Holistic Marketing

In line with their game, Rovio supports the cause of BirdLife International which is committed to the conservation of critically endangered birds. Rovio has helped rasie awareness through thri website and Facebook page, and rewards fans by giving them access to a secret level in the game.

"We are delighted to support BirdLife International with this new Angry Birds initiative", said Peter Vesterbacka, Rovio’s Mighty Eagle and CMO. "We are pleased to be in a position to help such important conservation action and anticipate our loyal fans will respond very positively to our Angry Birds call to Get Angry and Fight Back."

The new Angry Birds website provides a full marketing platform for Birds Life International allowing them to highlight 189 species of birds, those which BirdLife International classifies as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, and to ask for a donation.

As mobile phones have become more like portable games consoles it has allowed people who wouldn’t normally think of themselves as gamers to pick up a game and get hooked. The very nature of playing a game is to engage with it, and if you can cleverly position a donation or social ask within that game world or aligned closely to it players are more likely to complete your action. Angry Birds has become a worldwide phenomenon with a huge player base. Birds International gets access to the brand recognition of Angry Birds. 

Organization Buying Behaviour

Organization buying is the decision-making process by which formal organizations establish the need for purchased products and services and identify, evaluate, and choose among alternative brands and suppliers.

Organization behavior slightly varies from consumer buying behavior because organizations usually buy in bulk rather than single buying. Also the relationship between the buyer and a seller in case of organizational buying is a more personal one. 

For a mobile gaming app there is no physical raw material required for the development of the product. What is required however is services that include the game design/concept/idea etc., the game art and the game code (programming). Most game studios carry the entire operation from beginning to end. Others might choose to outsource some aspects of the game development process. When Rovio developed Angry Birds, they had in-house game design and programming, however the Art was outsourced to a popular artist called Sam Pratt.

Another aspect that a gaming studio has to look into is publishing. As with book publishers or publishers of DVD movies, video game publishers are responsible for their product's manufacturing and marketing, including market research and all aspects of advertising. When Angry Birds was published, Rovio wasn't as big as it is today and hence publishing was outsourced to Chillingo. However, today Rovio has its own publishing and licensing wing.

STP

Segmentation of market for Angry Birds:

Segmentation is a scientific process thus it is important to figure out the variables for segmenting the market. The variables that can be used to segment the market for the Angry Birds gaming app are:

• Demographic- Age, Gender and Family size
• Psycho-graphic- Lifestyle and Personality
• Behavioral- User status and attitude

Targeting of audience for Angry Birds:

The game has an ESBR (Entertainment Software rating Board) rating of 'E' which stands for 'Everyone'. So clearly Rovio intends to target all people regardless of age, gender etc. But the game is more popular among a certain age group and among males. The following is a study by AYTM that has some stats about the TA of Angry Birds.

Positioning of Angry Birds:

After Segmentation and Targeting, the makers will Position their product. Positioning is done by POD (point of difference) or POP (point of parity) method. Angry Birds, when it was launched in the market it was one of the first of its kind of product. But one can say that it adopted the POD method because it was different from other games then available on the App Store, both in terms of offering a cheap price as well as being a very simple to play game so that anyone and everyone could play it. Even though there are many competitors today, Angry Birds has stuck to its cheap price and simplistic game play. 

Consumer Behavior

Consumer Behavior is the study of how individuals, groups, and organizations select, buy, use and dispose of goods, services, ideas, or experiences to satisfy their needs and wants.

A consumer's buying behavior is influenced by cultural, social, and personal factors. Cultural factors exert the broadest and deepest influence.

The following are some of the reasons for the popularity of the Angry Birds mobile game franchise:

• Simplicity of gameplay
• Spirit of competition
• Success or failure if you win or lose a level
• Cheap to download thus customer satisfaction
• Good graphics and sound

Angry Birds debuted in 2009 and has been downloaded over 300 million times. It’s on track to reach 1 billion downloads in the not too distant future. And here’s where it gets shocking- people play Angry Birds 200 million minutes per day. The following image gives a breakdown of the psychology behind why consumers buy and play Angry Birds.

Sales Management

Sales Management is the discipline of maximizing the benefits a company and its customers receive from the efforts of the sales force.
In terms of Angry Birds, the gaming app, there is no physical sales force as all sales happen in the digital virtual world. The product is paid for through online transactions and bought through one of the online stores mentioned in the distribution channels post. Thus there are no sales persons involved in the process. 

Distribution

Distribution takes place through intermediaries called channels. These channels make the product available to the consumers for consumption.
Angry Birds is gaming app that requires a platform to be played on. This platform could either be a mobile smartphone device with an operating system like iOS, Android, Symbian etc. or it could be a pc or it can even be played on a web browser like chrome. Since the app needs a platform to be played on, the best way for distribution of the app is through the app stores of all these platforms, and that is exactly what Rovio does.
Angry Birds is available on the following mobile and desktop through the following channels:

Brand

Brand is a name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller's good or service as distinct from those of other sellers.

