Feeding the hungry surfers: www.justeat.

in
Rik Paul and Debapratim Purkayastha

Rik Paul is a Research

Scholar in the Department
of Marketing and Strategy,
IBS Hyderabad, IFHE
University, Hyderabad,
India.
Debapratim Purkayastha is
an Assistant Professor in
the Department of
Marketing and Strategy,
IBS Hyderabad, IFHE
University, Hyderabad,
India.

Friday afternoon dragged its way towards dusk and Gupta looked up at the ticking clock.
The week had been hectic, the work strenuous. He just couldnt wait for weekend to start. Though
it was almost 5 oclock, he would have to stay back in the office for a few more hours as usual to
complete his work. His stomach rumbled as hunger pangs struck him. His mind went completely
blank a literal case of needing food for thought! He checked the office cafeteria but
unfortunately it offered nothing more substantial than mugs of coffee. Frustrated, he came back to
his desk.
Suddenly, his eyes fell on the computer screen. It was aglow with the word Google. On a whim,
Gupta decided to type in online food delivery. With Googles capacity to throw up surprising
and unexpected results, who knew what would come up! Miraculously, the first option on the
page was JustEat.in. A few more clicks followed, and Guptas annoyance turned to joyful
anticipation. A click on the web site took him to a set of quite accessible options. He selected his
location, Bengaluru, and to his surprise, the names of some of his favourite restaurants like
Aromas of China, Chopsticks, Red Bamboo Shoots, Yo China, Take a Wok, Kim Lee, and
Delicacies appeared on the list. With alacrity, he followed the instructions and placed his order.
Within 5 minutes, he received a call from customer care to confirm his order. Within an hour, Gupta
was enjoying his favourite cuisine from his favourite restaurant as well as concentrating on his
workload with a happy grin on his face.
Incident narrated by a delighted customer of JustEat.in.

Introduction

Please note that two final year

MBA students (batch of 2012 at
IBS Hyderabad, IFHE
University), Ankita Misra and
Varun Agarwal, were involved in
preparing the first draft of the
case. The authors would like to
acknowledge their contribution
in the published case.
This case is the winner of the
EEMCS/IBS Hyderabad
competition.
Disclaimer. This case is written
solely for educational purposes
and is not intended to represent
successful or unsuccessful
managerial decision making.
The author/s may have
disguised names; financial and
other recognizable information
to protect confidentiality.

DOI 10.1108/20450621211308104

It was a rainy evening in Bengaluru. Ritesh Kumar Dwivedy (Dwivedy), CEO of JustEat.in, an
online food ordering and table reservation web site, was sitting by the window in his office,
enjoying the sight of the light drizzle outside and sipping a warm cup of coffee. One group of
employees had just finished their daily shift and the next group was streaming in. As the CEO
sat there lazing on his armchair, a dozen thoughts were running through his mind.
JustEat.in was a joint venture between UK-based online takeaway ordering service JustEat
and Hungryzone, Indias leading online food ordering web site founded by Dwivedy in 2006.
He recalled that the rebranding effort that followed the setting up of the joint venture had
presented the organization with many challenges. Fortunately, the management team had
proved equal to the task. As of September 2011, JustEat.in had over 100,000 registered
customers and more than 1,000 restaurants as partners in Bengaluru[1], Mumbai[2], and
Delhi[3]. Dwivedy had grand expansion plans for the future but wondered how he could enlist
the more popular global restaurant chains as partners. In fact, some of the existing partner
restaurants viewed JustEat.in as a competitor as they had to pay a certain percentage of
their revenues earned through JustEat.in as commission to the web site. There were also
some instances of partners trying to poach JustEat.ins customers to avoid paying a
commission.

