Marketing Plan Of Ingogo Australian Taxi: Strategies To Compete With Uber

Problem Statement

Discuss about the Marketing Plan Of Ingogo Australian Taxi.

Ingogo is Australian taxi booking app. It has introduced payment service named “Ingogo Now”. Ingogo tries to understand the issue faced by the customers during cab riding and booking. The insights are then used to bring innovation in the market (Armstrong & Brennan, 2015). The company has huge amount of investment from renowned investors. The app provides multiple facilities like connecting with the driver, tracking him etc. It guarantees comfort, convenience, seamless and value-added services to customers. The company is providing cabs in Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Berth. The key purpose, scope and limitation of this report can be discussed as:

Purpose: The purpose of this report is to discuss the detailed marketing plans for Ingogo

Scope: This marketing plan is developed for one year

Limitation: This marketing plan is not based on any primary research

The mastermind of Ingogo is Hamish Petrie. The idea struck him in 2011. He got frustrated of taxi booking experience. He realized there is need to create revolution in the market. So, Hamish was all set to wipe out traditional cab or taxi market in Australia. He has used Ingogo’s own GPS booking system in the app. The facility has helped taxi service driver to take the booking (Morse & Clarke, 2016). The company does not own can as well as drivers. So it acts as intermediary between driver and passenger without worrying about managing the taxi service company (Gilbey, 2016). Moshtix was an electronic ticketing system launched by Hamish before Ingogo. This system is then acquired by some company. So the owner has idea of successfully launching a start-up. Ingogo is a taxi booking app which also has in-app payment system (Hou, 2018). The service can track the location of driver in real time. Uber and Gocatch are two major competitors of Ingogo.

The company is competing in saturated market where major competitor is US based firm Uber which has deep pockets and international experience (Millar, 2017). Uber already has more presence than Ingogo. So even being first in the market, Ingogo does not have first mover advantage. It is necessary for Ingogo to retain and attract customers and drivers.

The cab booking company, Ingogo, uses private vehicle for transportation (Schlegelmilch, 2016). The company is not targeting niche market, but it has multiple offers for business customers. The current Australian taxi market is already saturated, so it is necessary for company to target broader segment which is also tapped by other players like Uber and Gocatch. It tries to understand different requirement of drivers (Hassan & Dixit, 2015). The company does not target any specific cab and driver service agency. Instead, its main focus is on security so it takes special consideration in verifying the identity of drivers. The company attracts all the passengers who want quick, hassle free and seamless ride. All these services are provided on mobile platforms having Android and IOS operating system.

• Strengths

Potential market segments

The company is efficient in understanding the requirement of customers and driver partners. It is technically efficient to build those requirements in their app. It is effectively using design based thinking to provide better service (Geissdoerfer & Hultink, 2016).It is putting customers and drivers directly in touch with each other. It has removed the role of intermediaries (Lin, 2016). It is local company, so it promotes itself through ethnocentric approach. Ingogo is performing its operations in all major parts of Australia. It has backed by $15 million plus of funding from renowned investors. Ingogo pays special attention to security. It provides qualified and licensed drivers.

• Weaknesses

Ingogo is present mainly in large cities. So, it is missed out in regional areas. The company provides app on iPhone and Android. The other operating system like Blackberry RIM etc. is still missed. The company does not have international market knowledge and deep pockets like other competitors.

• Opportunities

The company is supported by government in terms of product development. It is entering into other products like payment platform. The company has huge opportunity in terms of market availability. Its current partners like Qantas are very popular which can give significant visibility to the company.

• Threats

There is huge competition in the market. The government laws in terms of fuel usage are another consideration. Since company does not own cabs and drivers so lot of dependency on third party service provider.

Ingogo tries to act as local company. It guarantees to provide excellent service. Some of its services include advance booking up to two days, online payment, tracking drivers etc. It abides by all government rules and regulations. It focuses on security of the passenger by providing professional and licensed drivers. The company claims that it is Australian company so whatever it does is in the interest of fellow people and nation. The company describes itself as problem solver. It understands the basic needs and incorporates those needs in their app (Li, 2016). It gives assurance to customers by providing multiple driver options to customers. It uses designed approach in solving different needs of customers. There is minimal penalty for not showing up. The service is relevant and economical during peak hours as well.

