Introduction to Market Research

This is a marketing assignment and this should be based on a past assignment that I already did. The assignment is based on car sharing business in Australia and the organisation is GreenShareCar. References should be APA 6th. A format should be followed which is also attached. There should be minimum 15 REFERENCES.

Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Current market situation.............................................................................................................3
Market description..................................................................................................................3
Service features......................................................................................................................3
Service review........................................................................................................................4
Competitive review................................................................................................................5
SWOT analysis.......................................................................................................................6
Strengths.................................................................................................................................7
Weakness................................................................................................................................8
Opportunities..........................................................................................................................8
Threats....................................................................................................................................9
Marketing objectives..................................................................................................................9
Issues......................................................................................................................................9
Targeting and Positioning........................................................................................................10
Marketing strategy...................................................................................................................10
Marketing mix......................................................................................................................11
Product/Service.................................................................................................................11
Pricing...............................................................................................................................11
Place/Distribution.............................................................................................................12
Promotion..........................................................................................................................12
Marketing communication strategy......................................................................................13
Marketing research...............................................................................................................13
Marketing organization........................................................................................................14
Action programs.......................................................................................................................14
Budgets.....................................................................................................................................15
Controls....................................................................................................................................16
Conclusion................................................................................................................................16
References................................................................................................................................17

Introduction
A marketing plan is important for establishing the brand, the product or service offered by it
and the organisation at large. A detailed marketing plan can allow the business organisation
to have the right preparation according to the market conditions and identify the competitors
and their strategies so that the marketing strategy of the organisation can be made more
effective. All the organisations regardless of their area of operation, sector allocation require
a marketing plan so that the fund allocation, marketing communication and all the other
marketing strategies can be designed according to it. With a restricted scope, a marketing
plan present an overview of the strategic planning, mission and vision of the company and
how the objectives developed for their achievement can be reached with the detailed tactics
and strategies that can be followed. The length, layout and format of marketing plan vary
from one organisation to the other but a few elements that they have in common include an
overview of the market situation, the organisational objectives and the marketing
communication mix.
This report is compiled to prepare the marketing plan of GreenShareCar which is the
membership-based car renting organisation headquartered at Melbourne, Australia. It is a
privately held organisation operating in the consumer services industry and is developed to
offer environmentally friendly, economical and convenient alternative to car ownership for
the people residing in Melbourne. GreenShareCar was founded in the year 2010 in order to
provide an innovative solution to the people of Melbourne facing challenges in owning and
maintaining their own vehicle. The people availing the services of GreenShareCar are
provided with free petrol, vehicle insurance and free parking. The vehicles are made available
round the clock at any location that is convenient to the customers and your organisation also
offers additional ease of availing the services with the help of a SmartCard.

Current market situation
Market description
GreenShareCar has a plan for the people belonging to all age groups professions and social
class. The plans offered by the organisation are classified into casual, everyday, business and
student categories. The organisation is operational only in Melbourne and all the target
customer segments of the company are discussed in detail in the following section (Jones &
Bartlett, 2013).
Service features
The people availing the services of GreenShareCar can choose from various different options
of the packages and plans available for them. The organisation has adopted a value price
model in order to appeal to customers where the rates for the services are decided on the basis
of the customer segment targeted by the company. The target customer segments, their
corresponding needs and the features and benefits offered by the company for addressing
these needs are presented in the table below.
Target
segment
Customer needs Corresponding features
Students  Low rates
 No responsibilities
Student plan starting from $0 per year
Daily
commuters
 Convenience
 High use low price
For people with more than 4 trips per month,
everyday plan with unlimited kilometre
option
Infrequent  Flexibility Casual plan for users with occasional use.

traveller  Vehicle choices
Businessmen  Car choices
 Well maintained
vehicles
 Convenience
Business plan for users with high volume
usage starting at $0 per year and unlimited
usage within Victoria.
Budget
conscious
 Economic service Economy plan starting at $11 per month
Service review
Purchasing a car for personal use can not only be expensive and challenging to maintain but it
is also harmful to the environment as it increases the number of cars running on the roads.
GreenShareCar was established with the idea that it is safe for the environment when the
vehicles are shared among the people as the shared-economy promotes the full utilisation of
the expensive manufacturing and the plastic processing required for producing a vehicle. The
services by GreenShareCar are very convenient and there are a variety of plants that
customers can choose from that start from $0 per month to a prepaid plan charging $200 per
month. The figure below represents the process that the customers need to follow to rent a car
with GreenShareCar (Gold, 2018).

