About Bubble Student
Discuss about the Contemporary Marketing Strategy and Management.
Bubble student is a student housing platform based in London and was launched in Newcastle in October 2017. This housing platform links students, investors, industry analysts and property providers. Bubble Student was founded by former and current students of Newcastle University with the help of specialists in student housing, technology and PR sector. The organization provides a mobile platform where they accumulate all the students’ properties at one place from independent landlords, agencies and PBSA providers. These platforms make it easy for students to access housing services as well as provide a good and ready market for the landlords and housing agencies.
The demand for housing among students is always growing with time due to the increase in the number of colleges and university consequently leading to an increase in the number of students. The students require apartments where they can stay as they go on with their studies since most of the universities don’t offer to accommodation services to the students and also most students prefer to stay out of the school environment. So many investors have invested in the real estate business in London mainly targeting students as the major customers.
The main customers for the Bubble Student organization are the students and the property owners who advertise their products through this new mobile platform they have developed. The target potential customers are students of Newcastle University and universities and colleges in London and its surroundings. The landlords and housing agencies want their property to be rented by the students and this mobile platform links them directly to the potential customers which are the students. The platform acts as an effective advertising tool and provides interactive interaction between the landlords or agents with their potential customers. Just at the tap of a button, the student can view all the available housing options available in the area and the range of prices they go at. This makes it easy for the students to make a selection and contact the landlord or agency for the appropriate arrangements.
According to statistical data gathered in 2017, real estate market in London and its surroundings was really growing at a higher rate compared to the previous years. Homes were selling or rented very fast, prices soared and the demand for housing was insatiable. The demand for housing is very high especially among students in colleges and universities, therefore, the Bubble Student platform is going to be the medium between the real estate investors and their potential customers which is the students (Kotler, 2015). The demand for housing among students is insatiable and this has been among the major problems faced by many students in London and its surroundings. Going from one housing agency looking for an apartment can be very frustrating therefore this mobile platform is going to eliminate this problem by enabling students to access a range of housing property just at the tab of a button.
The Demand for Student Housing in London
Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in April this year warned that UK house price indicator may hit a five-year low. The liquidity of the London real estate business has been hit by the several factors such as the government hiking the taxes property purchases and the decision by Britain to exit the European Union causing a lot of uncertainty. Mortgages are going to become less affordable in London since The Bank of England is planning to slowly increase the interest rates and this makes more people opt to rent. This is somehow advantageous to the homeowners since it implies the will fetch a good price for their property. According to UK Land Registry, £486,000 ($690,000) is the price for an average house in London (Mohapatra, 2017). Most people will opt for rental apartments since they are more affordable compared to buying a house. The real estate industry is expected to grow very fast due to the increasing demand especially from the increasing number of students in London and its surrounding areas.
The Bubble Student is mainly providing a service to both the students and the real estate investors. The mobile platform provides a central meeting avenue where the homeowners and housing agencies can post their property together with the prices the students can then go through them and chose from the available alternatives. With the era we are living in where technology is accepted very fast, this new platform is solving a perennial problem of students finding a rental apartment. This platform is going to make it very easy for students to access housing services giving them ample time to concentrate on their academics and other co-curriculum activities.
- To ensure that by the end of the year 80% of the house owners and real estate agencies are using the Bubble Student mobile platform to advertise their property to students in London and its surroundings.
- To gain a 90% usage of the mobile platform by the students in accessing housing property.
- To attain an income of more than $ 150 000 within the next six months by ensuring that they make the mobile platform so popular among students.
The Bubble Student through its mobile platform is going to create a unique and interactive interaction between students and house owners or real estate agencies and facilitate the process of students to acquire housing services. The mobile application which is developed by technology experts has a good user interface and allows the house owners and agencies to advertise their property using colourful and attractive images. The organization is planning to approach as many house owners as possible so that they can have so many houses advertised and with every property advertised and rented through the platform the Bubble Students earns a commission. The higher the number of houses advertised and rented or purchased the higher the income the organization will make. The organization is also planning to use social media and social networking avenues to ensure that more than 90% of Students in London and its surroundings are using the mobile platform. This is going to be achieved by ensuring that the house owners are advertising the quality property and at reasonable prices. Using good promotion tactics like awarding some discounts for referring new users and using direct advertising will increase the popularity of the platform (Ahearne, Lam and Kraus, 2014). This is going to attract more students to use the mobile application leading to an increase in income. The company is planning to provide customer satisfaction to both the landowners and the students through aligning the students’ demands and requirement with the house owner and other stakeholder interests appropriately.
