1 Introduction
2 Theoretical background
Feature | Sources |
---|---|
Continuously and quickly monitor and detect environmental changes, opportunities, and threats | |
Timely and resolute decision-making and innovation | |
Quick access to information, multitasking teams, and speed in introducing new products and exploring new markets | |
Responsiveness in identifying and responding to changing needs of new or existing markets, reactively or proactively, and adequately coordinating plans with the supply chain | |
Respond to market changes and customer demands through an adaptive and flexible approach without requiring significant strategic changes, by adjusting tactics and operations according to changing customer requirements | |
Close relationships and collaboration, decentralized decision-making, and expertise in using IT to address dynamic environments | |
Technology integration to align with businesses and facilitate effective information flow across the supply chain |
3 Methodology
3.1 Case selection
3.2 Data collection
Source | Position | Interview time span (minutes) |
---|---|---|
Semi-structured interview | Head of Brand and Communications | 28 |
Semi-structured interview | Brand and Communications Executive | 31 |
Semi-structured interview | Head of Digital Performance Marketing | 33 |
Semi-structured interview | Head of Insights And Analytics | 18 |
Semi-structured interview | Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Manager | 33 |
Semi-structured interview | Growth and User Acquisition Coordinator | 32 |
Source | Type | Number of items |
---|---|---|
Social networks | Posts on Facebook and Instagram | 261 posts on Facebook 712 posts on Instagram |
Official website | Web page | 5 captures |
3.3 Data analysis
First coding stage | Units of text | Second coding stage | Third coding stage |
---|---|---|---|
Open codes | Key patterns | Concept | |
“There are some users, for example in China, that use specific payment methods that are not the same as in Europe, for example, so we need to be flexible and adapt to the country of origin.” | Adapt, flexible | Adaptive and flexible approach according to diverse countries and customers | Adaptability to changing conditions |
“We adapt for you our website, and from the beginning until the payment method.” | |||
“to adapt our product to the younger generation.” | |||
“because the one from Ukraine wants only a small place to work…and the one from Barcelona, he wants maybe to spend more time in the center of the city, etc. So, we have to adapt.” | |||
“If you have an objective you have to adapt your task to these objectives. For example, if you have to change something but there are budget limitations, other activities have to be reduced to keep the same budget.” | |||
“We need to be flexible and to adapt to the country of origin.” | |||
“You have to be really really careful with what things you convey to each stakeholder, and also you have to be flexible.” | |||
“We are always trying to make improvements on the website by making small changes.” | Improve, change | Bring improvements and innovation | Continual and fast pace of innovation |
“We are using tools that are quite new in the industry…to improve the position of our brand.” | |||
“We innovate in the way that we make things better for the customers.” | Innovate, review | ||
“Our mission is to review our frictions and innovate.” | |||
“and also put even more efforts […] to continue being the best on that thing.” | Continue | Advancing performance constantly | |
“We are always trying to review the frictions between both sides of the marketplace, and to do that, we are constantly evolving our product.” | Constantly, always | ||
“We are always trying to innovate in our industry.” | Always, innovate | ||
“Normally, we have a weekly goal, and a weekly plan to reach the goal.” | Weekly, every Monday, every week | Quick planning and performance of tasks | |
“Every Monday we create a report with an analysis of the previous week, and then we take decisions after this analysis.” | |||
“Every week our CEO updates our main targets and figures out what we are achieving.” | |||
“monitor quickly, every week, to see what’s happening, for example, what is gaining visibility.” | Weekly, quickly | ||
“Our plans are shorter because we think in the mid-term.” | Short, mid-term | ||
“When we are deciding on a plan or an action plan for whatever, we always ask our team or ourselves ok, is this the best scenario?” | Team, open, feedback | Strong team-working | Collaborative and integrated working environment |
“My personal management approach with my team is I try to be a mentor and teach what I think is the right path that we should follow, but I’m always opened to receive feedback, to allow anyone in my team to say you’re not right, maybe we can try to do this other thing and be open to testing, and discover another alternative.” | |||
“We are a team because we have an objective, and the entire company works toward the same objectives.” | |||
“We collaborate with the customer experience department people. We need to know their reviews, and we try to adapt, following user suggestions or complaints.” | Collaboration, cooperation | Collaborative approach throughout the firm | |
