Digital Marketing Analysis of Uber: Reasons behind the Failure of Digital Marketing Strategies

This report analyzes the digital marketing strategies of Uber and the reasons behind its failure. The report discusses the impact of #DeleteUber campaign on the revenues of Uber and the competitor analysis of Lyft.

Running head: DIGITAL MARKETING ANALYSIS
DIGITAL MARKETING ANALYSIS
Name of the Student
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Author Note

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Executive Summary
This report is based on the analysis of the digital marketing strategies of an organization. The
company that is taken into consideration is Uber. The #DeleteUber campaign which was
trending in USA was a major reason behind the failure of its digital marketing related
strategy. The effects of this failure on the revenues of Uber is discussed in the report. The
competitor of Uber in USA namely Lyft on the other hand supported the strike related to ban
of immigrants and increased its shares in the market of USA. The report is concluded by
stating that the digital marketing strategies are important for the revenues of the various
organizations.

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Table of Contents
About the company........................................................................................................3
Digital marketing used by the brand..............................................................................3
Reasons behind the failure of digital marketing strategies............................................4
Analysis of the competitor of the organization..............................................................4
Conclusion......................................................................................................................5
References......................................................................................................................6

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About the company
The report will be based on the analysis of a failed digital marketing strategy that has
been used recently by an organization. The case of Uber is taken under consideration for this
analysis. Uber Technologies Inc. is an organization which has its operations in the peer-to-
peer ride sharing related operations and food delivery. The organization has its headquarters
in San Francisco, California and operates in more than 600 cities in the world. The major
target audience of Uber has been the technology savvy people and those people who search
for convenience in their rides. Uber has been able to create a significant position in the
sharing economy related industry and has created a huge market for its products (Uber.com.
2018).
Digital marketing used by the brand
Uber has been successful in changing the transportation related concepts in the recent
technological environment. The current value of the organization is almost 70 billion dollars,
which is much more than the entire value of the other organizations. The digital marketing
strategies of Uber have been the key towards its success in the industry. The various digital
strategies used by Uber include, email marketing, inbound marketing, optimisation of social
media, strategic partnerships and influencer marketing. The organization communicates with
its customers with the help of emails, which helps them in informing the customers about
various offers (Tiago and Veríssimo 2014). The new customers of the company are provided
with credits so that they can retain them in the future. The organization has active pages in
various social media related platforms like, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Uber has also
formed strategic partnerships with other organizations like, Zomato, BookMyShow, PayTm
and many more. The other strategy that is related digital marketing related activities includes
influencer marketing. This strategy was applied on the celebrities who can try the service of

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Uber and then comment about this on their social media accounts. This helped the company
to create a buzz around the services provided by the cab service (Levin 2017).
Reasons behind the failure of digital marketing strategies
Uber had to face huge backlash from the various loyal customers in San Francisco
after the company has tried to take advantage of the immigration related ban that was placed
by Trump in the month of January. The taxi drivers of the country came together to protest
against the ban and asked the drivers of Uber and Lyft to join the protest. Uber however tries
to take advantage of the situation by lifting the surge prices from the cabs. This had caused
huge distrust among the customers and the #DeleteUber hashtag started trending on the
various social media platforms. The company was also termed as racist by the citizens of the
country. The organization however maintained that its intentions related to the step was
misunderstood by the customers (Leeflang et al. 2014). The online trend however continued
and Uber had to face the consequences of this on its revenues. The customers of the company
started deleting the apps and this caused huge issues for the revenues and profitability of
Uber. The trend of #DeleteUber became a revelation against the company. The market shares
of Uber declined in San Francisco and many other cities of the world as well. The revenues of
the organization in the major cities of USA declined and further the company failed to
recover its position in the US market for quite a long time. The market shares and revenues of
Uber were under huge threat as a result of the wrong digital marketing strategy of the
company and the negative digital publicity that was received by the company (Todor 2016).
Analysis of the competitor of the organization
The major competitor of Uber in San Francisco is Lyft which provides similar
services like those which are provided by Uber to the various customers. When Uber tried to
take advantage of the situation in an insensitive manner, Lyft on the other hand sent out

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messages related to solidarity and further donated 1 million dollars in support of the strike
related to the ban of immigrants. The customers of Uber began to decrease and on the other
hand Lyft saw a huge boost in its downloads. This was the result of the #DeleteUber
campaign. Uber had faced difficulties in recovering its position in the market and on further
Lyft saw an expansion of its services in the other cities of USA (Lyft 2018).
Conclusion
The report can be concluded by stating that the digital marketing strategies of
organizations are important for the expansion of their revenues and profitability in the
market. The strategy that was applied by Uber related to the strike of the taxi drivers was a
wrong step taken by the organization. This step further led to the decrease of the market share
and the revenues of Uber in the USA market.

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References
Leeflang, P.S., Verhoef, P.C., Dahlström, P. and Freundt, T., 2014. Challenges and solutions
for marketing in a digital era. European management journal, 32(1), pp.1-12.
Levin, R.P., 2017. Commentary: Online Reviews and Other Digital Marketing
Strategies. Journal of periodontology, 88(2), pp.135-136.
Lyft, I. (2018). A Ride in Minutes. [online] Lyft. Available at: https://www.lyft.com/
[Accessed 15 Apr. 2018].
Tiago, M.T.P.M.B. and Veríssimo, J.M.C., 2014. Digital marketing and social media: Why
bother?. Business Horizons, 57(6), pp.703-708.
Todor, R.D., 2016. Blending traditional and digital marketing. Bulletin of the Transilvania
University of Brasov. Economic Sciences. Series V, 9(1), p.51.
Uber.com. (2018). Uber Cities Across the Globe | Uber. [online] Available at:
https://www.uber.com/en-US/cities/ [Accessed 15 Apr. 2018].