Addison Lee's Marketing and Communication Strategies Analysis Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Addison Lee's marketing and communication strategies. It begins with an overview of the evolution of marketing, focusing on Addison Lee's production, product, selling, and marketing orientation. The report then examines the marketing environment, including economic and sociocultural factors impacting Addison Lee's decisions, and a SWOT analysis highlighting the company's strengths and weaknesses, as well as its competitors. The core of the report focuses on marketing strategies, specifically market segmentation approaches, including demographic and consumer response approaches, and the marketing mix (7Ps) applied to Addison Lee. The report provides recommendations for improvement and growth, particularly focusing on how Addison Lee can target younger demographics. Overall, the report offers a detailed evaluation of Addison Lee's marketing efforts, providing insights into its current position and potential for future success in the competitive London taxi market.

Running Head: Marketing & Communication
Addison Lee
Marketing & Communication

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Table of Content:
Task 1: Evolution of Marketing..............................................................................................................3
Production.........................................................................................................................................3
Product..............................................................................................................................................3
Selling:...............................................................................................................................................3
Marketing Orientation.......................................................................................................................3
Task 2: Marketing Environment.............................................................................................................4
Marketing environment & its importance to business......................................................................4
Factors impacting marketing decisions of Addison Lee.....................................................................4
Economic factors...........................................................................................................................4
Sociocultural factors......................................................................................................................4
Strength.............................................................................................................................................5
Diversifying the customer base from B2B to Business to customers.............................................5
Mobile application.........................................................................................................................5
Weakness..........................................................................................................................................6
Not been able to make a big name in carpooling services.............................................................6
Customer feedback........................................................................................................................6
Task 3: Marketing Strategies.................................................................................................................6
Objective...........................................................................................................................................6
Segmentation approaches for Addison Lee.......................................................................................6
 Demographic & Socio economic............................................................................................6

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 Consumer response approach...............................................................................................7
Task 4: Marketing Mix...........................................................................................................................7
Using Marketing Mix or 7P’s for Addison Lee....................................................................................7
Recommendation..............................................................................................................................8
Product..........................................................................................................................................8
Price:..............................................................................................................................................8
Promotion......................................................................................................................................9
References:..........................................................................................................................................10

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Task 1: Evolution of Marketing
A.
Production: Production in marketing is the production of a product or service with an aim to sell.
In the given case of Addison lee, production will include the new GPS system which is designed to
track vehicles, the new mobile App, which was launched with an aim of moving the business model
to B2C. As these two have brought about a surge in sales and hence are a part of the company’s
production.
Product: The primary product of Addison Lee is the hire services provided to travellers. These
services are provided in the means of cabs, taxi bikes, jets, coaches etc. to people in London.
Selling: Selling is one of the most important aspects of marketing. Once the product is launched, it
is imperative to sell it to the right customers. Addison Lee sales happen through the website (25%) &
via mobile application (50%). The company has been receiving a good amount of traffic on both its
website as well as the application, the number of downloads on Google’s play store has increased
manifolds since first launch, which is a clear evidence that the business is growing well and the sales
strategy used is impactful.
Marketing Orientation: This is the company’s philosophy which is focussed upon discovering
and fulfilling the needs as well as desires of its target customers through its product mix. The
company has launched a mobile app, introduced the ETA model, driver tipping service, sending
personalized email to the customers offering valuable deals and changed the logo to give a premium
look.
B.
The orientation which is adopted by Addison lee is aimed towards revamping the marketing and
branding strategy of the firm. The company has been on a mission to garner traffic from new target
customers. They have introduced a new logo for the brand which is bold & has a premium look. This
is done in order to gain market attention. At the same time, the company is investing heavily on
enhancing the overall customer experience. To achieve that, Adison Lee has been effectively working
on data sciences and have started providing ETA, GPS services, etc. Also, the company is providing
customized offers and value deals to its customers by sending those deals via e-mails. The company

