Additional Questions
Who is your customer?
Potential customers
students spread across the various African universities
Market segment
1.Students(Master and undergraduates) as they would definitely need to reside in an hostel even as they study in school.
2.The working class group around the university area as they can also use our mobile web to buy/sell since they are still within the reach of students based in in-school and off-campus hostels situated around the university location.
3.Lecturers, university staffs also form a part of our market segment as they can also use our web to buy/sell items
Initial target segment
Our initial market segment are university students
Based on research, 90% of universities globally can provide hostels for just 25% of its student's population while the remaining 75% of the university's population(nearly all students of all institutions) stay in off-campus hostels. So, we can see that the problem of securing hostel-space is associated with a larger percent of the university's-population.
According to myschoolgist.com, Nigeria has 152 universities with an average of about 20,540 students per university while some as large as 90,885 students. Mathematically, we can see that the total users(students)are in hundreds of millions. Funny enough, that's just Nigerian university's population hitting millions already. what about other numerous universities in Africa facing this same problem?
UN magazine has it that Africa has the youngest population in the whole world with 200 million people aged between 15 and 24 years (of which 60% are university students ranging from master students, undergraduate students etc).
Let me now shock you. In Africa alone, there are over 3000 universities with an average of 38,500 students in these universities. Doing the mathematics, we can both see that the total number of university students in Africa is over 120 million; just imagine, 120 million students blind to the adoption of ecommerce(that's buy/sell of student items) and under the infliction of unbearable stress in securing their dream hostel. Unfortunately, this number will continue to increase as the population growth rate of Africa abruptly continue to increase.
7 how to reach, keep and develop relation with customers
How we reach them
1.ogalink will be widely publicized on blogs, websites, bulk SMS blasts, direct marketing and also integration into phones. Phone manufacturers will ship the phones with ogalink as a built-in app and onboard website.
2.online promotion-making use of adverts(featured adverts) placements to effectively create awareness of the services that our company presents.
3.posters and billboards would also be placed in strategic places to create awareness of our services,
4.social media(students most active-virtual environment) would also play an effective role in making this platform wide and aboard all over the place.
5.wild promo(free items)would also be used to attract students in using our websites
6.our website would be linked to the online admission portal of every university in Africa making it possible for new entrants to view and select their choice hostels even as they process their admission and upload admission requirements.
How to keep them
We would be in regular touch with our customers by opening up newsletters, and reminders for them to sign up to. This would also enable us carry out proper evaluation of customer's satisfaction even as we collect customer's feedback using google forms and also measure traction using google analytics.
How to grow them
Our webiste adopts a very user friendly, social interactive and gamification approach of directing its services. We give our active users free gifts, prizes and even scholarships. Users have profiles whereby criterion(like number of bookings, completed sales/purchase, number of clicks etc) would be used to determine activeness level. This strategy would go a long way to keep our customers happy and more importantly, propel them to constantly and always patronize us since they also have interest in the prizes and free gifts that we offer.
As an entrepreneur, I have got to learn that in building a successful business, costumer obsession or eccentricity is key. To this effect, we would also send our customers inspirational quotes, well wish texts, season greetings texts and lots more. With all of these, we are sure to have a company that incites happiness and intimacy into its customers thereby fostering good customer relationship.
What problem does this idea/product solve or what market need does it serve?
Specific problem solved
What a pity; for centuries now, millions of African university students continually undergo unbearable stress in securing hostel accommodation. Hostel accommodation provided by universities generally is inadequate. So, we have a setting whereby more than 75% of student's demand for good accommodation is met by off campus hostel providers. Yet, these off campus hostels are not properly organized, thereby making it very difficult for our dear students to pick out their choice hostels.
Here comes another problem that has for long lingered in the hearts of millions of African students. students(especially final-year students) find it very difficult 'disposing-off' their student-oriented items(gas-cylinder, book-shelf, reading desk, kitchen-utensils, phones, clothes, textbooks, electronics etc)after graduating from the school, considering the fact that useful time, high cost and overburdened stress would be greatly incurred in transporting these items from their hostels to their respective family homes. Their last resort is to sell-off these items but the greatest challenge lies in getting buyers for these items. However, a significant percent of students(especially freshmen) desperately need to buy these items. So, there is a very pressing demand for students to buy/sell;but no platform to initiate this activity-what a big problem.
