Ch.18 Sales Promotion and Costumer Selling

How do the online companies promote special discounts and offers?


The revolutionary e-commerce companies have different promotional strategies such as :

• Free Merchandise

• Sweepstakes

• Free shipping

• Coupons codes

Most of the online companies have a physical product where free shipping and handling can be applied. 

How can companies without a physical product such as Facebook and Airbnb offer promotions? 

In the first place, signing up for Facebook is free. Most of Facebook profits do not come from promotions. Instead their high revenue numbers come from selling advertising to other companies who are promoting their products. On the other hand Airbnb offers a service and not a product so their promotions are mainly focused on coupons that come with specific codes that the user enters in the coupon box option when booking a place. 

Discounts coupons 

The best way to get a discount coupon is through a simple google search. The first results show numerous coupon websites such as “coupondiona.com”, “cuponsleo.com”, etc. There are several kinds of promotion codes like the ones listed below.

Off booking coupons: When a traveler decides to rent a place with Airbnb, the price listed goes down by entering the coupon code.

Airbnb: €20 Off on Your Next Airbnb Booking (min. €125)

Enter this coupon code when you checkout – EUROPE2012

Location coupons: Sometimes Airbnb offers these coupons on a specific country or city.

Airbnb France Coupon Code

Travelling in France? France $25 discount on your next stay on booking value of $120 or more in France.

Coupon Code – TOURDEFRANCE

Events coupons: These ones are offered in special dates and events, knowing that this parties are the reason of traveling for many potential users. 

Airbnb: Oktoberfest Coupon

$25 off exp 08/21 Munich only.Use code AU_OKTOBERFEST2012

New Hosts only coupons: These ones, offer discounts on transactions fees as a strategy to attract new users. 

New Airbnb hosts only

List your unique space for free and receive bonus credit of $50 at time of first payout.

Coupon Code – 4KZWAS

Facebook - Airbnb coupons: These one have a purpose advertising for facebook.

25 Off When You Register and Book Your Accommodation

Coupon Code – FACEBOOK

Click here to book and use this coupon

Free samples

Photographer for free: Airbnb hosts can sign up for a free photographer to snap professional shoots of the place that hosts are planning to rent. The intention is to compel travelers with nice pictures of the hosts properties hoping that this can help guests to make a purchase decision.

Property cards: These are giving for free to hosts for networking purposes.

Airbnb relationships 

Airbnb hosts play the role of sales representatives. When a potential guest is interested in renting a place, it is highly recommended that guests ask as many questions as possible to make sure that both, guests and hosts are in the same page and comfortable with each other. The ultimate consumer decision depends of everyone's expectations. Here are some examples of frequently asked questions of guests in Airbnb:

Are you pet friendly?

Are you planning to have some friends over? 

Is there any public transportation that I could use?

Can you low the cleaning fee?

Can we use your kitchen to cook?

It does not really matter what the question is about as long as the host responds to it. In fact, by answering any of these questions, hosts get points that boosts their search engine results and future sales.

Guests are sellers too

Not every new traveler is welcome. Even though Airbnb has a high number of satisfied customers, Airbnb hosts want to be cautious as possible without hurting their high growth. Guests also are welcome to ask as many questions as they want. They can even friend their possible hosts on Facebook. After all they are strangers and at least their profiles and history in facebook can throw offer assurance and peace of mind.

This is the way users build up a relationship with the other. Airbnb has a higher rate of successive sales because travelers get involved in an Airbnb culture.  



Customer service available now! 

Airbnb understood the importance of consumer satisfaction in business. Especially in this case, Airbnb relies on word of mouth that users will spread on its reputation. After having a couple of red flags over the last few years with vandalism cases, Airbnb implemented a 24 hours a day emergency service to help with any customers inquires.

Ch. 17 Advertising and Public Relations

Fantasy Advertising


How did Airbnb convince people to stay at homes of complete strangers? 

$

225

per night
The Seashell House ~ Casa Caracol

By showing nice pictures of places to the right target market. Travelers like the idea of getting the local experience at exotic locations, when they see all these pretty pictures and imagine themselves in these beautiful places advertised in Airbnb.  

