Question 1.

Tell us 3 brands that redBus should tie-up with as a part of strategic marketing partnerships. Give your
reasoning behind choosing that partner. List down deliverables from redBus and from the partner
suggested. Excluding discount led tie-ups with wallet/bank/payment partners.

Answer 1: The three brands can be:

1. Swiggy- redBus can actually do selective tie up with Swiggy i.e., you can offer the customers
food which is from well-known restaurants like McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Domino’s and Subway.
Tie up should be selective since people do not know which restaurants would be good in the
unknown places on the route taken by bus and the above mentioned are some well-known brands
and are not very expensive either.
RedBus will basically transfer the traffic from their app to Swiggy and since the food would be
way better than the dhabas at which buses usually stop, customers will have a better experience.

2. HDFC- Insurance Companies like ICICI has a tie up with GoIbobo in the similar manner some
other company like HDFC can be tied up with redBus for a very small amount of Rs.20-30/ ride.
People usually wouldn’t mind spending such a small amount.
Deliverable will be some percent direct money transfer to these companies and they will also get
more customers. redBus will get more money.

3. Trip Advisor- In different state there are different nearby tourist spots like Bangalore students
usually prefer to go to Coorg, Nandi Hills, Gokarna, etc so, these can be well planned with sites
called trip advisor,etc and buses will be provided by redBus. Customers will get added advantage
on Trip Advisor if they book via redBus.

Question 2. The student community, people pursuing their under graduation and post graduation, is an
upcoming audience for redBus. We want to introduce them to redBus. Consider all students studying in
states of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa, and Rajasthan and design a marketing program to acquire them as
new users of redBus.

Answer 2: Student base can be increased by providing a Student Pass that would be applicable for their
state and directly neighboring states or neighbors’ direct neighbor.
The pricing of a pass can be made by predictive analysis of average number of rides a student usually
makes plus a 10% margin. It is obvious that not every month student makes the same number of rides. So,
you can profit with those rides that riders usually don’t make. These rides would be applicable on 3 and
3+ starred buses so, people who want to have some decently priced discount card with a luxury of having
better quality buses will opt-in for it.
You can also give Live Projects to 2-3 students of some colleges in which they will convince the students
to opt-in for Student discount Card. Since students travel and a lot and go on trips during this time they
would actually see a good ROI in this but they don’t travel all-round the year. So, that would be the
chance for the profits.
Question 3
The following is for us to see how you think about promos and metrics. Answer as best you can. We want
to just see your thought process here (even if youʼre not sure). A charity event has come to you and said
they have a 1,000 person event and are willing to do a dedicated email to their attendees.
Youʼve done events like this in the past and have the following historical data:

1. Which discount construct should we use and why?

Answer:

Option 1
People- 10
Number of rides-10
Discount cost- Rs. 1000
Margin-100
Revenue=100*10*10 = 10000 (Since revenue for redBus is on margin)
Profit after discount = 9000

Option 2
People- 20
Number of rides-10
Discount cost- Rs. 3000
Margin-100
Revenue=100*20*10 = 20000
Profit after discount = 17000

Option 3
People- 50
Number of rides-10
Discount cost- Rs. 10000
Margin-100
Revenue=100*50*10 = 50000
Profit after discount = 40000

Therefore, we should choose option 3 since it has the highest Profit.

 2. If we want to return a profit on each traveller within 6 months, what is the max amount that
we would give on a promo?

Answer2: Number of rides-5

Margin for redBus- Rs.100

Maximum revenue can be Rs. 500.

So, at max redBus can give Rs. 500 discounts if they want to make profits after 6 months.

3. How would you think about increasing conversion rate? ["promo conversion"?]

Answer 3: Since offers like Promo discounts are mostly attractive to students who want to get deals as
cheap as possible plus who are very active on apps and online portals. So, conversion rate can be
increased by promoting the idea into various colleges. We can start from 5 major cities and some good
UG and PG colleges can be targeted and they can be given a Live Projects of getting a certain umber of
sign ups for the app and let the students know about Promo offer of redBus. More the penetration, more
will be the users.

Unrelated to the above table and questions:

4. Youʼve noticed that average rides/signup has gone down:

a.) What could be causing this?

Answer 4(a) There can be many reasons for the fall of number of signups like:
 Flights prices are getting cheaper so, it seems easier to save time by paying very less extra
amount of money.
 As compared to other bus booking apps, redBus targets a little above average and Premium
customer base who can easily pay a little extra and go via flights so, the shift is easy.
 Usually Promo Discounts or some other discounts when given, the number of rides get very high
but then that had to fall in the subsequent days/months.

b.) How would you increase it?

Answer 4(b)
 Since flights are getting cheaper. redBus can reduce price plus romanticize the concept of Road
Trip. It is not about the final destination but the road or path you take.
 Tie ups with Travel advisor can also help redBus to get more traffic.
 On an average the prices of redBus are comparatively higher than other bus booking apps for low
starred buses. Although the quality has been maintained pretty well yet there is a huge customer
base who just wants to save on costs. So, it is better to target that as well.
 Selective Discounts can be given at the festive time when everyone is charging hefty amounts.
 Focus on repeated customer and give incentives for the same.