HOUSING.

COM: MARKETING A SERVICE OFFERING

Group 1
Praveen Kumar P
Suneesh S

Housing.com is a Mumbai Based real estate listing company, established in the year 2012. The
firm was established by 12 students of Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, when they
experienced a worse situation, while searching for an apartment in Mumbai. The key players in
the real estate industries were, 99acres.com, Magicbricks.com, Indiaproperties.com,
Commonfloor.com. All of these players were very strong and committed, but the listings were
not authentic. Many of the brokers used these websites only to attract the customers. One of the
Unique Selling Prepositions of Housing.com was that, it provided map based search options. The
firm’s services were very excellent, in such a manner that they identified the gap existing and the
actual needs of the people. The map based service provided by the firm, would help the
customers to locate the properties on a virtual map. Yet another feature of the firm was that, the
firm will complete the entire registration process of the property, so that it will save the time of
the customers. Online rental agreements and home loans were also their usp’s. The firm would
also provide a list of bank schemes in their website, so that the customers can compare schemes
to find one that suited their specific needs.
In the future, the firm would like to add many innovative services to their customers. Adding
interior designers to the website, which would help the customers to design their apartment.
Similarly, the firm would also create a information hub where people would be able to compare
houses based on a lifestyle index, child friendliness index and old age safety index. They also
faced many challenges during the initial period of the firm, like subscriptions from property
dealers, and the complex procedure of listing a property in the website.

Even though the firm was a late entry to the market, due to their value- added innovations in
services they were able to attract good market share with 20000 paid brokers, 8000 builders and
180000 developers as clients. The company used local data collectors to get more data regarding
the listed properties, thereby ensuring the authenticity of the listings. Due to excellence, Tata
group contributed about 150 residential units to Hosuing.com as a part of their Tata Value
Homes Scheme. Housing.com was able to sell half of the inventories in a record time of one
week, which marked their excellence in the industry. The major reason for the firm’s success
was their innovations in the services, followed by unique way of solving problems, through
combining knowledge, passion and technology.

STP of Housing.com

Segmentation – Geographical Segmentation based on location.

- Psychographic Segmentation based on lifestyle, social status, interests etc.

- Demographic Segmentation based on Income, occupation etc.

Targeting - Online Buyers, Business People, IT Employers etc.

Positioning - Superior tech platform, making home search smarter.

Porter’s Model of Value Chain

Company – Housing.com

Competitors – 99acres, Magicbricks.com, Indiaproperties.com, Commonfloor.com

Substitute - Brokers, Developers, Builders

New Entrants - Sunteck Realty, Ajmera Group.

Suppliers - Brokers, Landlords, Builders, Developers

Customers – Online Buyers, Business People.