Evolve a GTM strategy to acquire 1 million new users for Bing on Android.

1. Clarifications:-
   1. Bing as I understand is a web search engine application which helps users reach out to most relevant content as per their need. It is a way for content creators/organizations to reach the right audience via internet and thus build awareness about their services and products.
      1. Users enter their search text and then the search engine application looks through its index of web pages and returns the web pages that match the search text. The web pages are sorted based on the relevancy and popularity of the web pages.
   2. As more and more websites are increasing, data over the web is increasing and it is becoming more and more difficult to find relavent good quality content on the internet and also it is becoming difficult for content creators to reach right audience. This is were a search engine like bing comes into picture as it helps users to figure out relavant content in an efficient and quick manner and thus helps in 'empowering every person and organization on the planet to achieve more'
   3. Acquiring new users mean: a user who downloads the application on his/her android mobile device and performs at least 1 search? Yes
   4. Also time frame for acquiring users? next 1 year? Yes
   5. Also in terms of quantification, is this like a big quantum leap in the existing user base? Yes.
   6. Any specific geography being considered for acquiring customers ? no all over the world.
   1. Users:
      1. Users looking out for specific content, answers or product or services
      2. Content creators: 
      3. Organizations: selling specific products and services
   2. Bing as a search application is available in web version (can be used over desktop/laptop) as well as for mobile consumption. Overhere the question is specifically about the GTM strategy for mobile device and that also Android. Is my understanding correct? Yes
   3. Competitors:
      1. In search engine space, major competition is from 'Google search' which is a market leader in the search engine product space. Apart from this u have 'DuckDuckgo' which is highly focused on ensuring privacy of the users.There are others as well.
      2. So we can consider the market as :
         1. Google: ~90%
         2. Bing: ~5%acheiving
         3. Rest : 5%
      3. So basically Google is the preferred and more popular search engine. This is due to 2-3 reasons:-
         1. Google search is one of the old players in this space. (1997) where as bing is relatively new ~2009.
         2. Google search comes as bundle with browsers like Google chrome, firefox and thus by default users are directed to Google search.
         3. Google search also comes bundled with 'Android' mobile devices as the default search option.
2. Strengths of Bing:
   1. It is part of microsoft group with product like windows that has majority market share in personal computer operating systems. It also is a leading product like microsoft office and thus overall it has huge customer base and good partnerships with personal computer OEMs.
   2. Microsoft brand name : users consider microsoft as a company that builds scalable, robust, customer focused products.
   3. At a company level, various source of revenues mainly software licensing and not dependent on advertising as the only means of revenue which is a weakness for its competitor i.e. Google.
3. Weakness:
   1. Not popular product for searching, known for performance issues
   2. Also it has Google a dominant competitor which focuses on optimizing its platform and tweaking it as per user needs.
4. Goal: Acquiring 1 million new users for bing mobile app on android i.e. grab market share.
5. Based on the above pts. the launch plan or GTM plan would be:-
   1. Pre launch:
      1. Product improvements: - Developing competitive advantages in the product based on user feedbacks, surveys, market research. Improve performance and quality of searches by improving the search algorithm.
      2. Launch date: finalize and align on a launch date with all the stakeholders so as to ensure no to and fro and delays.
      3. Marketing activities:
         1. PR for the upcoming launch with teaser on new features and launch date so as to build awareness as well as build excitement in the users.
         2. Internal marketing activities: Microsoft has a huge internal employee base and existing users (end user and partners) via using channels like emails plan building awareness about the upcoming improvements.
      4. Partnerships
         1. Microsoft already would have partnerships with OEMs for other products like Windows (manufactuers handle both pc and mobile device manufacturers), Office 365 mobile versions : use those relationships to enable Bing being pre installed in the mobile devices via pre installing Microsoft Edge. Microsoft can come up with discounted bundle pricing for personal computers and mobile devices. 
         2. Microsoft has partnerships with education institutions : for supplying software licenses to institutes for computer labs . Collaborate with the business development teams of those products to spread awareness about Bing search engine and its new features. Develop features in bing search to promote scolarly articles and thus drive adoption of the product among students which will help in driving the overall adoption on other devices used by students.
      5. KPIs
         1. User adoption at weekly level
         2. %growth in user adoption
         3. Share of new users in weekly active users
         4. %of searches done by new users at a daily, weekly level
         5. Cohort level, repeat usage by new users
   2. During Launch
      1. Pricing: 
         1. Run special promotion offers on CPC to attract advertisers - discount offers, bundle pricing.
      2. Marketing:
         1. PR
         2. Drive awareness for internal employee base: via internal emails, branding in offices and on internal portals, talk about it in townhalls
         3. Drive awareness for existing users: by reaching out on emails, ad placement in existing products like office 365, outlook. Users can click on the ads and will be redirected to the search engine home page.
         4. Social media marketing on professional platform like 'Linkedn' via ads and influeners like product leaders who can be given option to try the product during beta release and then they can write blogs and promote the offering via their social media handles.
         5. Offline marketing with option to try it out via QR codes in partner offices. (partners of existing products)
   3. Post launch
      1. Measure:
         1. Based on the KPIs decided pre launch, measure the success and in collaboration with other stakeholders align on what went well, what could be improved and next steps.

