By Dec, 2017

Administrati
ve/ Legal

Finalize Legal
Documents needed by
KUs legal department

Begin the process of

trademarking our
icons and layout

Create standardized contracts

to use at other universities

Interview potential
candidates to add to the
team

Operation

Complete company
website to enhance
sales

Finish analyzing data

gathered from beta
test

Finalize details and screens for

version 2 of Haller

Start creating details and

screens for version 3 of
Haller

Earn 15k in university

subscriptions

Earn an additional 30k in

university subscriptions

Financial
Product

Complete version 1 of
Haller

Conclude Beta
Testing at KU and
continue making
updates

Have Android and iOS refined,

updated, and prepared

Update Haller to version 2

Sales

Contact 5 additional
universities

Receive order from

KU, begin sales
cycle for other
schools

3 universities sign contracts

Additional 6 universities
sign contract for 18-19
school year

Marketing

Build strong social

media presence on
Twitter and Facebook

Recruit brand
ambassadors

Information seminars for

incoming freshman

Promotions and events at

universities

Industry & Market Analysis

 Size of Market:
Addressable Market

Size of the overall market

(Market Name: Higher Education)
Size of market segment in which youll compete
(Segment Name: First Year)

Years
2012

2014

2016

$214.9 bn

$343.9 bn

$550.3 bn

$41.2 bn

$49.4 bn

$38.2 bn

Growth trend of your market segment

1.08%
Projected Share of Market of your product/service
(ie: venture sales/market segment)

74%

1.2%
78%

1.35%

85%

Target Customers
Hallers target customers are housing departments at universities. These housing departments align their objectives with First Year Experience
departments in order to improve the residence hall life experience to create a safe and supportive environment.
Key demographic and psychographic definitions of Target Universities
University Size - 15,000+ undergraduate students
University Retention Rates - Retention rate below 90%
Universities Housing Options - Residential Halls
University Type 4 year, Public
Percent of First Year Students Living on Campus - Above 80%

 Risks and Challenges and How to Mitigate

There are four main challenges to Haller.
It is inevitable that a resident will post some sort of status, comment, or behavior deemed inappropriate by university standards. This is a risk
for the university which they consider when purchasing a service like Haller. However, all the content will be monitored by the Haller team to
insure there is not inappropriate content being created and allows users to report inappropriate activity.
The second challenge is the bureaucracy of the University system. It can be a time consuming process dealing with different parties to allow
Haller in the residence halls. In order to reduce the time it takes to make a sale, the Haller team plans to standardize the process from initial
contact to the signing of contract. This includes having flexible legal documents and conducting proper background research on the real
decision makers for the General Counsel, Student Housing and Legal department.
The third challenge is the replication of a service like Haller provided by competitors. In order to combat this, Haller plans totrademark all
essential technology and aggressively target and acquire subscriptions from universities as a first mover. Moreover, the Haller team is in the
process of mapping out improvements to Haller for Versions 2 and 3. This will help Haller evolve and stay competitive to any competitors
that replicate and try to improve our service.
The fourth challenge is acquiring and onboarding local advertisers to create ad revenue without the hiring of a large sales staff. Initially,
Haller wants to shy away from using a third party service like Googles Adsense to provide more quality and useful advertisements to the
residents. Rather, Haller intends to create a webapp that local advertisers can access and create a customizable ad. This requires creating an
informative message that the Haller team can distribute to local businesses with details on our advertising opportunity and the access to our
users. It reduces the amount of time and resources needed to spend on individually meeting with local businesses about our advertising
opportunity.
Perceptual Map

Competitive
Analysis
(top 3)

Description
(size, market
share,
positioning)

Primary Target
Market for this
Competitor

Facebook
Keeping up with
friends faster than
ever. See what
friends are up too.
Share updates,
photos, and
videos. Get
notified when
friends like and
comment on your
post.

SchoolsApp
SchoolApp enables
students, parents
and teachers to
view their personal
timetable and
current changes

Oohlala

Take control of
student life.

Everyone

Universities and
Students

Universities and

Competitive
Advantage / Any
Weaknesses

Marketing
Approach

World wide company,

Huge customer base,
Large funding.

They approach the

concept of creating
experiences and
lasting friendships
through the use of
their product.

/National reach

Webinars, go to
university
conferences to
promote product.

Webinars, got to
university

Manage your
classes and stay
on top of your
calendar with the
powerful built in
schedule.

Students

International reach,
Integration of current
platforms /

conferences to
promote product.

Target Market
Name:
describe
segment
demographics,
behaviors,
needs

Size: How large

is the segment
(customers)?
And what is the
revenue
potential?

Problem: What
challenges are
being faced by
this segment?

Solution: How is
your
product/service
solving the
segments
challenges?

How does this target

discover new
brands/products/servi
ces?

Primary
target-

Universities

Dropout rates for first

year students are at a
high.

Creating an interactive
environment for their
students, with a goal of
retaining and increasing
student enrollment.

Consult with university

representatives to create a
blueprint for how to
successfully integrate Haller
into student life.

Disengaged with

Allows students to

Haller and partnering

Large
universities
whose
freshmen
retention rates
are low
Secondary

Large potential
revenue due to
number of universities

Students

targetFreshmen
students at
large
universities
who live oncampus

N/A; Revenue
generated by
contracts with
universities

campus life.

engage in a full and

active college
experience, through the
use of an easy-to-use
mobile app.

university would promote the

use of the app at university
events and on-campus
promotional events.

