McGill University

Desautels Faculty of Management

FastAsk

Part I: The Consumer and Market Profile

Pearce Gould, Victoria Krantzberg, Shaye Spector,

Mohammad Sheikh & Yu Meng Chao

MGCR 352 Principles of Marketing

Dr. Claire Kim

Monday, November 6, 2017

Section 1: Product Introduction

FastAsk is a McGill startup focused on solving first-world problems through technical

solutions. As a new venture targeting the mobile platform, the goal is to offer user-friendly

consumer products. The FastAsk mobile application is the newest product of the company. It

serves as a service-exchanging platform. In other words, it combines of many features found within

existing applications such as Kijiji, Foodora, Yik Yak, Uber – but specialized and simplified. The

idea behind this venture is to create a centralized application for users to post different service

requests. For example, the consumer can publish a post requesting someone to fix their doorknob

for a set price, or they can reach out to someone when they are in dire need of a coffee delivery.

Although there is an existing service sector on Kijiji, most of the posts are “offering services”

instead of receiving it; thus, FastAsk’s application functioning is closer to Uber’s where one

inquires for a service and the people browsing the app are “workers” that take up the task.

Users set the price their willing to pay and all transactions are processed through the app

once the task at hand is completed similar to Uber. With a message-board layout, services are

classified under different categories to facilitate workers’ browsing. On top of that, workers can

set notification alarms from specific keywords or categories which they select. It is also possible

to change the radius for the workers in terms of location. Similar to eBay and Amazon, there is a

rating system to promote and reward quality service and fair pricing. Finally, a direct messaging

is integrated within the application to facilitate communication.

This application is targeted towards downtown Montreal McGill students in the short term,

with an eventual plan for expansion towards other universities. FastAsk is the ultimate app that

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students have been wishing for; whether you are in desperate need of extra paint for your new

apartment or have run out of snacks at the library, FastAsk got it covered. The application

differentiates from the competition by segmenting itself as an assistant to the student lifestyle. This

product’s market positioning plays an important role to the company’s strategy in entering an

already crowded market of smartphone applications.

Section 2: Consumer Profile

A key advantage of this new product compared to existing applications is its improved user

experience and quickness when it comes to buying and selling services specifically. FastAsk

allows its customers to search and post within common categories such as fixing drywall, asking

for a ride share to save money. In terms of market segmentation, as a mobile platform, everyone

with access to smartphone and that could benefit from the advantages listed in the previously is a

potential user. However, to narrow the target, FastAsk considered segmenting based on age and

location since the app has been created for people living an urban lifestyle; the city centers have

higher population density facilitating quick service transactions and increases the inherent

networking effect. The two segment profiles that are extremely interesting are the 18 to 25 year

olds living downtown Montreal and the young professionals between 25 to 40 years old residing

in the city such as N.D.G. and Plateau Mont-Royal neighborhoods.

From a June 2017 industry report on marketing to millennials, “fewer than one in five

millennials are using food delivery services such as grocery delivery (17%) or meal kit delivery

(11%). However, these are areas where Millennials prominently over-index compared to the

average, showing that they are way ahead of the curve on the adoption of these services”

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(Appendix I). From this knowledge, since our product is differentiated into a new relatively

segment, millennials are the preferred target customer base because they adapt quicker than the 25

to 40 year old segment and way ahead of any other groups.

A market report from March of 2017 found that “as exposure to digital assistants grows,

this is a service that Millennials may become more accustomed to, and even dependent on”

(Appendix II). This finding provides huge insight into the consumers’ behavior. From the graph,

grocery deliveries or mobile coffee pick-up are more important to millennials compared to dating

apps or meal-kit deliveries. In fact, the services requiring humans to accomplish are of higher

priority to millennials than services that could be accomplished by AI such as voice-activated

assistant. This further cements millennial as the optimal market segment to introduce this product

because they are getting accustomed to these on-the-spot services.

After concluding that millennials are the perfect segment, FastAsk decides to specifically

focus its effort on the university student population. Not only are they millennials, students are

concentrated in downtown and more likely to be both the user and the worker, which promotes the

network effect. Furthermore, students are soon to be young professionals that can continue to live

in urban whereas the young professionals age 25 to 40 are more likely to move towards the

outskirts of the city in the suburbs as they start having a family of theirs.