VOL. 2 NO. 8 2012, pp. 1-21, Q Emerald Group Publishing Limited, ISSN 2045-0621

EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES

PAGE 1

How it all started

Dwivedy moved to Bengaluru in 2005 to work with a city-based startup Ketera Technologies.
Calling in for food became a problem if he was working late in the night. The Jamshedpur[4]
boy, a mechanical engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur[5], had
no clue where to order from or what was available. His problems did not end with just finding
a restaurant. Often the person who picked up the phone could not understand Hindi or even
English. On a few occasions, Dwivedy had even had the wrong food delivered to him.
The germ of a business plan took root in Dwivedys mind. When bank transactions had gone
smoothly online, movie ticket bookings had gone online, travel reservations had gone online,
why could not ordering of food go online and be as convenient? Everything could be made
readily available at just a simple click of the mouse. With this idea in his mind, Dwivedy
started Hungryzone.com, a portal for restaurant takeaways and home deliveries in Bengaluru
in July 2006 along with his batchmate from IIT, Priyanka. It started with only 15 restaurants on
board.
Hungryzones target market was called the hungry surfer a person who was hungry,
looking for something to eat, and had access to the internet. Typically the target segment of
customers were software professionals, college students and urban housewives between
the age range of 23-40 years. This particular segment of customers satisfied the primary
criterion of access to internet and second they had decent disposable income to enjoy
outside food quite often. Bengaluru being a city in India with the highest number of software
companies and engineering colleges, Hungryzone got a head start with their unique selling
proposition of providing their customers a hassle free means of ordering food online or
booking a table at any restaurant of their choice from the wide assortment of listed eateries
on the web portal. Initially, Dwivedy and Priyanka found it difficult to sell the concept to
eateries in the city, and were able to offer their services to only a handful of restaurants. They
even tried out orders on the phone and SMS, before hitting upon the idea of setting up
desktops PCs at restaurants. But most restaurants had no space to spare for even a
computer.
Hungryzones business model was simple. A surfer just had to browse through the list of
restaurants registered on the web site. The restaurants were classified simply on the basis of
area, cuisine, and alphabet. The menu cards of the restaurants were available on the web
site, so customers only had to click and their order would be placed to hungryzone.com.
Hungryzone in turn placed the order directly to the customers restaurant of choice. The
customers also had the option to call Hungryzone and place their order, however the rest of
the process was the same. The assigned restaurant then delivered the order directly to the
customer at the earliest. To encourage customers to adopt the concept as well as increase
their satisfaction, Hungryzone offered them the option of paying cash on delivery however
payments could also be made electronically through the Hungryzone web site. The
partnering restaurants paid an agreed fixed percentage of the bill amount as commission to
Hungryzone. For customers, the service was entirely free of charge as in they only had to pay
the bill amount which did not have any commission component for the service provided by
Hungryzone. Apart from ordering food online from the restaurant of choice; customers could
also reserve tables at the listed restaurants for a particular day and time. In this case the
same percentage of the bill amount generated was provided to Hungryzone by the
partnering restaurant. On May 5, 2007, Hungryzone had signed up its 100th restaurant and
had 1,500 registered users.
By 2008, Hungryzone had become the premier player in the online food ordering segment
in India. It had over 100,000 registered users placing 10,000 home delivery orders and
16,000 table reservations in Bengaluru, and was generating a whopping US$1 million in
revenues for its partner restaurants[6]. It had more than 400 restaurants as partners. In
August 2008, Hungryzone registered itself as Achindra Online Marketing Pvt. Ltd
Hungryzone was also considering expanding its services to other cities across India. But
Dwivedy realized that he would need additional funds to do so. In mid-2008, Indian Angel
Network (IAN)[7] stepped in and invested US$300,000 in Hungryzone. Dwivedy used this

PAGE 2 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 2 NO. 8 2012

amount to build the required infrastructure as well as to invest in manpower. By December,

2008, Hungryzone had 15 employees as well as a call centre managed by six people to
process the orders received through the web site as well as attend to those who called
Hungryzones hunger hotline phone numbers. The unique fact about the call centre was
that it also included employees who were visually impaired (Praveen Bose, n.d.).
For Dwivedy, who was associated closely with several non-governmental organisations,
this was a way of paying back to society. The visually impaired who were hired would get
an opportunity to earn their livelihood. According to Dwivedy, the visually impaired were
hard working and dedicated and focused entirely on their work. It was a win-win situation
for both the organisation and these employees. Hungryzone also used special technology
to aid them in their work to make it easier and more convenient for them. One of the
software used, JAWS[8], read out the text on screen once the cursor was pointed at the
words. The employees could thus listen to what was on the screen and attend to customers
on the phone at the same time.
In addition to this, the management kept the employees motivated by taking them out to
movies or trips, all the employees, including the senior management, joined in.

From Hungryzone to JustEat.in

By December 2010, Hungryzone was already in talks with a global giant for a joint venture deal.
On January 17, 2011, it announced its partnership with JustEat, the UKs largest online
takeaway ordering service, to expand its services to various cities across India (www.justeat.in).
On March 1, 2011, JustEat acquired a 60 per cent stake in Hungryzone and announced its
interest in investing US$ 5-10 million over the next three years in the joint venture. JustEat,
founded in Denmark in 2000, was based in London and was active in 13 countries around
the globe (www.justeat.com) (refer to Exhibit 1 for the geographic presence of JustEat). It
had delivered over 100,000 meals a day and received more than ten million orders since the
site had been launched[9]. It had over 14,000 takeaway restaurants signed up with it,
benefiting from the companys proprietary technology to offer a seamless online ordering
service. By 2010, JustEat was generating over US$318 million in revenue per year for the
restaurant industry. It was also listed on the TechCrunch Europe top 100 index[10] 2010[11].
JustEat was among the top ten web sites, hit-wise, between July and December 2009 in the
food and beverages category (www.justeat.com). The joint venture deal with Hungryzone
was the first major investment of its kind where the European e-commerce company had
invested in India and would provide a foundation for the joint venture to expand into all Indian
metropolitan and metropolis cities[12].
Following this, Hungryzone was rebranded as JustEat.in. The web site was also given a
complete makeover (refer to Exhibit 2, Figure E1 for the image of the old web site and to
Figure E2 for the image of the new web site) and several tempting new features were added.
Features such as one click ordering and check order status made the ordering process
easier for customers and enabled problem-free tracking of their orders online (refer to
Exhibit 3 for the details of the exclusive features). The business model was also enhanced in
keeping with the growing customers demands. The new web site also displayed an image
titled How it Works on the homepage, which showed the entire service delivery process.

