Movvo: Marketing Location-based Big Data

Diana Almeida, Roberto Ugo and Suzy Vasconcelos, the three founders of Movvo, are confident that their technology to detect consumers’ movement patterns in enclosed spaces is now ready to go to market. Yet, to ensure a successful launch they need to solve several challenges. First, Movvo’s founding team needs to carefully decide which customer or customers to target with their technology. Should they develop services to better understand how consumers shop in retail stores or malls? Or should they focus on transportation and mobility applications (e.g. optimizing passengers’ flow), and if yes target a large market such as different urban transportation modes or a more niche market, such as airports? Second, the team needs to understand the competitive landscape and decide how to position their technology vis-à-vis existing competitors. Third, Movvo needs to devise a convincing value demonstration strategy. Specifically, Movvo needs to convince prospective customers of the value that their technology creates (not only “big data”, but essentially “increased wisdom”) while, at the same time, reducing concerns with privacy-related issues. Finally, Movvo needs to convince investors that it is able to monetize its technology. What pricing and business model will they propose? In sum, the case allows the discussion of typical key decisions faced by high-technology startups, namely the importance of careful, evidence-based, value creation strategy (segmentation, targeting and positioning), but also of a robust value demonstration (e.g. to overcome resistance to adoption) and value extraction strategies (to ensure the startup is able to adequately monetize its technology).