“I think that cooperation and collaboration with our peers and the rest of our stakeholders and departments is key to achieving our goals. If you don’t give a hand to your colleagues, the company is not going to succeed.” | |||
“Specific target…that search for something related to that architecture…maybe could be our potential customers. So, we prepare these different lists, and we try to target these customers.” | Customer, user, target, voice, experience, interact | Customer-centric marketing efforts | Forecasting and monitoring market needs |
“We need to deliver the best experience to the customer.” | |||
“We are a marketplace of two faces…the needs are completely different from one another.” | |||
“Maybe you want to run a super fantastic marketing campaign, but everything has to be relevant for the customer.” | |||
“We listen to the voice of the customer, this is the first step. Once that we understand what they want, we try to bring it into our services.” | |||
“We know his interests through Facebook because…you can interact with users interested in…because they are looking for accommodation.” | |||
“They need to understand the pricing, the features of the apartment, flat, or whatever they are booking.” | Need | Solutions to market needs | |
“We are giving the tenant all the tools they need to book accommodation without the hassle of visiting a property.” | |||
“We try to plan what these changes are going to be, try to plan it best […] What you get is a forecast of what we’ll be doing right after this change happens.” | Plan, forecast | Sense changes and react to them | |
“We have to be super proactive about the reaction that the customer has.” | Proactive, reaction | ||
“In terms of customers, we use tools to understand their behavior, how they enter a website, what content or pages they visit, what are their behaviors.” | Understand, behavior | ||
“What we are doing is trying to understand not only our customers but what all the possible customers in the real estate market are trying to look for.” | |||
“Once that we understand what they want, we try to bring it into our services.” | |||
“Monitoring is key because you need to follow the conversation across media channels and across countries to also analyze the sentiment of the conversation.” | Monitor, analyze |
4 Findings
Dimension | Definition | Code example |
---|---|---|
Adaptability to changing conditions | The ability to respond to changing customer needs in different countries by adapting marketing plans | “We try to do more with less because we try to optimize and spend less, not only money but time, effort, everything.” [Growth and User Acquisition Coordinator] “We try to make everything simple […] when we define a plan we say, okay, is it simple enough to be understood by a 3 year old kid or a 50 year old? If it is the latter, let’s think again, and let’s try to make it simpler because we need to deliver really clear messages.” [Head of Brand and Communications] |
Collaborative and integrated working environment | The ability to create close and trust-based, outside-in and inside-out relationships among people and departments in different countries | “It’s a matter of listening, of understanding the needs of each department, and the needs of the company […] we are a team because we have an objective, and the entire company works toward the same objectives.” [Head of Insights and Analytics] “We are sitting with different people from different markets. I can ask them, can you help me with this because I don’t know how to do it or I don’t understand […] we are very close to one another” [Brand and Communications Executive] |
Continual and fast pace of innovation | The ability to consistently and quickly innovate, improve, and update international marketing plans | “Every Monday, we create a report with an analysis of the previous week, and then we take decisions after this analysis. To adjust in case of underperformance, we need to invent something to get to the target.” [Head of Digital Marketing Performance] “We are always trying to make improvements to the website by making small changes… launching a new functionality on the website or testing a new channel, or whatever initiatives that we come up within the company.” [SEO manager] |
Forecasting and monitoring of market needs | The ability to project the future characteristics and trends of international market needs, to respond proactively or reactively, for greater customer satisfaction | “We can measure the journey funnel […] we use Analytics as the first tool to analyze the traffic, the (customer) acquisition and the behavior, […] but also to determine how the market is going to evolve.” [Head of Digital Performance Marketing] “We are applying technology to a completely new sector, so when we implement a change, we don’t know what the response of the market is going to be. We have to be super proactive in the reaction that the customer has.” [Head of Brand and Communications] |
4.1 Adaptability to changing conditions
“If you have an objective you have to adapt your task to these objectives. For example, if you have to change something but there are budget limitations, other activities have to be reduced to keep the same budget.”
