The vision for Stray was clearly
communicated through its business plan to the team, with the company
emphasising on growing its current market share to rival Kiwi
Experience, the major competitor in the tourism industry and creating
stronger brand awareness among its target markets - backpackers and
adventurous tourists.
The company prides itself for
delivering a truly unique ‘Kiwi' experience through cultural
interactions and events between tourists and the locals. The company
has also been very successful in sustaining its reputation, with 97%
of tourists preferring the services that they offered. With
aggressive online marketing campaigns and referrals, Stray is doing
really well in the tourism market. However, the question remains -
how can the company grow further in this business?
"This was a challenging case. We are
dealing with a successful company, which did not indicate how they
were faced with problems, and we were tasked to develop new ways for
them increase their business. This was no normal business case. It
was more of an entrepreneurial case for us," said Michael Teoh, who
personally enjoyed the case due to his entrepreneurial flare.
The strategy ‘Localised and
Internationalised' became the proposal from Team AUT to Stray,
which addressed the company's competitiveness in attracting
tourists both locally and internationally to use their services. For
localised, the team proposed that Stray should engage in more
interactive activities with the local markets by working with
universities to organise road-shows and games during Orientation
Weeks to attract teenagers towards the Stray brand.
On the international front, the team
proposed that Stray build collaborative networks with foreign
reputable universities in the Ivy League in order to tap into their
student markets. Also, merchandising became a viable option for the
company as the presence of caps and t-shirts with the name ‘Stray'
would amplify its brand name among tourists.
The founder of Stray, its Chief Story
Teller (Brand Expert), the Chairman of Imarda Ltd and Endace Ltd, and
two senior managers from Deloitte formed the judging panel. The
founder of Stray, who is also the Executive Director, cited that he
particularly loved the idea from Team AUT of hosting an ‘Amazing
Race' to hype up the Stray brand among teenagers. He would
implement it as soon as possible.
"We were interacting with credible
entrepreneurs, and they were present at the Deloitte competition to
scout for extraordinary ideas that fuel their entrepreneurial
ventures! It was an amazing experience!" added Michael Teoh.
University of Canterbury won the 2nd
Round of the Deloitte National Grand Finals Case Championship Week
2008.
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