Therefore, the most significant features of GreenShareCar and its services are:
 Convenience
 Environment friendly
 Economical
 Flexible
 Lot of options
Competitive review
The competitive review of the organisation helps in analysing the key competitors of the
company in the industry and their competitive advantages. The key competitors of
GreenShareCar identified as a part of this review include:
 Car Next Door
Car Next Door is an Australia based organisation that allows peer-to-peer sharing and renting
of the vehicles. People can rent their privately-owned vehicles for promoting collaborative
consumption and is operational across Sydney, Melbourne, Gold Coast, Perth and Brisbane.

The organisation is a competitor for GreenShareCar because it always also allows renting of
the vehicles and has a greater operational area as compared to GreenShareCar.
 GoGet Carshare
It is one of the largest car-sharing services in Australia which allows renting of the vehicles
when the people need them and is operating across Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra,
Orange, Newcastle and Adelaide. The organisation was established in the year 2003 and has
dedicated customer base across the country (Sherman, 2019).
 Flexicar
This Melbourne based car-sharing organisation was established in the year 2004 and partners
with Honda to provide cars on rent across Melbourne that can be rented by the hour of the
day depending upon the customer needs.
 SnappCar
Just like Car Next Door, SnappCar is also a peer to peer car sharing platform operating in
Melbourne. The car owners can share their vehicles through this platform and the people
looking for renting a car can contact them to get a cheaper, durable and socially responsible
alternative to purchasing a new vehicle.
SWOT analysis
After conducting the review of the existing competition in the industry and the analysis of the
services offered by GreenShareCar, this section will carry out the identification of the internal
strengths and weaknesses of the company and also identify any external opportunities and
threats that are faced by it at present. This is also known as the swot analysis which is a very
popular framework that helps in the internal and external analysis of the organisation so that
it can take measures to minimise the risks faced by the company and take the best possible

advantages of the opportunities that are available to it. The strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities and threats are presented in the table below and discussed in detail in the
following section (Moderandi Inc., 2013).
Strengths Weakness
 Environment-friendly and sustainable
option.
 Value based flexible pricing
 Convenience
 Market restricted to Melbourne
 Low market share
Opportunities Threats
 Greater accountability
 Digitisation
 Market expansion
 Excessive competition
 Low customer retention
Strengths
Even though there are numerous car rental companies operating within Melbourne,
GreenShareCar has the biggest advantage of presenting itself as an environmentally
responsible and sustainable company. This has allowed the organisation to capture the
customer segment that is responsible and willing to choose the services of the organisations
that are also operating with greater accountability and responsibility towards the community.
The flexible pricing options presented by GreenShareCar to its customers add to the strength
of the company as the customers can choose from the five plans and the car options that
determine the total price that they need to pay for the service availed by them. This gives the
more power to choose and decide according to their needs and usage (Tat, 2017).
The organisation offers the services at great convenience and customers can ask for the
company to drop the vehicle at a place of their convenience and also return the vehicle at a

convenient spot making the entire experience of the service provided by the organisations
memorable and hassle-free.
Weakness
The area of operation of GreenShareCar is only restricted to at present and the organisation
has not started providing its services to any other region. This makes the company majorly
restricted and the services can only be availed by the customers who wish to travel within
Victoria.
Another weakness of the organisation is the low market share despite 10 years of
establishment of the organisation. This is mainly attributed to the excessive competition in
the segment (Dufu, 2018).
Opportunities
There are numerous opportunities available with GreenShareCar to expand its footprint,
productivity and profitability. The organisation can enhance accountability during service
provisioning for the customers by collaborating with organisations that provide on-road
assistance. GreenShareCar can also increase the accountability of the reporting more on
sustainable operations and the impact that these are having on the phenomena like climate
change and global warming (Gurel, 2017).
The development of innovative digital solutions and adding the features to the website and
mobile application of GreenShareCar can enhance the entire experience of service
provisioning for the customers. This is one opportunity that the organisation can explore it in
order to attract more customers and to increase the profitability of the business.
GreenShareCar can also plan gradual market expansion so that the customers who wish to
make use of the vehicles for interstate travel can also rent the cars by the company. For doing
this, the organisation can collaborate with any other car rental organisation operating in the