“We try to make the Spotahome product available in as many geolocations as possible […] You can search for an accommodation in Madrid […], but maybe you are looking for an accommodation at a specific address, or next to whatever square, or in a neighborhood […] We try to create or make the site as granular as possible [in terms of] geolocation entities […] to adapt our product to people searching for [a particular type of] accommodation. We try to make life easier this way.”
“To reach the target necessary for Spotahome that complete our specific audience and interested to book an accommodation […] we need to [use each user’s] language [in] their country search […]. Every time it’s necessary to think about the audience, the user. The user is [in] a specific age [range], located in a specific city or country, and we need to speak their languages…so we need to be flexible and to adapt to the country of origin […] From your sofa, you can book from Cagliari an accommodation in Madrid, in your language. So, we adapt for you our website, from the beginning until the payment method.”
4.2 Continual and fast pace of innovation
“We have to be at the forefront of technology… so we innovate all the time in technology, we innovate all the time in customer support, we innovate all the time in many things that… bring better support to customers.”
“We are always trying to make improvements on the website by making small changes,… launching new functionality on the website or testing a new channel, or whatever initiatives that we come up with within the company. We are always trying to launch them as fast as possible with minimum cost or effort.”
“Our plans are shorter because we think in the mid-term instead of in the long-term […], so the plans are shorter, and everything has to be relevant for the customer.”
4.3 Collaborative and integrated working environment
“We need to think at a global level, and we need to cooperate on a global level. So every time that we have a success, we celebrate all together. And every time that we fail, we cry all together […] I try to be a mentor and teach what is the right way that we should follow. Still, I’m always open to feedback, I allow anyone in my team area to say you’re not right, maybe we can try to do this other thing and be open to testing, and discovering [a better] alternative.”
“Spotahome’s headquarter is in Spain […] all the teams are located in the same building and the same place […] I’m sitting with the other brand communication managers for other regions, for example, I have here the English one, the German one, the French one, so we talk all the time together because in marketing we are now structured like a function that gives service to the different regions, and we are a global marketing team.”
“Sometimes […] you think that only the things you do are the right ones. It’s a matter of listening, it’s a matter of understanding the needs of each department, it’s a matter of understanding the needs of the company, and if you can combine all that and [point] them in the same direction, it all goes well. So, we are a team because we have an objective, and [everyone in] the company works toward the same objectives.”
4.4 Forecasting and monitoring of market needs
“You need to follow the conversation across media channels and across countries to … analyze the sentiment of the conversation, [whether] … it is positive or negative [or] neutral, and also the keywords that users are using. Users can use some wording, a specific messaging […], and you have to switch your messages if yours have not delivered the proper idea or the proper description of the service that you are [providing].”
“We have different metrics to measure … satisfaction levels, and when those metrics go down a little bit, we put all efforts [in]to solv[ing] the situation […] The customer has to be in the center. Not the brand, it’s the customer. Not the company, it’s the customer.”
“There are specific audiences [identified] by Google, so we can’t choose, it’s something automatic, but it’s able with the algorithm to understand when you put for example specific keywords like we are searching for some users interested in, specific target with this age, located in specific countries, cities, or neighborhoods, that search for something related to the architecture or garden, etc. [They] could be our potential customers. So, we prepare these different lists, and we try to target these customers.”
“We can measure the journey funnel, so we know the number of people in the world interested in renting an accommodation […] we try to convince them to book […] we analyze this funnel, we use the Analytics as the first tool to analyze the traffic, the customer acquisition, and the behavior.”