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Research Outline

Prepared for Nikita R. | Delivered August 9, 2019

Dots Marketing Analysis

Goals

To understand Dots marketing strategy in order to facilitate a meeting preparation.

Early Findings

  • Dots reported a $15 million in revenue in May 2015, the latest official revenue report available.
  • In an interview with Inc on November 2016, Paul Murphy, the company's CEO and co-founder, stated that revenue was on track to double in 2016. That suggests that in 2016, the company's revenue was at least $30 million (2 * 15 million).
  • Inc notes that the company's revenue in 2017 is about $35.8 million and that the company's revenue has grown by 263% in the last three years.
  • Our preliminary research suggests that data on the company's marketing spend is not publicly available.
  • Dot's CEO noted that spending on marketing in some months often results in the company making a loss. This suggests that one of the company's key marketing challenges is lack of adequate marketing budget.
  • A key part of the company's marketing strategy is having a good spot on important app platforms such as on Google Playstore and Apple store. The company's success in reaching consumers is attributed to its "prime spot in Apple's U.S. app store."
  • The company doesn't publicly release data on customer acquisition cost. Data is on Facebook customer acquisition is also not publicly available.
  • Dots marketing strategy is to focus first on retention before seeking to monetize their game. Once retention is high, they then use audience segmentation to nudge players into making in-app purchases.
  • The company employs the power of audience segmentation by "tracking information on the levels completed and previous conversions associated with each player, they were able to individually target promotional offers and adjust the price of particular promo pack to fit the person receiving it."
  • In addition, "they also deep-linked directly from targeted in-app messages to the relevant purchase page, making it simpler for users to complete their transaction, and used conversion and purchase event tracking to monitor successful transactions across a range of different currencies, supporting more accurate future segmentation."
  •  Megan King is the brand marketing manager at Dots.