Angry Birds has become a brand in itself. What started off as a mobile app game for the iOS is now associated with so many games and merchandise. Even though the game has been created by Rovio, the brand that has been established is Angry Birds. The symbol associated with it is not the Angry Birds logo but the Red Bird.

Rovio's strategy was to monetize on the fame that the game initially achieved. They did this by creating merchandise like Angry Birds t-shirt, mugs, plush toys, keychains and much more.

The Brand Elements of Angry Birds are the following:

 

Logo

Angry Birds also does a lot of co-branding. They have co-branded with star wars to create 2 Star Wars Angry Birds games. They have also co-branded with the movie Rio to create the Angry Birds Rio game.

Price

The reason for Angry Birds success was its low price. The game offers a lot for a very low price compared to other games. When Angry Birds was launched, people were used to games on other platforms at very high prices. On the iOS, it came out as a free version and also as a paid version with many more levels but even the paid version was for 0.99$ which is the lowest value for an app on the iOS. People found this to be a very affordable price for a game and were very willing to pay it.

It was important for Angry Birds to be that cheap because the product was new in the market and people had no idea what it was about. So to even get people to try the product they had to download it first which is why their free to play strategy worked. Once the game had been downloaded, customers thought that 0.99$ was an extremely valid price to pay for such a product. Angry Birds continues to be available at the lowest prices in the market when compared to other games. This pricing strategy that it adopts is known as value pricing. 

Integrated Marketing Communications: ATL & BTL

Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC): Marketing Communications are the means by which firms attempt to inform, persuade and remind consumers- directly or indirectly- about the products and brands they sell and IMC is the marketing communications plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines and combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency, and maximum communication impact.

Marketing Communications can be either ATL (above the line) that caters to the mass like televison, radio, newspapers etc. or BTL (below the line) that caters to a niche audience like buzz (word of mouth), sales promotion, direct marketing etc.

Angry Birds main form of promotion is through use of social media. They have an extremely popular facebook page which has over 25 million likes as well as a twitter with about 6 million followers. 
Another form of promotion that works well for them is Buzz. They have a quality product and it pushes itself when people tell each other about it.
They also promote the game by publishing reviews online on popular game review sites like pocketgamer and ign.

Angry Birds does not need to advertise through television and radio because that would be a waste of funds. Their current marketing communications work well for them because it is reaching the right kind of audience. 

Services Marketing

Angry Birds is a mobile game that can be played on an iphone, android device or even your web browser or laptop. Therefore it is a tangible good with accompanying services. The services offered by Rovio (the company behind Angry Birds) can be considered as the website as well as the customer support number provided on their website.
The website consists of a page for Support which has a list of FAQs relating to every product that they offer. The FAQs are quite comprehensive and they cover every possible query that one could have. If your question is not answered there then there is a section to ask them the question directly and they get back to you with the answer.

Product Mix

Angry Birds started off as one game but now they have expanded their product mix to offer several different games. If we consider their product line they have mobile games, pc games, console games. Their product depth is also quite vast for all of these categories. Following is the product depth for the product line mobile games:

Angry Birds keeps introducing new games and keeps adding to their product mix so that customers feel that they are being offered something new and different and it keeps their interest levels up so that they may download more.

Product Life Cycle

A new product progresses through a sequence of stages from introduction, growth, maturity and decline. This sequence is known as the product lifecycle and is associated with change in the marketing situation, thus impacting the marketing strategy and marketing mix.

Since the app industry itself is fairly new, there have been several gaming apps that have been introduced, gained immense popularity and died down. This is known as a fad. Angry Birds, initially thought of as a fad, has established itself as a much longer lasting product and can be seen as being in the Maturity stage of its life cycle.

Angry Birds was introduced three years ago. In the introduction stage there was a free or lite version of the app available to make users familiar with the features of the game. Within a few weeks of release, due to promotion on various game review sites, the app became immensely popular and its sales kept rising. This was the growth stage. Rovio would release new levels of the game to add to the original game and sales went through the roof. Currently, due to the stiff competition from other games and the large variety of games available to customers, the sales have plateaued. Thus Angry Birds is currently in the Maturity stage of its life cycle. There is no other gaming app that has been around for as long as Angry Birds has with its level of popularity therefore it is difficult to predict when this product will go into the decline stage. It could take months or even years, depending on the ability of Rovio to keep adding new features and keeping the game as engaging.

Market Structure and Competition Analysis

The most popular applications across platforms are gaming applications. They are the most downloaded and generate the most revenue.

Angry Birds falls into the casual gaming category and is classified as a puzzle game. From the time of its launch till date it has managed to maintain a strong hold in the market, although with time its market share is seen to be fluctuating because of the launch of competing games in the market.

