The Essay Explores Segmentation, Targeting, And Positioning, A Crucial Approach In Marketing. (70 Characters)

Discuss about the Economy And Destination Marketing Organisations.

The purpose of this report is to provide a brief introduction about the activities of the company Ingogo Inc. The company is an Australian organization that is specialized in providing online taxi services to the people of Australia. The company initiates its services in different parts of Australia that are Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. The cab drivers of the company process their fares using a customized mobile application of Ingogo on their android smartphones. The company is based in taxi booking and logistics technology industry; it was founded in the year 2011. Further, the below mentioned report provides information about the segmentation, targeting and positioning of the company in the external market. It also talks about the marketing and financial objectives of the company that are to be raised in the external market. A detailed marketing mix strategy of the company is reviewed in this report along with the budget allocation and promotional mix strategies of the company (Ingogo, 2018). Further, the situation analysis of the company explained in assessment is discussed below:

The situational analysis of Ingogo explains that the Australian market benefits the company in initiating activities and succeeding in the target market. The governmental regulations related to traffic license and payment methods are strict so it strongly impact on the growth of the company. The government of the country also defines regulations related to the employing of drivers as contractors for the company. There are fixed prices defined by the company for the purpose of remunerating the drivers in the organization. The economic factors explain the rise in prices of fuel might increase the fares for the organization as well and inflation can negatively impact the growth of the company (Petrie, 2016). Further, the behavior of taxi drivers has a major impact on the sales of the company as people will drive with drivers only when they are comfortable with them. Cultural and communication gap can create problem for the company. Lastly, it should be noted that technology of the country plays an important role in helping the company to grow. Technology presents in the market gives advantage to the company to increase its sales repeatedly (Tan, Tan, Lu, & Land, 2017).

The situational analysis of the company explains that the company Ingogo has an identified brand that helps them in the market. Professional capabilities of the drivers also attract the customers. Transparency is major goal of the company that gives them opportunity to gain trust of customers and explore different markets as well. The company gains the opportunity to generate business by installing automatic vehicles. High indirect competition is the weakness of the company. Also there is threat of new entrants and government regulations in the market. Perception that Ingogo charges high affects the sales revenue of the company. Cabify, Safer taxi, GoOpti, Moovit are some of the competitors of the company (Allsop, 2014).

Segmentation approach

Segmentation refers to the process of grouping the market into various parts on the basis of their characteristics. The process of segmentation process bases to the company on the basis they should target the customers in the market. The audience should be the people who actually want to use the services of the company. The segmentation of an organization includes four aspects that are discussed below:

Demographic: This type of segmentation talks about the age, gender, ethnicity, education etc. aspects about the customers in the market. The demographic segmentation provides the base to the company to the basis of which they can target the adequate customers on the basis of their age, gender etc. in the market. On the basis of age, the company Ingogo targets people of age group 20-60 both males and females. The company should mainly target the people who are business class and employees. As the employees needs to travel to their office on daily basis thus they uses the Ingogo taxis to travel (Fleischmann, Daniel, & Welters, 2017).

Psychographic: This type of segmentation explains the personality and emotions of the people that to attain the products and services of the company. This segmentation explains the emotions and behavior of the people present in the market towards the products and services offered by the company. On the basis of this segmentation, the company should target the business class people who do not want a cheap drive but a safe drive. Middle and upper middle class people prefer the services of the company Ingogo. Working class mainly prefers the services of the company because of their quality to drop the customers to the destination on time (Matyas, & Kamargianni, 2017).

Behavioral: Further, the behavioral segment talks about the behavior of the people towards purchasing certain products and services in the external market. This segment explains the nature of purchase, benefits sought, usage level, brand loyalty of customers towards the company etc. In the aspect of benefits sought, the company targets the customer that attains a sense of attachment with the services offered by the company. The company targets the people that are determined and ambitious in nature and the people who want to attain the easy going services while traveling. The services of the company aim to attain the trust of the customer through their services, so the company on targets the people who belongs to business class and regularly use the services of the company (Wirtz, & Lovelock, 2016).

Target Market

Geographic: Lastly, the geographic segmentation talks about the segmentation of the customers on the basis of their geographical boundations. This aspect differentiates people of the basis of the areas where they live (location). Under the geographical segmentation, it should be noted that the company targets the people of Australia only as the organization does not provide its services in other parts of the world. Further, talking specifically, the company should target the people present in Perth, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide (Day, 2017).

The company targets the people present in the market that belongs to business class and are a part of the age group of 20-60. They target the people who are working and regularly use the taxi services in the market. On the basis of behavior, the company targets the people that want to a long lasting relationship with the organization and wants to use easy going services in the market. Further, it should be noted that the target market of the company Ingogo is regular travelling, millennial and technologically updated people present in Australia. The company provides services to the people who do not own a car and prefer traveling through taxicabs. Lastly, it should be noted that the company wants to target people who regular go through cabs to their jobs and concerned about the fares as well. The marketing strategies are designed for the company so as to attract the targeted population.

The company position themselves at one of the most significant position in the market of Australia. Further, as the company uses multi-segment type of positing strategy under which they target several people present in the target market differently according to different level of services. The ride hailing giant offers economy, Pool as well as moto services to the customers according to their preferences. The organization also uses specific tagline to attract larger segment in the market. The online taxi booking services of the company are also efficiently improved so that customers do not feel dissatisfaction while using services of Ingogo (Afif, Hardiyanto, & Suwandari, 2016). The company uses attractive taglines to position themselves at an appropriate position in the market. The company uses ‘Go Almost Free Swiftly’ to position themselves in the market. The company initiates its mobile application easy and user friendly so that it does not take time in loading and books taxi easily. Lastly, the multi segment positioning process of the company adequately supports Ingogo in creating an impact at the mass on the same time.

