Marketing Plan For Ingogo: Segmentation, Targeting, And Positioning Approach

The importance of a marketing plan for Ingogo

A marketing plan is a crucial aspect of any organization as it directs them to establish an influential launch for their product or services. A marketing plan helps in uplifting the current sales of the existing product and services by attracting the customers with specific strategies. A marketing plan is a segment of the business plan which is executed in this competitive world of today, to fulfill the objectives of an organization and to stay ahead of the competitors. A marketing plan supports in publishing and advertising the new or existing product into a new or existing market. Ingogo is a fast growing cab service in Australia.

The company specializes in cab booking which can be done both in advance and when in need. The cab drivers detects the location of the customer through a mobile application available for Android users too. The charges of the services are fixed which does not include any extra charges of tolls, traffic jams extra. The main mission of the organization is to provide convenience to each person by providing them cab services which are affordable by every person. The Ingogo services are presently available in five cities in Australia, which are Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne. The company founder and CEO is Hamish Petrie.               

Ingogo Current Situation & Problem

1.1  Situation Analysis Recap

Ingogo is a taxi service in Australia, which is trying to build a strong base between the already established companies like Uber, Ola, 13 Cab, Go Catch and many more. The company, though have a fixed rate policy which is different from what its competitors are offering, but the organization is in a state of flux. The organization is offering the customers with a unique travel experience which does not include any additional charge of traffic jams or other additional charges. But its competitors still have a strong control and are dominating the current market. This has been examined and concluded through the customer, competitor and stakeholder analysis (Abdullah, 2018).

1.2  Problem Statement

The organization Ingogo is struggling in the current market because of their poor marketing plan and also because of their small market size. The company lagging behind from its competitors due to the poor marketing strategies and activities which are failing to attract more customers that will further help in expanding their market size. The organization is currently functional only in five cities of Australia, which is restricting their boundaries of services to a limited area. Both these problems have to be tackled for increasing the market hold of Ingogo in Australia

Core Approaches for Marketing Plan of Ingogo

The formulation of a marketing plan for any organization requires examination and understanding of certain aspects in details which have to be further utilized in forming an effective marketing plan on this basis. The marketing strategies which are finalized are built around these core approaches and ensuring that all these approaches are fulfilled for further fulfilling the marketing objectives and the financial objectives of an organization. Ingogo is in the urgent need for an effective marketing plan for increasing the low sales of the company and also for building a strong image in front of their targeted audience. There are three approached which have to be taken into consideration while formulating a marketing plan, they are, segmentation approach, targeting approach and positioning approach (Davari & Strutton, 2014

Situational analysis of Ingogo

2.1  Segmentation Approach

According to the Australian bureau of statistics, this has been recorded that around 5.1% people travel by a car as a passenger and around 0.2% people travel by taxi. These percentages show a standard which is even lower for Ingogo because they are accessible only in five cities. The segmentation helps in identifying the individual needs of various individuals and then catering to them in accordingly (Devi Prasad Kotni, 2014).

Type of Segmentation	Segmentation Criteria	Ingogo Customer Segment
Geographic	Region	Adelaide, Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Melbourne.
Density	Both urban and rural populations.
Demographic	Gender	Male, female and others.
Occupation	Students, employees, professionals, businessmen, retired and handicapped.
Life-cycle stage	Bachelor stage, married stage, divorce stage, estranged stage, widow stage, senior citizen stage.
Age	From the age of eighteen to sixty-five years old.
Behavioral	Loyalty	The organization has still not formed hardcore loyal customers. Ingogo have customers which are less loyal to the organization and are majorly switchers.
Benefits	Fixed rates are cost efficient and the company is providing convenience to their customers.
Personality	There is a mixed bag of personalities which are from easygoing, determined, ambitious and trouble giver.
User-status	The users vary from non-users, first time user and potential users. The company has still not able to form a strong regular user segment.
Psychographic	Social-class	Ingogo serves all class, be it lower class, middle class and high class.
Lifestyle	Ingogo is available for people from different lifestyles.

