Steven _BWWM Romance

by Katie Dowe

  “No! It's not that. Even Tinder does not give out much information, but they are swiping it left and right six ways to Sunday. So what is wrong with us?”

  After much thinking, none of them were able to put a finger on what could be the real cause. However, they did make a list of features that they think might be preventing users from joining them.

  “Alright, I need some rest. I will think about it in the morning.” Kitty said packing the documents up. “You get some rest too and we will continue this in the morning.”

  “Take care,” Janet said as Kitty walked out of the apartment.

  After Kitty’s departure, Janet finally opened that link she had saved in her reading list. It was a review of High Seas by a reputed website and she did not want to open it in front of Kitty. All alone, Janet decided to finally read it despite Kitty’s stern instructions of not reading any reviews. “We are just over a week young and we should not worry about reviews yet,” were Kitty’s words to her.

  But now she had opened the link and it was staring her right in the face.

  High Seas: The Dating Service that Needs a Life Boat

  Only a handful of events generated worldwide hype this year, and one of them was the global launch of an international dating service High Seas. From the creative mind of Janet Crane, the young African American billionaire whose last success CookUp; another dating app for foodies was sold for 9.8 Million Dollars (which today stands over 15 Million in shares) came another matchmaking service that aimed to bring people from different cultures and lands closer together. However, this latest brainchild of the CookUp founder is now seeming to be a flash in the pan after an explosive launch people are losing interest in the service. Neither the app nor the website is registering more than 5 members each day, and anybody in this business can tell you how horrifying these numbers are for a dating service. Though the marketing campaign of High Seas is still being fleshed out by its creators, it has started to lose its effect on people. The videos and billboards now do not attract as much attention as they did before the launch. Probably because people do not find the service interesting.

  Though most of the industry is already calling High Seas a sinking ship, only a handful of analysts are reserving their judgment until the service gets at least a month old. Reviewers are citing many reasons behind the failure of the service but one major feature that has been prominently flogged by the critics and users alike is the privacy of its users. High Seas does not let its users see any information about their persons of interest until they spend some time interacting with each other and doing some activities. This feature, according to many people, has delivered a major blow to the service’s popularity. In today’s age of fast food, people do not like to wait, and High Seas’ forced privacy feature is making things difficult for itself. Maybe this is the way the service was designed, but it's proving fatal for the business. The majority of users registered as of now on High Seas is above 35 years of age. While most of the internet businesses and apps (especially dating) rely on young users, High Seas attracts seasoned people to its website, which could also create a problem in the long run.

  Though it's still too early to determine the real cause behind the tremendously low turnout for the service, it's pretty clear that popularity of High Seas before and around its launch was nothing but just a hype, created by its marketing machinery. However it's still surprising to see that the same marketing team is failing to deliver and the speculations suggest a major change in the management. Whether you like High Seas or not, the following weeks are very crucial for the company’s fate. Any further dip in the numbers would not only take the company down but also the reputation of Janet Crane. Whatever the cause, it's high time for high seas to come up with a rescue plan.

  “Fuck!” Janet exhaled closing her laptop and leaned back in her chair. She knew how this review was going to be and now she was regretting going against Kitty’s advice to read it. The review did not try to analyze the root cause behind the failure of the service but just made Janet more anxious by stating the obvious facts.

  Janet knew that in order to save her new company, she had to take some drastic steps, but nobody was telling her what those steps were. Everybody was telling her that there was a problem, but nobody could describe the problem to her. It was getting harder day by day to understand what was going wrong.

  One thing was clear though, Janet was not going to change how the service worked. No matter how many articles criticized the forced privacy of the users, Janet was not going to take it off. It was the core concept of this service that was aimed to provide a sense of comfort and safety to its members. She remembered how she felt at the Neil Island when nobody in the group knew anything about each other. And Janet wanted her users to feel the same thing with her service. “I am not taking off the privacy!” Janet said to herself, trying to figure out what else could be the reason for people turning their backs on her company. She knew there were worse dating services that were getting so many registration each day, but why were people not coming to her?

  Was she missing something obvious?

  Janet believed in the model of how the service works and so she started thinking about the people related to it. “Maybe I do need to change the marketing team..” she thought, but then she also remembered that the same team got her trending worldwide before the launch. “The team is good,” she again thought, dropping the idea of firing anyone.

  “Fuck this! I am going to sleep.” Janet was tired and so she crashed into her bed, deciding not to think about it anymore tonight.

  *****

  Kitty was getting ready to leave for work when an unknown number appeared on her cellphone.

  “Hello?” Kitty answered buttoning her shirt.

  “Hey Kitty! This is Bilal. Remember me?” the voice danced out of the phone and suddenly, Kitty was smiling.

  “Bilal? Of course I remember you. But I am afraid this is a bad time. I am leaving for work.”

  “Actually, I called you regarding your work.” Bilal replied.

  Kitty suddenly stopped doing everything, “What do you mean?”