The games that can be seen as direct competitors of Angry Birds currently (because of comparable prices and same game category) include: Where's my Water, Cut The Rope, Scribblenauts etc. However all of these are relatively new in the market whereas Angry Birds has been around for a much longer duration but is still consistent on the top charts across various platforms. Following is a screenshot of the Ios App store on a random day in the month of September 2013:

Buying Decision Process

Problem Recognition:

The buying process of a product starts when the person recognizes a problem or requirement triggered by internal or external stimuli. For the app Angry Birds, the requirement is entertainment. When a person (with a smart phone or tablet) is bored and needs something to kill time or just to entertain themselves, they may look at various games available in the market. The requirement could also be triggered by watching another person playing the game and downloading it to compete with that person.

Information Search:

The Personal search for this product comes from friends and family who have played the game. This is the most reliable source, if a friend recommends a game to you, you will download it. The other source is Commercial. While browsing through the internet one may come across ads for Angry Birds game or one may go on the app store actively looking for information about the various games available in the market. The third source is Experiential. A person may have played the game on somebody else's device and having experienced it, decides to download it for himself.

Evaluation of Alternatives:

A customer will have certain beliefs and attitudes about a product, based on which he will decide to buy or not buy. The general attitude that people have towards games is that they are meant to entertain, and Angry Birds fits well into this existing attitude. It is a casual game that provides pure fun. A person may evaluate Angry Birds against the alternatives available in the market, but the decision is based on whether the game has most of the attributes that a person is looking for in a game. Angry Birds is a wholesome game and has attributes like good art work, simplicity, entertainment value etc. These are the main attributes one looks for while looking for a game and this is one of the reasons why the game has been so successful.

Purchase Decision:

Once clear about buying Angry Birds, after looking at all the alternatives, decision Implementation is simple because Angry Birds game app is easy to buy, from online app stores.

Post-purchase Decision:

Once the app has been purchased and downloaded, it keeps sending push notifications and emails to users letting them know about new updates and news. This leads to post-purchase satisfaction as the customer feels good when he reads that the app is still doing well in the market and feels that he is getting updates and new levels even after his purchase has been made. The continuing popularity of the game also makes the customer happy with his decision.

Customer Value

Customer Percieved Value is the value that a customer believes he gets from buying and using the product. It is the tradeoff between what a customer gets and what he gives while acquiring and using the product.

Thus for value to be created, what the customer gets from buying and using the product has to exceed what he gives.

Customer Benefit while acquiring and using Angry Birds:

• Product Benefit- The product itself is an easy to use game. It can provide hours of entertainment and fun. It is also a quality product with good artwork and sound (important elements when it comes to apps).
• Services Benefit- Once the app has been purchased, in case of any performance issues, there is an option to contact the company directly and let them know and they will address these issues
• Personnel Benefit- Since it is a product that is purchased online, and comes through directly to your device there are no personnel involved
• Image Benefit- The Angry Birds brand itself has gained immense popularity. The customer knows that the brand ensures quality and delivers on a certain entertainment quotient

Customer Cost while acquiring and using Angry Birds:

• Monetary Cost- Angry Birds costs Rs. 55 for the iPhone and Rs. 170 for the iPad. It is quite cheap when you compare it to other similar means of entertainment. (A pc game costs approx Rs. 500; an Xbox game costs approx Rs. 2000; Rs. 55 or 0.99$ is the minimum an app can cost on the app store)
• Energy Cost- The app is freely available across platforms, easy to find in the respective app stores. Thus the energy cost to acquire the app is almost negligent.
• Time Cost- Similar is the case with the time cost. The app can be purchased with a simple tap on your device. The entire procedure will not take more than a few minutes.
• Psychological Cost- The psychological costs refer to the consumer’s mental stress or emotional labor during the shopping experience which isn't a factor in the case of Angry Birds.
  
  
  
  
  

About Angry Birds

Everyone who is familiar with the smartphone and tablet gaming scene has heard of the name Angry Birds. The game is probably the “largest mobile app success the world has seen so far”.

Angry Birds is a puzzle video game developed by Rovio Entertainment that started the Angry Birds franchise. The game was first released for iOS in December 2009. Since that time, over 12 million copies of the game have been purchased from the iOS App Store, which has prompted the company to design versions for other touchscreen-based smartphones, most notably those using the Android, Symbian and Windows based operating systems. It has since expanded to video game consoles and for Pcs.

Under the Brand umbrella of Angry Birds, Rovio Entertainment has launched several other products (other games) that ride on the brand value of Angry Birds. 

There is also a market for merchandise featuring its characters and even long-term plans for a feature film or television series.

The game has seen combined 1.7 billion downloads across all platforms and including both regular and special editions, which is quite a commendable feat.

Marketing Definition by AMA with reference to Angry Birds:

• Marketing is the activity (Demand Creation and Supply),
  
• set of institutions, and processes for creating (Products i.e. Apps, toys, merchandise),
• communicating (promoting Angry Birds),
• delivering (Products and after sale services including in app purchases and updates),
• and exchanging offerings that have value for customers (Brand Image, quality, after sale-services, Value for money, entertainment quotient i.e. Easy and fun to play), clients, partners, and society at large’.