C105 SPR21 Marketing

Midterm: Just Eat

Study Group A12

Giovanni Fernandez
Juhi Abdul Latif
Juho Lim
Max Maurer
Andrew Porter-Price
Tara Waniganayaka
 COMPANY
Originally founded in the Netherlands in 2000, Just Eat Takeaway.com (JET) is an online marketplace that connects
consumers and restaurants and that makes the food ordering and delivery experience seamless. In FY2019, JET earned
€1.5bn in revenue by servicing ~48 million active consumers and 155,000 connected restaurant partners. JET’s wealth
of industry experience, highly scalable technology, and powerful network effects have allowed the company to be a
leader in every market in which it operates and to remain profitable. Over the last twenty years, JET has merged with
and acquired several properties to become a multi-platform service (including 21 local delivery websites) that operates
in 23 countries under various brand identities (see Exhibit 1 below).
As JET primarily hosts these interactions between consumers and restaurant partners online, their operational
costs primarily revolve around maintaining their digital platform and attracting and retaining both types of customers.
From there, the JET business model profits from the network effects of consumers having a variety of food choices
and restaurants having an abundance of customers. While the platform is free for customers to join, JET charges
restaurants a fee to be added to the platform and receives a percentage of each transaction that takes place.

Exhibit 1: JET History

MARKETING STRATEGY
Customer Segmentation
JET has two primary customers: retail consumers searching, ordering, and eating food as well as business partners
receiving, cooking, and delivering orders.
In JET’s current model, business partners can be considered both ‘customers’ and ‘collaborators’ – as they must
pay to be promoted on the platform and they simultaneously perform necessary upstream activities for JET to be
successful. While there may be some differences in how JET secures these partnerships, there is limited meaningful
segmentation between these businesses. JET primarily focuses on restaurants that provide their own courier service,
and they do not currently partner with any other type of business partner (e.g., grocery stores, pharmacies). The
marketplace platform JET provides creates immense value for business partners, including faster sign-up and
onboarding than competing platforms, increased access to consumers, strong order tracking performance even in
times of peak demand, increased order sizes, and shared channels to engage new and existing consumers.
Within the retail consumer category, there are five key segments which differ based on key demographic, lifestyle
and behavioural characteristics - ‘House Proud’, ‘Trendsetters’, ‘Entertainers’, ‘Time-poor’ and ‘Why bother’. A
summary of the retail consumer category and underlying segments are provided in Exhibit 2 overleaf.

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 Exhibit 2: JET Customer Segmentation – Retail Consumers
Customer Type Retail Consumers

Valued created • Increased access to local restaurants and takeaway options

• Convenience through reduced need for independent research and comparison, online payment for orders
• Strong performance through heavy investment in technology, scaleable platform that does not slow down in times of peak demand and
ordering, customisation
• Brand and status, meaning increased likelihood of ongoing access to reputable restaurants and takeaway options

Profile ‘House-proud’ ‘Trendsetters’ ‘Entertainers’ ‘Time-poor’ ‘Why bother’

Description Heavy and consistent
preference to cook at
home, may eat takeaway
as a treat
Appreciate new foods,
flavours and experience,
explorative
Appreciate the social side
of food, use takeaway as
an easy planned or
spontaneous way to feed
larger numbers
May have interest in No interest in cooking,
cooking, but have no time takeaway as a consistent
due to work or travel and viable option

Typical • Families or established • Individuals, couples • Individuals, couples, • Individuals, couples • Individuals, couples
demographic households • All genders established households • All genders • All genders
characteristics • All genders • Decision makers are • All genders • Decision makers are • Decision makers are
• Decision makers are 25-35 years old • Decision makers are 25-35 years old 25-35 years old
25-55 years old • Medium to high levels 25-55 years old • Medium to high levels • Medium to high levels
• All levels of disposable of disposable income • All levels of disposable of disposable income of disposable income
income income

Typical lifestyle • May be health- • May be health- • May be health- • Active, if health • Active, if health
characteristics conscious but not conscious but not conscious but not conscious, likely to be a conscious, likely to be a
necessarily a necessarily a necessarily a consideration in consideration in
consideration in consideration in consideration in purchase of takeaway purchase of takeaway
purchase of takeaway purchase of takeaway purchase of takeaway food food
food food food • Likely to care about • Likely to care about
• Likely to value • Likely to care about • Likely to care about sustainability and sustainability and
additional levels of sustainability and sustainability and environmental issues environmental issues
convenience environmental issues environmental issues • Likely to value • Likely to value
additional levels of additional levels of
convenience convenience

Typical geographic Mainly urban metropolitan or urban regional areas, within 20 minutes radius of partner hospitality businesses
characteristics

