MRKT20052 Marketing Management And Digital Communications

Introduction

Ingogo is an Australia based company that is specialised in online booking and payment of taxi. Hamish Petrie (Founder and CEO) established the company in 2011. The head office of the company is situated in Sydney, Australia. Presently, the company is providing their services in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide (Ingogo, 2018a).  The whole work of the company is majorly done with the help of mobile phone. The company has a GPS booking system that provides details regarding the taxis available in the nearby area and the fare. The company is known as the first company of Australia that provides rider fixed fares inclusive of all charges and tools and there is not no additional changed is taken from rider due to traffic jams. Moreover, the company also provide a facility to book the ride two days in advance (Ingogo, 2018b).   In December 2016, the company got registered on the Australian Securities Exchange. This report contains a full analysis of the Microenvironment, plan new marketing strategies and some offline and online or digital promotional tools.      

Situational Analysis: SWOT Analysis 

Strengths 

• The company is providing a high quality service to its customers
• The company has the ability to attract a large number of customers
• The business and services of the company is customer centric    
• The rates the company charge from their riders are very nominal and affordable
• The fixed investment of the company is very low (Prassl & Risak, 2015).
• The company is enjoying its brand equity in Australia
• The business of company provide its focus on customer satisfaction

Weaknesses

• the business of the company is highly depend on the manpower
• the business of the company is fully depend on the internet service
• the business lack in providing facilities like safety measure and sharing
• the increased prices of gas and petrol reduce the profit share of the company (Gao &                Low, 2014)

Opportunities 

• the company can add new additional technologies in the business
• to enhance the business of the company they can add bus rides for long routes
• the company can incorporate improvement in service delivery
• the company can increase internet penetration
• the company can take advantage of dissatisfaction among customers due to unorganised market (Pavelsky et.al. 2014)

Threats 

• the increasing competition in the Australia market in the same industry
• the competitors of the company are incorporation new and innovative ideas in their business
• with the existing competitors the threat of new entrance also available
• The government regulations related to taxi industry are unclear (Dobbs, 2014).

 Customer analysis 

At present, the company is having the total market size of around two million passengers and these figures of passengers are increasing continuously every year. In the market, the company is targeting almost every section of society who is using smartphones or has the knowledge of using the mobile application except children (Fertel, Bahn, Vaillancourt & Waaub, 2013). Moreover, the company is providing their main focus on the young generation and on the corporate professionals who use the service of the company very frequently. To attract the more customers toward the business, the company is giving their whole effort in providing phenomenal and quality experience.

Competitor analysis

The main competitors of Ingogo are SnaapCar, GoOpti, Ola, Uber, Intelligent apps and some more. However, among the huge completion, the company has occupied a quite remarkable place. In the transportation industry, the company has attained the high market growth in Australia. The Ingogo is very different from its competitors as the company provide various facilities to the customers that are not provided by the competitors (Gao &Low, 2014).  The company provide facilities like the customers can access the information about the taxi and driver, Ingogo is the first company that provides a facility of fixed fare in Australia, and they did not charge any extra or additional charges for traffic jams and tolls. All the competitors of the company provide their focus on technology improvement and on availing sharing option but with these options, Ingogo is providing their focus on providing a positive option and on providing affordable services (Ingogo, 2018c).

Internal Analysis 

Drivers who have an association with Ingogo are facing issues regarding login and log out. The business of the company mainly depends on the internet service and due to bad connectivity, the divers are facing the problem of login and logout and at the initial stage, they face problem while using the app (Toufaily, Ricard & Perrien, 2016). The second major problem that the company is facing is related to the financial scandals, the credit cards of the riders have been hacked through GPS tracker.

Industry Analysis 

Ingogo belongs to the Taxi booking and Logistics Technology industry the boom in this industry is seen in past few years and with the introduction of the idea of online booking of taxis many drivers have to get chance of earning more money. The idea has also helped in reducing unemployment among the drivers and also give a change of employment to normal people who knows driving.  

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning

Ingogo Market Segmentation

The Drivers and riders both are treated as a target market for Ingogo. Among all drivers and riders, the company will target mainly to the users who are smartphone users with access to the internet. The other potential candidates for the company are those individuals who own cars and want to rent their cars to the drivers and those people who do not own cars (Leonidou, Katsikeas & Morgan, 2015). The market of Ingogo will be based on the various type of segmentation such as

Geographic segmentation:

•    Region: The Company is presently operating in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Adelaide. To increase the revenue it is important for the company to increase their reach in the whole Australia and when the company will get success in the regional market the company will expand their business on an international level but currently the company need to target Australia as a whole.
•    Age: The Target age group of the company are individuals who have attained the age of 18-65.
•    Gender: Both males and females are the target audience of the company.

Demographic segmentation

•    Occupation: The target audience of the company are Students, employees, corporate professionals and retired individuals.  
•    The degree of Loyalty: The market of the company can be segmented on the bases of the degree of loyalty such as Switchers, Soft loyal and Hardcore loyal.  