Marketing Objectives
Build brand awareness
Acquire 80% of first year Haller testers (Oliver, Scholarship Halls)
Improve brand perception
Partner with greek philanthropy, and local Lawrence companies, chalk advertisements, Haller sponsored BBQ
and other student friendly events.
Enhance customer satisfaction
Maintain user activity to 3-5 times per week
Increase profit per sale
Increase student retention rate of first year freshman by 5%

Marketing Strategy
For first year college students, Haller is the only mobile application among all social media platforms that
connects students with each other in order to facilitate an enriched student lifestyle and easier transition to
college.
Key Marketing Messages: main ideas that your company wants to communicate to the customer should not be
ad copy
Primary message
Secondary message

 Support/Reasons to believe your messages

Media:
Company Social Media Pages (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, ect)
Majority of students Haller will be targeting have social media and many university officials have professional
accounts as well
Inbound marketing through blogging about industry topics on company website
Depending on the topic we blog about, we can educate the targeted reader, whether it be a student or university
official, on the specific industry topic and draw them into our mission
Flyers in the residential halls
These act as visual and informative representations of Haller
Haller promotional videos
Well create numerous videos thatll have different purposes and be targeted towards specific target markets.
Distribution/Channel Strategy:
There are two parts to the marketing plan. The first part focuses on marketing our product to universities. The
second part focuses on marketing to students and retaining users.
Part 1: University Marketing Plan

Information Booths at Conferences

The Haller team plans to attend major conferences where Housing Directors for universities are present. The
University of Kansas director of housing advised us to attend the annual conference of the Association of College
and University Housing Officers. According to her, universities at such conferences usually adopt a popular
product quickly. Our sales team will attend this conference and others every year to promote Haller to these
officials.
Haller Champions

Directors at universities that are clients of Haller will become Haller Champions. Champions sponsor Haller when
attending their annual national conferences. The director of the university will give a short presentation on how
their institution has been able to benefit from Haller. In the meantime, Haller reps would have a booth set up to
sign up more clients for the following school year.
Haller Website
A section of the Haller website will be dedicated to marketing to university housing administrators. This will show
how Haller works for the university and answer any questions they may have.
Part 2: Residents Marketing Plan

Brand Ambassadors
Haller will have brand ambassadors who are ideally the resident assistant in the residence hall. This will allow
Haller to be promoted to the RAs students and spread through word of mouth to their residents who are always
looking for better ways to connect in their new environment. This strategy is ideal for rapid market penetration in
large universities.
Campus Marketing Events
At campuses where we have a significant user presence our marketing professionals will set up small events to
engage with our student users.
Information Booths
When events with large numbers of visiting students or first year students will be on campus, our marketing
professionals will coordinate to set up an information booth at the event. If students create a Haller account we
can give them free t-shirts or other items.
University Required Presentations

Many universities require incoming students to attend presentations or online tutorials of tools they deem
important to student success. Haller aims to require all incoming students to set up an account and walk through
a quick tutorial.
Pricing Strategy:
Direct competitors base their pricing models on fixed prices. Standard practice in the Software as a Service
model is to sell based on a flat fee. However, various discounts would be applied to the initial flat fee to fit the
customers budget. TargetX initially quoted University of Kansas at $35,000, but then had the number dropped to
$15,000. Haller bases our pricing on a pay by performance level model. Since our goal is to increase retention,
Haller will receive compensation based on how many percentage points retention was increased.
Hallers pricing model is as follows:
Within the year, Haller will conduct a study to determine how many percentage points that the retention rate
increased due to Haller. Then we would determine the total number of students Haller saved. Next, we would
break down the mix of those students between in-state and out-of-state students. As for compensation, Haller
would ask for between 4% and 8% of the tuition rate for one year for each student. Therefore, Haller would make
more money off out-of-state student since they pay higher tuition.
Additionally, we are exploring the option to collect a small start-up/implementation fee of $1,000 to cover initial
expenses for servers.

Core Marketing Programs

Programs should reflect:
The behavior of your users/buyers. Select the marketing tool / medium (ie: internet, print, radio, TV) that is the
most efficient delivery vehicle to reach your target audience

 The most effective communication approaches for your target audience.

Your budget: in year 1 and 2 marketing budget should = at least 7%-10% of sales; out years at least 5% of sales
Remember, social media is not necessarily free: websites can cost $3K to $100K to design, $1K-$5K/month to
maintain; web ads can cost $2 to $7 for each 1000 impressions; social media requires someone or agency to
supervise and respond to tweets/placements
Add rows ad needed to include all core programming efforts

Program
Description

Associated
Marketing
Objective

Create viral video Advertise what

How will the

program be
measured/assess
ed?

Costs

Timing

Number of views

$1200 to

Post the video in the

that shows how

haller helps
college students.
Targeted at
Freshmen living
on campus.

Haller Sponsored
University BBQ

Print Advertising

Haller is to
students to
increase
awareness.

Build brand
personality and
trust.

Raise awareness
by mass
marketing to the
general
population of
students.

and percentage
increase from haller
users.

produce a
quality viral
video that we
will air yearly.

week prior to the fall

semester starting
every year.

Track how many

users download and
use the app in the
days following a
sponsored BBQ

$800 to pay for

the bills
covering all
expenses to
host a gracious
BBQ

Host it during the

first fall home
football game of the
year.

Add a code to
receive a promotion
on flyers or posters
to track how many
people viewed and
reacted to them.

$1000 to print
1500 flyers,
and 50 posters.

Print out 500 flyers

to pass out 3 times a
year.
Print out 50 posters
to place around
campus once a year.

Marketing Budget Summary

Total cost to cover all expenses for our marketing programs is $3000 which is 7.8% of annual revenue.