UCLA Anderson MBA students conduct Applied Management Research (AMR) projects in lieu of a thesis. The nation’s first business school field study program, AMR partners students with top organizations to solve a key strategic problem. The Center for Global Management sponsored UCLA Anderson Class of 2018 teams to collaborate with established NGOs seeking sustainable solutions for global economies, health delivery systems and environmentally sensitive parts of the world. UCLA Anderson Class of 2018 AMR students made their final presentations on March 9.
By Melody Nazaneen Akbari, Varun Chalupadi, Adrienne Chang, Ryan Christopher Dumlao, Blake Matthew Rauba (Class of 2018)
Jambo! We would love to take you on a journey with us to Nairobi, Kenya, to tell you more about our team’s field study experience.
At the end of our first year at UCLA Anderson, we were matched with the Kenyan startup Lynk, a technology platform that connects customers with trusted domestic workers, called fundis, and skilled blue collar professionals. Around 80 percent of Kenya’s labor force comprises informal workers or contractors. Lynk was built in order to create a smarter way for households and businesses to get service throughout Nairobi. Lynk’s goal is to transform the informal worker industry by employing as many fundis as possible ― to date helping to direct $600,000 to workers.
Lynk, founded in 2015 by former Google product manager Adam Grunewald, currently has three product offerings: Requests, Projects and Discover. Our AMR project focused on Lynk Requests, a full-service solution whereby customers specify a job and Lynk matches them with a qualified worker. Lynk Requests has 1,300 vetted workers on the platform, with more than 6,000 jobs completed over 70 service categories that include plumbing, roofing, housekeeping, cooking, childcare and more.
Historically, Lynk has focused on its company’s engineering, platform development and labor force augmentation. As a result, they have not developed strategies to retain customers and ensure continued use of the platform. Our project focus was to devise a marketing strategy that identifies effective customer acquisition and repeat purchase behavior methods to achieve scalable growth.
With support from the Center for Global Management, our team was able to travel to Kenya twice in order to conduct primary research. Our first trip focused on meeting with our three designated Lynk target audiences: Kenyan nationals, Kenyan Indians and expatriates. We set up focus groups with Kenyan nationals who worked at Mercy Corps, many expats from different countries who had set up residence in Nairobi, and even current Lynk customers. Alongside our focus groups, we conducted one-on-one interviews with various patrons at establishments like Village Market, The Alchemist and Westgate Shopping Mall. We gained better cultural understanding of marketing and promos in Kenya, and customer behavior around information sharing and giving product/service recommendations.
Using our results from our first round of research we decided that two of the main strategies Lynk should consider for customer acquisition and repeat purchase behavior were a referral program and a surprise and delight program (a loyalty strategy that drives emotional connections and creates long-term customers and brand advocates, usually through sending small surprises to customers in the mail, or treating them to more personalized gifts or rewards).
We asked focus groups and interviewees what ― if any ― referral or surprise and delight programs they were currently participating in, what aspects of the programs they dislike/like, what types of user interface and user journey flows they prefer for such a referral program, what type of reward or gift would entice them to refer friends and family members, and what type of reward or gift would boost their loyalty to a brand. The data we gathered was integral to shaping our final recommendations for Lynck’s marketing and promotional strategies and how they should implement them.
Our final recommendations to Lynk included three implementable strategies:
- Referral program: We identified this as an effective method to grow Lynk’s customer base, as they preferred to share their experiences on social media, messaging platforms, etc.
- Surprise & Delight campaign: We recommended ways to reward loyalty and encourage repeat purchases.
- Email marketing: We suggested this method to promote the Lynk brand and influence customer purchase frequency on the platform.
We are grateful to the Center for Global Management for giving us such a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel and learn about the cultures, customs and business strategies in Kenya. We will most definitely carry our learnings from AMR beyond graduation to our careers.
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