The following paper details the excellent market strategies used by Zipcar to excel in the field of car sharing services. It basically talks about the companies target plan and how by targeting the young generation, the company moves towards the path to success.
A car sharing company serving almost about 6, 73000 members in Europe and North America, Zipcar works on a simple membership concept. It has 9000 vehicles in all operating in these two countries. By the year 2011, the service witnessed a growth of 25% ultimately increasing the revenues by 30 percent from the previous years figures . No doubt, the company has to face a lot of market competition from similar car-sharing service providers but owing to the excellent market strategies, it has outnumbered all.
For all its marketing, Zipcar relies on practically conducted survey reports. Accordingly their focus always remains young generation. So, the biggest target was to hit the college campuses. The last years hit to reach about 250 institutions worldwide was the biggest move. It added 40 new colleges to its University program. Apart from this Zipcar tied up with Ford in a two year long partnership thus turning it into the largest automotive source for the University Program it offers.
Since it is a much daunting task for students to own and maintain their personal cars when in college, so college campuses serve as the most feasible markets for Zipcars. Then they also introduced the marketing strategy of making cars available on rent. Students are hence more likely to prefer zipcar services as a mode of transport rather than owning their personal vehicle until they enter jobs get employed. Current figures reveal that Zipcar membership has reached almost around 1.9 million.
Recently, a blog from the New York Times stated that Zipcar refused to go for its own peer to peer car sharing service since it preferred learning the specific technical details from a partner rather than owning a personal base.
Zipcar has been following three most sustainable marketing techniques. These include, a precise and easy to understand message, a continous understanding of the consumer market with repeated surveys and a well defined customer base. They are easy to reach via phone call or they are available online 24x7. This makes it very convenient for the common people to reach them and avail their service. You can hire a Zipcar in an hour’s time. It also gives you the freedom to extend or pre-pone your hire time. They offer a membership card to every member and this includes the fuel and the maintenance cost. All Zipcars have got a card which is used to fill up in case fuel is needed while travelling. Though Zipcar is a totally new concept, but very soon they have crossed all barriers including large customer base, huge competition etc. and have outnumbered all its peer car sharing companies within no time. As an IT firm, they have made the best use of the most recent and innovative technologies and have come up with the best ideas to go ahead with. With excellent marketing strategies, they have rather emerged as a marketing leader than an IT company.
Second part:
Airlines usually have a love-hate companionship with their customers. Recently, Southwest Airlines introduced their Rapid Rewards loyalty card program. Instead of the free round trip ticket on purchasing and travelling 16 one-way trips, the airlines now work on a points system based on the price of each ticket. The greatest hit by southwest airlines is that there are no blackouts for free of cost flights.
On the other hand Taj, one of the largest hotel chain believe in serving the customer in the best possible way. According to them, no customer means no business. They value customer relationship above all. Loyal customers spread the brand awareness among friends and relatives. This directly fetches more customers. Customer satisfaction is directly proportional to the profits earned by the firm.
References:
1. Terrifs (2012), Zipcar’s college Campus strategy taps its target market. 23 March 2012. Retreived from http://www.trefis.com/stock/zip/articles/109583/zipcars-college-campus-strategy-taps-its-target-market/2012-03-23
2. Lesser A. (2012). Wy Zipcar is tapping the college market? 1 March 2012. Retrieved from http://gigaom.com/cleantech/why-zipcar-is-tapping-the-college-market-2/
