Customer Segments
Customer Segmentation: (Business) Students
Who? business students who are going to do their Bachelor's and Master's programme in Europe.
Why? The number of students pursuing studies abroad experiences a steady rise worldwide. Especially, Europe is an attractive destination for students who are interested in doing their studies there (ICEF Monitor 2014). This is why this customer segment is very attractive for us.
Problem? 88% of the students we talked to (151 students in total) stated that they have difficulties in finding the right university in Europe.
Source: ICEF Monitor (2014). Summing up international student mobility in 2014. Retrieved on May 20, 2015 from http://monitor.icef.com/2014/02/summing-up-international-student-mobility-in-2014/
Why? The number of students pursuing studies abroad experiences a steady rise worldwide. Especially, Europe is an attractive destination for students who are interested in doing their studies there (ICEF Monitor 2014). This is why this customer segment is very attractive for us.
Problem? 88% of the students we talked to (151 students in total) stated that they have difficulties in finding the right university in Europe.
Source: ICEF Monitor (2014). Summing up international student mobility in 2014. Retrieved on May 20, 2015 from http://monitor.icef.com/2014/02/summing-up-international-student-mobility-in-2014/
Empathy Map
Problem statement
Business student who wants to further accomplish his studies needs a way to find the perfect study programme for him because he wants to be independent from his parents and wants to have a successful career.
What he says? I need to find a job! I am willing to work hard! If I study hard, I will get a good job!
What he thinks? Finding the right study programme is so difficult. There are too many possibilities...I want to stay with my friends...but then my parents are going to annoy me if I stay here...I want to go abroad and start a whole new and independent life...
What he does? I will talk about my concerns with my friends at the party. I need some "fun"! I will look on the internet and search for some study programmes...I will do that tomorrow...after I wake up....
What he feels? Frustrated with all the information overload; fear of not getting a good job after his studies; tired; curious
Pains? Wasting his valuable time when studying the wrong thing; costs; negative emotions because he doesn't fell happy what he is doing; poor performance; pressure from his peers and family
Gains? making life easier; saving money, effort and time; improve performance; increase personal power; feels good; increases pleasure; more fun
Business student who wants to further accomplish his studies needs a way to find the perfect study programme for him because he wants to be independent from his parents and wants to have a successful career.
What he says? I need to find a job! I am willing to work hard! If I study hard, I will get a good job!
What he thinks? Finding the right study programme is so difficult. There are too many possibilities...I want to stay with my friends...but then my parents are going to annoy me if I stay here...I want to go abroad and start a whole new and independent life...
What he does? I will talk about my concerns with my friends at the party. I need some "fun"! I will look on the internet and search for some study programmes...I will do that tomorrow...after I wake up....
What he feels? Frustrated with all the information overload; fear of not getting a good job after his studies; tired; curious
Pains? Wasting his valuable time when studying the wrong thing; costs; negative emotions because he doesn't fell happy what he is doing; poor performance; pressure from his peers and family
Gains? making life easier; saving money, effort and time; improve performance; increase personal power; feels good; increases pleasure; more fun
Persona
In order to understand our customers better we created a Persona named João
Maria Medeiros, who represents our target customers.
He is a 21-year old Bachelor student in International Management at Católica SBE in Lisbon. He is a very joyful and curious young man with big dreams of becoming the next CEO if a Multinational Enterprise and making the world a better place. João has many friends and reflects the typical “Millennium” who uses all technological devices and developments. As a next step in his life, he has to inform himself about Master opportunities... Unfortunately, he is overwhelmed by the offer of European universities and does not know who to ask for advice. All he knows is that he wants to go to Berlin or London... |
TAM, SAM, SOM
In order to calculate our addressable market, we first segmented it into
levels of education and fields of study and then targeted Bachelor's and Master's business students currently studying in Europe. To finish, we used a
TAM/SAM/SOM top-down approach to estimate our Serviceable Obtainable Market (SOM).
TAM (Total Available Market) – The Total Available Market refers to the entire Universe that ultimately we would like to serve. From the Eurostat Statistics we found out that in 2011, 20.283.000 students were enrolled in higher education programs (EU-28).
