The document provides a marketing plan for a new travel accommodation app called "Explore" for India. It aims to make travel within India affordable and easy by integrating various accommodation options. The app will allow anyone to list available space and will appeal mainly to young travelers looking for cheap groups. The goals are to establish the app in 100 major cities within a year and reach 1 million successful trips. The strategy involves targeting college students and families through social media and positioning the app as an affordable convenient option. It will compete with Airbnb by expanding beyond major cities.

1. Marketing plan for a new application
“Explore”

2. Executive summary
 The App was ideated to make stay during travel within India
affordable and easy
 There exists a lot of places for accommodation in India but an
App which can integrate everything and make it easy is
missing
 Some Apps provide service which are restricted to a very few
cities but there is scope for a lot more in India

3. Executive summary
 It is just a platform for buyer-seller interaction
 The App appeals mainly to the young age groups who travel
in groups and look out for cheap accommodation
 Anyone who can provide any amount of space to the tourists
can become a host in the App
 With hotels becoming costlier with time, people are on the
look out for cheaper options and this App will prove to be the
perfect place to find one

4. Situation analysis
 Marketing is essential for the App to be successful and
occupy a major market share in India in this field
 The App has to reach out to as many people as possible
particularly the young age group
 A feedback from the general public will help in framing the
strategy and in deciding the user-interface of the App

5. Situation analysis
Market needs
 Travel will become much easier if accommodation is taken
care of without any fuss
 A wide range of accommodation options will be made
available to the user and he can confirm spontaneously

6. Situation analysis
Market review
 There are no dominant Apps in India which provides this
service apart from Airbnb which covers only a very few cities
 The size and population of India offers a lot of opportunities
for this service to expand to a lot of cities in India

7. Situation analysis
 The user interface has to be decided based on public
feedback which has to be obtained through online
networking sites such as Facebook
 The pricing will be competitive to the other apps as none of
them occupy a major share in India and thus don’t have an
edge
 There will be significant incentives to start using the App and
also to promote the App to friends

8. Situation analysis
Critical issues
 Publicizing about the App and reaching out to the target
customer segments will be a difficult task
 Attracting hosts for the App who can rent rooms/apartments
will also be difficult and they have to understand what the
App offers for them

9. Goal
 The goal of the company is to not only work towards a
particular number of completed trips in a given duration but
also to work towards making the trips meaningful
 The App should become a community whose backbone will
be the reviews and suggestions which the users share
 The App should be established successfully at around 100
major cities in India within the first year and the number of
successful trips should reach a million in the first year

10. Strategy
Customers
 The primary customers will be the young age-group people
who are in colleges and bachelors and the secondary
customers will be families. The offering will be positioned as
an affordable stay at a convenient place.
 The App will be out in Android play store and the primary
mode of reaching out to people will be through Facebook
since the investment is restricted.

11. Strategy
Competitors
 One of the major competitors in this field include Airbnb but
they are limited to a very few cities in India which should give
us an edge but at the same time we should get a brand equity
as good as them or even better than them.
 The offering is being positioned as an affordable stay at
convenient places and there will be a wide variety of hosts
who can cater to the needs of all people irrespective of
demographics.

12. Tactics
 Anyone can download the App for free and start using it.
 The name of the App will be “Explore” with the slogan being
“Explore economically”!
 Everyone can make three transactions including both hosts
and buyers for free. From then, each transaction will have a
fee of 5% of the transaction which is priced competitively.
 For each referral by a person made to his friends and a
transaction made by the friend for the first time, INR 25 will
be added to the balance.

13. Implementation
 The company will have a team for Development of App and
Testing, one for Marketing and one for Innovations which will
be made based on feedback of the customers.
 Two months will be allotted for development and testing of
the App after which it will be out in the Google Play store.
The Marketing team will start their work simultaneously and
the Innovations team will start ideating as soon as the App is
out.

14. Disclaimer
 Created by Arun M, IIT Madras, during a marketing internship
with Prof. Sameer Mathur, IIM Lucknow.