Partnering with JustEat.in

According to Sandeep Kumar N.R. (Kumar), Marketing Manager of JustEat.in:
In order to partner with us, every restaurant has to pay a one-time start up joining fee of
Rs.[13]1999 plus taxes[14]. Restaurants also have to deposit an amount of Rs.10,999 for the
point of sale (POS) terminal which would be refundable up to 100% within one year of usage.
Other charges include a one-time installation charge of Rs. 2500 plus taxes. The entire amount
including all the charges adds up to an affordable Rs.15,498. The pricing includes order
processing, cost of order detail transaction, 24 7 support and maintenance of POS
terminal, POS device forwarding, and GPRS traffic, accounting and administration, technical
maintenance of servers, support for users and restaurants and after sales and technical support.

VOL. 2 NO. 8 2012 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 3

Also, restaurants have to pay a fixed percentage as commission on each order that is placed
through JustEat.in for that particular restaurant. The service is absolutely free of cost for the
customers, which is indeed the cherry on top of the cake.

Challenges in rebranding
JustEat.in was well positioned to expand its operations in cities across India; however, it was
faced with numerous challenges as well. How could the company make its customers aware
of the re-branding of Hungryzone to JustEat.in? Even if it did succeed in doing this, how
could it guarantee that the quality of service would remain unchanged?
The mascot for Hungryzone was a cartoon chef called Aloo Patel (refer to Exhibit 4 for the
image of Aloo Patel). Kumar explained that the use of Aloo Patel as a fun mascot had led to
the wrong perception among customers that Hungryzone prepared the food that they
ordered. Many customers were simply not aware of the fact that Hungryzone was not
responsible for the preparation of the food but was just a service provider that essentially
played the role of a mediator between the restaurants and customers. Hungryzone offered
customers easy access to various restaurants and cuisines. It went a step further in the
sense that customers not only got to search for a restaurant or cuisine of their choice, but
could also place their orders online. Owing to the confusion on who actually prepared the
food, dissatisfied customers often vented their ire on Hungryzone for specific instances of
late delivery or if they had any issues with the quality of the food delivered to them. There was
thus an urgent need for Hungryzone to make its customers realize that it was just a medium
for ordering food and should therefore not be held responsible for late deliveries or
unsatisfactory quality of food. Aloo Patel had to be dispensed off from the companys
communications, added Kumar.
After the joint venture with JustEat and the rebranding of Hungryzone to JustEat.in, Aloo
Patel was replaced with the mascots that JustEat used Belly and Brain (refer to Exhibit 5 for
the image of Belly and Brain). Abhishek Mandal (Mandal), Head of Operations at JustEat.in,
remarked:
We trained our employees to politely make the customer aware that JustEat.in was just an
intermediary service provider and had no role to play in the preparation and delivery of food,
and hence should not be blamed in cases of unsatisfactory food provided by the partnered
restaurant. We encouraged our customers to write reviews about their experiences regarding the
food and the restaurant, so that the other customers could have an idea regarding that restaurant.
We also made sure to assure our customers that we would definitely look into their grievances and
would inform the concerned restaurant regarding the same.

With the joint venture, yet another problem cropped up. Regular customers of Hungryzone
had to be made aware of the rebranding. Over the years, Hungryzone had built up a
sizeable customer base and had earned the reputation of being Indias premium online food
ordering and table reservation portal (Praveen Bose, n.d), with its strongest base in
Bengaluru. Existing customers had to be assured that the quality of service would continue
to be as good and undiluted; that it was just a change of brand name. In order to notify the
customers, JustEat.in took several initiatives. In the words of Mandal:
For the initial two months after the joint venture, our employees were trained to greet customers
with the informative lines: Hello! JustEat.in, we are happy to inform you that Hungryzone is now
JustEat.in, the worlds largest online food ordering and table reservation portal. Also, whenever
customers logged on to www.hungryzone.com, they were automatically redirected to the new
web site www.justeat.in. Our webpage also had a flashing logo at the top left-hand corner of the
page with the Hungryzone logo transitioning into the JustEat.in logo in order to make customers
aware of our joint venture and rebranding.

