Milestone 1 The Brand Development Stage-Airbnb Rough Draft PDF

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Milestone 1: The Brand Development Stage-Airbnb Airbnb was founded in August 2008 in San Francisco California, by Brian Chesky (their current CEO), Joe Gebbia, and Nathan Blecharczyk. The idea came to them in 2007 when Chesky and Gebbia moved to San Francisco from New York with no jobs. Strapped for cash and knowing hotels would be booked out due to a local Industrial Design conference, they bought a few air beds and launched a website called “Air Bed and Breakfast.” They charged $80 a night and soon had their first Airbnb guests. The company has grown globally and has welcomed around 800 million guests. Airbnb was able to develop and grow its brand by having engaging internal stakeholders, identifying the legal and ethical issues they had to face during this time, understanding the brand’s marketing mix, and implementing marketing strategies that were effective and efficient. I. Describe the attributes of this brand. a) Discuss how the internal stakeholders (e.g., employees) are engaged in the development of the brand and building the brand identity. One way that Airbnb engages in developing their brand and building the brand identity is through their internal stakeholders. Employees are so important to the business because they are they represent and are the face of the brand. When employees are emotionally invested in a company, they put more care and effort when building and expanding the brand. This also leads to more productivity and happy customers that leave positive reviews and word-of-mouth marketing. According the Glassdoor’s best workplace rankings, Airbnb was number one in 2016. Nearly 90% of the employees that were surveyed said they would recommend Airbnb to others. Airbnb keeps its employees happy by giving them great benefits and having a unique work culture. The employees, also known as the “Airfam,” have great healthcare packages available for them, 22 paid weeks for maternity leave, flexible spending accounts, Apple equipment, options to work remotely, and 3-weeks of paid time off They also have stock options, commuter benefits, and breakfast lunch and dinner are provided for them. One of the more unique benefits that Airbnb offers their employees is $2,000 per year for travel so the Airfam can have their adventures wherever they want. The culture at Airbnb reflects their mission statement to, “help create a world where you can belong anywhere and where people can live in a place, instead of just traveling to it.” When people walk into the Airbnb office in San Francisco, they are transported to a chic city apartment that houses colorful offices and is decorated to inspire their employees. Airbnb can have internal stakeholders who help build and expand the brand and its identity by giving them the space to have open dialog at work. They share ideas through bi-weekly meetings with Airbnb offices around the world. Airbnb also made a group of employees that are referred to as “ground control” who are in charge of looking after the workforce environment, internal communications, employee recognition, celebrations, and events. Another one of their internal stakeholders that help build and develop the brand is the users of the platform. They are the ones that keep the company running by booking rooms, writing positive reviews, renting out their own space, and providing positive experiences for other users. The company would not be where it is today without its 150 million users. b) Identify the legal and ethical issues the company should be concerned about in this stage. During the brand development stage, there are many legal and ethical issues that Airbnb should be concerned about. Since this is the beginning stages of a brand, Airbnb should be filing for patents, licenses, and copyrights, and trademarks of their brand, services, software technologies, and IP framework to protect themselves from theft and other legal issues. To protect their brand in this way,

