Introduction

Nowadays marketing is a very useful tool when it comes to promoting a new product or
service to the market and it can take many forms. Thus, these strategies or methods are
based on the needs of society. In the same way, marketing is being used by the satellite
market to promote its products and services due to its global trend. One of the methods used
in satellite market works through the GPS (Global Positioning System). This is GNSS
(Global Navigation Satellite System) and it can locate the worldwide position of an object,
person, vehicle or ship, within a precision of centimetres, using satellites orbiting Earth
(NASA, 2018). Although this invention is accredited to the French and Belgian governments,
today it is operated by the Department of Defence of USA (NASA, 2018).

In 2007 the American company Globalstar launched the tracker devices called Spot in the
United States. Which consists of a family of GPS devices that offer the option of sending
messages via satellite. Thus, everyone who enjoys nature and the outdoors activities can
communicate with their family from remote locations anywhere in the world, in places where
there is no mobile phone coverage. In the same way, the product to analyse in this report is
the Spot Gen3, which is an improved product for communication in remote areas. Spot Gen3
is a satellite tracker that allows you to locate your staff, work crews and family members in
remote areas where conventional communication does not work. Spot Gen3 lets its user
inform their family and friends that they are okay or can send your GPS location to the
Emergency Services at the touch of a button. It is a small, sturdy pocket device an essential
piece of travel equipment and stays connected from anywhere on the globe with a clear
vision of the sky. The device uses twice as many satellite networks to receive client’s
location, as well as transmit it, along with the messages, to the recipients that the customer
chooses (Spot, 2018). Its specifications are a device of 8.5 centimetres long, 114 grams of
weight, resistant to water and dust with a battery life between 3.5 days and 26 days
depending on intervals between 2.5 minutes and 60 minutes of sharing location (Spot,
2018).

Device features
HELP: It is for request help from friends and family in user GPS location. Alternatively, it is
for ask for help from professional organizations instead of friends and family.
OK: This let the contacts know where the users are as well as let the others know that the
user is ok with the customer pre-programmed messages.

Personalized Message: Let the contacts know where the users are, and send a pre-
programmed message.
Follow up: The user can automatically send and save their position and allow its friends to
follow up using Google Maps.
SOS: The customer can automatically send and save their position and allow its contacts to
follow up using Google Maps. Alert Emergency Centres about your GPS location. See figure
1 to identify the features bottoms.
 Figure 1.

A critical Analysis of the Market Context

Key Market Trends

We live in a world in which the users of telecommunications services require more and more
connectivity to the Internet anywhere in the world. Thus, people use a cable connection
through desktop computers from their houses or offices, or more frequently, through a
mobile connection such as smartphone, tablet or any new mobile device. Hereby, they are
requiring new and better applications that allow them to receive and transmit large amount of
data, images, videos, multimedia files through chats, make voice calls via the Internet,
participate in web conferences in real time or make purchases on internet (Birudavolu,
2011). Therefore, the satellite industry has helped maintain that connection in all parts of the
world, even where conventional connections do not cover or exist.
Due to the advantage of satellites as a communications system, it is expected that the
demand for broadband services using these platforms will increase rapidly as Satellite
Market & Research (2018) expects a forecast of increase of the global annual revenues of
the satellite market at USD $ 15.71 billion by 2027. The entire satellite industry is in a
continuous transformation of adaptation to global trends. New technological requirements,
new architectures and evolving business models will form a satellite segment.
In the same way, Mordor intelligence (2018) argues an increase of the world market of small
satellites from USD $ 2.69 billion in 2017 to 6.91 billion in 2023. What would mean a CAGR
(The compound annual growth rate) of roughly 17% for the next 5 years. They also explain
that small satellites usually have shorter manufacturing periods than conventional satellites,
and as a result, the cost is much lower for launch. The technological advances of the last 10
years have allowed to reduce the size and weight of the main materials for the construction
of satellites. Similarly, the pace of investigations of the earth from the space and satellite
communications has grown considerably. As a consequence, countries such as the United
States, Russia and China lead the number of launches of satellites. These countries, along
with other countries from Europe, are planning to launch 500 satellites to the space during
the next 5 years. Which could guarantee maintaining the trend of satellite connections
around the world. See graphic 1.
Graphic 1.

