Ontela, a technology start-up company, has introduced an innovative service called PicDeck that

improves the mobile imaging experience for wireless subscribers. Ontela sells PicDeck to wireless
carriers, who in turn private-label the service to their subscribers. Ontela must decide which
customer segments it should target for the service and how to create a positioning strategy and a
marketing communication plan to promote it. It must also consider the value proposition of the
PicDeck service for wireless carriers (its direct customers), who need to be convinced that the
service will lead to higher monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) and/or increased subscriber
loyalty. Part A of the case provides qualitative information on customer personae that represent
different customer segments. Students are asked to develop a targeting and positioning strategy
based on this qualitative information. Part B provides quantitative data on customer preferences
that can be used to identify response-based customer segments, as well as demographic and media
habits information that can be used to profile the segments. Students are asked to revise their
recommendations based on the additional quantitative data.

Ontela started its operations in the year 2006. The company was established in Seattle. The
primary business of Ontela was to offer a technology service to the customer which would
allow the users or the subscribers to transfer pictures and other data from their cell phones to
their computers, laptops, email inbox and other storage devices. The technology was well
received in the media where the service was labeled as helping bridge the gap between
phone and computer. Basically Ontela offered its customers with the value to the end users
or the wireless subscribers by actually providing them with a rather easy to use mobile
imaging experience.

The company was expecting that the new technology will help to increase the client base for
Ontela. The business model for the company encouraged customers to transfer all the pictures
from their mobile handsets which was encouraging in terms of increasing the usability of
wireless carrier services. The technology of convenient transfer of pictures through cell
phones was sold to wireless carriers by the company Ontela who was actually responsible and
liable for branding the newly launched product and for its pricing in the market.

The business model made the subscribers to pay a monthly fees to the carriers for using
PicDeck service. PicDeck was the first offering or the initial product developed by Ontela.
Basically PicDeck is a software/application that transferred pictures from the mobile device
to the computer or laptop at home without a lot of efforts and time.

Problem Statement

The case Ontela PicDeck (A): Customer Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning
basically wants to identify the customer segment it needs to target for the service of PicDeck
where the company needs to create a positioning strategy to promote its newly launched
service.

SWOT Analysis PicDeck

Question 01: Based on the three customer personas, which customer segment should Ontela
target?

Customer Persona Analysis

Sarah Steve Regina

Demography
Age 42 27 16
Gender Female Male Female
Occupation Housewife Real Estate Agent Student
Product Usability Take pictures of Take pictures of Take pictures to
children and family houses to show it to upload on social media
events clients or send them websites
Mindset Not fond of Inactive in using Accustomed to using
technology technology technology
Customer Needs Simplicity Convenience Control

Steve the real estate agent

Based on persona analysis of the three factious personalities, Ontela with its product PicDeck
should target Steve initially. The reason to target the young professional is solely based on
the considerations on the basis of the company and the wireless carrier simultaneously. Since
the primary goal for the company is to create opportunity of targeting that customer which
can be the most beneficial for the company.

Steve in this regard is the most appropriate target for the company because Ontela can focus
on those individuals and personalities who are not technology driven, but for various
purposes such as, business need to use it. Steve being a real estate agent needs to send
pictures to the customers to show them the apartments and different houses. Along with this,
Steve will also need to upgrade his mobile handset where he will need to subscribe with the
data services that will have better or the higher margins. This will again be a positive thing
for PicDeck to actually focus on targeting on Steve in the initial phase.

As the case states, Steve is not a technology driven person, in fact he is someone who uses
technology for professional use therefore, and PicDeck would not need to upgrade its services
on regular basis. If the company would have targeted Regina initially, they would have
required to integrate new technology rapidly because todays teenagers like innovation where
they do not stick to one single technology for a long period. Keeping this element in mind,
Steve become a reasonable option because he does not need innovation regularly, secondly he
is someone who needs this service because of the timing issues, where Steve needs to work
on weekends also.