JustEat.in also sent out mailers about the rebranding to its customers showing the old
Hungryzone logo and Aloo Patel transitioning to the new JustEat logo (refer to Exhibit 6 for
the image of the mailer). All the marketing communications now used the name JustEat.in
instead of Hungryzone. The successful implementation of these initiatives paid off, added
Kumar.

PAGE 4 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 2 NO. 8 2012

Marketing JustEat.in
On the marketing activities of JustEat.in, Kumar said:
With the joint venture, JustEat.in invested more into its marketing activities and strategies to
increase its customer demands. Our marketing campaigns were extremely well-planned and
systematic. They were categorized as above the line (ATL) and below the line (BTL) campaigns.
The ATL promotions were tailored for a mass audience, which consisted of online, radio,
corporate, apartment and generic ATL campaigns, whereas the BTL promotions were targeted at
individuals according to their needs and preferences which consisted of trade marketing and
retail promotions.

Online campaigns
Search engine marketing and search engine optimization
Search engine marketing (SEM) was used extensively to promote JustEat.in by increasing its
visibility on search engine result pages (SERPs). This was done using paid placement,
contextual advertising, and paid inclusion. SEM generally meant the use of pay per click
advertising. JustEat.in made use of banner ads on premium web sites such as Yahoo.com.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is considered the most important part of online marketing
activities for JustEat.in as JustEat itself is an online service. We regularly update our web site
as well as the blog and make use of key phrases associated with the web site (for example,
names of restaurants and cuisines). As a result of this, JustEat.in is ranked much higher in
SERPs and to add to more excitement, it is ranked even higher than the restaurants personal
websites, explained Ramjee Ganti (Ganti), Head of Technology at JustEat.in.
Social media marketing
The company used social media such as Facebook[15] and Twitter[16] extensively to
promote the JustEat.in brand. This allowed more easy access to tech savvy people. Barely
two months after the launch of the remodeled web site, i.e. by September 2011, JustEat.in
had over 32,014 likes on the Facebook page. Various contests were conducted such as the
how well you know JustEat contest and the Cook Smart Eat Healthy contest[17]. The winners
received exciting prizes such as Android phones, IFB microwave ovens, and even exclusive
discount coupons for premium restaurants. JustEat.in also posted exclusive offers,
interesting food and health facts, as well as guess the dish[18] for their devoted followers
on Facebook. Ganti added:
The followers simply adored the posts that were put up by JustEat.in and always commented and
hit the like button. The clientele were gratified with the spontaneity of the web site.

There were regular posts on the Facebook page on interesting food facts like Apples are
more effective at keeping people awake in the morning than caffeine and lemons contain
more sugar than strawberries. Hilarious television ads from JustEat.co.uk were also shared
on the page. The Facebook page also provided information on new restaurant additions and
updates on site features. The customers were always updated with the latest news and
necessary information. Its Twitter page also registered a huge fan following. The Twitter page
provided food facts, health tips, restaurant reviews, and service updates. Youtube was also
used as a platform to share the television ads.
Electronic customer relationship management
About the electronic customer relationship management (eCRM) activites of JustEat.in,
Ganti said:
We send regular mailers and newsletters to our customers informing them of the latest restaurant
additions, special offers, and irresistible contests. We also send mailers on special occasions
such as Mothers Day, Daughters Day and others. We give a reason to our users to celebrate their
special occasions by ordering food from their favourite restaurants for their loved ones. One of the
most interesting things is our location-based newsletters which are sent to users on the basis of
areas where they stay in Bengaluru. For example, if a customer stays in Indiranagar[19] area,
then the newsletter sent to him contains the details about the new restaurants in Indiranagar area
(refer to Exhibit 7 for the image of the location-based newsletters).

VOL. 2 NO. 8 2012 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 5

Supper Mailers are another innovative way of reaching out to our users if they have not used
JustEat.in for a month. We make sure to create an emotional touch with our customers. For
instance, earlier mailers contained a picture of Aloo Patel crying while sitting on a dining table
along with the words We missed you so much addressed to the user. This inevitably provokes
the sentiments of the customers in a positive manner and acts in favour of the web site. The mailer
also contains a short-letter reminding the user about JustEat.in. We also ensure that the blog on
the web site is regularly updated. This helps JustEat.in in strengthening customer relationships
and communicating with them on a day-to-day basis, added Ganti (refer to Exhibit 8 for the image
of the supper mailer).

Apart from these, JustEat.in also provided a link to a feedback form on its web site where
customers could rate their service experience.
BellyandBrain.com and games
JustEat introduced high-definition Belly & Brain games for users of the Apple iPhone and
iPod Touch. They were available for free at the Apple App Store. The games featured
JustEats mascots Belly and Brain and required the player to control Brains food cannon
whilst aiming and firing different snacks into Bellys mouth to stop his stomach rumbling.
Based upon three cuisine themes, Chinese, Indian and Italian, the required skill and accuracy
were set across 126 levels[20] (refer to Exhibit 9 for snapshots of the games).