Airbnb should keep their pending patents a secret, have anyone who is in the know to sign NDAs (nondisclosure agreements), create a formal contract agreement of ownership for the IPs and inventions, and file trademark applications as soon as possible to protect the brand. The American Marketing Association has identified six standards that brands should uphold to stay ethical. Those standards are honesty, responsibility, fairness, respect, transparency, and citizenship. Airbnb should do its best to follow these standards while developing and marketing its brand. II. Identify the 4P’s of the brand. a) Describe the brand using the marketing mix elements as a guide. To have an effective and efficient marketing strategy, a company needs to identify the brand's marketing mix. The marketing mix is key factors of the product or service which are product, place, price, and promotion. Airbnb’s service is providing a platform for people to use to rent out their house or room to others on the platform needing a short-term place to stay. In the beginning stages of Airbnb, the service was only local to San Francisco but grew to be nationwide, and is now used around the world (more than 119 countries and territories). Their consumers can use the Airbnb website or download the app right to their smartphones. Airbnb pricing is mostly up to the person who is listing their home/room for rent. The host does have to pay a 3% fee to Airbnb unless they are Airbnb Plus hosts or use Super Strict cancellation policies may have a higher percentage fee. One of Airbnb’s first promotional efforts was to use Craigslist. Since the company did not have much money to spend on a marketing strategy, they would browse through Craigslist listings, and email the homeowner to direct them to Airbnb’s platform. They eventually made a scripted automatic email that would be sent to new listings on Craigslist letting them know of their platform. As the company grew, so did its marketing strategies. b) Analyze the impact of the marketing mix on overall brand perception. Airbnb’s marketing mix that they have developed impacted the overall brand perception. Brand perception is the feeling the consumers and target audience feels and thinks when they encounter the brand (sees, hears, or interactions). Airbnb is seen as a young innovative company that has changed the way people travel and experience different places. Airbnb fits any budget allowing more people to be able to afford that vacation they deserve. They were also one of the first of their kind in the industry to break away from the regular hotel and motel stays and allows for everyday people to make some extra cash. This brand always has its users in mind and always evolving its platform to ensure they have an easier and positive experience and to stay competitive. c) Describe the function of multiple internal stakeholders in applying the marketing mix in the development stage. The function of Airbnb’s multiple internal stakeholders applies to the marketing mix in the development stage in many ways. For example, their users are a huge part in keeping the service going. If no users were willing to rent out their space to others, there would be no consumers using the platform. They also are a big part in shaping the brand of Airbnb by providing interesting and unique places for users to stay and experience travel that fits the customer’s budget. These internal stakeholders also provided a way for Airbnb to grow and becoming an international company. The employees are also responsible for applying the marketing mix during the development stage. They help ensure that the service and platform are running smoothly. They also create innovative ways to improve and build the company and brand. They also have a brilliant marketing team that comes up with brand marketing strategies and advertisements to bring in new and keep current users.

III. Marketing Strategies a) Describe existing marketing strategies used by the brand to successfully launch a new product. Airbnb has had many successful marketing strategies in the past. As mentioned earlier, one of their first initiatives was an email marketing strategy that took Craigslist listings and directed the homeowners to their platform. The founders noticed that to stay competitive with hotels they needed to have better quality photos of these homes to post on their platform. Since homeowners were using digital cameras and their early versions of iPhones to take their pictures, Airbnb decided to hire professional photographers to go out to these homeowners’ houses and apartments to get better pictures of the rooms. . This way when customers were comparing Airbnb options to hotel rooms, the higher quality pictures were able to compete. Airbnb also gained users by offering a $25 travel credit for new members after their first trip and a $75 credit for new hosts.

Reference: Airbnb. (2021). What are airbnb service fees? - airbnb help center. Retrieved March 21, 2021, from https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1857/what-are-airbnb-service-fees American Marketing Association. (n.d.). Codes of Conduct: AMA statement of ethics. Retrieved March 21, 2021, from https://www.ama.org/codes-of-conduct/ Bovim, R. V. (2019, April 21). How airbnb became the world's best place to work. Retrieved March 18, 2021, from https://www.livingroomanalytics.com/how-airbnb-became-theworlds-best-place-to-work Culture Amp. (2020, August 19). How Airbnb is building its culture Through belonging. Retrieved March 20, 2021, from https://www.cultureamp.com/blog/how-airbnb-isbuilding-its-culture-through-belonging/ Gold, B. (2012, December 11). Your brand and nine legal issues related to patent, trademark, and copyright. Retrieved March 21, 2021, from https://www.marketingprofs.com/articles/2012/9674/branding-and-nine-legal-issuesrelated-to-patent-trademark-and-copyright Pinto, N. (2020, January 29). How did Airbnb and Uber attract their first customers? Retrieved March 21, 2021, from https://jungleworks.com/airbnb-and-uber-attract-customers/ Rahman, M. (2020, December 08). Marketing mix of airbnb (7ps of airbnb). Retrieved March 21, 2021, from https://howandwhat.net/marketing-mix-airbnb/ Thottam, I. (2016, December 8). At Airbnb Employees Can Travel The World Without Leaving The Office. Retrieved March 18, 2021, from https://www.glassdoor.com/blog/airbnb/#:~:text=The%20company%20also%20provides %20flexible,fed%20breakfast%20lunch%20and%20dinner....