UN magazine has it that Africa has the youngest population in the whole world with more than 200 million people aged between 15 and 24 years (of which 60% are university students)
Examining these statistics, you would agree with me that there is indeed dire need for us to help our dear students enjoy a convenient student living.
Do you know that some students end up missing lectures and even class presentations simply because they need dedicate 'adequate' time to trek miles around campus areas before they can secure their choice hostel? It has got to the extent that some students sleep around the school environs(garage, classes, lobby areas etc) after so many unfruitful efforts to secure hostel accommodation.
Let us not continue to watch our stduents bear pains in securing good hostel accommodation and in easily sourcing out buyers/sellers their student items, as these students may be just 20% of our population, but they are 100% our future.
What attributes will make this idea/product successful? Why do you believe that those features will create success?
Market potential
Instead of launching on a national scale, ogalink would be developed institutionally and our mobile web would be structured into Miniaturized websites across African universities. This market strategy of integrating these miniaturized websites into university systems but one university after the other would enable us to scale rapidly as we now have the opportunity to replicate customer behavior/values learned in one university into other universities.
Expansion potential
One thing that gives me great joy is the scalability of our company, ogalink. It adopts a model which I would call 'one time product, lifetime users'. Its an established fact that software products is a perfect example of scalable businesses. Talk more of websites-like ogalink, which unlike software products doesn't need cloning to accommodate customers influx. The fact that ogalink.com is a one-time product(doesn't need continuous manufacturing) capable of accommodating billions of users is indeed amazing.
Revenue potential
Permit me to say this great venture also adopts a 'one-time product, lifetime profits'. Once we completely seal up our development costs, what awaits us next is a warm hug of abnormal profits. We can continue to direct our services, accommodating billions of users for almost no incremental costs with innumerable profits constantly rolling out via our surprisingly large revenue streams(agent fees, Ads, delivery/escrow fees, Google AdSense, subscription fees, premium fees etc)
With this abnormal revenue model, we are rest assured of sufficient resources not to only keep our company afloat but to also support millions and millions of the less privileged ones that fill up our society.
Not labour intensive
Unlike manufacturing/consulting services, ogalink is not staff intensive as we offer our services using our website. Consequently, costs that would have been channeled into salaries is used for further expansion.
strong team filled with innovative and creative minds.
Each team member has more than enough to bring to the table since each and everyone of us has a well built background in different specializations ranging from brand experts, lead marketer, tech guru etc. You would agree with me that with this kind of team, peak success awaits us.
Explain how you (your team) will execute to make this idea/product successful? What gives you (your team) an advantage over others already in the market or new to this market?
Team
Elekwachi splendour: Business development and brand
Gives analysis and info on critical areas that contribute to rapid business development and brand power
Oluwa sogo: IT consultant and entrepreneur
Experienced computer personnel. With Mr sogo, we are rest assured of finding better ways to improve our internet of things, computer user interface thereby giving users the greatest satisfaction they could ever get from using our web
Simpa Francis: marketer and promoter
A publicity pro. Customers will surely patronize us as she is 100% capable when it comes to sales/marketing.
Measures to attain unparalled success
For ecommerce services
This business creatively explores into an enormously large, untouched and untapped market, that is, student-to-student buy/sell of student items. Unlike other existing ecommerce sites (jiji, OLX, etc) that are public based, that is, directs their services to the general public, ours is institutionally based(buy/sell is between students of the same university).
Consequently, this project would have its coverage in all African institutions and beyond but one institution after the other.
Hostel booking services
Here, we have competitors (gethostels.com, kampuslife.com). Nevertheless, students adoption to the usage of mobile website for the purpose of online hostel booking is devastatingly poor and critically low. The reasons are highlighted below;
1.unlike we, they are faster than their legs can carry them. They provide hostel booking for a lot of universities thereby unable to provide detailed/large hostel database for each of the universities. This thereby reduces wide selection choice for users
2.Uploded hostels, are usually expensive, finely finished hostels. Are they trying to say that their services is to just the rich? Well, for us, we desire that everyone both the rich and poor benefit from our services. That means beautiful hostels or not, even hostels with very low prices would be available on our web.
3.Competitors poor knowledge of effective and efficient marketing strategies.
the services provided by kampuslife.com is to some extent manageable. Unfortunately, they are far from getting traction as majority of students don't even know that such website exists for their use. Funny enough, its only operational in just one university, yet no traction- what a pity! If they can't handle just one university, I wonder if they would be ever be able to even scale to other universities in Nigeria talk more of the numerous universities spread across other African countries.