Boosting Social Media and Market Appeal for an On-Campus Scooter Business
Situation:
Our client comes from a UX background and wanted to create a business that serves a niche in the community of his university. He developed the business model and created the user interface and employee management system to do an initial beta launch of the business with his business partner in the fall of 2022.
However, our client struggled to gain traction in the community and wanted to garner a frequent user base. In addition, our client faced staffing problems that lead to inconsistent operating hours which also had an impact on user acquisition. Our client wanted to understand how to position their business to not only target but also utilize the local university’s student body to only grow their usership base and their employee roster.
Challenge:
The core challenge of this project was to understand how we could facilitate more of the university students using the app, while also utilizing that same population to staff the business during operating hours. Our client wanted us to focus on developing a robust marketing campaign that was two fold: one, to encourage students to use the service, and two to encourage students to become drivers to provide a better service.
To better understand their current marketing efforts, as well as ways the business could more effectively target the student body, the team conducted full marketing review that included an analysis of both the physical and social media marketing efforts currently in place, as well as conducted research on not only the Georgetown population, but also the university’s policy on posted advertisements.
Approach
With the team’s focus on providing a comprehensive set of recommendations to bolster their social media presence and brand recognition in addition to providing recommendations that have the potential to grow their customer and employee base, the team took a four pronged approach.
To start, the Rem team reviewed the social media analytics, compiled consumer data to locate their target audience, engaged with digital marketing strategies, conducted a SWOT analysis to establish a brand image, and finished off with a competitor analysis. We used social media analytics to understand the past and current best practices for customer engagement.
Then the team provided recommendations to augment the current Student Ambassador program to include the utilization of NIL deals with varsity athletes on campus, as well as a performance metric to not only evaluate but incentivise the ambassadors to engage more with the Georgetown student body.
The team identified opportunities to utilize on campus events to generate interest in the service, as well as developed detailed activity plans for on campus physical marketing and employee acquisition and engagement.
The final prong was researching the most common convenience store items bought by college students, as well as polled current Georgetown students to provide a detailed list of new product offerings that would make the service more desirable to the target audience.
Impact
Through in-depth research and analysis, the Rem and Company team was able to provide the client with a core set of recommendations:
The first recommendation was to utilize a cross platform management system using a 1 week content calendar created by the team. This would facilitate a more robust and effective online marketing campaign aimed at increasing the current rate of user acquisition. The second recommendation was a detailed list of events and action plans to promote brand awareness, as well as an opportunity to speak to potential new employees to facilitate a more consistent set of operating hours. The third recommendation was a comprehensive list of modifications to the current student ambassador program and a management system that facilitated a more effective management of brand ambassadors to incentivize the current roster of ambassadors to further engage with the student body. Our fourth and final recommendation was an extensive list of new potential products to add to the current offerings to make the service more desirable to Georgetown students. Doing so would allow our client to be better positioned to utilize the student population.
Following our engagement, the client will have a new strategy to expand their company across all fields, as well as the tools to best showcase their value. Throughout the deliverable process and final presentation, the client was both optimistic and excited about the future growth for their company as they continue to implement our recommendations.
Team Breakdown
Team Lead: Brendan Cole
Apprentice Team Lead: Jeffrey Petersen
Strategist: Claire McKeon
Strategist: Fiona O’Brien
Jr. Strategist: Michael Coyne
Jr. Strategist: Jack Pryma
At Rem and Company, we're on a mission to keep doors open and dreams alive. Rem and Company started as a social impact initiative offering free consulting services to small businesses impacted by COVID-19. Rem and Company has become an information hub and digital community platform for small businesses in need. At Rem and Company, small businesses stay up to date on trends in their industries, learn new approaches from peers, build a network, and develop the capacity to adapt as the world around them changes. Our consulting teams provide small businesses with the opportunity to identify and prioritize issues facing their business, propose innovative strategies and facilitate execution. If you are a small business owner and want to learn more about how we can help,request a free consultation.