3D Printers Strategic Marketing and Marketing Plan 20171, Fall Semester 2013 Master of Science in Marketing Management Università Bocconi Lecturer: Deborah Raccagni Amore Bonapasta Alessandra, Ascoli Martina, Baggini Francesca, Cabrera Santana Santiago, Ferri Marco.

Table of Contents 1. Introduction

a. Product b. Company

2. Analyze 1. Demand Analysis 2. Competitors Analysis 3. Market Gaps 4. SWOT Analysis

3. Decide 1. Marketing Objectives 2. Marketing Strategy: 4Ps

4. Plan and Budget 5. Appendix

Executive Summary

This presentation shows an idea of a marketing plan for the consumer products of 3D System co. developed for Strategic Marketing and Marketing Plan course. A first evaluation of the product, the market and the company leads to a SWOT Analysis from which the marketing strategy is derived. The marketing plan is structured in three main objectives that can be achieved by specific actions on the variables of product, promotion and placement.

What are we talking about? 1.Introduction

3D printers are machines that make three-dimensional solid objects of any shape from a digital model. The printing process is additive, which means that successive layers of material are laid down in different shapes.

The models can be downloaded from websites associated with 3D printers bands and modified with a simple software available online. Printers upload the model through a simple USB port.

Product Introduction

Product Life Cycle

Product Introduction

Occasion of Usage

Product

Professionals Artists & Designers

Hobbyists Families

Aerospace/Defense Architecture/Geo

Arts/Entertainment Automotive Education Healthcare

Prototyping and Object Creation

DIY applications Ornamental Objects

Board Games pieces and Scenarios

Jewelry and Fashion

Practical Household Application

Toys for Kids Personalized accessories

Introduction

Product What can we work on:

Strengths

Social Creative

Practical Rapid Technical Development

Supported by an online portal where people can share, download, buy and sell 3D models

Gives the consumer the possibility of printing objects of practical use personalized and

use-specific

3D printing industry was born in 2007, but the technology was available since 1984. Every company launches on average one new consumer product. Performance are very easy to improve by the adaptation of other devices existing technology.

3D printers allows users to express their creativity by designing and producing a wide range of products.

Complementary Market High possibility of future revenues in the cartridges and software market

Introduction

Company

Holding Company Inc. founded in Delaware

44.5% revenues outside US

Research and Production in Switzerland, UK and USA

Subsidiaries in France, UK,Italy, Germany, Netherlands Australia, China, Japan, Korea

“No matter what your application, if you can imagine it, you

can print it, and we can help.”

Introduction

Company Introduction

Personal 3D Printers

CubeX® Cube®

Introduction

Focused on usability (plug and play, 25 free designs included, wi-fi connection with computer, simple and free dedicated software) and compact dimensions (26x26x34 cm, 4.3 kg). Max printable size is 14x14x14 cm. The only 3D printer certified for safe-at-home use. 16 supported colors. Prints only one color and one material at the time, but this is true for all consumer 3D printers in its price range. Not very quick: time to print out a chess piece is approximately 90 minutes. Ideal for widespread casual usage.

Price: starts from 1399$, it’s in the low price segment of the industry.

Cube® Printing Materials

Company

Introduction

Consumer oriented but more professional than the regular Cube. Its direct competitor is MakerBot’s Replicator 2, which has higher processing speed but is slightly less easy to use. Compared to Cube it’s bigger both in hardware dimensions and in printable objects dimensions (27.5x26.5x24 cm, roughly a basketball), supports more colors (18) and has higher print definition. Price: starts from 2799$, in line with the direct compet i tors with the added benefit of upgradability from one up to three colors.

CubeX® Printing Materials

Company

Company

Cubify Cubify is an online hosting and publishing platform providing simple-to-use apps for content creation, content downloads, cloud printing services, hosting for third parties and Cubify Invent software.

Introduction

2. Analyze What do we work with?

Demand Analysis

1. Analysis

2012 Growth 2013 Growth 2014

Enterprise $325 65% $536

Consumer $87 53% $133

Total $288 43% $412 62% $669 values in million $

Potential Demand Market development index= primary demand/potential demand = $ 87 million / $ 1,950 billion= 0.01%

Secondary Demand Market share for consumer goods : 4.4% Total revenues of the company for 3D printers: $126,798 million Revenues for desktop printers: $3,828 million (cube, CubeX).

Primary Demand

Demand Analysis

Consumers Sector

Consumer Profile Gender: Male Age: 20-35 years old Education level: Bachelor degree Interests: hacker movement, open source software community maker culture.

…from

to…

1. Analysis

Zoey Poole is an 11-year-old that doesn’t stop doing what she likes to do: making things on the Cube 3D printer! “I love to make all sorts of things with my Cube,” she said. Zoey is also thinking about starting a kids club  in her local neighborhood because she wants to get other kids interested in 3D printing. “My favorite creation to make is the shoe because it is just so fun to watch be made. I haven’t tried to design anything on my own yet, but when I do I will let you guys know.”