SAM (Serviceable Available Market) – Because we are only focused on Business Schools, we assessed the relative proportion of students that were enrolled in Social Sciences, Business and Law – 33.3%. As we are only targeting Business related students, we made our first assumption that out of the 33.3%, a total of 22% are enrolled in business related study programs. The following calculation can be made out of the before mentioned assumption: From the total 20.283.000 students, 22% are enrolled in business related programs. Therefore, our SAM equals 4.462.260 students (20.283.000*22%).
SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market) – Finally, to calculate our SOM, we will take into account the results we’d gotten from our interviews (151 students interviewed in total) in terms of willingness to use our platform. From 151 students, 92% (138) said that they were willing to use our Platform. Therefore, our SOM totals (4.462.260*0,92) 4.105.279 Students
TAM (Total Available Market) – The Total Available Market refers to the entire Universe that ultimately we would like to serve. From the Eurostat Statistics we found out that in 2011, 20.283.000 students were enrolled in higher education programs (EU-28).
SAM (Serviceable Available Market) – Because we are only focused on Business Schools, we assessed the relative proportion of students that were enrolled in Social Sciences, Business and Law – 33.3%. As we are only targeting Business related students, we made our first assumption that out of the 33.3%, a total of 22% are enrolled in business related study programs. The following calculation can be made out of the before mentioned assumption: From the total 20.283.000 students, 22% are enrolled in business related programs. Therefore, our SAM equals 4.462.260 students (20.283.000*22%).
SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market) – Finally, to calculate our SOM, we will take into account the results we’d gotten from our interviews (151 students interviewed in total) in terms of willingness to use our platform. From 151 students, 92% (138) said that they were willing to use our Platform. Therefore, our SOM totals (4.462.260*0,92) 4.105.279 Students
Customer Segmentation: Businesses (Services to students)
Who? UNI2GO targets small- to medium-sized businesses, which themselves
target students as well.
Why? Due to their financial constraints they need advertising opportunities, which are affordable, thus effective.
Problem? Small- to medium-sized businesses face multiple marketing challenges due to their size and capacity: though competition, poor results from advertising, don't know where to start - no marketing plan, spend money on ads without knowing if they are working, not getting the best results from marketing tools to name only a few...
In regard to the business segment, we interviewed 31 local businesses in Lisbon who target students. Among them were hostels, clubs, restaurants, surf and language schools. In conclusion, 87% are interested in our advert packages. 63% of the businesses chose the basic package, 30% the regular and 7% preferred the premium package.
Why? Due to their financial constraints they need advertising opportunities, which are affordable, thus effective.
Problem? Small- to medium-sized businesses face multiple marketing challenges due to their size and capacity: though competition, poor results from advertising, don't know where to start - no marketing plan, spend money on ads without knowing if they are working, not getting the best results from marketing tools to name only a few...
In regard to the business segment, we interviewed 31 local businesses in Lisbon who target students. Among them were hostels, clubs, restaurants, surf and language schools. In conclusion, 87% are interested in our advert packages. 63% of the businesses chose the basic package, 30% the regular and 7% preferred the premium package.
Persona
Introducing Ines Carvahlo, who represents our
B2B-segment – the businesses (services to students) .
She is a 33-year old self-employed business-woman who just opened her burger restaurant in Bairro Alto in Lisbon. Because Lisbon is a city with lots of young people and students, they account to her main target customers. By offering good quality food for a reasonable price she hopes to attract them. However, the competition is tough and her marketing budget is very tight. Furthermore, she doesn’t really have knowledge about marketing activities. She has no idea how and where she is able to advertise her burger restaurant for an affordable price and still in an effective way. |
TAM, SAM, SOM
Businesses Portugal
We calculated the different market dimensions not only for the Portuguese but also for the European market. In a first step we intend to launch our platform in Portugal. In a second step we will expand our marketing and sales activities to other European countries from Year 2 onwards. In order to pursue our expansion strategy we need to estimate the market size for European business as well.
