Does it make sense that Goomzee focused on the real estate industry? Why or why not? If not, what target market would you have recommended and why?
After a Stock market crash in 2000, American economy showed outstanding growth, especially the real estate market. Which, however, led to another significant crisis, now called a Housing Buble. Until 2007, housing prices were going up, new investors were involved in building new accommodation, while brokers and other property managers were enjoying their best times. However, cheap mortgages and credits offered to almost everyone resulted in the increased amount of subprime loans by 292% from 332 billion to 1.3 trillion during 2003-2007 (DeGrace, 2011). On the one hand, this situation looked as if a real estate industry looks very promising, along with rapidly developing new technologies, hence Goomzee’s idea to combine SMS marketing with the property sales looked great. But on the other hand, financial crisis started already in 2007 and was devastating for the very same real estate industry; which is why Goomzee’s project could not remain profitable during this period. Considering the market situation, I would advise Goomzee to focus on the financial or banking industry. For sure, financials faced huge difficulties at the same period; nevertheless, lots of customers were constantly tracking their account statuses, their stocks and shares. Offering them an option to do that via SMS services would become a beneficial business idea.
Would you characterize Goomzee as market oriented? Why or why not? If not, what should Goomzee be doing differently in this regard?
Being market oriented means company’s strategy should be customer oriented, while other steps of the marketing mix must be developed upon the solid market research. Advertising and promotion are as well important for the high-tech company as for any other since they decrease possible risks at the same extend as R&D methods do. (Mohr, Sengupta, & Slater, 2010, p.374). At first glance it may seem that Goomzee should have failed with their SMS service right after financial crisis in 2007-2009. Meanwhile, the company currently provides their technology to over 240,000 REALTORs and supports agent users in 49 of the 50 US states (“About Goomzee”, n.d.). This can be explained by the company’s people oriented strategy and focus on the innovative technologies. Taking into account data presented in the Real Estate Ad Revenues for Online/Newspapers/Other Media, 2007 and 2012 forecast, it was clear that real estate companies are looking for new ways of advertising, specifically, they were ready to increase their expenses on Online and Mobile adds (Mohr, Sengupta, & Slater, 2010, p.504).
Thus, I would state that Goomzee is a market oriented high-tech company, which, however, should be more precious in their market analysis. For example, people of 30+ years were sending only about 43% of active SMS, while they were the main target audience of the property agents (Mohr, Sengupta, & Slater, 2010, p.502).
Critique Goomzee’s pricing strategy.
Goomzee’s pricing was made in a High-low method, where package cost for shorter period/smaller amount was of a higher cost per item than those for longer terms. This can be explained by the company’s desire to establish long lasting relations. Another benefit of the company’s pricing is that several packages were offered for Individual and Office users. Even though real estate market was in crisis, prices were not lowered, as lots of companies were still eager to spend money on their ads and promotion.
Critique Goomzee’s advertising and promotion strategy.
Goomzee has chosen a targeting strategy of advertising and promotion. They tend to establish good relations with their clients and partners, which is why it was paramount to attract attention and communicate. They did a lot to gather client’s feedback, to mentor every customer and finally turn him from just interested to a loyal one. Numerous press releases, media shows, online adds, and blog were used to communicate with the target audience and in order to establish a reliable brand (Mohr, Sengupta, & Slater, 2010, p.505). As a result, these advertising, public relations, direct and digital methods were effective.
Do you think Goomzee will continue to be successful in the future? Why? What additional steps should it take to ensure its ongoing success?
As an innovation company, Goomzee should follow its people oriented strategy and keep developing their software and services in accordance to the modern technologies. At the moment, the firm remains one of the leaders in the US market, thus its brand and reputation are highly valued among customers. For further development, Goomzee may enter new market, like the European one for example.
References
Mohr, J., Sengupta, S., and Slater, S. (2010) Marketing of High-Technology Products and Innovations. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. ISBN-13: 978-0-13-604996-8
About Goomzee (n.d.) Available at: http://www.goomzee.com/about-goomzee/our-company/
DeGrace, T. (2011) The Housing Market Crash Of 2007 And What Caused The Crash. Available at: http://www.stockpickssystem.com/housing-market-crash-2007/