Competitor
The Spot Gen3’s main competitors are inReach SE from DeLorme and inReach Explorer+
from Garmin. Both devices have the advantage in technology due to their touch screens that
offer more pre-set messages, receive messages, antennas with better power transmission,
rechargeable lithium batteries and compatible with smartphones. But at the same time those
devices have their disadvantages compared with Spot Gen3 such as cost, the price for
inReach SE is £280.92 and for inReach Explorar+ is £449.00, which puts them well above
the value of Spot Gen3 at £163.92 and £332 respectively. However, Garmin Garmin has a
stronger digital promotion channel than the company Globalstar, as shown in amazon (2018)
and its official website. In fact, Garmin's leadership over Globalstar could be due to its
financial situation (Garmin, 2017), which allows it to invest more in marketing and new
technologies that satisfy or create the customer's need. Please see figure 2.

Garmin’s Annual Report.

Globalstar’s Annual Report.

Figure 2

Opportunity
The GPS Tracker industry has also suffered some impact on the global crisis, but
maintained relatively optimistic growth. During the last four years, the size of the GPS
Tracker market sustains the average annual growth rate of 153.96% from 580 million dollars
in 2013 to 9500 million dollars in 2016, analysts believe that in the coming years, the size of
the market of GPS Tracker will be further expanded. It hope that by 2021, the size of the
GPS Tracker market will reach 24 billion dollars (iCrowdNewswire, 2017). Based on the
previous data, it could be said that the satellite market is still growing, as well as, the service
offer is limited compared to the Spot Gen3 competitors.

Segmentation
Market segmentation is the division of a market into clear groups of buyers with different
needs, characteristics or behaviours, which may require separate combinations of products
or marketing (Kotler, 2009). The segmentation process starts considering the objectives and
the marketing strategy of the company. This will ensure that the segmentation is in line with
the internal and external situation of the industry and their aspirations too.
To segment a product or market, it should use a method or a combination of methods in
order to identify, denominate and describe the segments. Consequently, it will allow the
company to better understand the consumer profiles for each segment and the differences
regard to the other segments of the market.

This section of the report will focus on the segmentation methods that Globalstar has
covered since the SPOT devices were officially launched. Likewise, starting with the main
objective of Globalstar is to provide reliable communication services through satellite
connection devices. Thus, they started the segmentation of the market by grouping
consumers in north-western North America as shown in figure 3 based on its 2011 data
(Spot, 2018). In fact, this geographical segmentation was very useful because the habit of
consumerism in this part of the world is very different compared to South America or Africa.
Also, it was worthy the adjustments they made for the geographic areas in States such as
Alaska, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, California, Utah, Nevada, etc., focusing
mainly on major cities such as San Francisco, Seattle, Vancouver, Los Angeles, Boston,
Chicago, New York and also, in certain areas of these cities for the sale of these devices.
Likewise, they grouped the consumers of the product based on objective variables as single
young men with above-average incomes (Globalstar, 2017). Hereby, it could assume under
these criteria that the initial segmentation of this product was Geodemographic, which
means a mixture between geographical and demographic.
Figure 3.

After a successful start in North America, the market extended to South America, Europe,
Africa, Asia and Oceania covering mainly these first 3, as shown in Figure 4. Though, this
time they focused on segmenting their market psychographically. Considering those
elements that allow consumers to be independent with outdoor lifestyles but adding more
value to the safety of their lives. In this way, they recognized the eigenvalues of the
consumers and anticipated the benefits that SPOT Gen3 brings to its customers. As a result,
the company encouraged consumers to acquire this device as part of their adventure
equipment, highlighting in their website the 6200 rescues they made so far.

Due to its rapid growth it could be said that psychographic segmentation would be more
useful than demographic segmentation because consumer behaviours are usually explained
quite well from psychological traits. In contrast, people of the same age, gender and
educational level can have very different motivations and attitudes that lead them to adopt
very different consumption decisions. However, they could focus on adapting this device for
communication of people working in remote areas such as petroleum engineers, gold
seekers, mine workers, lumberjacks, fishermen etc.
Figure 4.

