UberEats: An Online Food Delivery Company - Marketing Essay.

About UberEats

Question:

Discuss About The Sale Turnover In Face Of Strong Competitors?

Uber Eats is an online food delivery chain operates in various parts of globe since 2014. It was launched by the Uber Technologies with the motive of providing varieties of food dishes to public from their favourite restaurants. Consumers can place their orders on the Uber Eats’ official website or through smartphones. Uber Eats has provided the facility to its consumers to place the orders on mobile applications which are available for both Android as well as for iOS users. In order to provide better services to its target audience, company claims that the maximum time will be 30 minute for delivery of their orders. Prior to UberEats, it was established with the name of UberFRESH but later on in 2015, it was renamed to UberEats. The company has tied up with dozens of hotels in order to provide better products and services to its target audience. The facility introduced by Uber Technologies in the name of UberEats is useful for the food lovers and for the people who love to try the new dishes. In Melbourne, UberEats’ services were introduced in 2016 and from then, company has gained effective goodwill in the market along with development of effective image in the target market. With the help of Uber Eats, consumers can place orders from mobile application and with the help of company’s official website. Along with placing the order, organization also offers various services such as online payment facility, discount offers for regular consumers and by providing the delivery address to the company, users can get the foods at their doorsteps only within the time claimed by the organization (Chung, 2012).

In the present scenario, UberEats’ presence is very less in the international market and Melbourne is the first city in Australia and third city across the globe under which UberEats provide its facilities. The primary objective of the concern is to expand the network of the organization and for the same, marketing management and digital communication plan will be developed in this report (Uber Technologies, 2018).

For evaluating the demand of the online food delivery services in the international market with the objective to expand the business of the company, primary and secondary methods of research has been used. Primary research methods are known as the tools used for collecting the fresh data while secondary research method includes the utilising the existing data and information analysed by researchers, philosophers, newspaper agencies, consultancy services, etc. Collection of data could be done with the help of available methods i.e. qualitative and quantitative research methods (Teräs & Mäkelä, 2012).

Primary objective and services

Qualitative research methods provide numerical data and information in relevance with identifying the demand of the services rendered by the organization. UberEats is engaged in providing food dishes to the public from the local restaurants. In this research method, organization has used the tools such as such as survey, questionnaires and the feedback forms. With the help of these techniques and tools, organization will be able to analyse the demand of its target audience. Along with this, it also helps the organization to identify the external market environment along with the details regarding its primary competitors. Outcomes from the research methods could be utilised for increasing the effectiveness of the company as well as these could also be utilised for meeting up with the consumer’s requirements. Consumers are an essential part especially for the service oriented organizations, thus, rendering the customer-centric services will help the organization to attain its desired goals and the objectives. Qualitative research method is being used before introducing the services in the market while the reset methods are used after introducing the services and for increasing the effectiveness of the services. These are also helpful in order to modifying the products and services along with fulfilling the consumer’s requirements. These outcomes are also effective resources through which the competitive advantage could be attained (Rose & Larsen, 2013).

Quantitative research method includes the telephonic survey, email survey and the physical feedback forms, etc. and all these techniques are implemented after introducing the services and products in the target market. This type of research method is generally used by the restaurants, hotels and other service centric companies. This research method analyses the requirement to amend the strategies used by the organization for developing or rendering the services. With the help of suggestions, organization could be able to identify the upgraded and advanced strategies through which the organization could be able to fulfil its objectives and desired goals (Neuman, 2013).

The secondary research method is the process which utilises the existing data and the information from the sources of journals, articles, newspapers and through other sources such as internet, books and the like. While utilising the secondary source of information, it is necessary to determine the authenticity of the information so that the appropriate decisions could be taken in order to increase the efficiency of the organization (Palinkas, Horwitz, Green, Wisdom, Duan & Hoagwood, 2015).

This technique is used to determine the perceptions of the target audience in relevance with the product’s features, usefulness and the product’s effectiveness. This technique is also useful for evaluating the attributes of services. As UberEats is rendering the delivery services to its target audience with the objective to reduce their efforts of approaching to a restaurant for the purpose of carrying the food till their doorstep. For making this procedure better and easy, Uber Technologies have introduced the UberEats in Melbourne and it is also available in other parts of the globe with the motive to provide the facility to the audience through which they can get whatever they want to order from their nearby or away restaurant within a certain period of time. Uber Eats have tied up with various restaurants for the same objective. Primary strengths of the company are prompt delivery from the restaurants and from other local food chains. Apart from this, company claims 30 minute delivery which helps the users to get their ordered items within an appropriate period of time. UberEats provides its users to access the best varieties of food available in the particular market from all types of restaurants (de Silva?Sanigorski, Breheny, Jones, Lacy, Kremer, Carpenter & Swinburn, 2011). The services of UberEats are available at few locations while their objective is to expand the services at every corner of the world in order to provide them the best quality of foods from huge range offered by the restaurants (Booth & Whelan, 2014).

