A Blueground Expansion to a New City | youTHUNDER

At the spring semester of 2020, as a final project for the Startup Lab of AD and PR Lab we had to propose a city for the expansion of the startup Blueground.

The steps to be taken were five, and specifically, we had to:

· Choose the City

· Map the Competitors

· Set up the City

· Inspect the Messaging Changes

· Launch the City

For the first step, the choice of the city, after doing some research, we concluded to Toronto for a variety of reasons. Firstly, when it comes to the financial factors, Toronto constitutes the 20% of the Canadian GDP, while the GDP of Toronto itself, increases ~3% every year. Toronto is also an active Business Hub, with important companies, such as Google, Microsoft, Apple and Coca-Cola having their offices located there. Finally, the city’s characteristics create an ideal landscape for an expansion. On 2006 the law of Residential Tenancies Act was passed at the general area of Ontario, which basically protects the relationship between the tenant and the owner. Moreover, Toronto has 2 main spoken languages, English and French, although the majority speaks mostly English. It has low crime rates, high standards of living and an inclusive environment, making it a first option for many people to move in. Last but not least, Toronto provides incentives to allow businesses to grow and prosper, having one of the lowest taxes that businesses have to pay in order to establish themselves in the city. Specifically for startups, it is considered an innovation centre with the second highest startup density in the world.

When it comes to the Mapping of the Competitors, we analyzed three of them, the ones with the biggest similarities to Blueground, and we made a SWOT Analysis for each one. Specifically,

Sonder, whose target group is young families and group of friends that want to rent a home for a short period of time, while also people that travel for business reasons.

Shiplake, who has a wide variety for a target group, stating that “there is no limit when it comes to the target audience that Shiplake addresses to.”

Delsuites, whose target group is people who are interested in mid to long term stays, business travellers, families and groups.

For the third part, of Setting up the City, we firstly researched the city of Toronto, in order to find the 5 most fitting neighborhoods of Toronto, also according to the ones that the competitors have their apartments in. We concluded to Financial District, which is the centre of Toronto, to Liberty Village, an active Business Hub, to Fashion District, an innovation centre with many startups, to Riverside, a bohemian- themed area, very close to downtown, and to Entertainment District, a lively hub, which is considered a 2nd centre. The competitors’ apartments are mostly located in the central areas, such as Liberty Village and Financial District, as well as the suburbs.

After researching the neighborhoods, we started looking for a space to host the office of Blueground. We concluded to the following space, which could be redecorated to the tastes of Blueground, in order to create a brand identity. It is located in Liberty Village, which is next to the centre of Toronto, and cheaper in comparison to other areas, when it comes to the renting of such spaces.

Lastly, we suggested Craig Major as the consultant for this expansion. He is a Business and Startup Coach, with an extensive corporate background, which he used in order to create the “Startup Coach”, in order to provide help to Startups. Throughout his career, he has helped more than 600 Startups, has listened to more than 100 idea pitchings, and has helped businesses gain more than 60 million dollars.

When it comes to the Messaging Changes, Toronto’s main language is English, which is a great help for the expansion, since the website and the services would not need to be translated also to French. Some differences are that they use the word “Apartment”, and not “Flat”, and terms such as “Condos”, “Duplex-Triplex”. Another important characteristic is that they use specific room qualifiers in order to measure a room. Particularly, the bedroom, living room and kitchen are considered as a whole room, while the bathroom is considered a half room. In this way, a 4,5 apartment would mean that it consists of 2 bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom.

As a last step, we had to Launch the City. We did an extensive research, so as to inspect the factors that would potentially help with the launching of the expansion. We found the top 5 classifieds of Toronto, which are:

1) The Star — Toronto Star Classifieds

2) Kijiji

3) Toronto SUN

4) Birdhouse

5) Remax

And, then, we made a list of the top 10 Media of Toronto, some of which are also national. Specifically, they are:

1) The Globe and Mail

2) Toronto Star

3) National Post

4) Montreal Gazette

5) Winnipeg Free Press

6) The Province

7) Hamilton Spectator

8) Times Colonist

9) NOW Magazine

10) StarMetro

As a last step, with which our project for the expansion was fulfilled, we went on to compose a Press Release, in which Blueground would announce the expansion to Toronto, the time period that this would take place, and also it would provide the reasons why Toronto was chosen.

youTHUNDER team members:
Eri Gerali
Maria Zioga
Δήμητρα Κιοϊλόγλου
Evangelia Kyrkou
Amanda Linara
Ιριάνα Νίκα
Theodora Fokaeos

Startup Lab Professors:
Betty Tsakarestou
Emmanuel Kavarnos
Elena Aktypi