Marketing Plan For Shebah Essay.

You have been hired by Shebah as an independent marketing consultant to complete a marketing plan in relation to a segmentation, targeting, differentiation and positioning strategy and strategic recommendations to expand and service the marketplace in Melbourne (Assessment ).

Shebah (www.shebah.com.au) is a female only ride sharing service. Shebah provides women both with a safe transport option and a flexible job option. Shebah was established in response to women not feeling safe on public transport, in taxis and in other ride sharing services and,
because they sometimes feel threatened when employed as drivers for other ride sharing services.

Please refer to the video case study, for more information. The case study can be found on the MMK101 CloudDeakin site under Assessment Resources. This video case study must be used as the basis for your segmentation, targeting, differentiation and positioning strategy
(Assessment 2) and your strategic recommendations (Assessment ).

The three (3) objectives of the marketing plan for Shebah are to:

1. Identify a suitable target market for Shebah within the Melbourne metropolitan market.
2. Identify how Shebah should position themselves within the Melbourne metropolitan market.
3. Develop marketing strategies using three (3) of the extended marketing mix elements (7Ps) that will enable Shebah to successfully expand into the Melbourne metropolitan area and service the recommended target market.

Wishing you an enjoyable time researching and developing your reports and we look forward to reading your wonderful plans.

You have recommended Shebah should target and how you recommended Shebah should position themselves, you must now recommend a detailed extended marketing mix strategy that will help Shebah to successfully reach their goals.

The consumer profile and the positioning statement presented in Assessment should be used as the basis of the marketing strategy recommended here in Assessment. The feedback you received for Assessment  should be used to strengthen your strategic recommendations in Assessment. 

Target Market and Positioning Statement

Target Market:  Shebah has targeted female passengers, children, including boys under age of 12 years, boys above 12 years with their mothers and families going to the airport.

Positioning Statement: Differentiation is their positioning statement. The company only hires lady drivers and only prefers lady passengers, so that both can be comfortable and secured.

The marketing mix is a set of actions which a company performs to promote their brand or product in the market. Typically this is done with the help of 4Ps mainly Price, Promotion, Place, and Product. But now days another Ps is also working like Positioning, Packaging, and People. Shebah is a company which provides cab services to female passengers, boys up to the age of 18 years but along with their mums and families who have to travel to the airport (Andrews, 2017). Below are the strategies by using which company can increase their market share and popularity among the female passengers.

Shebah has developed an App to help its customers to book the cab; it is developed keeping in mind the safety of women. You will know the exact location of your car and who is behind you while riding with the help of unique identifiers for every driver and rider. The passenger will know the car by its colour and rego with the shared photo and contact details making the communication much easier (Andrews, 2017). Parents of the junior passenger are always asked to use face time with the kids and also one can book in advance toddler capsules or car seats. The company is also offering cab services to the families who are in urgent need of cabs to reach airport but a female passenger must accompany them (Andrews, 2017).

Safety is their priority and this is the reason why female passengers prefer this company. All their drivers have undergone extensive background research and various safety checks to provide a safer ride. Another unique strategy which they use is the female drivers, all their cabs are having female drivers to make their female passengers safe in other terms, and it is a community of modern women who are helping each other to drop where they need to go (Baldassarre, 2017). Shebah is giving its passengers a safe environment and this is the reason why many mums are trusting on them and sending their little ones alone in the cab knowing that they are in the safe hands. The company is also working for the welfare of their female drivers by way of giving them perks like getting their insurance done and giving them the 85% of the ride total then and there (Lynn, 2011). By this way, they are promoting their company and moreover with female drivers, riders are also ecstatic that they do not have to worry that how will they reach home safely in the night. The company is working on the policy “do what you want and where you want Shebah will take care of the rest” (Baldassarre, 2017).

Marketing Strategy Recommendations

Due to all these policies, Shebah is becoming a necessity day by day for women and they are getting reliable on the cabs provided by the company.

The reason that Sebah provides Air-conditioned and comfortable cabs on hourly and trip basis makes it the greatest mode of transportation. Females from across the cities were looking for an alternative and Shebah has provided them with that. Females were feeling unsafe to travel by male taxi drivers and were facing harassment every now and then and that too were charging very high cost. Shebah is a company who does not charge over and is a best and cheap mode of travelling anytime and anywhere (McInnes, 2017). There rates are based on the state where the rider wants to travel, but the minimum fare, baby seat charges, and cancellation charges are same all across Australia. They include GST in their total fare and 85% of the fare goes to the driver then and there (McInnes, 2017). Other companies as compared have many other hidden charges like toll tax state tax and it is not disclosed to the passenger at the time of booking but is added to their total bill which is actually a king of cheating done with them, but it is not the case with Shebah all the extra charges are born by driver and is paid to them later on by the company Shebah has also bifurcated the time into slabs peak and non-peak hours and they charge minor for peak hours but they do not utilize any surge pricing (Kumar, et al., 2012).

