About Transit Southwest
Transit Southwest is a public transportation company in Australia, that are aiming to launch hydrogen buses as part of the Warnambool part of Australia. Transit Southwest aims to bring a cleaner and greener solution to the Australian transportation system and aims to do so by launching their first bus in between 2023 and 2024. The Transit Southwest is in the automobile industry, within the public transportation facilitation system in Australia. The Transit Southwest is looking to bring necessary changes to the public transportation scenario in Warnambool at Australia, and by introducing hydrogen buses at the same fare price as regular public transportation buses in Australia, specifically Warnambool (Transitsw.com.au. 2022). The direct competitors of Transit Southwest are South Western Roadways and Warnambools Bus Lines. The core strength of Transit Southwest is their commitment to a greener alternative to the public transportation system i.e., hydrogen buses, whereas its competitors are based on more traditional forms that is petrol and diesel fuel buses. The company also aims to keep the prices of its fares same as regular buses so as to increase the awareness and the gravity of its hydrogen buses in the Australian Market. With the growing awareness for sustainability and clean energy, it is expected that the people of Warnambools will accept the buses of Transit Southwest positively. The Company also aims to spread awareness and allocate time to educate people on the necessity of hydrogen buses. These efforts are sure to create a long-lasting impression and impact on the psychology of the people (O’Rourke, Carrillat and Wang 2022). Also, the buses of the Transit Southwest are not in circulation yet. This provides them a unique opportunity to scan the market and build up the hype for its buses. This will allow the business to gain market segment even before the launch of its buses. Hence, Transit Southwest is well poised to enter the Australian public transportation space (Won and Lee 2022).
For Transit South West, there can be viably seven market segments that the Company can decide to venture into. These are –
- Geographic Segmentation: This is one of the simplest forms of segmentation where, based on regions and the target market composition, organisations assess the viability of their offering in that particular region. This allows organisations to identify its target market segment, based on geography and capture that market. Transit South West has selected its target market on the basis of geographic segmentation to be Warnambools, Victoria, Australia (Soto, Cantillo and Arellana 2021).
- Demographic Segmentation: In this segmentation, the entire target market is divided based on the age, sex, occupation, income level and family life cycle. This level of segmentation is suitable for product personalisation and the introduction of demography specific products. However, in the case of Transit South West, the demographic segmentation is null and void, as it is going to introduce its buses within the Australian Public Transportation System, and anyone of any demographic composition can avail its services without any form of differentiation or segmentation (Cortez, Clarke and Freytag 2021).
- Psychographic Segmentation: In this form of segmentation, the psychology of the customer’s matter. How they perceive one brand, what are their views of a brand, what are their ideologies, ideas, beliefs, opinions and so on are important in shaping the offerings of the business based on this segmentation. This is entirely psychological and this segmentation can make or break the image of a brand in the minds of the public. Hence, for Transit South West, it is important they portray a positive image of their brand, with the key focus on its hydrogen buses and its benefits to the environment and the publics contribution, as well as the affordability of its fares. This will allow the brand to build a strong community (Rosal, Segura and Maroto 2021).
- Behaviourist Segmentation: This segmentation is done on the basis of the offerings of the Company and how it can benefit the people. In this type of segmentation, an organisation aligns its products and services based on the expectations and the attributes of the customer like, purchase occasion, benefit sought, and user status. For Transit South West it is important that their buses and services are at par with the expectation of the people from the Australian Transit System (Soto, Cantillo and Arellana 2021).
- Volume Segmentation: In this case, customers are segmented based on heavy, moderate and light users. This is doen to understand the various categories of people availaing the product and services of the organisation and at what rate. This allows the Organisation to curate its products based on the gathered data. In case of Transit South West, this is almost negligible since it operates in the public transportation segment and the volume parameter is nullified due to its position in the market (Cortez, Clarke and Freytag 2021).
- Product-Space Segmentation: This segmentation is done on the basis of existing offerings and the perception of the customers about them. This will allow brands to work on to bridge the gap between products offered and customer expectations, via their own product. This is an essential element for Transit South West to understand the needs of the customers and deliver accordingly (Rosal, Segura and Maroto 2021).
- Benefit Segmentation: This segmentation is done to understand the range and the scale of benefits that customers are looking for or expecting from a brandand how these benefits can be maximised by the organisation. Hence, it is important for Transit South West to understand the benefits it can provide to the public transportation system in Australia (Soto, Cantillo and Arellana 2021).
Hence, it can be understood that for Transit South West, Geographic, Psychographic, Behaviourist, Product-Space and Benefit Segmentation are the most important points of segmentation to achieve success within the Australian Public Transportation Industry, gain competitive advantage over its competitors, facilitate revenue generation and profitability.
