The Problem: How do you get consumers to change ingrained behavior? In the late 1990s, Neil Peterson, then a Los Angeles public-transportation official, was traveling in Europe when he stumbled upon a new approach to owning a car. Car sharing, which became popular on the Continent in the 1980s, was aimed at people who owned a vehicle or were thinking of buying one but were turned off by the expense and hassle of maintaining the thing full time. Under car sharing, you didn't buy a car outright; you used it as you would a time-share property, reserving blocks of time that suited your needs. If you wanted only to drive to the market, you could rent it for an hour at a time with a low mileage limit. If you wanted to take weekend jaunts, you could buy a bundle of hours with a high mileage allowance. To pick up the car, you'd travel to the closest sharing outlet (usually just a walk or short bus ride away), and when you were done, you'd drop the vehicle off there. The concept wasn't new to the U.S. A number of small nonprofits sprang up in the mid-'90s that allowed residents to use a vehicle in their community on an hourly basis. But Mr. Peterson had bigger plans: He wanted to bring car sharing to large cities, and he wanted to turn a profit. Any entrepreneur knows it's tough enough trying to start a small business selling a garden-variety product or service. So how do you change the mind-set of a country that sees automobiles as symbols of status and freedom -- where people often wear their cars like they wear their clothes? "The automobile is part of the culture here," says Mr. Peterson. "But, in general, people are moving away from an age of ownership to an age of access, meaning people want access to things but they don't want the costs involved with ownership. And we're effectively giving them that access minus the costs." Question: a How do you get consumers to change ingrained behavior? (word limit 250)
The Problem: How do you get consumers to change ingrained behavior?
In the late 1990s, Neil Peterson, then a Los Angeles public-transportation official, was traveling in Europe when he stumbled upon a new approach to owning a car. Car sharing, which became popular on the Continent in the 1980s, was aimed at people who owned a vehicle or were thinking of buying one but were turned off by the expense and hassle of maintaining the thing full time. Under car sharing, you didn't buy a car outright; you used it as you would a time-share property, reserving blocks of time that suited your needs. If you wanted only to drive to the market, you could rent it for an hour at a time with a low mileage limit. If you wanted to take weekend jaunts, you could buy a bundle of hours with a high mileage allowance. To pick up the car, you'd travel to the closest sharing outlet (usually just a walk or short bus ride away), and when you were done, you'd drop the vehicle off there. The concept wasn't new to the U.S. A number of small nonprofits sprang up in the mid-'90s that allowed residents to use a vehicle in their community on an hourly basis. But Mr. Peterson had bigger plans: He wanted to bring car sharing to large cities, and he wanted to turn a profit. Any entrepreneur knows it's tough enough trying to start a small business selling a garden-variety product or service. So how do you change the mind-set of a country that sees automobiles as symbols of status and freedom -- where people often wear their cars like they wear their clothes? "The automobile is part of the culture here," says Mr. Peterson. "But, in general, people are moving away from an age of ownership to an age of access, meaning people want access to things but they don't want the costs involved with ownership. And we're effectively giving them that access minus the costs."
Question:
a How do you get consumers to change ingrained behavior? (word limit 250)
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