The main objective of company is to increase its market share in Australia. It also wants to expand itself beyond major cities. The company wants to use its all resources to create a regional presence. The company wants to increase profitability. It is an innovating company so wants to make its product innovative and robust. It also looks forward to seeing its business growing in terms of payment service provider. The company wants to retain and attract the customers (Ascarza & Provost, 2018). It wants to create brand loyalty. It wants to use its investment to cater to broad audience. The company wants to create and understand the customer requirements, design the product and deliver the product which will help customer and will help in generating profits. The company wants to act one stop shop for all the issues in the taxi booking industry. The company wants to give priority to driver and customer experience. The company wants to use design-based approach to compete with competitors. Here it is using expertise of other business to stand ahead of competitors (Boshyk, 2016). The company will use ethnocentric and innovative approach to compete locally. Based on above mission and objetives, the SMART goals for Ingogo can be discussed as:

• Increase brand awareness and brand equity by 50% over next one year
• Use of marketing channels like social media marketing to increase the penetration by 20% in next 1 year
• Use marketing function to focus on Customer Relationship Marketing through social media channels

SWOT analysis

Ingogo has got investment of more than $10 million in funding. Around $4.0 million is from equity crowd funding platform. The company looks forward in managing balance sheet and using its assets effectively. The funds will be used to partner with other agencies and provide best offer to the customers. The company is forecasting $150 million of dividends to its investor. It has grown its market share to around 11%. Now Ingogo is all set to double it by the next year.

Ingogo presents itself as innovative cab service booking platform. Its main challenge is competing with Uber. Ingogo is also trying to be publicly listed in coming year. Customer and driver convenience is given prime importance. For example drivers were not very efficient in using technology. Also, during driving it was difficult for them to take a booking by clicking the specific option. So Ingogo has just made a small change. It has moved up the Select button and increased its size. So number of job taking has increased since then. The company promises to provide end to end solution. The company leverages ethnocentric, innovative, lawful and reliable approach to build trust among drivers and customer (Drucker, 2014).

The company has done gap analysis to basically reduce the Servqual gap. It has understood the basic needs of customers and has made a relevant perception of customer expectations (Ali & Raza, 2017). After this it has reduced the second gap by translating all these expectation into service standard like providing reliability, assurance etc. The company has incorporated all these standards into its actual delivery like verification of drivers, seamless transaction, providing economic value etc. (Lee & Dong, 2016). The company’s partners like Qantas, Concur etc. are itself external communication to customers which guarantees best service in the market for fellow Australians. The company’s market share has increased with this approach. This shows that customer has good perception about Ingogo service. Also, the company is trying every aspect to diminish Servqual gap.

Following marketing mix will help in determining strategy (Abdul-Hamid & Yaw, 2017).

Product: The product is app and payment portal. The value added services include offers, fixed price, tracking facilities, seamless services, easy cancellations etc.

Price: The Company is first to introduce fixed fare rides, minimal amount of cancellation charges. Customers will now pay exact cost of the trip, including charges and toll during taxi booking. So other players in the market like Uber also put surcharges and fluctuations based on traffic. However, Ingogo has removed this. It is fair and lawful. Ingogo’s deal with Qantas is to provide best deal to customers. The frequent flyers earn points every time when they use Ingogo service.

Target Market Positioning

Place: The customer can book online cab in major cities of Australia like Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Berth and Brisbane.

Promotion: The Company will promote its app through online and offline media. In Online, it is using social media and Search Engine Optimization. Offline channels included advertisements like hoardings, newspaper and television promotions.

Physical Evidence: The User Interface is based on design approach. Customers can book a car through motion, contrast and sound. There is light which can help customers to find the driver. This has prevented customer taking wrong cab. There is feedback system to communicate experience. Also the company is coming up with facility where customer can book the same driver for the next ride.

Processes: The prime importance is given to resolve customer and driver issues and update app based upon it. The company tries to combine both design and marketing aspect. It considers app design as selection tool rather than rejection tool. Design led approach is used for further development (Tanner & Raymond, 2015). Ingogo has partnered with Concur for expense management. It helps in managing and processing employees’ taxi service receipt.

People: The Company consists of talented employees. The drivers are professional and qualified.

The company is service based company. So, it makes sure that all its processes are aligned with various aspects of service quality model: RATER

Reliability: It is necessary that all internal and external processes are consistent. The main objective of company is to provide best deal to the customers every time. In terms of innovation also, it is necessary that the company comes with updated technology or process after every quarter (Epstein & Buhovac, 2014).

Assurance: The Company give assurance of authenticity. It is must that customers’ security and convenience are given prime importance. There is specific mechanism put in place to check the identity of driver.

Tangibility: The Company’s app is the tangible element to the service. It is available on both phones and computer. The app is easy to use and provide all details. Future implementations are in synch with the app and comfort in using it.

Empathy: The Company takes pride in declaring itself as problem solver for both drivers as well as customers. This year it will add one more category i.e. employees. The promotional benefits are going to increase the year. The investors would be given dividend. The customers are always the most important aspect of company. So certain benchmarks would be decided for employees to maintain relationship with customers (Johnston & Marshall, 2016).

Marketing objectives and goals

Responsiveness: The Company’s innovation of increasing size of acceptance button for drivers, providing more number of driver options to passengers, online payment facilities all build upon the responsiveness. In order to challenge competitors, it needs to maintain this dimension.