Typical behavioural • Very low frequency • Low frequency • Low frequency • Moderate frequency • High frequency
characteristics (1-2/month) (<1/week) (<1/week) (2-3/week) (4-7/week)
• High likelihood to • Very low likelihood to • Moderate likelihood to • High likelihood to • Moderate likelihood to
repeat purchase same repeat purchase same repeat purchase same repeat purchase same repeat purchase same
order order order order order
• Low engagement with • Moderate engagement • Moderate engagement • High engagement with • High engagement with
new offers and changes with new offers and with new offers and new offers and changes new offers and changes
to platform changes to platform changes to platform to platform to platform

Likely sources of Marketing channels - word
influence of mouth, social media
(Instagram, Facebook),
localised advertising (e.g.
branding on delivery
drivers), formal advertising
(e.g. YouTube)
Marketing channels - word
of mouth, social media
(Instagram, Facebook),
localised advertising (e.g.
branding on delivery
drivers), formal advertising
(e.g. YouTube)
Marketing channels - word
of mouth, social media
(Instagram, Facebook),
localised advertising (e.g.
branding on delivery
drivers), formal advertising
(e.g. YouTube)
Marketing channels - word
of mouth, social media
(Instagram, Facebook),
localised advertising (e.g.
branding on delivery
drivers), formal advertising
(e.g. YouTube)
Marketing channels - word
of mouth, social media
(Instagram, Facebook),
localised advertising (e.g.
branding on delivery
drivers), formal advertising
(e.g. YouTube)

Price – depends on level of Price – depends on level of Price – depends on level of Price – depends on level of Price – depends on level of
disposable income and disposable income and disposable income and disposable income disposable income
occasion, may be attracted occasion, may be attracted occasion, may be attracted
by ‘family’ deals by opening offers or by ‘family’ deals
premium pricing

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 Key Market Driver: Customer Values and Decision Criteria
While all consumers have unique needs, six key criteria drive customer decisions: coverage, variety of food,
delivery fees per order, individual prices, user experience (UX) and customer service. UX is a key decision driver, which
includes the look and feel of the mobile app or webpage, the functionalities such as filter options, food descriptions
and pictures as well as delivery tracking. Exhibits 3 and 4 below summarise how the five different consumer segments
described above perceive the importance of the six values. Based on the importance of the values, each segment
might choose and use delivery platforms differently. For example, ‘House Proud’ consumers, often families located in
suburbs rather than city centres, tend to choose a delivery platform that is available in their region, but order very
rarely, thus do not value UX as much. Comparatively, ‘Why-Bother’ consumers, often young adults with a high income
living in cities, order almost daily and thus value variety and UX more.

Exhibit 3: Value curve of different customer segments Exhibit 4: Positioning and value curves of main Food Delivery Players

Key Market Driver: Current Competitors and Positioning

JET is positioned as a broad market cost player, with a revenue of €1.2 bn and a Gross Merchandise Value (GMV)
of €8.8 bn. As JET has grown larger and expanded to more countries, their primary competitors have become other
international food delivery distributors such as Uber Eats, Delivery Hero, Doordash, Domino’s, and Meituan.
JET historically has differentiated itself from competitors by not offering an in-house delivery fleet, which has
enabled it to attract business partners in more rural areas where competing platforms might not operate because of
the cost to service delivery needs in that area. As a result, JET has compiled twice as many restaurant offerings as
many competitors and does not suffer from in-house delivery fleets, which can be a significant burden on profitability.
However, the increasing competition of Deliveroo and UberEats have forced JET to start to invest in their own in-
house delivery operations; a pilot program called ‘Scoober’ will operate in London and is expected to add 1,000 JET
drivers by March 2021. However, this move is largely categorized as a way to compete with Deliveroo in an urban
environment with still-untapped market potential.
JET further differentiates itself by having one of the lowest delivery fees in the market (see Exhibit 5), while prices
are set by restaurants and are comparable amongst all competitors. As a broad market cost player, JET puts less
emphasize on UX, lacking behind the superior UX of its competitors. In terms of customer service, JET offers a
mediocre service with limited customer service options, which in is line with its cost player focus. However, the
growing competitive rivalry and availability of food delivery services, make customer service an important tool to
retain customers. Deliveroo and individual restaurants offer a better service experience, with a wider range of
functionalities and personal support.