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has also focussed on off peak weekend fares, tipping the drivers and is also introducing new fleets in
order to accommodate the increasing demand.
Task 2: Marketing Environment
A.
Marketing environment & its importance to business
Marketing environment simply can be understood as the means of external factors that impact the
company’s ability to develop and maintain successful transactions and relationship with its
customers. This environment comprises of internal and external factors that can influence the
performance of the business (Armstrong, Kotler, Harker & Brennan, 2015) it is crucial for Addison lee
to perform a PESTLE and a SWOT analysis. They must also work on the finding both macro and micro
environmental forces for developing its marketing strategy. Lack of knowledge of the business
environment increase the chances of business strategy to fail exponentially (Dawson, 2014). PESTLE
of a company provides an overview of Political, economic, social, technological, legal &
environmental factors impacting the business environment, this will help Addison lee their
environment better. SWOT analysis, on the other hand, helps the firm in understating its strength
and weakness, which is internal to the organization and at the same time it helps in identifying
external opportunities and threats to the existing business. Therefore, thought leaders and
management experts have stressed over and over again, to do a market environment analysis before
formulating a marketing strategy (Qureshi, 2016)
B.
Factors impacting marketing decisions of Addison Lee
Economic factors: These factors can be understood as the financial indicators in GDP, inflation
rate, purchasing power etc. These factors have a great impact on marketing decisions of every
business entity. The business of Adison Lee is operated out of London, and London is one of the
richest cities of the UK, with great purchasing power, efficiency in adoption of technologies and
almost 80 % population being urban. Overall proves to be a good market for taxi hiring companies
(Blanco & Cohen, 2017)
Sociocultural factors: This aspect focuses on the forces within the society including family,
friends, colleagues, neighbours and the media are the social factors. These factors impact attitudes,

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opinions and interests of the customers. London has a massive urban population and people are akin
to growing usage of technology as well as reduction in traffic and pollution. This effectively makes
London commuter’s customers for taxi hiring services. Additionally, with the advent of digital
marketing, more people are getting used to the benefits of carpooling services, and with the kind of
deals being offered to the user, everyone has a positive word of mouth to spread. Hence, a perfect
scenario for Addison Lee (Edwards & Seda, 2016)
Both the economic and social factors create a perfect marketing opportunity for Addison Lee.
C.
London is a huge market for taxi hiring services and the major competitors of Adison Lee are Hail and
Uber. Both the companies have web and app based business models and both of them are doing
fairly well in the market.
Hail is considered as the nearest competitor for Addison lee, owing to the great discounts and free
rides it offers to its customers. It can prove to be a threat for Addison lee and force the brand to up
its game of offering discount and free coupons.
Uber: Addison lee has been operating on predominantly the same business model like Uber. Uber
did a fantastic business in London and other states. In fact Uber was a buzzword for taxi hiring in
London and people have been using it interchangeably. For example, instead of ‘going home’,
people would say they are ‘ubering home’. In the current scenario, Uber’s license has been cancelled
and this is a sigh of relief for the brand Addison lee. Uber was the huge threat for the company due
to its excellent penetration strategy and popularity among the masses and classes.
D.
SWOT provides an analysis of internal strengths and weaknesses as well as external opportunities
and threats (Dan, 2014). Strengths and weaknesses of Addison lee can be:
Strength
Diversifying the customer base from B2B to B2C: This is a major strategic change that the
company has made and this has helped the brand in gaining many million customers. Thus, the
brand has become largely popular amongst the London population. The company realized quickly
that B2B model can only yield some part of revenue for it, and in order to have a higher business it
has to move to B2C as well (Hollensen, 2015)

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Mobile application: When the entire world is going mobile and everyone has access to their smart
phones at all time, it was only imperative that the company launches a mobile app. The firm in 2009
came up with its mobile application to book rides which was a huge step contemporary to what
some of its competitors were doing.
Weakness
Carpooling services: The Company has established itself in hiring services, but it is still way behind
its competitors when it comes to carpooling services. This is one of the weaknesses of the firm
especially seeing the increase in car pooling services (Yuan, 2013)
Customer feedback: The Company has maintained its reputation in delivering excellent service
quality. However, the company is not entirely proactive is receiving customer feedback and
responding to it. This can be achieved via social listening and active participation on social media.
Task 3: Marketing Strategies
A.
Objective: Grow Addison Lee car service business by 3%, by targeting younger demographic of 16-
25 year old
Market segmentation is the process of dividing the entire market into various segments based on
demography, race, income, purchasing power or age group. This is done to make it easier for the
company to target the right audience. Basically it involves dividing the whole market set into several
smaller subsets which comprise of consumers with similar tastes, demands, choices and preferences.
The participants in a market segment respond similarly to changing market conditions. Planning a
marketing strategy on basis of market segmentation is important in order to set the right targeting
and understand the customer base (Wilkinson, 2013).
B.
Segmentation approaches for Addison Lee
 Demographic & Socio economic: This is the most common segmentation approach used
by the company. Demography is the study of human population in terms of its size, density
and distribution. Demographic and socio economic characteristic include age group, sex,