Section 3: Market Profile

A major market which FastAsk will be entering is the classifieds’ website and interface

market. Classifieds websites allow one to post about goods and services for sale. This market is

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enormous with approximately 24% of young millennials having purchased something from one of

these sights between March of 2016 and March of 2017 (Appendix III). Such competitors in this

market are Kijiji or Craigslist. Although it is impossible to have an accurate market size due to

consumer to consumer price negotiation, every month 1 in 3 Canadians use Kijiji – Canada’s

largest classifieds site. Additionally, 29% of young millennials used a ride sharing app service

between March of 2016 and March of 2017 (Appendix III). This is yet another market that FastAsk

is entering and this shows that there is a large potential market for this within McGill’s students.

With almost all of McGill’s 45,000 students connected to a smartphone there is a large market

share for both markets to be had by FastAsk. However, there are few barriers to entry making it

both easy for FastAsk to enter but also other competitors. Therefore, FastAsk must leverage its

advantage in targeting university students since the company is part of the community; this further

allows FastAsk to build strong relationships with its users.

There are however some threats in the markets that may hinder FastAsk from succeeding.

There are already many applications and websites for both the trade of goods and services between

consumers as well as rideshare opportunities. Additionally, McGill has a Facebook page and

discussion board that can often be used for these same thing, but among students. If the product

does not provide a simpler user interface with better search categories, and quick service, then it

may not succeed.

Judging FastAsk is a service providing application directed towards a relatively small

market of McGill students, the only direct competitor to consider would be the McGill

application’s discussion board and various McGill exchange groups on social media websites such

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as Facebook. It is not possible to calculate the specific market shares of these competitors, as the

market is not appropriately defined. A rough estimate predicts FastAsk to reach 18.6% market

share of service demands for McGill by the end of its first fiscal year (Appendix IV). However, it

is important to note that FastAsk will virtually eliminate the need for any of the various other

goods- and service-exchanging platforms that exist by integrating all of a student’s necessities into

one application. As FastAsk expands towards other universities in the future, more university-

specific competitors will need to be considered within each geographical area.

Indirect competitors to FastAsk include Kijiji, Foodora, and Uber. Because FastAsk can

integrate aspects of all three competitors into one application, they must be considered as minor

competitors. FastAsk makes it possible for students ask other students for services such as food

deliveries, rivalling Foodora; and finally, it can be used as a smaller-scale version of Uber, where

students can ask others for lifts or organize group carpooling that is convenient for all parties.

While these businesses operate on a business model specific to providing one service, FastAsk will

incorporate all of them and more into one, making it an ideal student application without taking

much business away from firms that are more centered on one specific value.

The competitive field for a mobile application like FastAsk is extremely fragmented, where

no one company holds enough power to change the industry. There is no market leader, as the

McGill goods- and service-exchanging market is currently untapped. FastAsk can bring this

market to its full potential and see through that it satisfies all of its users’ needs through an

appropriately designed and integrated business model.

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 APPENDICES

Appendix I: “Must have” online services, Millennials indexed to average, March 2017

Source: Lightspeed/Mintel

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Appendix II: Millennials’ “must have” online services – select items, by employment status,

March 2017

Source: Lightspeed/Mintel

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Appendix III: Which of the Following have you done in the past 12 months? Please select all

that apply

Source: Mintel

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Appendix IV: FastAsk Market Share Calculation

Estimated Service Demands through Facebook in Montreal: 17,000 demands/day

Estimated Service Demands through Uber in Montreal: 3,000 demands/day

Estimated Service Demands through Foodora in Montreal: 2,200 demands/day

Estimated Service Demands through Kijiji in Montreal: 800 demands/day

Estimated Service Demands through other channels in Montreal: 3,400 demands/day

Total Estimated Service Demands in Montreal: 26,400 demands/day

McGill representation of Montreal: 45,000 of 1,700,000 = 2.65%

Predicted Service Demands through FastAsk in McGill: 130 demands/day

Total Estimated Service Demands in McGill: 11,000 demands/day * 0.0265 = 699 demands/day

Assuming the demand will not increase but rather switch to FastAsk, estimated market share is

130/699 = 18.6%

*There are no specific data and the demands per day can vary. This is a rough estimate.

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