Behavioural segmentation   

•    Benefits Sought: the people who are cost-efficient has a sense of achievement and convenience
•    Personality: the people who are ambitious, easy going and determined
•    User status: Regular users, first-time users, potential users and non-users

Psychographic segmentation

•    Social Class: The people who belong to the lower class, working class and middle class
•    Lifestyle: Struggler, mainstreamer, reformer and explorer (Pyo, 2015).

Target Market of Ingogo 

The company can target their segmented market by developing market targeting strategy such as offering discounts, journey credits, promotions, coupons etc.  In addition, the company can use various other facilities also like developing a partnership with a business profile for auto-expenses, by price promotion for consumers. The company can provide Vehicle finance and health care incentives to the drivers. The company can ensure a lasting customer relationship and can launch new methods for a business that is yet to be reached.

Positioning 

Positioning means a process that helps the company in establishing its brand image in the market (Farrag, 2017). To position the transport service in the target market the company has designed a slogan ‘always there because we are everywhere’. The meaning of the slogan is the cab service that a company is providing are available 24/7 and their cabs are available everywhere in Australia whenever rider wants to ride.    

For positioning, the company use 7 P’s of Marketing Strategies

Product

Ingogo is the service provider company and in place of the product the service of the company be considered. The company provide people with an option to ride on taxi by making a booking by using desktop website and mobile apps. The company has made the facility in transport service more easily accessible and comfortable (Davies & Harvey, 2013).  The Ingogo app is loaded with features to help the customers in saving money on the taxi travel cost because the company offers fixed transparent and fair fares. The company provide a various option s at the time of booking the taxi according to the destination, a number of riders and in addition, the app provides an option to the customers to select the category of cars in which the customers want to ride. The company also provide the option to the customers that they can book the cab 2 days before the ride.  

Place

Ingogo was found in the Sydney, Australia in 2011 and from then the company has started providing its tax service in Sydney, Perth, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide. Currently, the company is working only in few cities of Australia but after getting the successful response from the people of the stated cities of Australia the company is now planning to expand their business to the other parts of Australia (Sohel, Rahman & Uddin, 2014). The target place for expansion of the business initially is whole Australia. Any individual who is in Australia and wants the ride in a taxi can download the app to book their ride the app is not valid outside Australia.     

Pricing

 The cost of the ride of Ingogo is based on mainly four factors these are estimated time, base rates, estimated difference and demand of ride in the area. In addition, the company has brought a very genuine offer for the riders that are they have launched a fixed fare rate. Ingogo is the first country that has launched this kind of fare concept. The concept of fixed fares is inclusive all tolls and changes and there are no extra fees and surge pricing will be included due to a traffic jam ((Sohel, Rahman & Uddin, 2014). The pricing strategies that are used by Ingogo is penetration pricing. By bringing the fixed fare concept the company has stop the exploitation of riders that is done by the local transport companies and other online taxi companies like Uber, ola etc.

People

The person for Ingogo refers to the management, employees and customers and everybody who is involved in the company business.   It is estimated that in 2017, there were approx. 140 employees working for the company. The stated numbers include the employees who are working in a customer service, leasing agents and drivers. It is estimated that around thirty per cent of the entire workforce are females. The maximum numbers of employees who are working with the Ingogo are white Australian people. The company has created jobs of taxi drivers in Australia (Khan, 2014).  It is essential for everyone who is related to the company that they should realise that the reputation of the brand is in the hand of the people who are associated with the company.

Process

The process of the company include, the working of the company is completely dependent on the mobile and desktop application. The customers who want to hire a taxi for a ride first they have to install an app from the app store then they have to register on the app by providing some necessary details. After registration, the rider can use the app any time they just need to input information related to pick and drop location, the app will show the customer all available taxis in the nearby area. The rider can select the taxi of their choice to take a ride and after reaching to the desired location app will tell the estimated bill. The drivers also have an app that is different from the consumer's app.    

Physical evidence

The company is having its registered office in Sydney, Australia. Company’s most of the business is carried out through website and app. Both customers and drivers have different apps as per their wants. Apart from these, the only Physical evidence of the company is its service, taxies and taxi drivers (Pike & Page, 2014).  Sometimes the new paper article for promotion, brochures and pamphlets also considered as physical evidence.

Promotion

Ingogo mainly uses its app and website for promotion. Moreover, the company has created various buzz through its differentiated service which has generated a lot of publicity. Few promotional tools used by Ingogo are:

Offline Marketing

Banners and posters: the company can design some eye-catching poster and banners and can put them on areas that catch the attraction of people such as markets, bus stands etc. it can help the company in attracting new customers.

Billboard: the company can use a billboard for spreading awareness among the target customers. The company can place the billboard on highways on main streets from where a maximum number of people can see the advertisement.

Newspaper advertisement: making advertisement in the newspaper is the oldest and the most effective ways to telling people that the new and additional service has arrived at your place. Ingogo can use newspaper to advertise their service.