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family size, income, occupation, level of education, religion, ethnic status, social class. In
Addison lee this segmentation would make perfect sense as they have decided the age
group to target. And people falling in these age group will fall under certain income level,
thereby giving a clear segmentation bracket to the company. Socio economic factors at the
same time give a clearer segment on the basis of income, sex, family size etc., which helps
the company to target people falling under this segment (Kiel, 2014)
 Consumer response approach: This response is creative in nature as it focuses only on
why a consumer buys any particular product, instead of asking who the customer is. These
responses are based on benefit, usage and loyalty. Benefit response are the aspects of
efficiency, prestige, durability, economy or the resale value. Segmentation done by firms
based on benefit approach is hence most practical for the marketers due to its close
connection, product planning and publicity. Usage response classifies users on the basis of
heavy, medium and light users and then targets them accordingly (Oh & Oh, 2017)
Therefore, for the stated objective of Addison lee, the segmentation approaches as
mentioned above will help the brand in achieving the same.
Task 4: Marketing Mix
A.
Using Marketing Mix or 7P’s for Addison Lee
Product: This involves design, technology, usefulness, value, quality, packaging etc. of the product
offering of the company (Hamzah & Sutanto, 2016)
Price: Different pricing strategies like skimming, penetration, and cost based, and value based the
company adopts while selling its products or services (Mintz & Currim, 2013)
Place: The place where the company sells its products or the channel it adopts to sell.
Promotion: This has to do with the marketing efforts in advertisement, special offers, free gifts
coupons etc. the company gives away to promote its services (Qiu, 2014)
People: It consist of the employees, management, culture and the customer service (Khan, 2014)
Process: The process adopted by the companies to execute its services or products.
Physical environment: Relates to the tangibility offered by product or services (Baker & Saren, 2016)

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Product A mix of taxi hiring and courier services in
London.
Price Price skimming – Penetrating the market by
keeping its prices low and thus skimming the
market. Premium options are also available.
Place The company is present in almost 350 cities since
its inception in the year 1975.
Promotion The company is offering huge discounts by
customized deals to its customers, offering
loyalty rides to its most loyal customers, offering
huge discount on the rides and free coupon on
the social media.
Physical evidence The company has revealed a new logo for itself,
bold new premium look. It has Toyota cars, jets
etc. for its customers, which bring class to the
brand.
Process The company uses its website and mobile
application for its business. ETA is calculated
through GPS services.
People The management has good experience, the
drivers are taught about the values of the
company and also made accustom to the new
technology getting used in the cabs. People are
one of the strong facets of Addison lee.
B.
Recommendation
Product: The Company could focus on pushing its application to every smart phone user present in
the cities it is operating in. The application has to be pushed in order to get it installed and put to
use. The company should go completely on app based model and stop spending money on the
website. It should also venture into carpooling services to expand its customer base. In order to
make people install the app, the company should lure them into free rides and once they install the
app, the company can retain them by providing quality services.
Price: One of the most important aspect of marketing mix, Addison lee should focus on cost based
pricing, infused with occasional discount and coupons to its new customers and reward points for its
loyal customers. The company has to work on a retention strategy and treat all three of its customer
base: Loyal, new & existing differently and adopt a completely different customized strategy for each
of them.

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Promotion: The Company is promoting its service on social media heavily, unveiled a new logo
recently to match up to its new target audience. The only point the company has to do more in order
to be more effective in promotion is, post the reviews and ratings on the social media and also push
newsletters of its service quality feedback given by customers to its mass audience. This will create
euphoria among the people and they would see Addison lee as the brand they can trust and rely
upon.
References:

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