According to the satellite communication company SES (2015) for the oil and gas industry it
is vital to have satellite communication. This is because most of the wells and oil fields are
located in isolated areas where conventional communication does not exist. Similarly, the
exchange of information, safety of the environment, emergency health service, including
personnel training on-site, are some of the reasons why this service is essential for this
industry. The magazine Market & Research (2014) argues that the revenues of this market
in oil & gas industry will be USD $ 975 million in 2020. Also, they made a case study where
they analyse the need for satellite communication for each area of this science, making this
industry quite attractive for new entries and business opportunities.
According to Psychographic needs anybody who travels by land, sea and air will need to be
connected to the world for safety matters.
The target client is the people who have activities in rural areas such as Campers,
Motorcyclist, fishermen, Snowmobilers, Off-road Enthusiasts, Pilots, Kayakers/Canoeists,
Hunters, Sailors, Climbers, Backpackers, cyclists and lone workers. Since its launch,
SPOT's satellite technology has provided peace of mind by helping initiate roughly 6200
rescues and counting while also providing GPS tracking service. Over the years, recreational
outdoor enthusiasts, athletes, government agency employees, National Geographic
explorers and photographers, and researchers are just some of the people that have
benefited from using SPOT (Spot, 2018).

Marketing Mix
To define and implement the marketing mix for a company, first of all, it must know the
traditional strategy that marketing uses. Whether it is a product or a service, the goal is to
satisfy the need and satisfaction of customers. So, this is where any strategy begins.

The Marketing Mix refers to the mix of controllable Marketing variables that the company
uses to achieve the desired level of sales in the target market (AMA, 2018). The opinion
varies as to which elements constitute the marketing mix applied to the satellite industry.

It is generally accepted, regarding the four main elements: Product, Price, Place and
Promotion. The term product refers to the means by which the "Satellite" product adapts to
changes in market needs, while price refer to the amount that will be charged for the use or
consumption of the product or service. Place represents the points of sale for the distribution
that will be used to establish access to the market for the tourism product, and promotion
represents the means by which consumers are informed of the products and positively
convinced to buy it.
It is important to understand that each of the elements interacts with the others. Thus, the
nature of the product and its appeal to final consumers will be influenced by the price
charged. In the same way, the availability of the product in the points of sale can influence
the perception of the consumer about the quality of the product (Baines & Fill, 2014, p.280).
In the marketing mix as well as traditional marketing, the 4 Ps are essential to correctly
implement a marketing plan. But due to the main characteristics of the services, it is
necessary to add additional Ps such as, Process, Physical evidence and People (Kotler,
2009). Below are the seven Ps with their function and utility within the marketing mix.

Product
The product is any good, service or idea that is offered to the market in order to meet the
needs of the consumer. Any good or service that we are going to produce or sell (Kotler,
2017, p.226). Also, product has a set of characteristics and attributes that can be tangible
such as shape, size, and colour. Intangibles such as brand, company image, service; which
the buyer accepts in order to satisfy its needs.
As it was mentioned above, Globalstar launched Spot Gen3, which is an ultra-light satellite
connection device with a conventional AAA battery power source. To start talking about the
product it is necessary to highlight its physical characteristics. The packaging is simple
cardboard material made but quite attractive for its colours and survival announcements in 6
languages such as English, French, German, Spanish, Italian and Dutch. Which could be
focused on the segment chosen by Glostar for people from outdoor activities. Inside the box
comes the device with 4 AAA batteries, strap, reference guide and a USB cable. The device
was designed to have an oval shape and fit in the palm of the hand. It is intense orange
colour to be easily found in all kinds of weather conditions (Spot, 2018).

The quality of the service has been rated as good and much better usability compared to its
previous version. Because the sectionhiker (2013) specialists emphasize that this version
shares the location in a precise and constant way, they also affirm the battery life is very
durable and it could last up to 3 weeks with constant use. In addition, psychologically
customers are buying a peace of mind when trusting their security in this enhanced device.
However, one of the weaknesses of Spot Gen3 is the absence of confirmation for delivery
messages. What has generated a lot of controversy for its users and that will undoubtedly be
an important issue to improve (sectionhiker, 2013).