Radio advertisements
Kumar said that radio ads were used because of their reach and cost effectiveness. They
catered to a vast number of listeners all over the nation. They also provided maximum
exposure to JustEat.ins target market, i.e. business professionals. There were multiple
themes for radio ads. Brand ads spoke about JustEat.in and helped promote the brand.
Surrogate ads[21] talked about restaurants which made listeners aware of new restaurants
and cuisines added to JustEat.in. Live restaurant reviews were also provided. Radio Jockeys
(RJs) had mentions of JustEat.in integrated into their scripts. Various contests too were
conducted on radio. The radio ads primarily emphasized the words fast, free and reliable
service while referring to JustEat.in.

Corporate campaigns
JustEat.in conducted surveys on a regular basis to stay updated about its customers and to
carry out its marketing activities effectively. Sandipan Mitra (Mitra), Sales and Marketing
Director of JustEat.in, remarked:
One of our surveys surprisingly revealed that 85% of our customers worked in the IT sector of
Bengaluru. Most of these customers are always on the go. They hardly have time to go back home
and cook, especially women and working parents. Their only respite is to depend on the delivered
food items provided by these restaurants. Hence, we realized that there was a huge potential in
the IT sector of Bengaluru and decided to tie up with the top IT companies of Bengaluru in order to
carry out a corporate campaign to make the employees of these companies aware about
JustEat.in and convert them into regular customers.

But for a relatively new company like JustEat.in, it was not easy to convince the management
of these IT companies to let them conduct an event at their campuses. So, JustEat.in came
up with the idea of customizing its services by building a micro-site for each IT company
which would be readily available on the company intranet. These customized micro-sites
enabled the employees of these companies to log on and order food delivery to their
campuses. The micro-site featured a list of restaurants situated around the area in which the
company was located and also provided special discounts and offers only for the
employees of these companies. This micro-site service was available free of cost (refer to
Exhibit 10 for screenshots of the customized micro-site). The corporate tie-ups were
successfully done with global corporations like Accenture and Wipro. These tie-ups enabled
JustEat.in to reach out to a wider audience and it discovered that each successful alliance
increased its customer base by 5-7 per cent[22].

PAGE 6 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 2 NO. 8 2012

Apartment campaigns
JustEat.in also realized that there was a huge opportunity in residential apartments across
Bengaluru. It chose to carry out campaigns at apartments in areas with a lot of partner
restaurants primarily because they were the hub of JustEat.ins target customers. Also, there
was much less of a time constraint for interaction with these residents. These campaigns
provided a good chance to induce trial among their target audience, Mitra said. JustEat.in
organized events for families, put up stalls with attractive offers from nearby restaurants,
sponsored parties and festivals and also co-branded visibility at the gyms and cafeterias
situated in the apartment complex. They also put up door-knob hangers on each and
every apartment door making the residents aware of their exclusive features and services.
We did not leave a single stone unturned to grab attention of the prospective customers,
Mitra added.

Trade marketing
The partnership promotions of JustEat.in were achieved by providing customized glass
frames to their partner restaurants certifying that the particular restaurant was listed with
JustEat.in. The glass frames featured the restaurants logo as well as details about JustEat.in
along with a picture of their mascots. The reason for providing these glass frames to
restaurants was to make customers aware of the fact that the restaurant they were visiting
was listed on JustEat.in and that the customers could use JustEat.in to order food or reserve
a table in the same restaurant so as to avoid long-waiting times. Growing customer
awareness helped the company develop many loyal customers.
Some partner restaurants were hesitant to put up the glass frames as they had a rule not to
put anything on their walls. Moreover, some restaurants felt that the black frame did not
create a compatible effect with the restaurants ambience. In order to deal with this problem,
JustEat.in provided acrylic panels to these restaurants. The acrylic panels were transparent
and hence fitted in well with the restaurants ambience. However, some of the restaurants
were still not too keen about putting up the glass frames or acrylic panels as they did not
want to drill and put up nails on their restaurant walls in order to hang the frames. So,
JustEat.in provided these restaurants with high-quality vinyl stickers which could just be
pasted on the glass doors or walls (refer to Exhibit 11 for the images of a glass frame,
high-quality vinyl sticker and acrylic panel).
Partner restaurants were also supplied with open/close signboards with the JustEat.in logo
and mascots. Besides, they were provided with JustEat.in menu card holders (refer to
Exhibit 12 for the images of open/close boards and menu card holders).
The staff members of many of the partner restaurants did not have any particular uniform.
JustEat.in provided such restaurant staff members with black t-shirts with the bright red
JustEat.in logo printed on them. In addition, JustEat.in went in for various branding options at
high-end partner restaurants by providing them with valet parking cards, special discount
coupons and location maps with the JustEat.in logo printed across them.
The regulatory authorities of the Karnataka[23] government banned the use of plastic carry
bags from February 19, 2011[24]. JustEat.in provided bio-degradable carry bags to partner
restaurants which were utilized for home delivery orders. In addition to the JustEat.in logo on
one side, the carry bags contained a go-green message on the other side with special
mention that the carry bag was 100 per cent bio-degradable. The message also thanked
the customer for using the bio-degradable carry bag and for building the foundation for a
better, greener and healthier tomorrow (refer to Exhibit 13 for the image of a bio-degradable
carry bag).