nearby state to tie up and offer joint services so that both the organisations can develop and
collectively increase their market share.
Threats
The increasing competition has made the car rental industry less attractive in Melbourne.
There are so many organisations offering similar services and the market share of the industry
has not expanded much in the last few years. This is making the same organisations compete
with each other in the market resulting in reduced profitability for all the players and
reducing the chances of growth and expansion for each of them.
The customers availing car rental services are extremely price conscious and any new player
can adopt the penetrative pricing policy for motivating the customers to switch from their
existing car rental companies. The switching cost for the customers is also very low and this
is making the customer retention level for all the players in the industry lower than average
(Whalley, 2011).
Marketing objectives
On the basis of the analysis of the organisation's position in the industry and the study of the
existing conditions, the following marketing goals are decided for GreenShareCar.
 To double the service volume offered by the organisation in the next two years.
 To expand the operations of the company to Adelaide within the next three years.
Issues
The two challenges faced by the organisation include the financial budget constraint and the
excessive competition in the industry. The marketing goals of the organisation
GreenShareCar can be achieved by investing in marketing and promotion and establishing an

excellent brand position by making the brand more recognisable in and around Victoria
(Owler, 2020).
Targeting and Positioning
The segmentation and targeting of the customers are done by GreenShareCar on the basis of
the Geographic segment focusing on promoting the company only within Melbourne.
Another basis for customer segmentation is the psychographic segments of people on the
basis of their lifestyle and the social class. The organisation has designed the plans for the
students, the working class, the middle class, and the upper class with various benefits and
flexible pricing options so that the customers can compare and make their plan based on the
size of the car, van or people mover and the number of kilometres that the need to drive. The
organisation also provides an unlimited kilometre option with each plan to attract the
customers having heavy usage for unlimited or extended period of time.
The organisation is positioned as a socially responsible and environmentally friendly solution
that is economic and good for the community and the environment. The organisation also
emphasizes providing greater convenience to the customers by taking care of the insurance
and maintenance of the vehicles and offers special discounts and special rates for certain
customer segments (Chris, 2020).
Marketing strategy
The marketing objective decided for the organisation can be achieved by the development of
a detailed marketing mix listing all the tactics, actions and measures are the organisation is
going to take for the promotion of the brand and services in the market of Melbourne. This
model helps in streamlining the marketing activities and ensuring that every activity carried
out by the organisation is in line with the strategic planning of the company and helps the

organisation moves one step closer towards achieving the marketing objectives decided in
this plan. The detailed marketing mix for GreenShareCar is prepared and presented in the
following sections.
Marketing mix
The marketing mix includes the 4 P’s of marketing including product, price, place and
promotion. Each of these are presented in the section below.
Product/Service
The service offered by the organisation is extremely convenient, eco friendly and economic
car rental that can allow the people to rent the cars without worrying about its maintenance,
insurance, parking and the excessive environmental damage caused because of it. It provides
the customers with an option to reduce their carbon footprint and the socio-cultural trend of
increased awareness about sustainability, climate change, global warming and other
environmental issues is utilised by GreenShareCar (Bobit Business Media, 2013).
There are a variety of Rental cars available for the customers to choose from that can suit all
their needs and locations. The organisation has small cars, sedans, 4WD, vans and buses. It
also makes use of the latest technology for ensuring that the booking is seamless and very
convenient for the customers by using their mobile phones. The vehicles of the organisation
and also well maintained with an in-house team of professionals checking for the safety,
looks and detailing for all the vehicles.
Pricing
The pricing strategy adopted by the organisation is value-based pricing and it is suggested
that GreenShareCar should continue with this pricing strategy. Value-based pricing strategy e
is when the organisation determines the price of the product or service offered by it on the
basis of the value of the service of the product perceived by the customers. GreenShareCar