Product : Huge set of features with 33% penetration in US, some of them are

• Rewards: Get points when you search, and redeem them for gift cards at Amazon, Starbucks, and much more!

• Your feed: Swipe up on the home page to catch up with what's happening in the world and get personalized updates on your feed.

• Reading mode: Switch on reading mode to focus on the text, distraction-free.

• Save money: Use the built-in barcode scanner to review products and compare prices.

• Entertainment & Nearby: Find what you love, from live sport updates, trending music, and recipes, to nearby deals, movie times, and gas prices.

• Intelligent camera search: Learn more about the world around you. Whether it's animals, landmarks, or even fashion, searching is as simple as snapping a picture.

• Voice search: What's the best way to get an answer? Ask a question. Talk to Bing and get instant results.

Place ( Market)

1. What markets do you want to pursue,How big is your addressable market? Is it growing, stable, or declining??  India

   1. Why? This is growing market with huge population(This is growing market and estimation is it will grow by 50 % in 5 years)

      1. Top 5 countries based on population: China(Closed), India, US, Indonesia, pakistan)

      2. Next Billion users are coming from Asia, and India (1.4 B) with 56 % internet share and prediction is in coming 5 years it  will be 1B( 700M to 1B )

      3. No of mobile phone user using internet in india: 450 M , and again as per growth it should increase to ~700M  (~50 % growth)

      4. Android user base : 430 M Users currently(~96 %) with growth

2. Who are the biggest players in the market?

   1. Google search:  it takes 99+ % india mobile market 

   2. They are biggest player and has also invested ~20 M in kaiOS( Jio India) to bring the monopoly

Who? Customer segment

• Target Customer: Business User, 

• Job Hunters (Fresh graduates and Professionals looking for Job and also learn something to be ahead in curve( age group: 24 to  64)

• Learner

Channels (HOW)

• Make Bing as default search on Office apps downloaded in Android.(Independent if market), as MS is already doing it.

• Default search if any search starts within linked  In

•  Brand bing as search engine for Enterprise user

  • Job discovery -The way amazon has become the place to find any product,  and linked in to find any job.Bing can provide some categories to browse through and specific search option and other pay some premium to better index other  job search site like Monster, naukri

  • Optimize for Learning: Having deep knowledge of enterprise space and technology use, (Fresh graduates and Mid level would like to do some learning to be ahead of the curve), if bing can become the place to search for any content . 

    • Provide Built in AR experiences for the skil based courses. It has been proven by neuroscientist  that AR increases attention, retention

• Marketing

  • Compelling ad In TV and other media channels like YT,amazon prime, Netflix.LinkedIn, Articles in

  • Run some events Microsoft for India Like 

  • Rewards for searching can be huge attraction though most people are not aware so advertising the same 

  • Livestream with influencers where people can ask specific queries