How to Market Mobile Apps as a Startup : A Case Study on Truecaller

Abstract: The mobile app market is continuously increasing and an increasingly number of actors aims to gain market shares in this business sector. At the same time the number of app stores with a significant influence on the market are few; with Google Play and Apple App Store as the major actors of the app store market. With few distributions channels, and many large companies with resources as competitors, it is crucial for initiated startups to find suitable marketing strategies in order to compete on the app market. This study focuses on startups which are in their earlier phase of existence and do not have an excess of resources. The case of Truecaller is of interest to mobile app startups in general because of its exceptional successfulness in a relative short amount of time. First a thorough research of secondary literature was performed to find marketing activities applicable to mobile app developers. These marketing activities were divided and applied by using the four P’s of marketing in order to achieve a perceivable framework which is possible to grasp. The marketing activities were reformed into open-ended questions which were conducted during the interviews on Truecaller’s Marketing Manager, and Release/Project Manager. The gathered marketing activities that were demonstrated to be successful by the case of Truecaller, which is the empirical example of a startup in this study, were structured into a marketing strategy framework. The central findings of this study were firstly that unpaid promotional marketing activities in form striving for customer reviews, social media integration and sharing functions implemented to the app should be done in order to increase the word of mouth spread. It is also emphasized to build good relationships with different opinion leaders and further on to send push notifications to remind users of the app. Paid promotional activities were found to be optional for startups in the context of this study. Secondly the central findings regarding the Product strategies were frequent updates of the app to remind users of its existence, strive for feedback, and try to build on network effects. Furthermore in addition to build a unique and functional app which enables a positive user experience, it is important to offer users instant support and to execute localizations strategies. Thirdly the findings of the Place category were the visibility aspects to choose an appealing app name and app description, have an attractive app icon and screenshots, and to choose effective keywords and categories. Moreover it is emphasized to ensure availability and compatibility by supporting several platforms. Lastly concerning Price it is important for startups to find their own customized strategy, but the case of Truecaller stressed the freemium pricing strategy.