  “You were with your friend Janet when we met. And now I am seeing her name in these articles about her website High Seas. How are you guys holding up with these bad reviews piling on?”

  “Thanks for reminding us how bad we are doing,” Kitty said unapologetic and suddenly Bilal realized his mistake.

  “I am sorry Kitty, I did not mean it like that. It's just that I decided to try the service myself and wanted to share my opinion with you. I thought maybe you’d like to have a fresh perspective.”

  Kitty instantly saw the value of Bilal’s opinion. Janet came up with the idea of High Seas to help people like herself and Bilal. She did not create this service for teenagers who were looking for a quick hookup. This service was created for people who had everything but companionship in their lives. Bilal told her exactly what she needed to hear.

  “I am so glad you called, Bilal!” Kitty thanked him.

  “No problem. I just thought maybe you’d need some help.”

  “Yes, we need all the help we can get right now. And thank you so much!”

  “I guess you are in a hurry for your work. I will talk to you later, Kitty. Take care.”

  Kitty could not believe it, the man was a God send to tell her what was wrong with their action plan. But then Kitty quickly left her home. She reached Rebecca’s office where she found Janet waiting with her.

  “You wont believe who called me today!” Kitty said entering the office, “Bilal!”

  “Who?” Rebecca had no clue who this person was, but Janet was astonished.

  “The prince?” she said.

  “Prince? A real prince?” Rebecca was intrigued. “How does she know a prince?”

  “Not just a real prince, but a handsome one,” Janet filled in Rebecca.

  “Wow! But… how do you know a prince?” Rebecca really wanted to know.

  Janet smiled, loo
king at Kitty knowingly and this was enough for Rebecca to figure out.

  “Get out! You made out with a prince? What does that entitle you to? At least a palace in his country. Also, where is he from?”

  “Dubai! He is from Dubai,” Janet told her.

  “Would you two shut up? There is something important that Bilal told me.”

  “Is he marrying you?” Rebecca asked chuckling and it only made Kitty mad. She could see Kitty’s nostrils flaring up.

  “Alright, I will zip it now. So tell us what it was,” Rebecca finally piped down.

  “Bilal tried our service and gave me his feedback,” Kitty told them.

  “We already have feedback from many of our users. How is that important?” Janet asked.

  Kitty sat down and looked into her eyes. “Tell me..” she said. “When you came up with the idea, whom did you have in mind?”

  Janet remembered the evening when she came up with the concept of High Seas and suddenly, she realized what Kitty was trying to tell her, “Oh shit!”

  “See?” Kitty said.

  “We have been doing it all wrong.” Janet held her head.

  “Somebody tell me what is going on here.” Rebecca was feeling left out.

  Janet and Kitty took a moment to collect their wits before Janet started explaining it to Rebecca.

  “I came up with this idea to help people get closer to each other despite their status and identities in the outside world. Most rich people are worried that people will pretend to fall in love with them only for their money. And so on our holiday I met a group of these people who had a rule, ‘nobody was supposed to ask or tell who or what they were in the outside world’.”

  “Nice! Like a secret society of powerful friends.” Rebecca was getting excited.

  “Exactly! And that was the core concept behind this idea — to make people confident that people will like them for who they really are and not because of how much money they have,” Janet added into her explanation.

  “But then, the model is still the same. What is the problem?” Rebecca asked.

  Janet felt quite embarrassed to answer this, “The problem is… we have been targeting the wrong demographics. We were going after college students, singles and teenagers.”

  “While our idea is tailor made for people who are filthy rich!” Rebecca pointed out shamelessly.

  “Well you make it sound like it's a bad thing, but … yeah!” Janet finally admitted.

  But now even Rebecca was able to see the power behind this idea. However she also saw one major problem with it. “But to succeed, any service needs more users, and if we are being elitist and selective, how are we going to .. you know.. succeed?”

  “Two ways —” Janet answered, “One — the service is free right now but we will start charging our users once we have enough of them. And two — once people will know that the site is a place for rich and powerful people to mingle, everybody would want to be a part of this.”

  “It's like a private club being opened for anybody who can afford the admission fee. Ordinary people are going to line up to get in.” Kitty said.

  “So all we need to do is change our marketing strategy and BOOM!” Rebecca got excited.

  Finally they knew what was going to turn things around for them.

  “But, there is one more thing!” Kitty stopped their celebration.

  “What?” Janet asked.

  “When Bilal was telling me all this, I realized we were lacking something very important.”

  Janet and Rebecca were listening to Kitty with deepest of anticipation.

  “Every working model needs a proof. And sadly, we don’t have any.”

  “So you mean we need a success story? Two people from our service getting hitched together?” Rebecca confirmed.

  “Yes, but not necessarily married. Only coming together will be enough for us. We desperately need a success story to show our users how effective our service is.”

  Kitty was right and Janet and Rebecca could see why. Without a proof, all the promises made by High Seas were nothing but tall tales.