has developed various different plans for the customers to choose from depending on the
demographic segment and their requirements. This makes the organisation increasingly
customer-focused and the price that the customers ultimately pay for their services is
dependent on the quality and the quantity of the service that they have availed (Law, 2012).
It is suggested that the organisation can make use of the surge pricing model that is used by
cab aggregators for balancing the supply of the service with its demand. This will ensure the
organisation is able to provide reliable service even during the busy times and when there is
not much demand for their services in the market, the prices can go back to the normal level.
Place/Distribution
GreenShareCar was founded in Melbourne in the year 2010 and the organisation has only
operated within Melbourne in the last 10 years. The distribution of the services throughout
the city is carried out by allowing the customers to choose a convenient location where they
would like to receive the vehicle and the GreenShareCar employees go to drop the vehicle
and handover it to the customer.
Promotion
It is suggested that GreenShareCar should make use of the following marketing and
promotional platforms to increase the awareness about the brand and to address advertising,
public relations and point of sale needs of the company.
 Social media advertising
More and more people are becoming acting on the social media platforms and therefore it is
suggested that the organisation should try to reach out to the customers through platforms like
Facebook, Instagram and twitter for enhanced communication and awareness.
 Search Engine Optimisation

The organisation can make the official website of GreenShareCar optimised to appear among
the top results in the web search by practising search engine optimisation.
Marketing communication strategy
All the marketing communication of the organisation will be focused at the following two
elements:
 Price focus
GreenShareCar will make use of the flexible pricing options that it provides to the customers
where they can scan through the different plan options and choose the one that suits their
needs. The flexibility in the price of the services charged by the organisation can be used to
attract more and more customer (Arachchige, 2012).
 Environment focus
The name of the organisation itself is chosen to promote the eco-friendly nature of the
services provided by it. The organisation needs to emphasize the environmental focus of the
company in every marketing communication and strategy for reaching out to the customers
and establishing the organisation as a sustainable and socially conscious company.
Marketing research
The market research of the changes in the existing market conditions will be carried out to
assess the efficiency of the target markets identified by the company. Market research will
also be used for analysing the attitude of the customers towards GreenShareCar and its
competitors.

Marketing organization
GreenShareCar is an organisation having 12 employees and headed by Paul Cummaudo as
the CEO. The client relationship management function of the organisation is managed by
Selin Saritoprak and the sales and marketing are managed by Janelle Warner.
Action programs
The marketing and promotion action program for the company for this financial year are
presented in the table below.
Month Action tasks
June Set up the social media profiles of GreenShareCar on Twitter, Instagram and
Facebook
July Start with an integrated campaign for promoting the company to the target
customers with print and radio advertisements.
August Continue with the multimedia advertising campaign. About sales promotion
CEO
Paul Cummaudo
Client relations
management
Selin Saritoprak
Client relations
team
Customer
management team
Marketing and
sales management
Janelle Warner
Marketing team Sales team

with a photo contest on Instagram.
September Search Engine Optimisation of the website of the company. Continued
multimedia advertising.
October Billboard advertising across Victoria.
November Sponsorship of a university sports event in Melbourne.
December Discount coupons for car rentals during holiday season.
January Direct mailing to all the existing customers for offers on the extension of their
services.
March Print advertising and a photo caption contest on Twitter and Facebook.
April Direct mailing to small business organisations in Melbourne for official tie up.
May Evaluating the effectiveness of social media advertising and SEO to improve.
Continued multimedia advertising on TV and radio.
Budgets
The estimated marketing budget for GreenShareCar for the financial year 2020 is presented
below:
Activity Allocated budget (AUD)
Service marketing 2,500
Content 1,000
Paid advertising 5,000
Public relations 3,500
Branding and creative 1,400
Events 3,000

Social media marketing 2,500
Search engine
optimization
2,000
TOTAL 20,900
Controls
In order to reach the marketing goals, the organisation needs to ensure continuity of the
services at the same quality and this can only be done by ensuring that they provide similar
convenience to the customers at an ongoing basis (Bahador, 2019). There will be effective
controls in place for assessing the total satisfaction of the customers and allowing the
customers to evaluate the service quality of the company.
Conclusion
The marketing plan design for GreenShareCar has set out two objectives for the company.
The first is increasing the service volume and the other objective is to expand the company
operations within the next three years. Both these marketing objectives can be achieved with
the right targeting and positioning of the company and by following the marketing strategy
discussed in this report. The marketing mix for the organisation is prepared on the basis of
these marketing objectives and your organisation will have to carry out the marketing
promotion by emphasising on the flexible pricing policy and the environment focus of the
company. The two most significant modes of marketing promotion that the organisation
needs to adopt include social media marketing and Search Engine Optimisation as suggested
in the marketing mix.

References
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