Airbnb users seem to like the idea of being part of a community. When we split the equation, we can see that there is demand for new hosts in need of profits. Travelers need those hosts to fill their locations and budget expectations. They both need to trust each other. As a result we have happy hosts and travelers.

Airbnb unlike some of its competition such as Wimdu, decided to focus in the community aspect. It wants to change the way that people do business when traveling

.

“Travel like a human”

It is the slogan of the company. Clearly, it is trying to persuade people to be more sensitive and open their friendly and humanity personality when they interact with their hosts and guests.

Some of the hosts are pet friendly...How nice!!

Managing crisis with the word of mouth

How did Airbnb get away with the unfavorable publicity with blogs about ransacked places? 

An insurance policy with a guarantee of a $1 million. Surely this does not convince every person but apparently positive reviews and feedback do. We assume that every one of those 2 million users do not have perfect experiences using Airbnb. Sometimes, the services just do not fill their expectations. Impressively, most of them seem to approve it, or at least that is what their review lines say. 

Statistics based on user’s reviews, say that 40% of the feedback is directed more to the positive experiences with hosts and guests rather than descriptions of the main place. Users that liked the relation with hosts and guests, have fulfilled their expectations good enough to like the service and even better, use it again. 

Other good Strategies  

Photo and video ad campaigns

These explain how the site works. They present the perks and advantages of their service. With every ‘click’ on the video, every potential user is targeted and Airbnb make sure to  advertise him as much as possible.

“Farming” Craigslist 

Craigslist is a company that also uses listings to sell services like renting places. Airbnb uses spam accounts to track possible target markets. However, Airbnb’s real strategy to use the Craigslist is to encourage users to list their places on it, as an alternative to promote their places somewhere else besides Airbnb.

Product design and functionality

The platform of the website makes it really easy for users to get to get setup with their listings. Hosts have access to charge-free professional photographers to make sure their lists look the best to attract those travelers. It also has alternative links like the “wish list”, that offers a collections of people’s dream places. This among other characteristics help to persuade future users.

Ch. 15 Retailing

Retailing Marketing Strategies

Victoria’s Secret success is not a secret. The Lingerie company has a personal experience that is incomparable in pricing and products. Victoria’s Secret understands why it is so important not just to acquire new customers but also to keep the current ones wanting more.  

Location

The franchise is in more than a 1000 cities in the Unites States, and it's open from 8:00 until 9:00 pm every day. It started selling lingerie and now sells womens wear and beauty products. With several sub brands and departments the stores mark the difference in the competitive market.

Target market

VS business products come from various sub-brands for different target markets -- such as ''Pink'' and the ''Bridal Collection' '-- but they all keep the sexy appeal that characterizes Victoria's Secret as a brand. Pink for example persuades young girls that have a fun and adventurous personality whether the Bridal Collection reaches more mature women that are engaged into a wedding dream.  

Products

Victoria’s Secret sub brands include: The Miracle Bra, Bridal Collection, Pink, Body by Victorias Secret among others. Its product involve a wide variety of women’s apparel fragrances, cosmetics, sports outfits, bags, etc. 

The price is what I love

A single bra can cost even $60. This one like other products can go sometimes over our budget but Victoria’s Secrets makes offers look irresistible.

• Free panties coupons: mailed to every customer once a month.
• $10 of a purchase cards: It can make a big difference with a $20 bra.
• Annual Sales: Panties with an original price of $20 can be in $4 on Christmas or Thanksgiving day  
• Online deals: Off season products can be at 50% off and there is a reduction of the shipping cost after a purchase of $100 or more.

Customer Service

Behind every purchase there is a process that employees are trained for in order to make a purchase successful. They enforce the fitting strategy. 70% of the customers that try on a piece are the most likely to buy it. Customers that are looking for just discounts, tend to doubt their purchase, minimizing the profit for the store. Victoria's Secret employees are very helpful with sizes and every need during the trying on and fitting process. 

Presentation

The atmosphere of Victorias Secret is totally girly. The silhouettes of different colors representing the store, websites and catalogs products, match the decorations and feminine taste. The design of the platform in their website is practical and efficient. Products are well incorporated into and specific department . The environment urges clients to take a look and try out the products.

