U Drive Transport Car Share Expansion to France

Memo

To:	Banking Institution
From:	Marketing Research
cc:	Investors
Date:	December 20, 2014
Re:	U Drive Transport car share expansion to France

The estimated population of France is over 63 million. With a population as high as France I see car sharing as an essential need for people to get from one point to the next. Although public transportation is available, they are crowded and have to make several stops before reaching to their final destination. This can be over bearing to our target market.

The target market is described as “a group of people or organizations for which an organization designs, implements, and maintains a marketing mix intended to meet the need of that group, resulting in mutually satisfying exchanges.” (Charles, W.L., Joseph, F.H., and Carl, M., 2014) Our targeted markets in France would be Generation X and Y. This is because they move around frequently, and always on the market looking to purchase vehicles. Those who are not employed are dependent on family to purchase on their behalf, but either way there are too many purchases on vehicles, which is not environmentally friendly. Generation X and Y would also have a higher employment rate based on their age distribution, and are having more children to take of. Therefore, being able to get to and from work to meet their families needs is of great importance.

Between the age of 18 and 50 most people are either still going to school, working, or doing both. Taking into consideration the large diverse population with different race and ethnicity, as well as the major surrounding cities and countries; it makes France the ideal location for car sharing. Customers would include travelers, college students and instructors, business owners, and government agencies.

Although France suffered effects of the great recession in 2007, their economy was not affected as bad as in the United States. Therefore, there was still steady income flowing. In addition, France is one of the major vacation hotspots generating millions of dollars a year through visitors. We can therefore expect financially stable consumers who are willing and would prefer to rent a car versus purchasing one.

Research and development I would encouraged to keep the company informed and alert of strategies that competitors are using; and the direction the economy is taking. This will allow the company to strategically plan to avoid failure in any one location.

Extending the company to France would support government and legal factors by helping to protect the environment. The fewer cars in the country would mean less pollution and clutter, while providing a healthier country. There would also be less repossession of cars by lenders, minimizing the debts that are owed by borrowers.

Although “zipcar” is one of our competitors, “enterprise car share” is an even bigger competitor for us. In order to stay ahead of our competitors we must do everything they do and more, but better. For example, enterprise car share targets individuals, universities, businesses, and government agencies. We would need to extend our customer base as such but at more reasonable prices, using promotion strategies, and different media advertising and tactics. Enterprise car share also has a large fleet of cars, however, a large percentage of their cars require fuel. We can use that to our advantage and renting strategy, by only providing electric cars to our customers, which is safer for use in the environment.

“The factors within the external environment that are important to marketing managers can be classified as social, demographic, economic, technological, political and legal, and competitive.” (Charles, W.L., Joseph, F.H., and Carl, M., 2014) Being that France is such a vacation hotspot, they take pride in keeping their country clean and beautiful. In addition, with such a high and diverse population there may be challenges with the factors within the external environment however U Drive Transport can overcome these challenges and expand its services to the population in France.

 

Reference

Enterprise CarShare. (2014) Retrieved from http://www.enterprisecarshare.com/business/overview/

Lamb, C. W., Hair, J. F. Jr., McDaniel, C. (2014). Marketing. Kaplan University Online. Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781305370128/pages/109772885

The Economist Newspaper Limited. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21635480-how-america-faring

The statistics Portal. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.statista.com/statistics/263743/total-population-of-france/

U.S. Department of State. (2014) Retrieved from http://www.state.gov/p/eur/ci/fr/

Zipcar, Inc. (2014) Retrieved from http://www.zipcar.com/universitiesf

 

U Drive Transport External Environmental Analysis

World Region:  Country:

Major City Center: France

Social External Environmental Factors (Textbook Pages:  45    )

Opportunities: Self-sufficient and work ethics will increase income allowing car rental to be affordable

Threats: Unemployment

Resources: http://www.state.gov/e/eb/eppd/csr/index.htm

Demographic External Environmental Factors (Textbook Pages:   47   )

Opportunities: Targeting different age group and diversity

Threats: Not choosing the ideal locations for car rental

The U.S. Census International Data Base is located at: http://www.census.gov/population/international/data/idb/informationGateway.php

Economic External Environmental Factors (Textbook Pages:  51    )

Opportunities: Great rental prices to issue based on income of consumers

Threats: Not all Generation X and Y may be able to afford car rental

Technological External Environmental Factors (Textbook Pages:  52     )

Opportunities: Research and development can be on a larger scale due to economic growth

Threats: None

Political and Legal External Environmental Factors (Textbook Pages:  54    )

Opportunities: Tax break from the government for contributing towards the environment

Threats: Legal policies being broken

Resources: The World Factbook

Competitive External Environmental Factors (Textbook Pages:    57  )

Opportunities: Growth of the company

Threats: Other car sharing rental companies

References

Central Intelligence Agency. (2014). The world factbook. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/ library/publications/the-world-factbook

U.S. Census Bureau. (2013, December). International programs: International data base. Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/population/international/ data/idb/informationGateway.php

U.S. Department of State. (2014). Corporate Social Responsibility. Retrieved from http://www.state.gov/e/eb/eppd/csr

U.S. Department of State. (2014). Regions. Retrieved from http://www.state.gov/countries