Marketing Strategy and Competitive Positioning pdf ebook

The disrupter: Stelios Haji-Ioannou, 
easyProperty
Now that budget airlines have become industry 
stalwarts, it is hard to remember how disruptive the 
arrival of easyJet was.
Founded almost two decades ago, the airline 
aimed to ‘make flying as affordable as a pair of jeans’ 
and made direct booking popular, cutting travel 
agents out of the equation.
Since then, easyGroup has brought this corporate 
insurrectionism to other industries including hotel 
rooms, car rental, bus services, office rental and 
gyms.
Now it aims to take its tried-and-tested formula to 
the real estate market.
Easily the biggest brand name yet to enter 
the online business, easyProperty will launch in 
September as a rentals site, with a sales site planned 
for next year.
Having raised an initial £5m from friends and 
family in February, easyGroup founder Stelios Haji-
Ioannou and easyProperty chief executive Rob Ellice 
have just launched a second funding round targeting 
ultra-high net worth individuals and individual pri-
vate City figures.
With 10,000 properties already pre-registered, 
the site aims to be letting around 4,000–5,000 homes 
a month by the end of this year and is considering 
expanding across Europe within three years.
‘We have very aggressive targets, we are going 
into the market in a very big way,’ Mr Ellice said. 
‘The main problem with high street estate agents is 
wastage – only around 25 per cent of the deals that 
agents pitch for actually generate cash for their bot-
tom line. It’s a very inefficient model.’
By contrast easyProperty plans to avoid upfront 
fees but users will pay for optional extras. Services 
such as hosting viewings, drawing up floor plans and 
advising on pricing will be carried out by its network 
of 400 freelancers.