Startups Stack Exchange Archive

How should I launch my easy-to-copy app?

I have an app idea that is useful but, unfortunately, really simple to duplicate. It seems that the best approach is to flood the market before anyone else creates a clone.

A few facts:

  1. My app will mainly appeal to people in their 20’s.
  2. It draws a lot of attention when it’s used in the public place it’s designed for. That should help it spread organically. (The only comparison I can draw is when selfie sticks were first introduced at VidCon, the annual YouTube convention. All these young video-makers saw people walking through the crowds with their phones on selfie-sticks, and immediately “got” why the product was advantageous and why they needed it! My app is not a physical product, but it has similar visibility.)
  3. I’ve got a very limited budget.

Given all this, I was thinking of launching & marketing it like this:

  1. Keep it under wraps while it’s being designed and built.
  2. Create great-looking flyers or business cards to promote it. There’s one simple image that shows both the features and the benefits of the app. (The flyers / cards will be used in step 4.)
  3. Try to make it available simultaneously on iTunes and the Google Play Store.
  4. Set the price at “free”. (Later on, I can implement some solid monetization ideas.)
  5. The day the app becomes available, have people through Fiverr.com distribute the flyers / business cards on college campuses worldwide.
  6. Also on the day the app becomes available, ask friends & family to download the app if they’ll be in a situation where they’ll need it. Also ask them to tell their friends.
  7. I live in Los Angeles, so pay some good-looking actors to download the app on launch day, use it publicly, and talk favorably about it when asked. (Note: As I was typing this out, I realized I could do that same thing in other cities with a large population of actors, such as San Francisco and New York.)

Doing a “worldwide launch” with a limited budget is probably ludicrous. Your thoughts?

Answer 11856

I think you’ve actually overthought the initial marketing. Chances are, when you make your product public, it will build it’s customer base slowly even if it’s great. I wouldn’t put too much money into marketing, since you might think it’s awesome, but what if the rest of the world doesn’t? As long as the customer base is fairly low, not too many people will try to copy it anyway (they might not see the potential).

In my opinion, you have to be more concerned about it being easily copyable when it’s successful and you have a big customer base. Your product will get attention from competitors that will copy it (because it’s easy enough) and extend it and possibly steal customers because their product is better (more features, etc.). I’d bring out the product, get as much user feedback as possible and improve/extend the product. The more work you put into it, the longer it will take others to copy it (and you might even add algorithms, etc. that’s not actually so easy to copy - see google). Additionally, the growing customer base might stay with your product since it’s a living product and their feedback is actually listened to.

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