Housing.com: Marketing a Service Offering

Housing.com was a Mumbai-based online real estate listing company that verified the authenticity of every property listing on its website. Despite proving itself as a threat to big players in India's online property portal space, it was struggling in late 2014 to establish itself as a preferred option among brokers. Conflicts of interest between sellers (i.e., brokers, builders, developers, and landowners who listed property online) and buyers (i.e., end-users who searched the website for property) were a matter of concern, with the industry characterized by information asymmetry and a lack of transparency. With the verification of listings, Housing.com was adding value for buyers but also compromising on time and the number of listings on the portal. Property dealers were complaining that the procedure for getting properties listed on the site was long and tedious compared to competitors' sites. How should Housing.com manage traffic and encourage more visitors? What should it do to win over both buyers and sellers? Value-added services - such as verifying property listings - needed to be backed up with an emphasis on listings and an increase in traffic. The biggest dilemma for the chief marketing officer and his team was which customer segment to concentrate on. How could they fill the current gaps in services?

• Market segmentation
• Consumer behavior
• Entrepreneurship
• Value propositions
• Digital marketing