With the above analysis, it appears that this marketing plan is successful as it covers different aspects of various marketing needs of Ingogo.

The promotion mix will use specific options in order to promote Ingogo Services. The company will use sales promotion which includes discounts, coupons, best deals etc. These will help in spreading positive word of mouth for Ingogo Service. For the generation X customers the company will target print media as well as television, advertisements etc. Meanwhile company will try to do organic search engine optimization (Mahajan & Suresh, 2017).

Conclusion

Ingogo came up with the purpose of removing traditional monopoly of taxi industry and it is able to do so. The company uses recent technology like GPS to provide location of driver. This indeed has helped the customer to track driver’s location and make changes to booking. The company has reduced the gap between driver and passenger. The main challenge is to survive in the saturated market. With international player like Uber and local players like Gocatch it is necessary for company to provide unique services to its customers. It is also necessary to expand its reach in other Australian markets. It needs to look at long term perspective and need to strategize to gain above average returns. The company has huge amount of investment. But necessary part is whether it will be able to leverage the investment resource efficiently, professionally and effectively. It understands all the needs of customers irrespective of the size of the need and then tries to develop the product based on the need and provide solution to the end customers. It is necessary that company develops and implement strategy appropriately in order to sustain in the market.

References

Abdul-Hamid, I. K., Hinson, R. E., Mahmoud, M. A., & Yaw, E. (2017, June). Sustainability Marketing: The 7ps Perspectives. In 5 th International Conference on Contemporary Marketing Issues ICCMI June 21-23, 2017 Thessaloniki, Greece (p. 595).

Ali, M., & Raza, S. A. (2017). Service quality perception and customer satisfaction in Islamic banks of Pakistan: the modified SERVQUAL model. Total Quality Management & Business Excellence, 28(5-6), 559-577.

Ascarza, E., Neslin, S. A., Netzer, O., Anderson, Z., Fader, P. S., Gupta, S., … & Provost, F. (2018). In pursuit of enhanced customer retention management: Review, key issues, and future directions. Customer Needs and Solutions, 5(1-2), 65-81.

Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M., & Brennan, R. (2015). Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.

Boshyk, Y. (Ed.). (2016). Business driven action learning: Global best practices. Springer.

Drucker, P. (2014). Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.

Epstein, M. J., & Buhovac, A. R. (2014). Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring corporate social, environmental, and economic impacts. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Geissdoerfer, M., Bocken, N. M., & Hultink, E. J. (2016). Design thinking to enhance the sustainable business modelling process–A workshop based on a value mapping process. Journal of Cleaner Production, 135, 1218-1232.

Gilbey, D. (2016). Flag fall… or, taxi dancing in Western Sydney. Social Alternatives, 35(1), 39.

Hassan, A., & Dixit, V. V. (2015, February). Evaluating Subjective Beliefs of Travel Time of Taxi Drivers. In Conference of Australian Institutes of Transport Research (CAITR), 33rd, 2015, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Hou, Z. (2018). The Impact on Traditional Taxi Industry of Taxi-Calling Mobile Apps: a Case Study in Chengdu, China (No. 18-04226).

Johnston, M. W., & Marshall, G. W. (2016). Sales force management: Leadership, innovation, technology. Routledge.

Lee, Y. C., Wang, Y. C., Chien, C. H., Wu, C. H., Lu, S. C., Tsai, S. B., & Dong, W. (2016). Applying revised gap analysis model in measuring hotel service quality. SpringerPlus, 5(1), 1191.

Li, H. R. (2016). Taxi Positioning in the New Age of Internet and Industrial Development Research. Procedia engineering, 137, 811-816

Lin, S. W. (2016). The critical success factors for a travel application service provider evaluation and selection by travel intermediaries. Tourism Management, 56, 126-141.

Mahajan, P., & Suresh, G. (2017). Appealing diversified enrollments: A Holistic Marketing and Promotion Mix for Technical Education.

Millar, R. (2017). UberX drivers supply taxi travel and so must be registered for GST: Uber BV v Commissioner of Taxation [2017] FCA 110. World Journal of VAT/GST Law, 6(1), 47-54.

Morse, J. M., Stern, P. N., Corbin, J., Bowers, B., Charmaz, K., & Clarke, A. E. (2016). From grounded theory to situational analysis: What’s new? Why? How?. In Developing Grounded Theory (pp. 194-235). Routledge.

Schlegelmilch, B. B. (2016). Segmenting Targeting and Positioning in Global Markets. In Global Marketing Strategy (pp. 63-82). Springer, Cham.

Tanner, J., & Raymond, M. (2015). Principles of marketing. University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing.

Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:

Turnitin Report

Formatting

Title Page

Citation

Outline

Place an Order