Additional ATL and BTL campaigns

JustEat.in carried out additional ATL campaigns like targeted electronic direct mails (EDM),
targeted SMS and restaurant signboards. The other BTL campaigns included printing
six-in-one menu cards for its customers which contained the menus of six partner restaurants

VOL. 2 NO. 8 2012 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 7

located in a particular area. Six-in-one menu cards were printed only for an area in which
at least six partner restaurants were situated.

Major concerns
Despite carrying out multiple marketing activities, Dwivedy pointed out:
JustEat.in is still facing a crucial problem which probably is the biggest hurdle of all. With the joint
venture and the constant marketing efforts, we see an extraordinary rise in the number of
customers as well as number of orders indeed, but the scalability of operations is now a major
concern for us.

As per the existing business model, whenever a customer placed an order with JustEat.in
through phone, a call centre executive immediately received the order and then manually
called up the concerned restaurant to inform them about the customers order. The
restaurant then processed the order and delivered it to the customer within 45 min of
receiving the order from JustEat.in. But when the restaurant was not able to process the
customers order for various reasons, it called back JustEat.ins call centre executive and
informed him/her about its failure. The call centre executive immediately informed the
customer, that his order could not be processed and then gave him a list of back-up
restaurants of the same cuisine to place his order from. Sumouli Datta (Datta), a Senior
Customer Care Executive at JustEat.in, recalled one such incident. A customer had placed
an order with JustEat.in, believing that it would be delivered to him within 45 min. When he
was informed 15 min after he had placed the order that it could not be processed and asked
to place an order with another restaurant, he was extremely annoyed. So now, the whole
order process that originally should have been completed in 45 min, took an additional
15-20 min, leading to customer dissatisfaction. Such incidents dented the image of the
company, Datta pointed out.
In case a customer placed an order online, the computer screen of the call centre executive
blinked with the notification that a new order had been placed and was yet to be processed.
The call centre executive then followed the same manual procedure to place the customers
order with the restaurant. In case the restaurant was unable to process the order, the call
centre executives followed the same protocol for recovery.
To deal with these problems and speed up the recovery process, JustEat.in came up with
the clever and essential JUSTConnect [25] terminal solution. We call it the JCT-magic box,
said Datta. Listed restaurants were given the JUSTConnect terminal which was connected to
the servers at JustEat.ins call centre. As soon as a customer placed his/her order online on
the web site of JustEat.in, the restaurant received a message on its POS device informing it
of the order placed. The restaurant then had two options, either to accept the order or to
reject it. If the restaurant accepted the order and started processing it, the customer
received an order confirmation through both SMS as well as e-mail. Once the order was
processed, the restaurant delivered it at the customers doorstep. In case a restaurant
rejected the order, the customer care executive got a message on his/her computer instead
of the customer. The call centre executive then called up the customer, informed him about
the rejected order and gave him a list of back-up restaurants of the same cuisine that the
customer had ordered as well as other cuisines to opt from. Datta added:
This saved a lot of time as the restaurant could immediately inform JustEat.in if they were not able
to process any order. Customers also did not have to wait for long as they would be informed
within five minutes in case their order could not be processed. Hence, the entire order process
took only an additional 5 minutes instead of the earlier 15-20 minutes.

However, Dwivedy felt that the partnering restaurants should be more accountable for their
actions in terms of maintaining food quality as well as reducing delivery time to customers.
He pointed out incidents where the customer had already made an online payment on
receiving the confirmation from JustEat.ins customer care executive regarding his order
from a specified restaurant, but there was unnecessary delay in delivery of the order to the
customer from the partnering restaurants end. This in turn got reflected in customer
dissatisfaction and the customer held JustEat.in accountable for the same.

PAGE 8 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 2 NO. 8 2012

Apart from the issues with operations Datta expressed his concerns regarding few
upcoming online portals which provided if not exactly the same but similar kind of services.
He mentioned Eveningflaovors.com which was a Bengaluru-based web site where
customers can only book a table online. Through this web site one can book a table in some
450 restaurants in Bengaluru. However, their revenue model was based on advertising from
the restaurants itself. Similarly burrp.com and zomato.com were also restaurant listing web
sites and they also provided the customers with the assortment of menus of several
restaurants together with the prices making it almost impossible for JustEat.in to even
conceptualize any chance of additional revenue by charging customers for their service.