Target Customers
Pricing is a very important aspect of any service or product offered by an organization and it depends on a number of factors. The rental of houses in London is flourishing compared to the purchase of houses because of several factors too. Most of the tenants make long-term contracts, the interest rates do not affect the rents, the supply is more elastic and the demand for renting is more elastic (Baker, 2014). These among many others make people in London prefer renting to purchasing a house. Furthermore, the Bubble Student organization is more concerned about students who are mainly in London for academic purposes and will relocate once they are done with studies hence renting is the best option for them. Bubble student is planning to have two categories of advertising for the landowners namely the basic option and the premium option each going for different subscription prices. The premium option is going to offer the landowners a guaranteed view for their property on the mobile platform while the basic is going to be based on the rating of the product by the students. Although the demand for housing is high, there is a level competition among those participants in this sector and the bubble student aims to use this to improve their income from those who want to gain a competitive advantage over their competitors. The subscription for the homeowners and is going to be on monthly based or annually and based on the actual number and the estimated number of subscription against the operation cost of the organization the appropriate pricing for the subscription can be determined to ensure that the long run the organization attains a significant profit and customer satisfaction is also attained.
The estimated monthly subscription is $285.00 for the premium option and $235.00 for the basic subscription. The mobile application is going to be free on apple store and play store where the students can download it but there are some earnings the service providers we pay the organization based on the number of downloads.
Since all the services are based on the mobile application, the main purpose of the organization is to look for many house owners and rental agencies as possible so that they can display their products on the mobile platform for the students to make a selection. The organization also has to influence as many students as possible to use this new mobile platform for accessing rental services.
Bubble Student’s Service
The Bubble Student organization is going to rely on a strategy promotion campaign to ensure that their new mobile platform attains the desired popularity among house owners, rental agencies and students. In order for the mobile application become so famous among students and house owners or rental agencies, the organization is planning to allocate some bonuses earned whenever a new user refers who introduced them to the mobile application. The bonuses are going to be used to give a discount on either subscription charges for the house owners or for the rental facilitation charges for the student. This promotion will ensure that the application becomes so famous since everyone will be striving to attain the maximum bonus possible and this will increase the subscriptions and user of the mobile application and consequently the revenue for the company will increas
In the current business environment, digital advertising is growing very fast and it is outshining the conventional mainstream media advertising that has been in place for several years (Armstrong, Kotler, Harker and Brennan, 2015). Therefore, the organization is going to follow with the modern trend by using digital advertisement through the social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. This will not only help the organization advertise their new application but it will offer an interactive communication with both customers and this will help the organization realize their needs and demands hence make the appropriate changes that will promote customers satisfaction which is among the organizational goals (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2016). Most if not all the university and college students are active users of these social media platforms, therefore, this will ensure that the organization advertise their new mobile application to as many potential customers as possible.
Branding is very important since enjoyed a good public image greatly boosts the revenue collected by the organization (Grant, 2016). The social media platform will not only be used for advertising but also it will be used for public relation purposes where the students, house owner or rental agency with any query can seek clarification from the organization. Maintaining a good public reputation and attending to customer query is one way of attaining customer satisfaction and consequently developing a brand strong brand that can compete with other firms in the same business sector.
References
Ahearne, M., Lam, S.K. and Kraus, F., 2014. The performance impact of middle managers’ adaptive strategy implementation: The role of social capital. Strategic Management Journal, 35(1), pp.68-87.
Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.
Baker, M.J., 2014. Marketing strategy and management. Palgrave Macmillan.
Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2016. Digital marketing. Prentice Hall.
Grant, R.M., 2016. Contemporary strategy analysis: Text and cases edition. John Wiley & Sons.
Kotler, P., 2015. Framework for marketing management. Pearson Education India.
Mohapatra, S., 2017. Case Studies in Strategic Management: A Practical Approach. Pearson Education India.
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