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your own originally done case solution.

Ontela, technology start-up company, introduced an innovative service called PicDeck, which
improves images for mobile wireless subscribers. Ontela PicDeck sells wireless, which in
turn are private-label services to their subscribers. Ontela must decide which customer
segments it should target the maintenance and creation of positioning strategy and marketing
communications plan to promote it. You should also consider the value proposition PicDeck
services for wireless carriers (its direct customers) who need to be convinced that the service
will increase the average revenue per user (ARPU) and / or an increase in customer loyalty.
Part of the case provides qualitative information on the customer characters that represent
different segments of customers. Students are asked to develop guidance and positioning
strategy based on this qualitative information. Part B contains quantitative data on customer
preferences, which can be used to identify a response based on customer segments, as well as
demographic and media habits of information that can be used for profiling segments.
Students are asked to review their recommendations based on additional quantitative data.
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Mohanbir by Sony, Kent Grayson, Patrick Duprss, Christine Hsu, Ryan Metzger, Fuminari
Obuchi Arum Sundaram, Kari Wilson Source: Kellogg School Management 7 pages.
Publication Date: 01 December 2009. Prod. #: KEL450-PDF-ENG

Question 02: Create a positioning statement for your chosen target persona and identify the
key themes thatshould be emphasized in the messaging for the PicDeck service to this
segment.

Position Statement (Choose the best one)

Position Statement: Facing trouble sharing pictures??? You know where to go,
PickDeck!!!!

Position Statement: Picture sharing was never so easy PickDeck has made it for u!!!

Position Statement: You dont share pictures You PickDeck it!!!

Position Statement:Share through PickDeck if you really care!!!

Key Themes

The key themes which Ontela should focus on while promoting PickDeck to the potential
target market, is the category or the segment of young individuals should emphasize on the
following theme. Since the selected target persona is young individual Steve who is not well
acquainted to the latest technology trend and is rather a simple person who does not have
enough time to explore new technologies and learn about them.

Therefore, the key theme to attract this category or segment, Ontela with its brand PicDeck
should inform the target audience about the attribute of PicDeck as a convenient and easy to
use software which can allow them to send the pictures to potential customers rapidly. Along
with this, another message which should be delivered or portrayed by Ontela should be the
value proposition of the brand. It should inform the target audience about the reliability and
the ability of PicDeck to send photos rather quickly and easily with no transferring time at all.

Along with this, the company Ontela should also deliver the message in which they introduce
the photo editing option also. This will again add value to the product PicDeck. The proposed
plan is not a difficult task to achieve for the company because Ontela has already developed a
venture with Picasa.

Question 03: What are the risks of using qualitative personas to select target customer
segments?

The risk of using qualitative personas to select target customer is that the qualitative data or
persona is considered as a risky move because it does not give the exact figure or calculation
of the selected persona. The data extracted through qualitative method can be misread and
misinterpreted by the respective personas. For example, the qualitative data is more often
than not the biased solution or the biased interpretation of any particular data.

In case of young professional who is a real estate agent is the target market or the persona
which is not a very frequent user of the innovative or the new technology, and he should not
be considered as the only target or the persona market for PickDeck because eventually for
now he might be the potential market. But in the long run, with quantitative analysis the
results might change and turn in favor of the other two candidates or target markets discussed
in the case. Therefore, it can be said that judging the target market via qualitative data or
analysis can be a risky move.Along with this, if numeric data is not discussed or analyzed, it
eventually is a biased analysis because of the lack of overall impact of the persona market.
Therefore, to come to a conclusion it is necessary to analyze the situation through qualitative
and quantitative analysis so that the result could be unbiased and could serve the long term
needs of the company Ontela with its new product PickDeck.

Along with this, another risk for using qualitative personas to select target customer segments
is thatthey do not provide the details of all the targeted markets. Sales objectives to be
achieved based on the qualitative data is a risky move itself because eventually the company
Ontela will not be able to find the appropriate solution to the problem.