  “But how do we make people fall in love with each other?” Janet wondered.

  “We pay them.” Rebecca came back with an instant answer.

  “NO!” Janet did not like it one bit. “Are you crazy?”

  “What is the problem? We hire actors to act in the promotional video. Why can't we hire two people to fall in love with each other using our service?” Rebecca questioned.

  Janet looked at Kitty for an answer but she seemed torn between her and Rebecca.

  “That is because when you share a secret with people, they tend to capitalize on that secret. What if those pretend lovers start blackmailing us in the future? This could ruin our business and reputation forever.”

  “I agree.” Kitty said.

  “See?” Janet showed Rebecca.

  “We need somebody who will keep their mouths shut.” Kitty concluded herself.

  “Are you serious Kitty?” Janet could not believe her. “You are actually thinking about it?”

  “Yes, because there is no harm in it. The only flaw in this plan is that the pretend lovers get greedy and start blackmailing us like you said. But if we have a counter measure that prevents us from getting blackmailed, this is a brilliant plan.”

  “What is wrong with you two?” Janet stood up in shock. “This is not how we do business!”

  “Alright, tell me that other genius plan you have,” Rebecca said to Janet with clear sarcasm. Janet knew she did not have any other plan and so stayed mum.

  “Yeah, I thought so. There is no other idea right now.”

  “We have other options. We can try changing our marketing strategy and see what it does for us.” Janet tried to take Rebecca and Kitty away from that idea.

  “But what about the proof?” Kitty asked.

  “Enough! If it is so important we will have no other option but to come back to it. Right now we need to focus on our marketing strategy.”

  Kitty did not want to argue with Janet right now. Besides she could see Janet was right. A shift in the marketing policy was the priority at hand.

  “Alright, we will deal with marketing first.” Kitty said calmly looking at Rebecca. “But then lets come back to it and discuss the success story.”

  Janet remained quiet. She did not agree, but she also did not say no.

  *****

  For the time being, Kitty took her mind off that ridiculous plan and focused on creating a new marketing strategy that focused on rich users. After working for a week, the team came up with a new plan that spoke to the people with abundance of money. Overnight, the billboards and promotional videos changed drastically. Instead of young and hip people, models with fancy clothes and lavish background settings were seen everywhere in High Seas advertisements. Expensive accessories replaced trendy backpacks and jewelry and luxurious cars and yachts adorned the backgrounds.

  The whole campaign was turned on its head and now it looked something else altogether. The website and app interface also received a major face lift and now users with iOS were given more preference. Things changed so quickly that even reviewers did not understand what was going on. The marketing team delivered on its promise and now it was time to see whether Bilal was right or not.

  The campaign started showing its result from the very first day of its execution. Kitty and Janet were so elated to see a sudden and short spike in the registration numbers. The increase was not significant but it was like a breeze of fresh air. The new strategy gave Janet a hope but it was not enough — she needed a miracle.

  In addition to new billboards and fancier videos, High Seas also started exclusive tie ups with elite brands. Handpicked showrooms of the finest jewelry and expensive brands were filled with High Seas branding. Janet was praying for it to work because she did not want to resort to Rebecca and Kitty’s plan.

  After all the strategies were exhausted, the registration numbers saw a significant rise
but they were still not enough to be called a success. But all this proved that Bilal’s call was a life saver. Now Janet was thinking of any way to keep Rebecca’s preposterous idea at a safe distance from her company. High Seas was her baby and she could not afford to lose it due to a childish move.

  “I think we should discuss the other option.” Kitty reminded Janet showing her the numbers.

  “Give it one more week. I am sure they will go up.”

  Kitty knew Janet was avoiding the discussion and so she did not press the matter any further. She was willing to give her one more week because after that there would be no excuse left.

  Janet decided to hold meetings with marketing and sales team everyday in that week. Her office was turned into a war room where she was in a meeting with somebody or the other. Kitty had never seen Janet working this hard. But soon the weekend came and it was time to review the numbers. Praying to every god and deity she could remember, Janet opened the reports and found out that the statistics had left her with no other options, but to have that dreaded discussion with Rebecca and Kitty.

  “Fine, lets talk about it,” she said putting the reports away. She was ready to talk.

  Chapter 5

  Janet, Rebecca and Kitty were sitting together, but not in an office — this was Janet’s penthouse. Janet did not want to have this discussion anywhere else but her home. She was constantly thinking of ways to put this dreaded idea to rest. But Kitty and Rebecca were not budging.

  “Look at it this way,” Rebecca tried to convince Janet. “These two people might actually fall in love with each other, and then it will be a wonderful thing.”

  “It's not a movie Rebecca,” Janet countered. “We might ruin the lives of these two people. Have you thought of it this way?”

  “Hey, I am being positive,” Rebecca defended herself.

  “We need to do something, or else we are doomed,” Kitty said. “Either talk about this idea or tell me a better one right now.”

  Kitty waited for Janet or Rebecca to propose something else but nobody broke the silence.