Yelp’s Core Competencies, Resources, Capabilities Essay

Core Competencies

Packaged Word of Mouth Advertising

Yelp is one of the handiest review websites evaluating various businesses and dealing with the phenomenon of mouth advertising: marketing messages from users doing reviews are carried to readers. In general, people tend to believe strangers and form their opinion according to the overall rating (Lim & Van Der Heide, 2015). Totaled up, reviews constitute a packaged word: a summary of all reviews is likely to become the basis for one’s opinion.

Strategic Promotions through Paid Endorsements

In comparison with social endorsements in the form of real consumers’ recommendations, paid endorsements are not welcomed. Still, there are attempts to obtain reviews by this route. The review filter introduced by Yelp use a special algorithm intended to elicit fake reviews. In addition, a consumer-alerts program is created: Yelp pages of those who are caught red-handed are marked with a banner that signals about the attempt to pay for reviews. Without obviously spam messages, the platform looks trusting. However, the black-market sale is reported: since Yelp elite members are given preference by the company, they may provide paid reviews (Zara 2014).

Real Reviews Create Incentive to Interact

Provided a review is trustworthy, users are stimulated to interact. They eagerly share their experience because the site gives opportunities to be noticed. They also wish to gain on-hand data: it is information that becomes the main incentive. Special offers sometimes motivate clients: for instance, some companies are known to pay clients who do Yelp reviews: a restaurant tried to woo customers offering 20% discount (Yelp, Inc., 2009). Nevertheless, these practices are not encouraged.

Community of Members

All community of Yelp has an opportunity to take part in offline community events. There are also “the Elite Squad” parties and events: “stellar” community members who are regarded as role models to ordinary users and the heart of Yelp are selected (Couzin & Grappone, 2013). Applicants to this group should possess remarkable writing skills and actively participate in doing reviews. Elite members are often considered to be making buying decisions.

Resources

Competitive Landscape Resource for Environmental Scaling and Assessment

Nowadays, the intense competition among environmental scaling and assessment services providers does not prevent Yelp from progress. Google, Groupon, LivingSocial, and other similar companies are direct competitors for Yelp, yet it manages to be prosperous. The formula for success combines sales-driven focus and product offering of analytical tools: they capture local business owners’ attention and drive them to purchase advertising (Liang, 2015).

Human resource for potential B2B integration

B2B integration deals with the idea that it is necessary to fulfill marketing objectives using social media (Weber, 2013). Under these circumstances, business partners interact and make commercial transactions by involving human resources. Yelp serves as a perfect ground: while persons post their reviews, B2B can actually create their brand’s good reputation online. As a result, a potential partner’s attention is drawn, and cooperation begins.

Commercial resource for large corporations

While local businesses are attracted by the Yelp services, large corporations are also interested in cooperation with the company. Commercial resources including the marketing strategy and the distribution mechanisms are the object of importance since companies seek for effective decisions particularly for them. The more a corporation is advertized, the better chances it has. In other words, large corporations want to use Yelp to reach clients through advertisement.

Capabilities

Valuable Insight Offers

Yelp is relevant not only in the context of reviews and recommendations based on real-life personal experience. It also helps customers interact with the site and find places according to the desired criteria. A user can find details about a restaurant’s cuisine that will be significant for them and influence their decision to visit this place. For example, a vegetarian may check where tasty vegetarian food is served not only by the categories “Vegetarian” or “Vegan” but also in the restaurants where different food types are present.

Ability to Make Reservations

Another way to reap benefit is to make reservations. Having found a place or service, a person can easily use the application, Yelp Reservations, and choose whatever they need. It is beneficial not only for customers but also for businesspersons: via Yelp Business Owners Account, they are able to set up the free Yelp Reservations capability and fill tables (Yelp, Inc, 2014). Although this service is available for different types of places, restaurants are leaders: most of the reservations refer to booking a table.

Food Ordering at Select Restaurants

Finally, the opportunity to order food from certain restaurants is among the Yelp capabilities. In 2015, the company bought Eat24, an online food-ordering service, for $134 million (Isaac, 2015). It was another step to expand Yelp business that brought new opportunities to Yelp customers. A user-friendly application makes it simple to order food. The company reported that a decrease in the number of Eat24 visitors was registered (Isaac, 2015).

Industry

Focus Shifting Towards Relationships Between Point of Interest and Customers

As it has been stated above, Yelp’s point of interest (POI) includes a wide range of local businesses. Taking into consideration the necessity to meet their needs and at the same time satisfy consumers’ expectations, the company has shifted towards the new type of relationships. Currently, the company is interested in the multidimensional interaction between POI and clients. On the one hand, people may simply search for services and places and post reviews. On the other hand, they are engaged in manifold activities, such as ordering food and making reservations. In general, Yelp aims at the relationships favorable for all stakeholders.

Product Integration and Technological Updates

Product integration and technological innovations are the issues that must also be properly addressed. If international expansion is to occur, iOS & Android product engineers, as well as technical data centers, must be functioning at their peak in order to avoid crashes or intrusion of personal information. The right mix of technology must be leveraged within the complexities present within the backbone of the app, the Internet database, and overall network.

References

Couzin, G, & Grappone, J. (2013). Yelp for business: The quick-start guide to managing your reviews. Indianapolis, IN: John Wiley & Sons.

Isaac, M. (2015). Yelp buys Eat24, an online food-ordering service, for $134 million. The New York Times Blog. Web.

Liang, D. (2015). Yelp: a 5-star review. Harvard Business School Open Knowledge. Web.

Lim, Y. S., & Van Der Heide, B. (2015). Evaluating the wisdom of strangers: The perceived credibility of online consumer reviews on Yelp. The Journal of Computer‐Mediated Communication, 20(1), 67-82.

Weber, L. (2013). The social enterprise: Building a digitally driven business to gain competitive advantage. The Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing, 1(1), 6-16.

Yelp, Inc. (2009). To solicit or not to solicit? Web.

Yelp, Inc. (2014). Yelp reservations: New free Tool for businesses gives diners even more options when booking online. Web.

Zara, C. (2014). Yelp filtered reviews blues: Businesses hate the mysterious algorithm, but is there any way to crack it? International Business Times. Web.