MARKETING PLAN FOR ONEFINESTAY 1

MARKETING PLAN FOR ONEFINESTAY

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 MARKETING PLAN FOR ONEFINESTAY 2

Contents

Environmental Appraisal Analysis............................................................................................................ 3

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 3
Environmental Analysis ......................................................................................................................... 4
SWOT Analysis ................................................................................................................................... 4
a) Strengths and Opportunities ...................................................................................................... 6
b) Strengths and Threats ................................................................................................................ 6
c) Weakness and Opportunities ..................................................................................................... 6
d) Weakness and Threats ................................................................................................................ 6
PEST Test Analysis ............................................................................................................................. 7
a) Political......................................................................................................................................... 7
b) Social ............................................................................................................................................ 7
c) Technological ............................................................................................................................... 7
d) Legal ............................................................................................................................................. 8
e) Economic...................................................................................................................................... 8
Porter’s Five Forces ............................................................................................................................ 8
a) Threat of New Errant ................................................................................................................. 8
b) Threat of Substitution................................................................................................................. 9
c) Consumer Power ......................................................................................................................... 9
d) Power of the Suppliers ................................................................................................................ 9
e) Industry Rivalry ........................................................................................................................ 10
Target Market ........................................................................................................................................... 10
Segmentation ......................................................................................................................................... 10
a) Segmentation by geography ..................................................................................................... 11
b) Segmentation by demographic ................................................................................................. 11
c) Segmentation by Behavior........................................................................................................ 11
d) Segmentation by psychographics ............................................................................................. 11
e) Segmentation by Usage Occasion ............................................................................................ 12
Targeting................................................................................................................................................ 13
Positioning ............................................................................................................................................. 13
 MARKETING PLAN FOR ONEFINESTAY 3

Environmental Appraisal Analysis

Introduction

The environment in which business function directly affects the outcome related to the

quality of services that are offered by Onefinestay and the profit margins that are expected in the

same. Analysis of the business environment vastly reflects how the operations of the firm can be

designed to fit the market as well as provide benefits to the owners as stated by Malcolm H.,

Malcolm H., and Malcolm H, 2009.

Onefinestay is a company that was formed by both Demetrois Zoppos, Trim Davey, Greg

and Greg Marsh in September 2009 in London. The firm is designed to offer vacation homes as

an alternative to the fine super hotels that are within the state. It is responsible for offering high-

end home rental services to tourists and travelers who visit the state while ensuring that they do

enjoy their stay in London.

After the success of the firm in London, it was necessary that they spread their services to

other states so as to cover a wide area and provide their undisputed quality services to their

clients who were not in London. The Company now has been launched in many states within the

world which include Rome, Paris, Miami, Los Angeles and New York where they continue to

thrive and provide quality standards of hospitality to their guests and clients.

To efficiently compete with the marketing strategies of other firms, Onefinestay has

designed their powerful website (http://www.onefinestay.com) contains information pertaining to

their services and products while at the same time giving information concerning how the

potential customers may be able to book their services. The introduction of the website generated

a lot of traffic to them and they were able to compete and provide a way for having a virtual

marketplace.
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Onefinestay has designed their marketing segmentation to be able to accept categorized

groups of consumers so that they are in a better position to provide better search functionalities

in their websites for those who may wish to use their services. These groups are the family,

work, prestige and explore, which can be selected when booking houses through their websites.

Also, the company has provided images of their rental houses on their website where the

potential clients can be able to view the houses that they may wish to be allocated beforehand

which has had positive effect on the number of rentals that have been booked.

Onefinestay operates with both workers and clients who reside in their rental homes. As

such, the business environment that surrounds them is that of competition from other large hotels

which may offer the same that they do. The workers at the company are respectful and caring to

the clients and they are very welcoming. Testimonies from some of the people who have

experienced the services of Onefinestay claim that they are the best in offering hospitality.

Environmental Analysis

SWOT Analysis

According to, the SWOT analysis is a study that is undertaken to examine the internal as

well as the external environment of a firm that influences the internal strengths and weaknesses

of the company as well as other external opportunities and threats influencing the same. The

outcome of the SWOT analysis are essential for formulating a marketing plan, by comparing the

strengths and weaknesses that exist within the organization with the opportunities and threats

that exist in the external environment. Figure 1 below, illustrates the SWOT analysis of the

Onefinestay.
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Figure 1: The SWOT Analysis Diagram

STRENGTHS OPPROTUNITIES WEAKNESSES THREATS

 Fast reception and reply  Partnerships with large  No continuous  New firms that are

of inquiry emails. companies that expect improvement in coming up to provide

 Professional response to guests and visitors. technological development. similar services.

queries by clients that  Publicity through  Complaints by some clients  Growth of families

makes them feel sponsoring activities such that the booking process is which may provide

comfortable. as football and marathons. long. homes for their visiting

 Expansion to other  Embracing new families and friends.

states. technologies to come up

 Fast, responsive and with mobile applications.

unique website.

