Kill The Company Paper-2

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University of Washington *

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475

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Business

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Feb 20, 2024

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Team A1: Hamda Abdi, Naomi Marteeny, Ben Philipose, Nasheeta Lott, Bradley Gilmore Professor Trapido B Bus 475 C Feb 14, 2023 Apartments.com is a subsidiary of CoStar Group which was founded in 1987 and is known to house the largest comprehensive information on commercial real estate. This information attracts tens of millions of monthly online visitors to one of their websites, these sites include: ForRent.com, ApartmentHomeLiving.com, Westside Rentals, AFTER55.com, CorporateHousing.com, ForRentUniversity.com, Apartamentos.com, Apartmentfinder.com. The website allows users to search for apartments based on various criteria, including location, price range, number of bedrooms, and amenities such as swimming pools, fitness centers, and pet- friendly options. The website also allows users to virtually tour property listings, view photos, and read reviews before seeing a property in person. The company is large and entrenched with revenues reaching 1.94 billion in 2021, this makes it vulnerable to innovation in the market. Generally, large companies resist innovation because they don’t want to cannibalize their existing products and customer base. Large companies tend to embody the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ mentality. One of the biggest weaknesses in the rental community for people trying to find roommates is the lack of efficient roommate-matching services or platforms. Many rental communities leave it up to the tenants to find their roommates, which can be a difficult and time- consuming process for those new to the area or those who do not have an existing social

network. Currently, there are no major players in the roommate finder rental market, many cannot match peers based on their preferences, likes, and dislikes. Currently, the online community for rental platforms consists of major players like Apartments.com, Zillow, Redfin, and Trulia. Currently, there are no options for individuals to source roommates based on preferences and match them to rental units they may be interested in. We believe we can “kill the company” by offering a uniform application for users to find properties and rental roommates in one singular area. Our team would kill Apartments.com by using our product tool, Tribe is a multi-sided social rental platform that combines roommate seeking with apartment hunting. Tribe's objective is to compete in the larger marketplace of an online estate while competing in the marketplace unique value proposition by adding the feature of also finding the ideal roommate. Tribe Online restate. Tribe is a social media platform that combines online real estate and finding roommates. Tribe was created to provide a dedicated platform that combines finding roommates and apartments. Tribe streamlines the process of finding a roommate by matching up users' online profiles with other users who share similar property interests. Tribe offers the unique feature of finding roommates as well as apartments. By implementing a side-by profile of both potential apartments and roommates. The first step of the plan is to manage customer usability. Apartments.com is lacking in ease of using their website. If you, the customer cannot locate tools on the website that is a major problem. Tribe will combat this issue by hiring an expert website designer who will create an optimized featured website with a bonus option to post side-by-side profiles to help customers find their best-fit options for the optimal interface experience. This would be the first part of creating a unique value proposition. The second part of creating a unique value proposition is creating a niche market for

our audience. Our target audience is college students 18-28 who are looking for apartments and who are looking to find roommates at the same time. Apartments.com lets anyone post on their website. But this is a huge weakness because there is no real screening process. Although Apartments.com claims that they are indeed trustworthy they do not specifically require any background checks or documents except your own “Lease” By requiring background checks and other forms of verification Tribe can increase goodwill and client relations. By going the extra mile and gathering this information you will be gaining a competitive advantage in the marketplace. The next step in our plan is building out our marketing plan. By creating a clear and concise marketing plan we can build better partnerships, and brand awareness and start to build up our startup portfolio. Direct partnerships with universities, rental property management companies, and influencers are marketing strategies we will implement to better reach our target market and increase brand awareness. Partnerships are a great way of attracting new customers especially when you partner with brands/influencers that align with your brand. A short-term strategy we can implement in the beginning stages of our product is pitching the product to college students in class and club meetings. College students typically fit into the target market of users ages 18- 28 that we want to reach. This strategy is a great way to save money on advertising and increase brand exposure as Tribe is a newer company. A long-term strategy we will implement would be to partner with TikTok and other social media influencers since we can reach most of our target audience through social platforms. There are a lot of influencers on TikTok who specialize in real estate content; these influencers often post content like apartment tours and listings. We can advertise our platform through these partnerships by asking influencers to mention our product and benefits in their videos, as well as use hashtags in their videos that have Tribe in them.

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One way we can better implement marketing efforts is by focusing on a more niche market such as small property owners. Competitor platforms such as Apartments.com and Zillow don’t seem to be catering to a specific audience and all other marketing content seems to be more general. There is less competition and it’s often much easier to market when focusing on a smaller niche market. Tribe can gain market expertise by focusing on small property management; they will better understand their market in ways bigger competitors cannot. Overall, companies that focus on a niche market have a more loyal customer base and higher profit margins.

Kill The Company Paper-2

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