Competitors Analysis

Matrix of Competitors

Potential Competitors

HP, Samsung, Canon, Lexmark, Apple

Direct Makerbot, Ultimaker, RepRap,

Leapfrog, 3D Corporation Z Corporation

Delta Micro Factory Co.

Non Competitors Indirect

Amazon & e-commerce DIY alternatives

Parts on Demand

Sim

ilar R

esou

rces

/Pro

duct

s

Similar Needs

1. Analysis

Competitors Analysis 1. Analysis

Direct Competitors

MakerBot Replicator 2

$2,199

The Ultimaker 2 $1,895

Market Share of Desktop 3D printers producers

Prusa Mendel I3 $895

Creatr $1250

Competitors Analysis Demand Analysis Sector Analysis

Perceptual Map

Competitors Analysis

Abell Map

Benefits (What)

Personalization Usability Speed

Consumers (Who)

Artists-Designers Makers for selling Bricolageurs Families

Technology (How)

Compact Desktop Professional

1. Analysis

Sector Analysis Demand Analysis Competitors Analysis Personal 3D Printers

Sector Analysis Buyers

Consumers belong to a wide range of categories, very different one another. Companies have to deal with different necessities, abilities and preferences. Power of retailers: when entering the mass market, 3D printers company might find difficulties in dealing with mass retailers purchasing power.

Suppliers The products is usually assembled by the company and spare parts are purchased from producers. A very common technology is used so the choice of the supplier is not fully influential to the quality of the machine (low purchasing power).

Threat of New Entrants

There is a very high risk of new competitors entering the market, especially 2D Printers producers or other technology dealers that already hold a relationship with mass retailers, have a higher investment capacity and own advances R&D resources.

Substitutes The main substitute of the product are parts on demand, which will have a shorter future as soon as 3D printers will become more popular. Another substitute is e-commerce that beats our product in terms of convenience.

Industry Rivalry For now the market is not concentrated, it consists in many firms, all with similar characteristics, as well as a great number of smaller start-ups.

Market Gaps Mkt share= 4.4%

Mkt development index = 0,01% The market appears as severely underdeveloped because of the novelty of the product/technology but also because of the very inclusive criterion for determining the potential demand (every household with a fixed broadband internet conncection worldwide.).

Potential Gap =664,875,000 units! Competitive Gap=71,250 units

The gap between the potential purchase quantity and the actual purchased quantity is the one we have to focus on. This means we need to increase the number of customers. Action levers: -Product: the printing process takes too much time, the assortment of printing materials available to the consumers is too limited, the website has too little traffic and quality content. -Communication: the awareness of the product is too low and the costumers still aren’t familiar with its many possible uses. -Price: too high, but should decrease as production technologies improve

The biggest player are MakerBot and Ultimaker, who had first mover advantage. However we decide to focus on gaining  potential demand since the potential gap is way bigger and more relevant than the competitive one because this is a market that is still in its early development stage.

1. Analysis

Marketing Objectives What do we aim at?

SWOT Analysis 1. Analysis

SWOT Analysis

The table summarizes the most critical elements of the SWOT Analysis rated by probable impact on the company strategic position (Column 2) and the company response to that particular factor (Column 3).

SFAS Table: Analysis of the most influential factors 1. Analysis

Marketing Objectives

From Analysis to Marketing Objectives From the SFAS table we considered the following relevant factors for building our strategy:

W: Weak d ist r ibut ion channel. O: Market Growth and temporary absence of the product in mass retailers. The presence in mass distribution retailers is becoming essential to keep the pace of the growing market ) and gaining share with first-mover-advantage.

S: Experience in services and online platforms. O: Long tail economy and expansion of social media. Our online platform needs to be improved to surf the recent t rends in the society.

W:Low brand awareness O:Expansion of social media and technological development. Communication should be delivered through modern media. The consumer is becoming more familiar with online information research.

Marketing Objectives

Marketing Objectives

Market Penetration

Product Development

Market Extension

Diversification

Marketing Objectives How’re we rocking?

Placement

Promotion

Product

1. Product: Our strategy: Positioning /differentiation

Evaluation of product, service, brand impact on customer value.

work on the augmented product service:

We focused on the company online sharing platform because it is a key to move towards the usability of the product as well as brand recognition and gain competitive value.

2. Plan

1. Product:

1.Get social! Build a follower system and the relative dashboard. Allow the creation of collections.

3. Customize! Substitute the current customizing web apps with one like “Customizer” by MakerBot, which is able to handle multiple and user-generated designs.

2.User-Generation! Incentivize free user-generated content through contests and a “most popular” section.

4. Sort! Testing all the designs for each printer would be costly and time consuming. A way to bypass this problem would be to increase the number of free objects and keep the marketplace and the “free objects” sections separate. The possibility of sorting by dimensions would be an immediate way to distinguish the designs that are printable at home and the ones that have to be cloud-printed.

Solutions

2.Promotion:

e-contest We will organize e-contests every month, both to promote the website and to involve more people in the online community. Each contestant will be able to upload his/her own project that will be evaluated by other users through a rating system. The designer of the best project of the month will win 5 free 3D printer cartridges.

This strategy will also stimulate word of mouth and attract new customers.