 Fairly cheap prices for

rentals

 International Market for

the company

 Free Wi-Fi and iPhone

for connectivity and

local calls.
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It is important that after conducting the SWOT analysis, the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities

and threats should be clustered and evaluation of the same undertaken to provide the necessary

recommendations. As such, the combined cluster for Onefinestay is as follows:

a) Strengths and Opportunities

The company may be in a better position of achieving their set goals if they would

embrace the new technology and design mobile applications that can be used in place of the

website. This is not to say that the website be put out of play, but the mobile phone

applications will be better since most people use their mobile phones. This can help in

ensuring that the company’s bookings are increased.

b) Strengths and Threats

The company should be in a position of ensuring that their prices are fair enough so as to

ensure that the people visiting their states are not enticed to book houses or rooms from new

and upcoming similar organizations. Additionally, it is important that the firm market and

advertise their services globally to capture the attention of the potential visitors and tourists.

c) Weakness and Opportunities

The firm can improve on the technology they use including the development of mobile

applications and faster ways of booking so as to ensure customer satisfaction and provide fast

and clear results for the booking clients.

d) Weakness and Threats

To overcome the threats that are coming up, it is paramount that the company organize

strategies that they can use to curb their weaknesses and undertake the opportunities that are

available for them.

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PEST Test Analysis

The PEST Test is an analysis responsible for looking at the macro-environment of the

businesses that ae beyond the control of the organization which can sometimes be presented as

threats to the firm. The test identifies all the social, technological, economic, environmental and

legal factors that may pose as threats that in turn may be of effect to the business.

a) Political

As the company is now operating internationally and has branches is more than one state,

the political influence may affected by the state that the branch is located. For instance,

increase in freight charges might lower the number of people travelling into a given state and

thus affect the income of the firm.

b) Social

Changes that arise from within the society may affect the effectiveness of a business.

Depending upon the state of location, the Onefinestay Company may be affected by the

social changes that occur in the same. For instance, instead of renting houses, groups and

families that are visiting the state may decide to camp in wooden areas and forests. As such,

the profit margins of the company may fall.

c) Technological

Factors associated with the changes and the development of technology may adversely

affect the services offered by the business. Faster means of transport may ensure that people

can travel within different states without the need of a place to stay overnight and thus

rendering the housing firm empty and thus preventing the same from reaching their set goals.
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d) Legal

The licensing and regulations boards for given Countries are different and they all have

different regulatory rules. Onefinestay, providing their services in many states, may be faced

with challenges from the local authorities of a given state. For instance, the taxation in

London is not the same as that in Paris and if one were to increase, it would adversely affect

the services of Onefinestay and otherwise be a challenge to them

e) Economic

The economy is dynamic and thus it changes over time. The economic factor may lead to

either an increase or decrease in the costs of services and/or products which may affect the

renting ability of clients. Families and groups may decide to do away with vacations due to

the hiked economic state and thus reducing the profit margins of the company.

Porter’s Five Forces

The model of the five Forces of Porter is a framework that endeavors to analyze the

competition level within the business environment and its strategy. The framework is based upon

the economy of industrial organization to determine the five forces that impact the

competitiveness of a given firm and how it can attract the potential clients. The framework is

responsible for generating the effectiveness of a given industry. The five forces are:

a) Threat of New Errant

Fierce competition in a declining market sets high barriers to entry. Moreover high costs

and imminent danger of lawsuits set the barrier even higher. The higher the barrier to entry in

the competitive market, the more it becomes harder for new companies to be formed providing

similar products and services.

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b) Threat of Substitution

If there exist some competitors within the market, then it is evident that there is the threat

of substitution especially to the one dominating the market. The Onefinestay Company faces

a lot of competition from the hotels and other similar firms that offer services of renting and

housing. Some of these firms may offer cheaper facilities compared to those of Onefinestay.

There exists the risk of substitution of Onefinestay with such organizations.

c) Consumer Power

The consumer holds the final decision and the in turn hold what the company may need

mostly; the funding. If the consumer is given the power to adjust the market prices, they will

do so by all means. With other similar organizations in the market, Onefinestay needs to

adjust their prices to be low enough to attract more customers but enough to meet the

expenses of the firm itself so as to retain more of the customers while managing to attract

more.