Ch. 6 Consumer Decision Making

Airbnb users go through certain factors before they make a purchase decision.

Recognizing Airbnb

Airbnb's product need recognition is based on two concepts: to have a nice travel experience in an more affordable place and also to make money out of it.  Airbnb's product is stimulated externally through advertising to consumers by creating these desirable ideas of travelling.  

Researching

Once users recognize the amenities of Airbnb they go to an information search. Like other online based companies such as Amazon and Yelp,  Airbnb relies on a external information source such as reviews of consumers who tried the company's services and want to recommend it to other consumers based on their experiences. Airbnb has a non-marketing-controlled information source because it needs an online review system to attract more hosts and guests.

• 

  Denise

  beautiful apartement and big room! especial position closed to the sea ;) very nice person!!!!!

  August 2012

Evaluating and booking through Airbnb 

Users make an evoked set regarding the advantages of the service. Once they decide to use Airbnb, they choose when they want to rent a space. Some people find it convenient when a trip approches or when they have the need to rent their place in order to pay the rent. Airbnb has various alternatives to choose from. From single bedrooms to entire islands, users can select what they want depending on how much they are willing to pay. Finally they are ready to make the purchase decision. 

User experience 

Airbnb has a large amount of satisfied users. Sometimes consumers' great experiences go over their expectations. They are not only booking rooms but they are also making friends. However there are some unhappy users. The possibility of getting dangerous guests and hosts are disconcerting but consumers try to avoid such thoughts and try to focus on the positive expectations.   

Getting highly involved

Airbnb users have high involvement in the decisions regarding whether or not they should be part of this experience. It is not usual for them to welcome strangers to their homes or to go to a strangers house. Even though they expect positive results, they are aware of the possible negative consequences.

Cultural Friendly 

The travel network emphasizes its costumer friendly approach with cultural and and social factors. It is of their best interest to attract as many tourists as they can and to promote a friendly atmosphere to ensure good reviews and positive blogs.  

  

Ch. 5 Developing a Global Vision

 

Global Marketing

One of the biggest advantages that online companies have is the ability to reach all the world with just a "click."  Yes, there are limits. For example Facebook is limited in communist countries like China, where the government tries to avoid mobs as much as they can in order to avoid its overthrow. But luckily for Airbnb there are not geographical boundaries to target different markets. Actually, the possibility of expand globally is in the company's best interest. The company is now in 192 countries in more than 19,000 cities all over the world. Airbnb is a global network of people interested in renting other places rather than just hotels, and these travelers are the tool to expand the company's market. It creates a cycle that starts with guests who become hosts that receive new guests and keeps going, on and on. 

                         

 Global vision 

Recently, Airbnb was all over the news due to its report of 5 millionth nightly booking. In 2011, the travel network raised $112 million and generated $1.3 billion in revenue. The company is just 4 years old and is already changing the way that people travel. Certainly behind Airbnb's success is it's Global Vision with various strategies. 

After a marketing team was formed, the founders focused on the development of the business in the Unites States. Once the managers knew the functionality of the market in the U.S, they introduced it to the rest of the world.
Airbnb learned its lesson due to past issues like cases of users homes been vandalized. The strategy to avoid this problems was to focus on the costumer service part of the company. With a call center and a $50,000 insurance policy, Airbnb believes that they will be able to avoid bad ratings and improve its reputation. 

In order to expand globally they opened new offices in new locations all over the world. They got more investors like the popular actor Ashton Kutcher and advisors like LinkedIn (a professional network) to work in the company's behalf.
Airbnb also tried to create a way to inspire users to travel. They came out with "Wish Lists", a strategy that refers new users to explore Airbnb when current users post their dream places on Facebook. 

The management team realized that Airbnb was been used for more than just renting rooms. Users started to rent out cars, parking lots and more unexpected things. This factor helped them to envision the possibility of a new market. Basically they want to become the new Ebay in a concept where users can rent all kind of physical assets through their service. 

Airbnb goals are on the right path. Hopefully very soon we will be able to appreciate a new 

concept. It is just a matter of time.