Case Study

It has everything a consumer leaving in a busy area of a metropolitan area can ask for. Convenience, cheap, and accessibility. This is everything that a customer living with out a vehicle in an area that a car is needed periodically can ask for.Weaknesses: To start up a business like this as Chase realized you need a lot of capital. Finding the money and investors that believe in your company is going to be the hardest thing to do. To lease new cars or not have enough cars for the demand of new customers can also be a hindrance in the growth of this company. Other areas of concern that need to be addressed are the costs and insurance and liability exposure that renting a car to somebody can have. With multiple of even a few wrecks or fatalities can easily close the doors to a company like Zipcar that is just getting started. Opportunities: The Zipcar company is a company that can be very easily started once the right infrastructure is in place and can even be pitched to investors as a franchise store. That can be duplicated in other areas of the country. There is not current niche for the type of people that Chase is targeting and is untapped market place with the proper marketing plan.Threats: Rental car companies can also offer rental of cars on an hourly basis. They can pick up customers as well. This is not advertised but can be done. Most importantly if Boston or New York, or Chicago have a very efficient Public

To launch our business we will be partnering with Airbnb, airports, hotels, and businesses. Partnering with Airbnb will allow us to accommodate customers who are looking for a car while they are staying at their Airbnb. Knowing a car will be handy for them to use at their selected destination will allow customers to choose and pick the best place for them to stay and it can all be done easily together when partnering with Airbnb. Partnering with airports will be another way to cater to customers needs. Having airports designate a select area for RIGHTRIDE’S cars will allow traveling customers to know that they will have a car to use while they are in whichever state they are traveling to. Hotels is also another partner that can help our product

However, Zipcar still has an advantage over these competitors due to their advanced technology and patented wireless technology. Other car rental companies like Avis and Hertz can be defined as potential powerful competitors. They have a strong presence and financial ability in the car rental industry which makes them unable to enter the car sharing market. On the other hand, advertisements, offers and promotions can be communicated through the network of Zipcar members. In order to sustain a competitive advantage Zipcar might try moving to a new market where they provide luxury vehicles such as limousines. In addition, Zipcar can promote its green service or hybrid cars and how it helps in protecting the environment from the increase in cars

In this modern age, everything has changed. From all sectors which are lifestyles, transportation, business and economic. The main factor of all this changing is the electronic devices – mobile device and internet. people are all using internet whether with smartphone, tablet, etc. The impact of the internet and mobile device has amended so rapidly and the improvement itself has going so massively. It also impacts all the sector of businesses and economics include also the transportation business.

Based on this process for using a Zipcar members needed to reserve a car using automated phone reservation or website. After reservation a wireless message is then sent to the car. Zipcar user could easily walk to the car in nearest parking location and open the car with a Zipcard and drive. After the car has been returned to parking location the billing information is sent from car to the company system and the user is billed

Potential new entrants include existing car rental firms, companies that currently supply cars to car-sharing businesses (such as Volkswagen), and new start-up car-sharing ventures. As Zipcar is operating in only Boston, there are opportunities for new entrants (with sufficient resources) to establish themselves as dominant car-sharing service providers in other cities. This threat to the profitability of Zipcar’s planned future expansion activities would pressure Zipcar to expand rapidly in order to remain ahead of the competition. A major barrier to entry is Zipcar’s patented technology involving wireless transmission of usage data between the shared cars and a server. New

The use of ride-sharing applications has become a popular choice to travel from one destination to another. In the past, cities were dominated by the use of taxis as a means of ride choice. As technology and society has evolved, ride-share applications such as Lyft have become a dominating choice for travel. After completing a PEST and SWOT analysis, Lyft can analyze how to proceed going forward to continue its growth and success.

Many of the cars in the Hamburg program will be fitted with gasoline engines, as opposed to diesel, using start-stop technology better suited to urban driving. With many of these programs still in the infancy stages, it is difficult to tell how profitable they are and whether they can operate sustainably in the long run. But at least one thing is for certain: as new consumer patterns emerge, companies like BMW and Daimler will

Diagnosis The ZipCar concept shows several favorable data points as a sustainable venture. The data (mostly positive), however, is not the main show-stopper to date. In order to make ZipCar fundable, Robin Chase needs to (1) recruit a capable management team, (2) substantiate her role and that of her partner (give her a non-active role) (3) provide a realistic timeline to develop the IT infrastructure, (4) develop a roadmap to the expansion of ZipCar in Boston, (5) detail a supported analysis on network effects and (5) pinpoint the next target cities and their plans as a venue for fast growth and cash generation.

Market: The revolutionary concept certainly provides an alternative to public transport. Furthermore the car sharing concept is really useful for the public in a overcrowded city with limited parking & expensive parking fees. This is clearly not an untouched segment because there are other 2 competitors operating.

Zipcar offers one of the most advanced car sharing platforms in the world in regards to the technology it employs. Consumers can register for the service, pay a nominal fee, and gain access to a multitude of different types of automobiles (Zipcar, 2012). Thus far the company is only

As Zipcar is operating in only Boston, there are opportunities for new entrants (with sufficient resources) to establish themselves as dominant carsharing service providers in other cities. This threat to the profitability of Zipcar’s planned future expansion activities would pressure Zipcar to expand rapidly in order to remain ahead of the competition. A major barrier to entry is Zipcar’s patented technology involving wireless transmission of usage data between the shared cars and a server. New entrants would require substantial time, human, financial and technological resources in order to design, build and implement technology to rival Zipcar’s patented systems. They would also need to reach agreements with car manufacturers concerning the supply of vehicles, and secure parking spaces exclusively for subscribers.

Competition in the industry is high, if the industry includes traditional taxi companies. There are many companies that offer ride-hailing and ride-sharing service, including Lyft, Sidecar, Hailo, Juno and Via. Lyft, which is the Uber’s largest competitor and offers almost the same service, is doing one-third of Uber’s weekly ride load and growing twice as fast as Uber by net revenue of $130 million in 2014 (estimated). Unlike the Uber’s low-key, restrained style, Lyft has implemented the aggressive strategy, which aims the bright, friendly style, as a market’s second leader. In addition to Lyft, many local taxi companies are Uber’s competitors that share the same market. And they are heavily protected by their

Founded by Israeli entrepreneur Shai Agassi in 2007, Better Place developed a system where electric-car owners could drive their vehicles into a network of stations around Israel and replace the car 's battery with a new one in about the same amount of time it takes to fill a gasoline tank on a regular car. The "quick drop" system was supposed to remove one of the main obstacles to the adoption of electric vehicles, namely the several hours it takes to recharge a flat battery (Pearson& Stub, 2013). Better Place use information technology in the value chain model by outsourcing to companies that have integrated the electric car into its policies. Better Place 's business model was based on car owners paying a fee according to the number of miles they drive. The competitive force that influenced the Better Place Company was the demand for the electric car filling stations. It has also positioned itself to be the first to reap the benefits when battery pack recharging facilities and infrastructure

| |(iii) |Discuss the usefulness of demand elasticity concepts in explaining the strategies adopted by Starbucks to maximise its profit |[8] |