Transit South West communicates via its website, social media pages, interviews, campaigns and news publications and articles. The two messages of the Transit South West are, to introduce hydrogen public transportation buses in Warnambools, Victoria, Australia and to keep the fares same as the existing prices. Both the messages deploy the organisations vision and perception of the future of the public transportation system in Australia. Also, these brand messages raise awareness to the need for cleaner and greener alternatives to the existing Commute System in Australia, specifically, Warnambools, Victoria. The distinct factor about these messages is that is it aimed at keeping the public in mind and also the environmental impacts and effects of the transportation and the automobile sector. These messages represent the core visions of the brand and its principal foundation (Arya, Paul and Sethi 2021).
Transit Southwest’s Core Strength and Competitors
Transit South West targets both the Consumer Processing Model (CPM) and the Hedonic Experiential Model (HEM). The Consumer Processing Model is a eight stage model that shapes the consumer perception of a brand and the final decision by the consumer. This allows for the brand to approach its messages in a step-by-step procedure to instil the values and the core ideologies of the brand message. The Hedonic Experiential Model states the message behind the brand and the way the customer processes that information, and aligns itself with the organisational portrayal. By both these communication models, the Transit South West is trying to raise awareness regarding its hydrogen buses and how they will be beneficial for both the people as well as for the environment. The organisation is trying to establish its cost to benefit parameters and help the customers understand the value proposition of the hydrogen buses and the availing services (Marin and Nil? 2021). The brand is approaching the people of Australia in a strategic and calculative manner to establish the benefits reaped at the same cost as before. This is done via active message distribution and awareness campaigns. This creates a unique image of higher benefits to almost negligible difference in costs. Hence, the Transit South West is actively spreading its message and its USPs to enter the market in 2023 – 2024.
As per the analysis of the current communication strategy of Transit South West, it is effective and comprehensive, however, it is lacking certain narratives. The position of the brand and the core values and principles of the brand, as well as the brand vision are being well communicated to the people of Australia. The brand is actively using its messages to highlight their strong benefits and their Unique Selling Propositions. Its core highlight is its hydrogen buses and the fare prices. The core points of differences, in regards to its existing competitors are well allocated to enable clear understanding and perception by the public. The effectiveness of the communication strategy relies on its cleaner and greener public offerings. In case of its competitors, they are traditional petroleum fuel-based services. So, their messages are redundant in this scenario. The message of the Transit South West aligns with the means-and-value chain of the brand (Miao 2021). As per the analysis, it would have been better if there was some sort of trial run for its customers to experience the upcoming offerings by the Company, so as to gather better ideas and opinions on what they actually care about. The brand has a uniform communication for its different target segments. The brand is trying its best and also incorporating personal communication to connect with the public deeply and create a personalised brand image on their perception. The brand will require to provide some realistic examples of their brand message, because so far, their communication strategy has been based on future promises without any realistic present experience for the public, to gather insights and feedbacks, for better personalisation and impression of its buses (Gilal et al. 2022).
References
Arya, V., Paul, J. and Sethi, D., 2021. Like it or not! Brand communication on social networking sites triggers consumer?based brand equity. International Journal of Consumer Studies.
Casas?Rosal, J.C., Segura, M. and Maroto, C., 2021. Food market segmentation based on consumer preferences using outranking multicriteria approaches. International Transactions in Operational Research.
Cortez, R.M., Clarke, A.H. and Freytag, P.V., 2021. B2B market segmentation: A systematic review and research agenda. Journal of Business Research, 126, pp.415-428.
Gilal, R.G., Gilal, N.G., Gilal, F.G. and Gong, Z., 2022. The role of nostalgic brand positioning in capturing brand equity: Theoretical extension and analysis. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 46(1), pp.161-181.
Marin, G.D. and Nil?, C., 2021. Branding in social media. Using LinkedIn in personal brand communication: A study on communications/marketing and recruitment/human resources specialists perception. Social Sciences & Humanities Open, 4(1), p.100174.
Miao, Y., 2021. Brand communication of intangible elements delivery. Journal of Marketing Communications, 27(3), pp.284-306.
O’Rourke, A.M., Carrillat, F.A. and Wang, P.Z., 2022. Is brand differentiation necessary for success? The role of purchase goal and confidence in the brand’s position. Journal of Marketing Management, pp.1-29.
Soto, J.J., Cantillo, V. and Arellana, J., 2021. Market segmentation for incentivising sustainable transport policies. Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment, 99, p.103013.
Transitsw.com.au. 2022. Transit South West. [online] Available at: https://www.transitsw.com.au/ Accessed 5 April 2022.
Won, J. and Lee, J.L., 2022. The Role of an Actual Brand Positioning: An Analysis of Digital Advertisements. International Journal of Sport Communication, 1(aop), pp.1-10.
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
