Marketing, PR, & BrandingNina Bral ([email protected])
Luke Dortch ([email protected]) Yue Xuan (Kai) Liu ([email protected])Su (Zach) Zhou ([email protected])
Background Information
● free dating app
● launched in 2012 by Sean Rad, Justin Mateen, Whitney Wolfe, and Jonathan Badeen
● targeted college students who are already socially active
● did not to go the route of traditional marketing
○ individual campaigns
○ personally asking social influencers to sign up
● marketing campaign to target party-famous colleges
○ leaving stickers around popular campus bars
○ announcing at fraternities that hot girls are using the app, and announcing
the reverse to the sororities
Marketing PR Branding | Professor Cho | Fall 15 | Bral, Dortch, Liu, Zhou | Tinder
● operates on both iOS and Android systems
● Profile: connects to Facebook
○ first name, age, photos of choice, ‘liked’ pages from FB account
● uses your location to look for potential matches nearby
● swipe right to ‘like’ the profile you see or swipe left to ‘pass’
Marketing PR Branding | Professor Cho | Fall 15 | Bral, Dortch, Liu, Zhou | Tinder
APP
● when the profile that you ‘liked’ also
‘likes’ you back, you can start
chatting.
APP Cont’d● Moments
○ matches can view and ‘like’ your moment, you’ll
then be able to see who liked your moment
● Instagram-sync
○ view your match’s recent uploads and get a better
idea of whether they’re a good match for you
● ‘super like’
○ blue footer and shooting star icon will display
to differentiate you as someone special so the
person you ‘super-liked’ will notice you
Marketing PR Branding | Professor Cho | Fall 15 | Bral, Dortch, Liu, Zhou | Tinder
Issue Identification
● Privacy concerns
○ Spam accounts
● No filter options
● App efficiency
Marketing PR Branding | Professor Cho | Fall 15 | Bral, Dortch, Liu, Zhou | Tinder
Marketing Strategies: Statements of Plan Objectives
● To make tinder more of a
dating app,
rather than a casual hook
up app
● To target an older
demographic and serious
psychographic
Marketing PR Branding | Professor Cho | Fall 15 | Bral, Dortch, Liu, Zhou | Tinder
Brand Analysis - Demographics
● more than 50 million users
● 85% between 18 and 34
● 26 million matches per day
● 1.6 billion swipes per day
● minimum age 13
Marketing PR Branding | Professor Cho | Fall 15 | Bral, Dortch, Liu, Zhou | Tinder
Brand Analysis - Competitive Environment
Bumble
● after there is a match
● girls make the first move
● after 24 hrs the match disappears
● although there are a lot of
matches on Tinder, sometimes
conversations don’t even begin
● Bumble force matches to chat
Marketing PR Branding | Professor Cho | Fall 15 | Bral, Dortch, Liu, Zhou | Tinder
Happn
● GPS tracking
○ feed: prospective dates that you’ve crossed
paths
○ see where you crossed paths
● heart them or "charm" them = "I want to run into you
on purpose next time."
● radius set for Tinder profiles limit you to users
nearby wherever you are when you finally have
downtime to scroll
● Happn connects you with people who are conveniently
located anywhere you go
Brand Analysis - Competitive Environment
Marketing PR Branding | Professor Cho | Fall 15 | Bral, Dortch, Liu, Zhou | Tinder
● InterActiveCorp (IAC)
● Internal environment
○ sexual harassment lawsuit
● Cooperations
Brand Analysis - Internal & External
Marketing PR Branding | Professor Cho | Fall 15 | Bral, Dortch, Liu, Zhou | Tinder
Privacy Concerns
● Users have been linked to spam
accounts
○ usually attempting to sell something
● Regular users are able to report spam
users
○ although they have to figure it out the hard
wayMarketing PR Branding | Professor Cho | Fall 15 | Bral, Dortch, Liu, Zhou | Tinder
Privacy Concerns
● For the younger generation
○ Tinder users who simply don’t have time to waste
● Indicate profiles that have been reported as spam multiple
times to warn users
Marketing PR Branding | Professor Cho | Fall 15 | Bral, Dortch, Liu, Zhou | Tinder
Brand Positioning Statement
For a more serious psychographic and older demographic, Tinder is
a dating app that connects individuals through geographic
concentration and event planning.