Expansion plans

UberEats could also utilise the available marketing and promotional strategies in order to uplift the organizational performance along with generating the opportunities for the organization to expand their network. With the enhancement in the organizational effectiveness through increasing the various options for the consumers, organization could also provide attractive offers and discount codes in order to retain them. Melbourne city is very wide city and it is majorly known for varieties of food dishes along with the attractive locations. UberEats is operating through contracting with the famous restaurants and other food chains available in the market. Consumers could use the mobile application and company’s website for accessing the food ranges provided by restaurants (Zhang, Zhang, Wang, Law & Li, 2013). After placing the order, it is the duty of the venture to deliver the consumer’s orders on time and within the time limit claimed by them in order to gain the confidence and for developing positive image towards the company (He, Zha & Li, 2013).

Above mentioned functionalities and the strategies could be used for approaching the target audience and for enhancing the organizational business. In order to analyse the consumer’s perception towards the organization’s services, value position framework could be utilised along with evaluating the services rendered by its competitors in order to analyse the organizational position in the competitive business environment. There are numerous online food delivery companies are already available in the market and in these circumstances, UberEats needs to perform required strategies for evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of its competitors’ in order to adopt the strategies for gaining the competitive advantage along with setting up an effective image in the target market.

In a value position framework, numbers of attributes are involved in this framework through which the effectiveness of the product or service introduced by the organization could be measured. These are economic value, emotional value, functional value, end value and symbolic value (Garti & McClements, 2012).

Functional value: UberEats is an online food delivery company which helps the consumers to get their desired food dishes from their favourite restaurants within a certain period of time. This reduces the efforts of the consumers as well as it helps them to get their favourite dishes at their doorstep without going out. It also helps them to save the fuel cost as well as it also saves their time (Edwards, McKinnon & Cullinane, 2010).

Economic value: The services provided by the UberEats are economic as well as time saviour. This service is also found as the innovative and unique which helps the organization to gain large customer base (McLachlan, 2013).

Primary and secondary research methods

Symbolic value: Organization should also consider the cultural and social responsibilities in order to increase the effectiveness of the organization. This also helps them to reduce the chances of glitches which could be found in the functionalities of the organization by non-fulfilment of the policies (Hyun, Kim & Lee, 2011).

Emotional value: Emotional value of the services rendered by the organization are high as these are capable enough to uplift the organizational performance through providing offers and other discount related schemes to the target audience (Chiu, Wang, Fang & Huang, 2014).

It is a tool through which organization could set up an effective position in the target market along with spreading the awareness amongst the target audience in relevance with the organizational products and services. This plan includes various elements such as objective of implementing the marketing plan, target audience, competitive analysis and the promotional strategies, promotional mix as well as the sources of media and the advertisement through which organization could be able to utilise the available market opportunities with the motive to increase the efficiency of the organization along with the attainment of the goals and the objectives (Zhang, Ye, Law & Li, 2010).

Primary objectives related to the marketing and promotion plan is to increase the demand of the organizational services in the target market along with the development of an effective image in order to gain an adequate competitive advantage. This will create a positive image of the organization in the target audience along with the communication amongst them will also be strengthen. In the marketing and promotional plan of the organization, various objectives such as spread the awareness amongst the public as well as to attract them towards the company’s services with approaching them with unique promotional and advertisement techniques (Moodie, Stuckler, Monteiro, Sheron, Neal, Thamarangsi & Lancet NCD Action Group, 2013).

The primary target market for the UberEats is to provide the people of Melbourne a treasured experience with the qualitative and enriched food dishes from a wide range of top rated restaurants. Their motive is to provide the access the menu and the range of food dishes provided by the restaurants through a mobile application and through the company’s official website. Along with this, it is also essential through which the expansion of the organization could be done in most parts of the globe. Expanding the business of UberEats is another major goal in order to attain the company’s desired targets (Nestle, 2013).