Online Marketing

E-mail Marketing: The Company can use e-mail marketing as a tool of promotion, this promotion tool is cost-efficient and consume very less time. While using the e-mail as a tool of promotion the company can send the message that contains the details and offers that company has launched for the public, on the other hand, the company can spread awareness among the people.

Social Media: The Company can use social media to promote the service of the company. There are several tools that can help the company in spreading awareness such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. The company can make pages on the social media sites and add a maximum number of customers.  For promotion, the company can upload promotional pics and videos. Moreover, the company can use social media whenever the company launch a new service or offers.

Search Engine Advertising: this is the search engine advertising campaigns engage sponsored advertisement that features in the inorganic search engine results. The company can use a search engine to promote the services offers and other new and additional features (Tiago & Veríssimo, 2014).

Marketing and financial objectives for Ingogo

Marketing Objectives

• The chief objective behind the marketing and promotion of the services of the company is they want to increase their demand to earn maximum profits.
• With the help of the marketing of the services the company can create its brand image in the market and earn the customers loyalty
• For expansion the marketing is the best option, with marketing company can target new riders (Sohel, Rahman & Uddin, 2014).

Financial objective

• The most important and main objective for which every company works is income maximization.
• The next objective is wealth maximization, it is used by company to increase the net value
• Every company always prefers high ROI and it is the next objective of the company to maximise the ROI (Sohel, Rahman & Uddin, 2014).

Budget allocation for Promotion Mix

Promotion Activities	Amount include	Result expected
Banners and posters	$ 1000	The people who use buses and trains will start using Ingogo taxi and more drivers will get attracted to be part of Ingogo
Billboard	$2000	People will use Ingogo taxi for long and short routes and will attract drives
Newspaper advertisement	$ 2500	People should start using the Ingogo app and will spread awareness among drives too
E-mail Marketing	$ 800	Will let company target audience know about the new and additional features
Social Media	$ 500	Will let people know about the new features
Search Engine Advertising	$ 2000	Help people in knowing about ingogo app and its uses
Total	$8800

 

Conclusion

To conclude, the Ingogo is doing very well in the existing cities to expand the business and to increase the profits it becomes important that the company will expand its business to the best part of Australia. To expand the business it becomes important that a company should plan the best marketing strategies with the best marketing plan and use a best promotional tool. In the report, contain the marketing strategy and promotional plan. To increase the profits they can use the stated strategy and promotional plans.    

References

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Dobbs, M. (2014). Guidelines for applying Porter's five forces framework: a set of industry analysis templates. Journal of Competitiveness Review, 24(1), 32-45.

Farrag, D. A. (2017). Impact of Shari’ah on Consumers’ Behavior Toward Sales Promotion Tools: Focus on Egyptian Convenience Products. Journal of food products marketing, 23(5), 533-552.

Fertel, C., Bahn, O., Vaillancourt, K., & Waaub, J. P. (2013). Canadian energy and climate policies: A SWOT analysis in search of federal/provincial coherence. Journal of Energy Policy, 63, pp. 1139-1150.

Gao, S. & Low, S.P., (2014). The Last Planner System in China's construction industry—A SWOT analysis on implementation. International Journal of Project Management, 32(7), pp.1260-1272.

Ingogo. (2018a). For Business. Retrieved from: https://www.ingogo.com.au/business  

Ingogo. (2018b). For Drivers. Retrieved from: https://www.ingogo.com.au/driver  

Ingogo. (2018c). For Passenger. Retrieved from: https://www.ingogo.com.au/passenger  

Khan, M. T. (2014). The concept of'marketing mix'and its elements (a conceptual review paper). International journal of information, business and management, 6(2), pp. 95.

Leonidou, C. N., Katsikeas, C. S., & Morgan, N. A. (2015). “Greening” the marketing mix: do firms do it and does it pay off?. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 41(2), pp. 151-170.

Pavelsky, T.M., Durand, M.T., Andreadis, K.M., Beighley, R.E., Paiva, R.C., Allen, G.H. & Miller, Z.F., (2014). Assessing the potential global extent of SWOT river discharge observations. Journal of Hydrology, 519, pp.1516-1525.

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Sohel, S. M., Rahman, A. M. A., & Uddin, M. A. (2014). Competitive profile matrix (CPM) as a competitors’ analysis tool: A theoretical perspective. International Journal of Human Potential Development, 3(1), pp. 40-47.

Sohel, S. M., Rahman, A. M. A., & Uddin, M. A. (2014). Competitive profile matrix (CPM) as a competitors’ analysis tool: A theoretical perspective. International Journal of Human Potential Development, 3(1), pp. 40-47.

Tiago, M., & Veríssimo, J. M. C. (2014). Digital marketing and social media: Why bother?. Journal of Business Horizons, 57(6), pp. 703-708.

Toufaily, E., Ricard, L. & Perrien, J., (2016). Customer loyalty to a commercial website: Descriptive meta-analysis of the empirical literature and proposal of an integrative model. Journal of Business Research, 66(9), pp.1436-1447.