Marketing PR Branding | Professor Cho | Fall 15 | Bral, Dortch, Liu, Zhou | Tinder
Marketing to an Older Demographic
● Since its launch: focus on the marketing strategy word of mouth, one of
the more successful strategies available
● Founders of Tinder host parties on large college campuses for young
students to spread the word about their new app
● Within weeks, students shared this new app by telling their friends,
family, and classmates
Marketing PR Branding | Professor Cho | Fall 15 | Bral, Dortch, Liu, Zhou | Tinder
Marketing to an Older Demographic
● As part of a new marketing strategy, Tinder should focus on developing long-term
relationships, rather than casual college hookups
● One strategy should be introducing a filter option for user’s profile which can
include more than just age and location:
○ Political views
○ Religious views
○ Job
○ Schools attended
○ Astrological sign
Marketing PR Branding | Professor Cho | Fall 15 | Bral, Dortch, Liu, Zhou | Tinder
One of the many problems with
Tinder is that users are not 100%
sure of their match’s intentions.
Many are just looking for a one
night stand or casual relationship
with no strings attached. For
people over a certain age, this
does not interest them as they are
getting to the age where they are
thinking about settling down.
Marketing PR Branding | Professor Cho | Fall 15 | Bral, Dortch, Liu, Zhou | Tinder
Marketing to an Older Demographic
Marketing to an Older Demographic● Incorporating Tinder sponsored activities (in Tinder Plus) that older users
would be more inclined to participate in, such as:
○ dinner at an upscale restaurant
● This introduces the concept of getting to know someone on a better level by
sharing a meal
Marketing PR Branding | Professor Cho | Fall 15 | Bral, Dortch, Liu, Zhou | Tinder
Pleasing Their Younger Demographic
● Tinder can please both of their user
demographics by having Tinder’s free
version include more casual
sponsored events
● For the younger demographic who
prefers:
○ cocktail lounge
○ sports bar
Marketing PR Branding | Professor Cho | Fall 15 | Bral, Dortch, Liu, Zhou | Tinder
Marketing to a Serious Psychographic● Tinder advertisements has projected
○ men with no shirts flaunting their 6 pack abs and
muscular figure
● May engage young women to download Tinder
● For individuals looking for relationships: lack humble
characteristics one searches for in a potential partner
● Use advertisements to demonstrate romantic energy
○ new demographic of people are bound to take
interest
○ review Tinder as more than just a hookup app: an
app that can truly connect people.
Marketing PR Branding | Professor Cho | Fall 15 | Bral, Dortch, Liu, Zhou | Tinder
App Efficiency
● Tinder should allow users to directly
upload photos from their iPhone or Android
photo library
● Improve user efficiency since its
philosophy is “simple and fast”
○ add Instagram’s function of reporting
photos
○ employ administrators behind the
software to monitor the files that
people upload
Marketing PR Branding | Professor Cho | Fall 15 | Bral, Dortch, Liu, Zhou | Tinder
Conclusion● Tinder is the most successful dating app for our generation
● Although they have grown immensely since their launch, they
should expand their customer base by marketing themselves to
different demographics
● By having sponsored events for different demographics, it
enables Tinder to market to an older demographic and more
serious psychographic, beyond “college hookups”
● Then they will the leading dating application for people of
all ages
Marketing PR Branding | Professor Cho | Fall 15 | Bral, Dortch, Liu, Zhou | Tinder
SourcesSmith, Emily. "Tinder Chief Boasts App's 8 Billion Matches." Accessed November 11, 2015. http://pagesix.com/2015/06/21/tinder-chief-boasts-apps-8-billion-matches/.
Walsh, Julia. "5 Dating Apps Giving Tinder Some Stiff Competition." April 16, 2015. Accessed November 11, 2015. http://www.mydomaine.com/tinder-competitors.
"What Ignited Tinder's Explosive Growth?" GrowthHackers. Accessed November 11, 2015. https://growthhackers.com/growth-studies/what-ignited-tinders-explosive-growth.
"7 Creative Tinder Marketing Campaigns That Will Inspire Your Brand to Think Outside the Box." Experience Management Blog 7 Creative Tinder Marketing Campaigns That Will Inspire Your Brand to Think Outside the Box Comments. April 15, 2015. Accessed November 11, 2015. https://www.sprinklr.com/social-scale-blog/7-creative-tinder-marketing-campaigns/.
Cook, James. "Tinder's Paid Subscription Service Could Ruin Everything That Made the App Great." Business Insider. February 26, 2015. Accessed November 11, 2015. http://www.businessinsider.com/tinder-plus-being-tested-in-europe-2015-2.