Marks Spencer
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Marketing Analysis For a car hire company
Marketing consists of individual and organizational activities that facilitate and expedite satisfying exchange relationships in a dynamic environment through the creation, distribution, and promotion and pricing of goods, services and ideas (Dibb, Simkin, Pride and Ferrel). The aim of marketing is to make selling superfluous, to know and to understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him/her. (US management guru Peter Drucker) Our company does car hire business and we have branches at the main international airports and 10 major towns in England. And we can offer a range of cars from small (Vauxhall Corsa, Ford Fiesta) up to large (Vauxhall Omega) and a few luxury cars (BMA 7 series and Jaguars). As a Marketing Manager here, in this small essay, IЎЇd like to discuss how to identify the target markets for our range of products/service, and how to develop a marketing plan to market our services to these target markets, as well as detail the steps and the information needed to draw up this plan.
In order to identify the target markets for our range of service, we should use three stages to carry out: segmentation, targeting, and positioning.
Let us discuss it. The bases for segmenting the car hire market can be broken down to four categories: geographic, demographic, behavioral and psychographics segmentation. From a geographic segmentation aspect, staying in todayЎЇs UK, the car hire market can be found in almost every town, region, and climate. People will at a lost in todayЎЇs world without a car. Therefore we can establish franchises everywhere. According to our companyЎЇs present situation, we have the branches at the main international airports and 10 major towns. We can segment the market to airport customers and local customers. For airport customers segment, one of the possible target markets should be international traveler. In this case, we target on leisure travelers and business travelers. Whether they are leisure travelers or business travelers, if they want a flexible trip, they tend to rent a car. The size of the car they want depends on the number of people. People who travel alone may choose a small car, and if there are several friends or a big family, they should use big cars. Business travelers may accord their occupations to pick a small or luxury car. For local customers, as mentioned before, we have branches in 10 major towns; so another potential target market can be the local people who do not own a car but use it temporary, and people who need rental cars as replacements when their vehicles are wrecked, stolen or being repaired under warranty or through insurance reimbursement after an accident. These kinds of situations can occur anytime, anywhere, and the needs for cars also various according to different people. Hence we should pay attention in this area.
From demographic segmentation aspect, individual between the ages of 18-64 are the prime target age. However, because of many universities or colleges in Uk, thus, there are many international students. Hence, the students and their parents could be a target market. Most students cannot afford a car, so they need rent cars in airport, and then drive to campus, so do parents when they visit, or take the long voyage from home. They may need any type of cars, even luxury car for a birthday celebration.
From behavioral segmentation aspect, customers use cars occasionally; therefore most of them look for comfortable, high quality, and economically sound cars that they can trust.
Finally, from psychological segmentation aspect, the car rental market has the bases of middle class up to upper class appeal with those that are achievers and strivers for work and excellence.
After we have segmented the market and decided our target segments, the final stage is to positioning our product/service. In positioning, we need to meet customersЎЇ perception and position products in where the customers desire it to be positioned. We can offer our different customer segments by a range of cars from small to big and luxury respectively.
As can be seen from the segmentation analysis above, all the possible target markets have been identified for our range of service. Now we can develop a plan to market our service to these target markets. The steps and information needed to develop such a market plans are shown below:
The first step is to set up the marketing objective.
To set up our objective, we need the company financial information, previous sales volume, market share, customer satisfaction or awareness of companyЎЇs service and brand. This section must connect with our companyЎЇs overall organizational goals. For example, we might strive to achieve a 15-percent market share and a 20-percent pre-tax return on sales and we should use all possible marketing tools to achieve this objective.
Step two, marketing analyse.
Situation analyse.
This section describes the total car hire-marketing environment and its trend. Marketing plan contains vital information about the market, product quality, competition, and distribution. A corporate marketing plan defines the market and major competitors and each of their strategies for price, quality, distribution, and promotion. It also shows the market shares held by the company and each competitor as well as sales trends and developments in the major distribution channels. In this case, we should know whether the whole car hire-marketing situation is go up or downward, and whether people tend to simple or luxury cars. According to that, we can adjust our company size and car types.
SWOT analyse.
External opportunity and threats analyse. Marketing opportunities, including marketing penetration, product development, market development and diversification segment market, permit us a better understanding of customerЎЇs needs. So we should use segmentation information to identify a profitable target market. We should know if there are other new distribution channels we can use, such as Internet, travel agency, and if our prices are competitive compared to our competitors.
Internal strengthens and weakness. We should understand where our strength and weakness are. For example, do we have enough financial support? Do we have more branches than others? Do we have good reputation and brand name? Do we have good contact with travel agency?
In this step, we should collect large amount