The road ahead

Sitting in his office, Dwivedy felt that the rebranding efforts had paid off and that JustEat.ins
operations were running smoothly. The company also planned to introduce an online
payment facility for its customers. It also planned on implementing a mobile phone
application for better convenience. A survey conducted by JustEat.in revealed that 90 per
cent of its customers were open to the idea of paying online but only if they were ensured of
the safety of their transactions (refer to Exhibit 14 for the survey results). The company had
already set foot in Delhi and Mumbai and was now considering expansion into other major
cities across India. The target was to be present in 12 cities by the end of 2012. However,
there were still some issues which remained unsolved. As Dwivedy said:
A few of the partner restaurants believe that JustEat.in is eating into their profits as they have to
pay a certain percentage of their revenues earned through JustEat.in as commission. In fact, a
few of these restaurants have started to look upon JustEat.in as their competitor. This is in spite of
the fact that the restaurants increased their revenues by 10% to 15% after partnering with us. This
situation is also leading restaurants to poach our customers in several cases. The restaurants are
trying to convince the customers to place orders with them directly instead of ordering through
JustEat.in.

To add to its woes, most popular global restaurant chains like McDonalds, Dominos, Pizza
Hut, and some other local players were not on the list of JustEat.in. These popular restaurant
chains were difficult to convince as they were already facing situations of excess demand
and so did not want any more extra orders to be placed with them. Also, they had their own
independent order delivery system in place.
Looking out of the window at the rain-drenched city, Dwivedy wondered:
How can we get more restaurants listed with us without the restaurants thinking of JustEat.in as
their competitor? How can the problem of poaching of customers be solved? What about getting
the popular restaurant chains enlisted? How has our marketing efforts influenced the perception
of our brand in the minds of our customers?

Notes
1. Bengaluru, formerly known as Bangalore, is the capital of the Southern Indian state of Karnataka. It
is also known as the Silicon Valley of India because of its position as the nations leading IT exporter.
2. Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the sixth
most populous city in the world.
3. Delhi, the capital of India, is the largest metropolis by area and the second largest city by population
in India.
4. Jamshedpur is the largest urban conglomeration in the Eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, India.
5. The IIT, Kharagpur, is an autonomous technology and management-oriented institute of higher
education established by the Government of India in 1951.
6. JustEat and Hungryzone announce business partnership, available at: www.eimai.in (accessed
January 14, 2011).
7. IAN is a venture capitalist firm in India which had, as of 2010, invested in 23 companies, including
four located overseas.

VOL. 2 NO. 8 2012 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 9

8. Job access with speech (JAWS) is a computer screen reader program in Microsoft Windows that
allows the blind and visually impaired to read the screen either with a text-to-speech output or by a
refreshable Braille display.
9. Journey from Hungryzone to JustEat, available at: www.business-standard.com (accessed
March 5, 2011).
10. TechCrunch Europe Top 100 is a regularly updated index of the most innovative and
highest-potential European tech companies.
11. Hungryzone partners with UK-based JustEat, available at: www.JustEat.in (accessed January 13,
2011).
12. Hungryzone to cater large number of food lovers by expanding footprints to other cities, available
at: www.marketpressrelease.com (accessed May 20, 2011).
13. Rs Indian Rupees (INR). As of September 2011, US$ 1 was approximately equal to Rs 47.
14. Taxes varied from city-to-city.
15. Facebook is a social networking service and web site launched in February 2004, operated and
privately owned by Facebook Inc. As of April, 2011, Facebook had approximately 25 million active
users in India.
16. Twitter is an online social networking service and microblogging service that enables its users to
send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, known as tweets. It was created in March
2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched in July. As of April 2011, Twitter had approximately 25 million
active users in India.
17. Cook Smart Eat Healthy was a contest where the participant had to answer a few brain teasers to win
an IFB microwave oven.
18. Guess the dish was a contest where JustEat.in would put up a picture of a dish every three hours
and the fans would have to guess the name of the dish.
19. Indiranagar is a locality to the East of Bengaluru.
20. JustEat launches Belly and Brain Game on the App Store, available at: www.prwed.com
(accessed November 3, 2010).

Keywords:
Services marketing,
Service branding,
Services marketing
communication,
Online service delivery,
Online operations,
Food products,
Service operations

21. Surrogate advertising is a type of advertising which embeds a brand or product message inside an
advertisement which is ostensibly for another brand or product.
22. Company source.
23. Karnataka originally known as the State of Mysore is a state in South West India.
24. Plastic ban in Bengaluru from February 19, available at: www.mybangalore.com (accessed
February 16, 2011).
25. JustConnect was a POS device similar to the credit and debit card swiping device.

Reference
Praveen Bose (n.d.), To feed a city, available at: www.business-standard.com (accessed January 16,
2011).