Additionally, the quality of services and hospitality the clients receive in Onefinestay will

affect how they will respond to other organizations. Positive feedback from the customer’s

show that the customers are satisfied and they would recommend the services to any other

person.

d) Power of the Suppliers

Suppliers of towels, beddings and other necessities that Onefinestay uses have direct

influence on the profitability of the organization. If the suppliers decide to raise the prices of

these products, then the firm will be negatively affected. For the company to avoid the

occurrence of such a risk, they can manage to have at least three suppliers.
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e) Industry Rivalry

Competition involves sharing of and as such, the profit margin sis lower. There exists

competition between the Onefinestay hospitality management and service facility and other

hotels offering rooms for rent.

Target Market

As the Onefinestay Company is growing, it is paramount that they target more markets

within their dominating sectors. Marketing is a form of communication that is aimed at providing

enough information to the current and potential customers so as to ensure they are convinced of

the goodness of the services offered. The importance of marketing is that it is a strategy that

helps organizations satisfy the customers, keep the existing ones while at the same time creating

new customers.

Two new target markets can be besieged by Onefinestay to increase the profitability and

increase their competitiveness within the industry. These two targets are the sports and students.

The sports category comprises of footballers, marathon runners, racers, tennis players among

other. They constitute of a large market especially because sporting activities are always

available during the whole year and thus they can offer a consistent market for Onefinestay. On

the other hand, the bunch containing students as well is a wide market since students are always

in school but for specified periods of time. As such, they are a ready and available market that

Onefinestay can ponder into.

Segmentation

Market segmentation is a defined process that involves the division of a wide range of

consumer and potential market of the business into subdivided segments of consumers based
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upon the characteristics that they share. Market segmentation is a crucial part of marketing as it

sub divides the wide range of markets so that the objectives become much clear and are easy to

achieve. Markets can be segmented in a number of ways and include:

a) Segmentation by geography

This is a strategic way of dividing markets according to the geographical location of the

market. The range of the market can be from the neighboring cities to global markets. The

geographic segmentation can be considered as a first step in global marketing. This type of

marketing strategy is widely used directly to identify areas that have lot of potential

customers.

b) Segmentation by demographic

Demographic variables such as the income size, socio-economic status, family size and age

define the consumer availability and willingness to use the products and services that a

given company is availing to them. The assumption, in this case, is that the purchasing

patterns, lifestyles, motivation and interests of the customers in the demographic grouping

eventually translate into the preferences of the customers.

c) Segmentation by Behavior

This is a kind of segmentation that divides the customer groups according to the behaviors

that are observed. The behavioral segmentation is affected by variables such as user status,

loyalty status, attitude to the product and the readiness of the buyer.

d) Segmentation by psychographics

The psychographic or lifestyle segmentation involves the studying of opinions, interests

and activities of the consumers. The study discovers the way people spend their time of
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leisure and the factors that are external that the customers mostly respond to and how they

affect the decisions they make. The strategy is able to provide valid information that the

firm can use to identify the choice of product and motivating factors for the same.

e) Segmentation by Usage Occasion

This is a segmentation method where the consumers are divided according to their

frequency of consumption of the given service or product. This approaches the occasion-

level and the customer-level segmentation model and provides an empathetic idea

concerning the individual needs, value and behavior of the customer under different periods

of time.

The segmentation method that can be used to categorize the sports market is the occasion

of usage. The sports take place during most of the time in the year and they do not all take part at

the same time. For instance, the English Premier League takes place from September to April

which may be a good time for Onefinestay to provide their services to the spectators from other

states and the footballers themselves. The market is readily available at this time and the

company can benefit from the same by liaising with the football clubs to recommend their

services in renting houses over the period when football is blooming in the region.

For the case of students, they are usually around the school most of the time, which

provides a ready market for Onefinestay. Along with the geographic segmentation, both

psychographic and usage occasion may be used in differentiating the market. Students may

require extra facilities such as study desks which may incur some extra cost to the company.

Onefinestay Company can, therefore, work with the available universities so that they can

recommend the housing and hospitality that the students may need. Additionally, they can also
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lower their prices so that they can be able to accommodate students and maintain a fair level of

profit efficiency.

Targeting

Positioning

Baltzan, P. (2015). Business driven technology. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.

Malcolm H., Malcolm H., and Malcolm H. Marketing Plans. 1st ed. Amsterdam: Elsevier

Butterworth-Heinemann, 2009. Print.