Pricing
It consists of the amount of money that the client has to pay to get the product along with all
non-financial costs such as time and effort. In broader terms, a price is the sum of the values
the customer gives in exchange for the benefits of having or using the product or service
(Kotler, 2017, p.292). Also, the price is set following 3 fundamental aspects: Cost (cost of
product preparation), Competition (the price must be consistent with their closest
competitors) and Consumer (the price will also be consistent with the convenient price for
the target client).
Despite the competition of this product, Spot (2018) Gen3 stands out for its price because
most satellite trackers cost £300 on average, whereas Spot Gen3’s cost is just £117 and its
annual satellite plan is £160. The annual plan offers unlimited tracking, unlimited text
messages. Additionally, Spot (2018) has improved this device respect to its previous version
with the motion active, which allows stopping sharing the location while there is no
movement, which also results in a long life for the battery (more than 50 days with clear
vision of the sky). For those reasons Spot Gen3 could be attractive to buy.

Table 1
Promotion
The promotion within a marketing mix, seeks to inform, communicate and persuade the
consumer about a product or service through different techniques in order to encourage and
convince the public to make a purchase action (Kotler, 2017, p.486).
Although the first-generation Spot had commercials on American national television with
celebrities as the protagonist of survival man. Currently, its latest version is mainly promoted
in digital media such as amazon, eBay, on social networks such as Instagram, Snapchat,
Facebook and pages of large outdoor stores such as West Marine, Bass Pro Shop, REI and
Sportsman’s Warehouse. Additionally, Spot's official website encourages retailers to
promote their product in its physical stores. Thus, Globalstar guarantees that its target
customer knows about their product and service.

SPOT is young but is on the way to be a well-established brand, especially in North America.
Its users show high loyalty to the brand, so this could be the reason behind why they do not
work with aggressive marketing using social media. Nevertheless, it might be a good
strategy to start creating interactive communication using social networks, outdoor sports
expo and blogs.

Place
This variable of the marketing mix is the way of distributing the products. It means, how this
distribution is going to be carried out within the market starting from the strategies that the
organization has set considering the objectives set towards the product or service (Kotler,
2017, p.340). SPOT Satellite GPS Messenger products and services are available virtually
everywhere through its product distribution channels and through their direct e-commerce
website. Globalstar have distribution relationships with a number of "Big Box" retailers and
other similar distribution channels, including Bass Pro Shops, Cabela's, Fry's Electronics,
REI, Sportsman's Warehouse and West Marine. They also sell SPOT products and services
directly using their existing sales force and through its direct e-commerce website,
www.findmespot.com, as well as through certain of their IGOs (Globalstar, 2017, p.7)

Process
The process refers to the method by which the clients are assisted, the procedures, the
mechanisms and the number of activities that are carried out to deliver the product or
service. This factor could be essential for service companies. Because customers not only
expect a certain quality in the service, they also expect the same for all the customers in the
company. Therefore, Globalstar ensures that its processes are of the best and equal quality
for all its customers. For that reason, there is a rigorous selection process for all their retailer
prospects, also a survey about your purchase experience and the delivery experience
process.

Physical Evidence
The environment when the service is delivered and where the company and the client
interact, and any tangible component that facilitates the performance or communication of
the service. The physical evidence of SPOT Gen3 includes some tangible representations of
the service, such as brochures, business cards and reports.

People
People play an essential role in the commercialization of services. The actions of people
towards their customers will generate more or less success over sales and an impact on the
image of the company. All the human actors that play a part in the delivery of the service will
influence the buyer's perceptions. In many service situations, customers themselves may
also influence the delivery of the service. thereby affecting the quality of service and their
own satisfaction. In some cases, the devices suffer damage during the shipment generating
problems with the satellite reception, so some customers are ahead of judging the operation
of the device without synchronizing it with the computer for its re-calibration. To support its
clients, they attached e-mails, reference guide with technical support numbers around the
world for specialized assistance (Spot, 2018).

Implementation Issues

The primary retail place is still Findmespot.com. The problem with distribution might happen
for buyers out of the North America, since there is only one Worldwide Spot store. The lack
of communication between the customer support department and its customers could
generate dissatisfaction with the service. This is because the guarantee of the products is
not the same in all the regions, some sectors from Africa and South America the guarantee
does not cover damages during the shipment of its products. This would be a failure that
would give disadvantage on the market. So, focusing on ensuring the standardization of all
areas we can achieve sustainable competition and direct competitor Garmin, ensures that all
customer service departments give the same service in all regions where they market their
products.
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