Pricing strategy continues to play an important role in the promotion of the company all across Australia; the company is providing comfortable rides to its female passengers at a very nominal charge. Passengers are also quite happy with the services of the company and making the best possible use of it.

Shebah has launched its ride sharing app through which only female passengers can book the ride so that they do not have to undergo any type of harassment with the male co passenger and for this, the company has provided them with many options like:

• One of their products includes the pre booking of baby capsules or car seats for babies, through this mum travelling with babies can arrange for these seats by paying the minor charge(Kumar, et al., 2012).
• Booking through social networking sites named as “feminist tinder” under this they can communicate with the females who they have matched with and can, later on, be their co passenger (Branded, 2017).
• Another female only option named as “pink carriages”. It is a way through which females can be protected from sexual harassment. With the help of unique code shared with passenger and driver, they can know with whom they are travelling with and behind the wheels(Kumar, et al., 2012). Moreover, all the cab drivers are females so there is no possibility of any type of harassment.
• Another service launched is called stretch under which mums will be the drivers and they will transport kids between activities when their own parents are busy with some other work(Kumar, et al., 2012).
• Cab services are also being provided to families who are in urgent need to reach airport but in condition, a female passenger must accompany them and the facility is provided in very extreme conditions (Warner, 2017).

Shebah is in line to launch many other options for females through which they can travel all day long and throughout the night without any worries. Mums can without any fear send their kids through cabs because they know they are in safe hands (Smith, 2017). The company is providing them with the good alternatives to safeguard their kids and this is the reason why females prefer Shebah they can travel anywhere be it getting groceries or vegetable market or to travel to their relative or friends and even in the night also they can without any fear travel with Shebah (Singh, 2012).

Conclusion.

Shebah is a company who is actually working for the welfare of the female segment of the society by providing them the cab services anytime and to anywhere with a safe environment. The reason behind this market is that the female tends to be routine travellers may be for their jobs or to get the household from the market. Children are still not the target for the company as parents may not feel comfortable every time to send their kids alone with unknown. The company has promoted there cabs by providing a safe environment to women riders by hiring female drivers moreover, they are providing benefits to their drivers also. Differentiation is the company’s positioning statement and this is used mainly to raise a sense of awareness in female society about the harassment they are having when they travel in public transport with males or in the case of drivers when they serve some male passengers. After that, they should be made aware of a totally female transport services and the benefit they will get in the shape of security. Shebah has adopted marketing mix strategies and many positive implications are there like making aware the female segment of the market of how safe they are in these cabs, and also that they have opportunities to work with the company with good pay and perks (Martin, 2017). The company is expanding its market all over Australia and is giving competition to its competitors and increasing their sales day by day. Almost every female prefers to travel through Shebah instead of hiring any other cab because they feel safe here and know they will not be cheated by charging extra costs (Martin, 2017). Female drivers are also interested to work with them because they are being fairly paid along with the job security. These all factors combine together and work for the benefit of the company.

References

Andrews, d. (2017). Let me tell you about Shebah: a new ride-sharing service run by women, for women. 20(5), pp.77-75.

Baldassarre, G. (2017). Shebah is a rideshare service for female drivers and passengers - Startup Daily. 77(3), pp.11-13.

Branded, P. (2017). The Four Ps of Marketing. 2(1) pp. 5-10.

Kumar, v., Rahman, Z., A.AKazmi & Goyal, P., 2012. Evolution of Sustainability as Marketing Strategy: Beginning of New Era. Elsevier, pp. 482-489.

Lynn, M., 2011. Segmenting and Targeting Your Market: Strategies. School of Hotel Administration, pp. 10-15.

Martin, J. (2017). The rise of ride sharing for women only. ABC News. shebah-rise-of-ridesharing-for-women-only. 5(10), pp10-15.

McInnes, W. (2017). Shebah: The ridesharing app like Uber just for women. The Sydney Morning Herald. 10(2), pp.5-6.

Singh, M., 2012. Marketing Mix of 4P’S for Competitive Advantage. Journal of Business and Management, pp. 40-45.

Smith, F. (2017). Shebah is the women-only ride sharing service we should not need – but do. The Guardian. 2(2), pp.4-6.

Warner, J. (2017). 5 Tips to Improve Your Marketing Mix. Small Business Trends. 10(5), pp. 3-7.