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 Key Market Driver: Branding
JET created its brand position as a thought leader in the sector of online food delivery service since the launch of
“Don’t Cook. Just Eat” brand campaign. The company hoped to change the people’s view of ordering the occasional
takeaway by using the strapline “Don’t Cook. Just Eat.” Instead of positioning the company as a food service, as the
company continues its growth into more countries worldwide, JET developed its brand with the vision to "create the
world’s greatest food community." This illustrates that the company aims to become a community for both consumers
and restaurant partners, bringing the entire Just Eat experience together, from restaurant signage through to the app
experience.
Since the merger with Takeaway.com, JET has evolved to a new look, in a move that further aligns with the identity
of its new global group. The new logo and colour ensured consistency wherever people can encounter the business
in any of the 23 countries where JET has a presence. The orange and white color palette represents vibrancy,
freshness, attention, and warmth and friendliness of service. Their pending merger with GrubHub (with its dominant
red branding) offers another opportunity to increase the vibrancy of the brand’s image. JET has also planned to sponsor
UEFA2021 as an official food delivery platform partner to further establish the company as a leading household brand.

Key Market Driver: Marketing Mix

• Product: JET has continued to enhance its restaurant selection by partnering with top brands such as McDonald’s
and Greggs in the U.K. and by piloting its own delivery service, Scoober, in London in hopes of adding new,
premium restaurants that do not have their own delivery service. Further, JET has invested in improving the UX of
their webpage interface and implementing testing of personalized recommendations as one of their strategic
priorities to drive retention.
• Price: Since food prices are determined by restaurant partners, JET differentiates itself by having the lowest
delivery fees compared to its main competitors (see Exhibit 5 below)

Exhibit 5: Price Strategy in the UK

JET Customer Fee: £2.0

Deliveroo Customer Fee: £2.5

Deliveroo Plus (monthly subscription): £11.49/individual, £3.49/family

Uber Eats Customer Fee: £3.5

• Promotion: JET has increased spending on marketing by ~739% from 2017 to 2020, increasing from ~€116M to
~€973M), and some analysts expect their marketing spend to double in 2021. This investment includes a campaign
launch featuring JET’s new orange brand images and American media personality Snoop Dogg rapping about a
wide range of food options available on JET’s platform. Further, JET has launched a range of promotional offers to
attract new customers (e.g., free delivery, 20% discounts on ‘Cheeky Tuesdays’) and is testing a unique loyalty
program to retain and reward lunchtime consumers in the UK.
• Place: JET’s main operational channel is through its mobile app and website platform. These platforms have been
improved by a technology-driven innovation and the simplified ordering process.

MARKET PREDICTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Change #1: Competition
The online food delivery segment has been increasingly competitive for several years because of the power of
network effects inherent in these marketplaces. These platforms serve as aggregators of consumer demand and
restaurant partner supply; the more that consumers participate online, the more restaurant partners want to promote
their products and services – and vice versa. However, there are thin margins generally, driven by consumers’ limited
willingness to pay as well as limited willingness of restaurants to pay a commission to platforms.

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 This has led online food delivery competitors to pursue different strategies. For example, SUPPER London
exclusively targets customers seeking premium restaurants. Other global food delivery competitors (e.g., UberEats,
Deliveroo) are exploring opportunities to rethink the upstream activities performed by the restaurant through concepts
like “virtual kitchens” or “ghost kitchens” – where the restaurant may not seat or service consumers on the property
and will instead cook several varieties of food offerings to exclusively deliver to consumers in close proximity.
In JET’s case, the company has succeeded in the market primarily through mergers and acquisitions. JET is currently
in the process of acquiring GrubHub, a major player in online food delivery in the United States. In FY2019, GrubHub
had ~23 million active consumers and earned €1.2bn in revenue. This acquisition is expected to reorganize JET and
GrubHub operations into a centralized North American headquarters in Chicago, Illinois – enabling JET to dramatically
expand its presence in a large total addressable market (TAM) in the United States. With this acquisition, JET will be
the largest global food delivery company (outside of China) by revenue (EBITDA) – totaling €2.7bn – and its primary
competitors will shift from European-centric businesses to global food delivery companies. While this consolidation
is beneficial for JET in several ways, the rapid expansion has also led to a brand identity crisis for the firm – should it
maintain local sub-brands or consolidate all of their various brands and technical platforms into one?

Recommendation #1: Promotion - Branded House

JET currently operates primarily as a house of brands. For example, the company operates as Takeaway.com in
Belgium, Bulgaria, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Romania, and operates as Just Eat in Denmark, France,
Ireland, Italy, the UK, Norway, and Spain. The impending GrubHub acquisition will add another significant local brand
to the company’s mix. JET will have to decide to continue to maintain these sub-brands in their localities or to
consolidate these sub-brands into one global brand. Either choice has pros and cons. On one hand, several of these
brands are known, trusted, and have value at the local level. On the other hand, consumers may fail to recognize the
company in another geography and instead use a competing service.
Because brand has a significant impact on competitive environments where network effects are pronounced, we
believe that JET should pursue a branded house approach. Consolidating the various sub-brands under one image will
allow JET to spread their brand identity globally. Further engraining the JET brand in consumers’ minds worldwide will
make JET synonymous with the core benefit of the service: the singular place consumers should go for any food
delivery option.