TAM (Total Available Market) - There were 423,719 registered businesses in Portugal in 2007. We assume that more business were registered throughout the following eight years until 2015, so we consider our total available market equal to 450,000 companies.
SAM (Serviceable Available Market) - Our Serviceable Market should mainly be businesses that are offering services for students. We assume that the number of companies in Portugal, which are in the service industry depend on the GVA – Gross Value Added of the industry. In 2013
GVA of service sector accounted for 76.6%, consequently our SAM equals to 344,700 Portuguese businesses (450,000*76.6%).
SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market) - To estimate our Serviceable Obtainable Market we have to make another assumption. We contacted 31 Portuguese companies and 87% replied positively to our service offer, thus we assume that 87% of the businesses in the service sector will be interested in pursuing the possibility to advertise on our website leading to SOM that it is equal to 299,889 (344,700*87%).
Businesses Europe
To calculate the market dimension for possible advertisers we followed the same reasoning as above
TAM (Total Available Market) - The Total Available Market accounts to all kind of enterprises such as small, medium and large enterprises in Europe. Based on the Annual Report on SMEs in 2013/ 2014 of the European Commission there were 21,614,908 enterprises in the European Union.
SAM (Serviceable Available Market) - Our Serviceable Market should mainly be businesses that are offering services for students. According to the annual report of the European Commission (2014) 66,5% of all businesses registered operate in the service sector. Therefore, we assume that the number of companies which are in the service industry sector accounted for 66,5%*21,614,908. Consequently our SAM equals to 14,256,594 businesses in Europe.
SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market) - Since our business starts off in the first year in the Portuguese market our SOM is the service businesses in Portugal. We assume that the number of companies in Portugal, which are in the service industry depend on the GVA – Gross Value Added of the industry. In 2013 the GVA of service sector accounted to 76.6%, consequently our SAM equals to 344,700 businesses (450,000*76.6%).
We calculated the different market dimensions not only for the Portuguese but also for the European market. In a first step we intend to launch our platform in Portugal. In a second step we will expand our marketing and sales activities to other European countries from Year 2 onwards. In order to pursue our expansion strategy we need to estimate the market size for European business as well.
TAM (Total Available Market) - There were 423,719 registered businesses in Portugal in 2007. We assume that more business were registered throughout the following eight years until 2015, so we consider our total available market equal to 450,000 companies.
SAM (Serviceable Available Market) - Our Serviceable Market should mainly be businesses that are offering services for students. We assume that the number of companies in Portugal, which are in the service industry depend on the GVA – Gross Value Added of the industry. In 2013
GVA of service sector accounted for 76.6%, consequently our SAM equals to 344,700 Portuguese businesses (450,000*76.6%).
SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market) - To estimate our Serviceable Obtainable Market we have to make another assumption. We contacted 31 Portuguese companies and 87% replied positively to our service offer, thus we assume that 87% of the businesses in the service sector will be interested in pursuing the possibility to advertise on our website leading to SOM that it is equal to 299,889 (344,700*87%).
Businesses Europe
To calculate the market dimension for possible advertisers we followed the same reasoning as above
TAM (Total Available Market) - The Total Available Market accounts to all kind of enterprises such as small, medium and large enterprises in Europe. Based on the Annual Report on SMEs in 2013/ 2014 of the European Commission there were 21,614,908 enterprises in the European Union.
SAM (Serviceable Available Market) - Our Serviceable Market should mainly be businesses that are offering services for students. According to the annual report of the European Commission (2014) 66,5% of all businesses registered operate in the service sector. Therefore, we assume that the number of companies which are in the service industry sector accounted for 66,5%*21,614,908. Consequently our SAM equals to 14,256,594 businesses in Europe.
SOM (Serviceable Obtainable Market) - Since our business starts off in the first year in the Portuguese market our SOM is the service businesses in Portugal. We assume that the number of companies in Portugal, which are in the service industry depend on the GVA – Gross Value Added of the industry. In 2013 the GVA of service sector accounted to 76.6%, consequently our SAM equals to 344,700 businesses (450,000*76.6%).