Conclusion

Finally it can be said that, as per the case the selected target market or the persona should be
to initially target Steve the young real estate agent to become active user of PickDeck
launched by Ontela. The reason is simple, Steve is the most appropriate person to initially
target because he is someone who is not an active member when it comes to using latest
technologies. In fact, he does not have enough time to use innovative and new technologies
because of the tough working hours and schedule where he has to work on weekends also.
Keeping this in mind and since Steve is an educated person, Ontela should focus on selling
PickDeck to this customer segment who is basically looking for convenient goods which can
be easy to use and efficient.

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Assignment Questions

1. Based on the three customer personas, which customer segment should Ontela target?
In order to increase the use of wireless carrier service and average revenue per user (ARPU), Ontela
conducted a research to select the right Personas, which determines their resources allocation.

Based on these criteria, Regina, the teenager should be considered as the primary target. The size of
the segment is big and wide. As Teenagers generation is the generation of Internet, teenagers have
always been extremely sensitive to Internet trend and will always be looking for the latest device or
application to catch the trend. Ontela PicDecks ability to link all devices instantly would most
definitely attract their attention and thus, could be introduce by them to their parents (segment
Sarah). Compares to segment Steven and Sarah, its the quickest way to increase revenue and attract
social attentions.

2. Create a positioning statement for your chosen target persona and identify the key themes that
should be emphasized in the messaging for the PicDeck service to this segment.
Positioning statement: Do you love to take photos with your phone? Have you been frustrated to
manually transferring photos off your phone? Ontelass PicDeck is a quality innovative service that
could easily transfer pictures off camera phones by automatically uploading those to a desktop, e-
mail or favorite photo sharing and social networking sites with no click and best price.

Since the target group is already well acquainted withp many of the recent technologies. Key themes
should stressing the effortlessness of PicDeck that it automatically delivers pictures to designated
locations and that this service is convenient in that it can be accessed anytime, anywhere. Its easy
to send and save photos in one click and share with friends & family instantly.

3. What are the risks of using qualitative personas to select target customer segments?

The main risk of using qualitative personas to select target customer segment is that it is assumed
that the persona is representative of the entire segment. It ignores the misrepresented, for example
a young professional could be a frequent user of the newest technologies and could actively seek
better technology solutions to improve his life or a teenager could not be as active as his/her peers
on social media or in sharing photos.
3----------------------------------------------

Assignment Questions

1. Based on the three customer personas, which customer segment should Ontela target?
In order to increase the use of wireless carrier service and average revenue per user (ARPU), Ontela
conducted a research to select the right Personas, which determines their resources allocation.

Based on these criteria, Regina, the teenager should be considered as the primary target. The size of
the segment is big and wide. As Teenagers generation is the generation of Internet, teenagers have
always been extremely sensitive to Internet trend and will always be looking for the latest device or
application to catch the trend. Ontela PicDecks ability to link all devices instantly would most
definitely attract their attention and thus, could be introduce by them to their parents (segment
Sarah). Compares to segment Steven and Sarah, its the quickest way to increase revenue and attract
social attentions.

2. Create a positioning statement for your chosen target persona and identify the key themes that
should be emphasized in the messaging for the PicDeck service to this segment.
Positioning statement: Do you love to take photos with your phone? Have you been frustrated to
manually transferring photos off your phone? Ontelass PicDeck is a quality innovative service that
could easily transfer pictures off camera phones by automatically uploading those to a desktop, e-
mail or favorite photo sharing and social networking sites with no click and best price.

Since the target group is already well acquainted withp many of the recent technologies. Key themes
should stressing the effortlessness of PicDeck that it automatically delivers pictures to designated
locations and that this service is convenient in that it can be accessed anytime, anywhere. Its easy
to send and save photos in one click and share with friends & family instantly.

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