Change #2: Lasting Changes in Consumer Behavior

Consumers: Covid-19 has forced consumers to change their behavior, from offline to online consumption. While
food delivery and take-away were already popular options for some customer segments, others such as ‘house-proud’
have started adopting the online food services due to Covid-19. A similar trend can be observed across other shopping
channels such as clothes, groceries, drugstore items and other utilities. It is believed that the forced adoption of online
shopping will have a lasting effect on consumer behavior across all customer segments beyond the Covid-19
pandemic.
Businesses: Online delivery services such as JET or Deliveroo were established before the pandemic and provided
an easy option for restaurants to switch from pure offline to online services. Other industries such as groceries, drug
and utility stores had more difficulties to switch to online services. The lasting changes in consumer behavior will
make it almost mandatory for all kind of businesses to offer online services beyond the current pandemic. Building
digital infrastructure is expensive, requires expertise and poses a certain risk, thus businesses will continue to search
for partners that provide an easy and cost-efficient transition to online services.

Recommendation #2: Expand Product Offerings with Existing Infrastructure

The lasting consumer changes, leading to the need for businesses to find partners to scale online operations
provide an attractive opportunity for JET. With a stronger focus on building its own delivery fleet, its existing digital

C105 MKT Midterm – Group A12 Page 5

 infrastructure and a global customer base of 45mn users, JET has the potential to market these capabilities to
businesses and expand its product/service offering beyond food. When analyzing options, we considered which
product would be demanded by JET’s consumers to be delivered within minutes/hours, the kind of products JET’s fleet
could process, and which products would complement the current product offering rather than cannibalize it.
Therefore, we recommend JET to enter the grocery business and market groceries on its platform. The hybrid business
model would allow big players such as Tesco to list its items on the JET platform but utilize its in-house Tesco delivery
fleet. Smaller players such as planet organic could list their products on JET and use JET’s delivery fleet. Latter would
require planet organic to list items that could be delivered by the JET fleet and exclude bulky products or limit the
number of items that can be ordered. While groceries have a cannibalizing effect of JET’s core business, we believe
that the impact is marginal. Grocery stores already take a fair share of restaurants’ customers, thus providing
customers the option to also do groceries on JET would allow JET to capitalize on both industries.

Change #3: Consumers’ Environmental Concerns

There is an increased social pressure on businesses to have a greater focus on sustainability. This is further
corroborated by increased political focus on the environmental impact of businesses and the mitigation of this impact.
Both factors can exert pressure on the food delivery industry in areas like bio-degradable waste, net zero delivery and
the possibility to reuse/recycle waste. Furthermore, consumers are increasingly paying attention to how sustainably
their food is sourced, prepared, and delivered. According to a survey by market research firm GlobalWebIndex, 42% of
US and UK consumers seek products that use sustainable materials or are recyclable when making their day-to-day
purchase decisions. Uber has reinvented their ordering service, so customers have to opt-in to receive additional
items like cutlery and other single use plastics in their orders.

Recommendation #3: Product & Place - Greater Focus on Sustainability

There are several opportunities for JET to obtain greater customer loyalty, secure new customers, and differentiate
from competitors by increasing and promoting its initiatives in the sustainability space. There are a number of current
initiatives which JET should create marketing campaigns around including its removal of all single-use plastics from
online shops, its trial of seaweed-based, environmentally friendly packaging in London, its adoption of hybrid cars for
all deliveries in Denmark, its use of low-carbon electric Eskutas across a number of regions and its publication of
consumer and restaurant partner toolkits on food waste. This will allow JET to position itself as the market leader in
environmentally friendly delivery practices which will set a niche and appeal to several key customer segments,
including Trendsetters, Entertainers, Time-poor and Why Bother.
In addition to promoting existing initiatives, JET should cement its advantages in the space by adopting new
standards of delivery, product, and corporate conscience. This may take the form of a carbon-neutral or carbon-net-
negative target, the expansion of the hybrid car model to other regions, the adoption of a roll-out of the packaging
pilot, or even a broader industry campaign to encourage other food delivery brands to adopt meaningful
environmentally friendly practices.

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 REFERENCES
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<https://www.just-eat.co.uk/info/collection-loyalty-terms-and-conditions> [Accessed 9 February 2021]
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