PAGE 10 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 2 NO. 8 2012

Exhibit 1
Figure E1 Geographic presence of JustEat

Source: Company

Exhibit 2
Figure E2 JustEat.in: the old web site

Source: Company

VOL. 2 NO. 8 2012 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 11

Figure E3 JustEat.in: the new web site

Source: www.justeat.in

PAGE 12 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 2 NO. 8 2012

Exhibit 3
Table EI The exclusive features of JustEat.in
Feature

Description

One click ordering

Whatever order you place after signing in will be saved and kept with us.
Whenever you want to place a similar order just pick your previous order,
make the required changes to it and re-submit. Or in case you just want to
re-order the same order, it can now happen with a single click.
Checking order status
Food is delayed past the scheduled time, just go to check order status
link, enter your order code and your mobile number and we shall instantly
let you know the status of your order through an SMS.
Auto-suggest feature
The algorithm predicts search queries in real time!! So typing (Piz) and
then clicking on pizza/us pizza is faster and easier and also serves as a
tool to know what other options are available on our site.
Social networking
Keep your team member informed about what food you have ordered for
features
them/what table you have booked for them with the click of a mouse
Save orders for future
Planning an order for the future? Place it now with us and we shall get it
processed on the date and time mentioned by you.
Buffet search
Welcome to the most comprehensive buffet search. Filter down to the
exact buffet you want to go to through our advanced search filter based
on buffet price range, avg meal range, area, cuisine, etc. and then make
a reservation at that restaurant. All this in a matter of few moments.
Phone support
In case you are on the move and do not have internet access you can
avail of the just eat service on the phone, just call 600-00-600 and make
your reservations, order food, and also check status of your order. This
phone support is available from 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. seven days a week.
Advanced search filter
Want to make sure that the restaurant you are ordering from is purely
vegetarian, or has air conditioning, has a kids section where the kids can
play, serves alcohol, is disabled friendly and many more, just check that
on the advanced search filter and you shall get the exact information.
Customer loyalty program Not just that; this entire service comes to you absolutely free of cost, we
also reward your continued patronage through our customer loyalty
program. Every order you place through us entitles you to certain foodies
points which you can redeem for very attractive gifts, vouchers, discounts
and much more.
Source: available at: www.justeat.in

VOL. 2 NO. 8 2012 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 13

Exhibit 4
Figure E4 An image of Aloo Patel

Aloo Patel, Emeritus Chief Food Officer

Education: No personal questions,please

Experience: 4 yrs of feeding Bengalurucity with love, compassion and care

Interest: Feeding the hungry souls

Exhibit 5
Figure E5 Images of Belly and Brain

Source: Company

PAGE 14 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 2 NO. 8 2012

Exhibit 6
Figure E6 Image of the mailer

Source: Company

VOL. 2 NO. 8 2012 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 15

Exhibit 7

Figure E7 Old location-based newsletters

Source: Company

Exhibit 8
Figure E8 Old supper mailer

Source: Company

PAGE 16 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 2 NO. 8 2012

Exhibit 9
Figure E9 Belly and Brain game snapshots

Source: Company

Figure E10 Belly and Brain game snapshots

Source: Company

VOL. 2 NO. 8 2012 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 17

Exhibit 10

Figure E11 Screenshots from customized micro-site

Source: Company

Figure E12 Screenshots from customized micro-site

Source: Company

PAGE 18 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 2 NO. 8 2012

Exhibit 11

Figure E13 Glass frame, high-quality vinyl sticker and acrylic panel

Source: Company

Exhibit 12
Figure E14 Open/close boards

Source: Company

Figure E15 Menu card holders

Source: Company

VOL. 2 NO. 8 2012 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 19

Exhibit 13
Figure E16 Bio-degradable carry bag

Source: Company

Exhibit 14
Figure E17 Customer surveys

Source: Company

PAGE 20 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES VOL. 2 NO. 8 2012

About the authors

Rik Paul is a Research Scholar at IBS, Hyderabad, and also pursuing his PhD from Icfai
University. Before joining IBS, Rik Paul worked in multiple MNCs as an EHS consultant.
His articles have appeared in both international and national journals of repute. His research
interests include services marketing, service value, service quality and customer
satisfaction and loyalty. He is actively involved in writing management case studies and is
an expert in implementing alternative pedagogic tools. Rik Paul is the corresponding author
and can be contacted at: [email protected]
Debapratim Purkayastha has more than 11 years experience in industry, research and
academia. He is actively involved in the Case Research Center at IBS Hyderabad, and is the
Consulting Editor of Case Folio. He has authored a number of case studies in strategy,
marketing, etc. that are taught in leading business schools around the world. He won many
global case writing competitions and his case studies have been published in international
textbooks in strategic management, international management and marketing.

VOL. 2 NO. 8 2012 EMERALD EMERGING MARKETS CASE STUDIES PAGE 21