2. Plan

2.Promotion:

It’s Retrofuturistic! Retrofuturism is based on the idea of taking

inspiration from the perception of the future

in past popular culture. Concepts similar to

3D printing were common in 50s and 60s

science fiction, now we see them come to

reality and everyday life, something that

didn’t happen for a good number of other

imaginary products.

e-advertising We aim to create a viral online movement made of short ad videos that can spread product awareness and stimulate curiosity of potential customers. The core element of the ad is a Retrofutristic concept, able to thrill the Generation X and all the sympathizers of the maker movement. Actual and potential users of a 3D printer are technology oriented people, so the main promotional tools are going to be online videos and ads.

“today is yesterday’s world of tomorrow” We developed a simple add with scenes from Star Trek and Twilight Zone to reproduce a Retrofuturistic theme. The music belongs to Hypnagogic pop often used in Retrofuturistic art works. S a m p l e a d : h t t p s : / / w w w. y o u t u b e . c o m / w a t c h ?v=0GavyqEZ0jg

2. Plan

2.Promotion Fairs and Events Taking part in fairs and business events is important to be up to date with the trends of the sector. It also enables the company to understand the demand and to network. There are several international fairs around the world that present the latests trends in technology and design, which the company should participate to:

Berlin

Milan

London, Paris, New York

2.Promotion

Project Evangelist "  Four total evangelists are needed: one in the US, one in

Japan, one in Germany and one in the Netherlands. By 2015 we they will be also in Korea, UK, Italy, Russia and China.

"  Four marketing directors, one in each country, are needed to handle the project. They’re already employed by the company.

The goal is to generate and develop positive word-o f -mouth, espec ia l l y in on l ine communities.

We want to base in countries where we want to enter in mass retailers but also in countries that we believe have an high growing potential in online sales.

Marketing evangelists serve as brand managers. They are responsible for crafting and managing the identity of a brand from beginning to end. Their input will affect research and development, customer service, and marketing, among others. Ultimately, their goal is to create memorable and exemplary experiences for customers.

2.Promotion

Cubify4Design “Cubify4Design” is a project aimed at improving the number and the quality of free printable contents on cubify.com and at building a better brand image. It will involve students of high recognition design schools. The students will be asked to upload original designs on the website and will be paid 5€ each (up to a maximum of 25,000€), the designs themselves will be downoadable for free. There will be monthly prizes for the most downloaded files. A CubeX Duo 3D printer will be given for free to each partner school. The company will invest 100,000 € each year to renovate the program.

3.Placement

Entering Mass Retailer Distribution: Where? Europe Is a strategic area for our company because here is where our production center of consumer printers is based (Clevedon, England). Europe offers a rich retailing market and short distance between point of sales. Moreover, the interest in design is here widespread and this area leads global trends in the field.

Germany and Netherlands: Germany and Netherlands together make about the 20% of Europe total population. Germany’s turnover worths 1/4 of EU total value of high-tech manufacturing and the gross domestic expenditure in R&D is the third of the continent, after the scandinavian countries. Retail sales per year in the area maintain a positive growth despite the economic crisis and consumer’s confidence rate is one of the highest in Europe. Both Germany and Netherlands are known to have prestigious design schools and qualified professional designers, therefore a sensibility for product creation.

2. Plan

3.Placement

Entering Mass Retailer Distribution "  Specialized mass retailer: MediaMarkt stores. Mediamarkt is the most successful specialized retailer in

Europe and will allow us to expand also in a big market like Russia. "  Germany: 235 stores "  Netherlands: 25 stores

"  A total of 288 Cube and 108 CubeX Duo in the Netherlands (1st year) and 2592 Cube and 972 Cube X duo in Germany.

"  We will approach Russian market in 2015 and Italian market in 2016 with the same retailer company. Russia is an interesting and growing market for new technologies and Italian market has been showing interest in the product.

Cube CubeX Duo Quantity Sold stores performance N. of stores Exposition To sell Exposition To sell Cube Cube X Duo

High 60 1 4 1 2 240 120

Medium 75 1 3 0 2 225 150

Low 85 1 3 0 0 255 0

Not  considered 40

Total 260

2. Plan

Budget 3. Budget

Budget 3. Budget

Sales values already include production costs and shipping costs, i.e. it is shown the profit of the sales, not the revenues

Budget 3. Budget

Notes on Budget

Selling price online and in-store will be the same, otherwise customers will mostly purchase online, giving no incentive to the retailer in selling the products. Consequently, the company will have an higher margin on online sales. However, selling online requires higher shipping costs for the 3D printers (no economies of scale), while for cartridges the shipping costs will be charged to the consumer Online sales will grow according to the rate of the market, i.e. +50% every year, For cartridges we considered that each of a 3D printer owner will buy one pack per year. We suppose that the costs remain stable for three years, while selling price will decrease in the following years due to increasing competition. We did not include expected inflation because we do not consider it as relevant to our market

To know more Makers, The New Industrial

Revolution Chris Anderson

14-17 Nov. “Knowledge, modi e mondi nuovi”

Museo della Scienza e della Tecnica, Milano