Positioning Statement

The fact should be noted that although the company is the first organization developed in Australia for the purpose of providing taxi services in the market, still very few people know about the company and services offered by them. Thus, the marketing and financial objectives of the company should be SMART than can help them to attain an identified position in the target market. Further, the marketing objectives of the company are explained below:

• Brand management should be the initial and prior most objective of the company in the external market. The company create a brand portfolio that it easily recognized by the customers in the market. This process will help the company to position themselves at an adequate position and reduce the confusions present in the minds of customers related to their image (Li, 2016).
• The company should aim to increase online sales by inducing extensive technological services in the applications of the organization. The mobile application is the face of the company for the customers, so they should present themselves in such a way that all the queries of customers are solved and their satisfaction level is also increased.
• Lastly, the company should aim to increase their network by connecting with more and more people present in the market and employing them in the services of the company (Kireev, et. al., 2016).

The financial objectives of the company Ingogo are mentioned below:

• To increase the total revenue by 20%
• Penetrate the market and increase customer base by 30%
• Reduce operation cost by 10%

In order to attain the above mentioned objectives of marketing and finance, the company Ingogo should develop effective marketing strategies with the help of which they can easily attract the target customers present in the market. With the help of these market strategies, the company can easily position themselves at the appropriate position in the target market (Anesbury, Winchester, & Kennedy, 2017). The below mentioned marketing mix framework explains the marketing strategies of the organization:

The company provides customers alternative ways to start a ride with the company by using the mobile application of Ingogo. The company is known for providing easygoing transportation services to the customers in the market that are comfortable and easily accessible by them. Also, the customers can know the fares of the ride in advance by using the mobile application; the application also helps in knowing the route through which the driver is leading to the customer. The application also enables the driver to get to know the location of the rider when they book a ride from any respective place. The company should enhance their operations so as to adopt an effective product strategy as well. Further, in order to attain the interest of the customers, the company should provide taxi services with free wifi services in it. Pooling process should be made better so that the customers do not wait for a longer time to reach to their destination. Advance booking make the services of the company efficient in the market (Joshi, Dixit, & Sinha, 2017).

The pricing strategy of the company plays a major role in attracting the customers in the target market. With the pricing strategies initiated by the company, they have started providing comfortable rides at minimal rates in the market. The company also provides various perks to the first riders and the existing customers as well. Also, the fixed fares services gave an ease to the customers as with this effect they can easily know the fares that they are going to pay in advance to the drivers (Moutinho, & Vargas-Sanchez, 2018). This aspect also helps the customers in justifying themselves when the drivers charges more amount from them. The best feature of the company is that they do not charge administration costs due to which the customers saves 20% of the travelling costs. The company also provides various benefits to the customers like cash back services, referral bonus, coupons and vouchers etc. The company should circulate promo codes to its fixed customers to increase their loyalty for the company (Belz, 2017).

In the current era, the company is providing its services in majors of the country Australia that are, Perth, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide. Resulting to which, the company does not have much popularity in the market as they have not established their services properly in the external market. The company should expand their scope of business in different parts of the world and it should also penetrate the market so as it increase its customer base as well. The Company should to increase its brand presence in different parts of the world (Schlegelmilch, 2016). Apart from the web application of Ingogo, the company should also develop its website that can help the users o book ride from there also. The company should establish different outlets of Ingogo and various centers and a feedback team as well so as to enhance the services provided. Thus, in this way the company should aim to create an extensive distribution channel of products and services in Australia and other parts of the world (Armstrong, , Adam, Denize, & Kotler, 2014).

The promotional strategy is one of the company plays a significant role in attracting the customers towards the products and services of the company. Ingogo is effectively using its promotional strategies to target the customers and provide them beneficial services of the company. The company is currently using word of mouth promotional strategies to capture the market share. The spending of the company on the advertising and promotional strategy is very less due to which the company is unable to gain popularity in competitive business environment. The company should promote their brand in the market by providing referral bonus and gift vouchers to the first as well as loyal customers in the market (Strauss, & Frost, 2016). The company should also provide discounted rides to them; this process will promote the services of the company and make people aware of the activities of the organization. The company should also promote their services o social media as well as print media. They should advertise the products and services of the company through magazines and newspaper ads. The company should also tie up with various other profound companies present in different industries so as to increase the satisfaction level of the customers and provide them more than expected. Lastly, differential price offering strategy will also help the company to attract more customers in the market (Andaleeb, 2016).

The below presented is the promotional mix budget of the company Ingogo, the management decided to create a budget of $109,000 for the company. The budget is segregated into four parts that are social media marketing, direct marketing, print media and events and sponsorships.  The company has decided different amount to be invested in all the four segments. The maximum amount is invested in the social media marketing as it is the most important way through which the company can target the right type of customers in the target market. The promotional mix strategies of the company will help the organization to achieve the promotional mix strategies (Kotler, 2015).

Conclusion

Thus, in the limelight of above mentioned events, it should be noted that the report talks about the situational analysis recap of the assessment of the report. It also explained the segmentation, targeting and positioning statement of the company Ingogo. Further it also analyzed the marketing and financial objectives of the company formulation of marketing mix strategies related to that and the budget allocation for promotional mix strategy. Lastly, it should be noted that after being the first organization in the online taxi service industry, the company has not maintained the image and gained the first mover advantage. Thus, the company should use the above mentioned strategies to gain the competitive advantage and achieve target in the market.

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