Qualitative research method

Apart from this, major target audience for the organization will be food lovers and the people who love to taste the varieties of food dishes available in the market. Online food delivery system helps the people to get their preferred dishes at their doorstep without wasting time. Teenagers, people age 18-25 and the people at their workplaces will be the major target market for the organization. This will help them to increase their customer base and from the perceptive of approaching them, trending promotional and advertisement techniques will be used. Outcomes oriented from the segmentation activity could also be used for increasing the customer base of the organization. As UberEats is focused towards the top rated and exclusive restaurants of the market, it is necessary to understand the market conditions and the purchasing power of the consumers before approaching them. Thus, they should focus over approaching the premium segment of the audience. Apart from this, lower and middle class segment could also be targeted when the company will increase its partnership with more number of restaurants (Sharma, Teret & Brownell, 2010).

This is a crucial part of promotion and marketing plan through which organization could attain its desired goals and the objectives. Biggest advantage of this strategy is that organization could easily enhance the awareness amongst the target audience in order to increase the revenues and profitability. These objectives could easily help the organization to acquire the sustainable growth in the target market along with developing a positive perception amongst the audience. This technique also includes the tools for communicating with its target audience in relevance with the product’s features, new offers, introduction of new products or services, and the like. Organization could easily retain its potential customers along with premium segment of the consumers. Integrated communication plan could also be adopted by the organization with the motive to communicate with the target audience in an effective and better manner. This also helps the organization to develop a positive customer relationship through which the expected outcomes and the competitive advantage would easily be attained. Following are certain crucial elements of promotional mix technique:

Advertisement: This strategy is used for spreading the awareness amongst the target audience in relevance with the organizational products and services’ features. UberEats could use the advertisement strategy and they could promote their services, offers and other varieties which could be able to help them to attain the desired goals and the objectives. Tools such as television, social media platforms, radio, and the traditional mediums of advertisement could also be used in relevance with promoting the organizational functionalities and services with the motive to enhance the opportunities of expansion of the organization in the global market (Sunday & Bayode, 2011).

Quantitative research method

Sales promotion: This strategy is used for increasing the revenues and the profitability but this tool should not be used constantly because it could reduce the effectiveness of the organization. In sales promotion, organization could provide attractive benefits and offers on availing the services rendered by the organization.

Apart from these elements, there are certain more such as direct marketing which is also known as door to door marketing strategy and personal selling which includes distributing samples amongst the target audience with the motive to make the consumers experienced about the quality of the service and product delivered by organization (Sharma, Teret & Brownell, 2010).

Major competitors of UberEats in the target market will be Menulog and Eat now and it is owned by the Britain’s Just Eat Company and they had an effective image in this industry as they are working in the same industry since a very long time. There are couple of companies such as Deliveroo and Foodora also who are present in this industry whose primary focus is on the middle and lower end restaurants. Both of these companies have set up its strong goodwill in these markets and this could affect the business performance of the new entrants (Ramanathan & Ramanathan, 2011). Thus, it is required to understand the strategies adopted and implemented by the UberEats’ competitors to cover the market. Apart from this, it is also necessary to understand the business environmental conditions through which the appropriate strategies and the methods could be adopted in order to gain the competitive advantage in the target market. With these objectives, organization should also focus over expanding its business in the rest parts of the globe. Thus, it is essential for the organization to develop the future outcomes oriented strategies which could help them to develop an effective position for a long period of time (Pantelidis, 2010).

Apart from this, UberEats have developed an effective image in the markets where they are present and this could be used as the major strength of the company to set up their business in the international markets. Along with this, they could also strengthen their procedure through covering the major market of the restaurant industry. This will help the consumers to choose the most appropriate option on the basis of their preference. Organization is also famous for its prompt delivery services and this has been the major strength for the organization through which the desired objectives and the goals could be attained easily and effectively.

Secondary research method

Conclusion

From the aforesaid information, it can be concluded that the digital communication and marketing plan discussed above will help the UberEats to expand its business operations. In the brave report, various elements of marketing plan have been discussed. The first phase of the report concluded the research methods’ effectiveness and the information regarding data collection methods. Further, customer value analysis and the marketing and promotional mix elements were concluded regarding the UberEats’ functionalities. The last phase of the report concludes the financial requirements in relevance with setting up the business in the target market along with increasing the expansion and growth related opportunities for the organization.

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