Zipcar Situational Analysis

1. Zipcar motivates its customers and partners by truly addressing their needs and wants from a company like theirs. For example, customers want something that will save them money. Zipcar’s solution to this is an affordable way to use a car that’s much cheaper than buying your own car. It cuts out the need to buy insurance, maintenance, gas, parking, and the general cost of the car. Cities want to cut down traffic and congestion. By using Zipcar, people tend to drive fewer miles and be more efficient when it comes to driving to and from somewhere.

I watched this TedTalk on 6/16/2016, and the name of that TedTalk is Uber’s plan to get more people into fewer cars. The video was filmed on February 2016, and the speaker is Travis Kalanick, the co-founder of the peer-to-peer file sharing company Red Swoosh and the transportation network company Uber. The purpose of this memo is to understand the goal that Uber is trying to achieve.

The kind of content that will motivate the first audience persona which is people looking to purchase a vehicle is information about how easy and stress free it is to find the their dream car on CarMax. Second information about how there is a team of people ready to ask any questions they have about their product. Third is to be a credible website to find nice safe cars. The reason for letting people know how easy it is to use CarMax is because when people are looking for a car they have no idea where to go or look. If they let people know that it is five clicks to find your dream car they would be compelled to check it out. They could make a slogan saying “Only 5 click Away From Your Dream Car”. They would think that it would not hurt to check it out. A reason for having a credible website and letting people know is that the audience will be looking at every new and used car dealership there are. CarMax does an excellent in letting people know they are a credible website because they have listed all their products on AutoTrader.com and Car.com. These are two website that the audience will also check

The goal is to increase the overall market share and profits of MM’s Motors in the current market environment by targeting appropriate customer segments and proper allocation of marketing resources. Our initial strategy was to concentrate on segment A because of the following reasons:

1. What marketing approaches could Green Mountain adopt in order to expand its customer base?

The firm will compete with firms C, D, and E who currently hold varying market shares in Economy, Minivan, and Utility respectively. How we intend to win is by introducing the crossover vehicle that has the functions of the Utility, the same capacity of the Minivan, and a different styling than the Economy vehicles.

Zipcars have benefits that stand out over owning your own car. These benefits are that you no longer have the expense of car-payments, insurance, gas or routine maintenance repairs. Although it is similar to a rent-a-car, it is more practical when you need a car for an hour or so to run an errand. I first heard about Zipcars a few years back since a local college campus was using them. Students that lived on campus, normally walked to classes, however, there was times when transportation was needed to get to a Doctor’s appointment or somewhere across town. A Zipcar reservation can be made online or on a smart phone. It’s quick and convenient and hip. Your Zip card is your key to unlocking the door and driving away. It has become very popular in urban areas, where there are few parking spaces and many parking fees. Their marketing position is to be quick, easy, hip and convenient. You should never have to walk far to access a Zipcar.

The company aims to generate profitable growth and above-average returns by focusing on the premium segments of the international automobile markets. With this in mind, a wide-ranging product and market offensive was initiated in 2001, which has resulted in the BMW Group expanding its product range considerably and strengthening its worldwide market position.

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

In the olden days, there was a lot of problem for people when it came to transportation. Even though there were many ways of commuting, but that was still a problem because all these ways were very slow. But, today everything has changed drastically. Now we no longer see bullock carts on the roads and other such modes of conveyance. Nowadays we so many types of cars, scooters, buses and other types of transportation services which are simply brilliant. They are extremely convenient for the mankind. One can rent a car at any point of time. Renting anything has now become a trend in the market. We can rent almost everything and everything. Renting can be done on movies, cars, homes, games, clothes, shoes, bags etc.

Its on-line reservation provides convenience to customers and the company has its own parking spot so customers rarely get confused with finding a car. Moreover, Zipcar applies high technology to their services such as GPS and AT&T wireless network. Zipcar uses GPS-based mobile that allows members to view and reserve Zipcar’s worldwide fleet of vehicles based on their current location. The system was developed in partnership with uLocate. Furthermore, Zipcar uses AT&T’s wireless data network to serve customers timely and cost effectively. (Appendix 4)

Zipcar is the world 's largest car sharing and car club service. It is an alternative to traditional car rental and car ownership. Subsidiary of Avis Budget Group; founded in January 2000, serving urban areas throughout Austria, Canada, France, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States, founded by Antje Danielson and Robin Chase in the state of Massachusetts (Zipcar, 2014). Each and every Zipcar takes 15 personally owned vehicles off the road, 10% of the population is expected to adopt car sharing as their primary mode of transportation. After joining Zipcar 90% of members drove 5,500 miles or less per year, and last but not least Zipcar creates more green space by sharing cars and tearing down the total of parking lots (Zipcar, 2014). At Zipcar, it is not just about fewer cars, less congestion and less pollution, but it is about understanding why those things are a problem, and finding sustainable solutions. Zipcar charges a one-time application fee, and an annual fee. Car renting at other locations do not cover fuel, insurance, parking or maintenance but with Zipcar they cover all four and it is free of charge to their members. Zipcar members have automated access to Zipcars using an access card, which works with the car 's technology to unlock the door, where the keys are already located inside. Zipcars have RFID transponders on the windshield that communicates with the card to lock and unlock the doors of the vehicle. Zipcar also offers an iPhone or Android

1. Achieve an increase in the market share to 50% or above in the next 7 years

It seems to be clear that people who use Zipcar see themselves as set apart form society and as a result of their decision they are intelligent and responsible. The case makes that clear with one of their customers talking about another Zipcar user,

Then use a combination of the various market segments to narrow down on an EFFECTIVE target market. Some of these may include, but are not limited to demographic, geographic, and behavioral. They were really pushing the whole “cheap” aspect in an area where the market segment is more interested in cars that symbolize a greater status. In other words, the Tata Nano is