Earlier, we looked at a few examples of products that were launched successfully with creative marketing strategies. This discussion asks you to identify and share effective marketing strategies from a short case study about a WePay launch and from your own experiences with successful product launches.
Instructions: Identifying WePay’s marketing strategies
- Read the case study: WePay seized an opportunity for its launch when its competitor, PayPal, received negative publicity about freezing member accounts. WePay showed up at PayPal’s annual developer conference and demonstrated a massive block of ice with frozen cash and the message ‘Paypal freezes your accounts’ in it.
WePay wanted to assure its users that it would never freeze their accounts. Within about two hours of dropping the ice, WePay’s stunt was on TechCrunch’s front page. It also featured on other popular tech sites. The publicity from the exercise resulted in: three times more conversions on the stunt landing page 225% increase in web traffic 300% increase in signups. This was achieved with a start-up’s limited marketing budget. - Answer the following questions:
- How was WePay positioned and what was its main product messaging?
- What specific factors of their marketing strategy do you think made it successful?
- Post your answers in the discussion group.
- Respond to at least one of your peers’ posts by considering the risks associated with the WePay strategy and reflecting on other examples of successful product marketing strategies that you have experienced or learned about.
WePay positioned itself as a secure alternative to PayPal, emphasizing that it would not freeze user accounts. Its main message was about reliability and trustworthiness.
The success of WePay’s marketing strategy can be attributed to its timeliness, creativity, and ability to generate significant publicity. The stunt at PayPal’s conference was a bold move that captured attention and effectively communicated WePay’s value proposition. This, combined with the media coverage it received, helped drive conversions, web traffic, and signups.
WePay was able to timely exploit the of her competitor’s weakness and capitalized on the negative publicity by strategically positioning itself as the solution to the problem.
WePay’s message was straightforward: they would not freeze accounts like PayPal. This clear value proposition resonated with users who were frustrated with PayPal’s policies, leading to a surge in conversions, web traffic, and signups.
One of the factor, is they had low budgets which made high impacts.
WePay was positioned to by the marketing team to be the best alternative to the challenged Paypal. while the Paypal has lost customer’s credibility after freezing their account, WePay visually and verbally assured customers of not freezing their account. this is their major product message.
the factor that made this breakthrough feasible is the market research and collecting competitor’s data which was the biggest edge in improving their product development strategy.
it was a strategy and an opportunity window that was well utilized.
WePay carefully researched on PayPal and used their shortcomings as their main marketing strategy : better service and all time access to their accounts. WePay also made use of visuals and storytelling to sell their value : with them, you will always have access to your account.
From the case study, WePay uses the negative publicity of PayPal to push their product. Should PayPal decide to work on customer feedback and better position themselves in the market, WePay would have to come up with a better marketing strategy, or a new innovation to maintain their market share.
Wepay studied PayPal in the market as a competitor , looked at its weaknesses and capitalized on its major weakness, which is freezing of people’s account.We pay attended PayPal conference and described its features, customer’s problem and solutions to customer’s problem. That gave wepay an edge over paypal and they had customer increase.
WePay was positioned as a better alternative in the market by assuring its target customers of better service. It made a good use of the poor UX of PayPal to sell itself,
WePay was positioned as a better alternative in the market by assuring its target customers of better service.
Its main product messaging is to assure its customers that their accounts would never be frozen.
WePay considered using Visual Messaging in driving home its resolve never to freeze customers’ accounts thereby applying the effective use of media strategy for its launch.
It also adopted the strategy of Researching competitors, in this case, PayPal and used its negative publicity as a basis to profer solution that customers were seeking.
WePay was positioned as a better alternative in the market by assuring its target customers of better service.
Its main product messaging is to assure its customers that their accounts would never be frozen.
WePay considered using Visual Messaging in driving home its resolve never to freeze customers’ accounts thereby applying the effective use of media strategy for its launch.
It also adopted the strategy of Researching competitors, in this case, PayPal and used its negative publicity as a basis to profer solution that customers were seeking.
WePay positioned itself as a more effective and efficient product than its competitor(s) by leveraging on the negative user experience of PayPal to market itself.
The major marketing strategy is the timely and effective media publicity that came immediately they delivered their product message
Wepay leverage on the weakness of their counterpath. They were able to identify and articulate the target market segment, Evaluate the competition vizaviz the customers feedback. The launch was strategic and they key into it.
They do not care to splurge into building their product by using the A list publicity companies to advertise their strategy and it worked.