2.2  Targeting Approach

After the process of segmentation, the marketers have to decide an effective marketing strategy that will help them in effectively conveying their marketing messages to the targeted audience or segment. The targeting approaches help the sales and marketing team to customize their messages according to the people who are being targeted. The targeting approach helps in building the right marketing mix for any product or service. In case of Ingogo the best targeting approach is the differentiated approach. The organization Ingogo has a wide range of customers belonging to different segments.

Also the company is in the growing stage, so the best targeting approach which will cater to various needs of different segments, is differentiated targeted marketing. This approach will help in dealing with different segments as the focus will be equally divided between different segments and the marketing messages will be specific for each segment. Though the needs of all the segments are same, but still there is a difference in the level of demands between each segment.

The differentiated approach will help Ingogo largely and this approach is always better than the scattergun approach. The Ingogo have to introduce some extra services and these services should be different for each segment. The difference between each segment should be prominent and measurable. A clear understanding of different segment in the form of their size, benefits, wants and financial status should be known to create marketing messages and plan according to each segment differently.

2.3  Positioning Approach

A positioning strategy is formed by two main factors, which are, consumer and competitor. In the case of Ingogo, the size of the consumer is small and the rate of competition is very high. Also, the pricing of the service is unique and different from its competitors so this can be used in the benefit of Ingogo. According to these facts, the best possible positioning approach for Ingogo is by price and quality positioning strategy along with the competitor positioning strategy. These two strategies will help in gaining more customers and in shifting the customers from the competitors to Ingogo (Gök & Hacioglu, 2010). The fix pricing approach of the Ingogo is the main advantage and the strongest point of the organization. This has to be further utilized in the positioning strategy.

The fixed price approach should be also used to pit against any competitor and this comparison between the competitor and the Ingogo in the positioning strategy will be very beneficial for the organization. These two strategies will help in increasing the market size of the company and with an effective marketing plan along with the positioning strategy will build a strong image of the company Ingogo in the eyes of the targeted customer

The problem statement for Ingogo

Ingogo Objectives

Every organization has some basic objectives which are the key driving force of all organizations. There are different sub-objectives which are attached with different activities of an organization (Hauser & Shugan, 2008). Thus, with marketing plan, there are also some objectives which have to be fulfilled and can be categorized into two categories, that is, marketing and financial objectives.

3.1  Marketing Objectives

The three main marketing objectives of Ingogo are-

• Customer Satisfaction

Ingogo is a cab service provider company. The company works and runs only for the customer and through the customer. The main marketing approach for all the marketing activities should be to provide the customer maximum satisfaction. This will help in creating a big market for the organization and also will increase the profits of the company (Jones, Barrie, Robinson, Allsop & Chikritzhs, 2012).

• Building a Strong Image of Ingogo

Currently, Ingogo is lost amongst its various competitors. Uber is its biggest competitor and the company Uber has hard core loyal customers due to its strong image in the market. Ingogo have to come equivalent to Uber and for that building a strong image in the market is very important. This will also help in the expansion of the Ingogo (LeCren & Ozanne, 2011).

• Increasing their Market Size

Ingogo is currently being functional and accessible only in five cities, which are Melbourne, Sydney, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide. The company has to expand its market in complete Australia. This expansion is very important for the growth and development of the company. The company should try expanding its market in Canberra, Darwin and Hobart in the next couple of years (Luca & Suggs, 2010).

3.2  Financial Objectives

The three main financial objectives of Ingogo are-

• Return on Investment

All the marketing activities that are conducted for the benefits of the organization should be monitored closely, making sure that all the investment made for the organization is fruitful and these investments are paying back to the organization (Kamaruddin, Izehari & Sukimin, 2017).

• Determine KPIs

The KPIs are very helpful in measuring changes. Ingogo has to establish some KPIs that will help in knowing the changes which happened through the marketing campaign activities and increased the demand of the services at Ingogo (Reynolds, 2010).

• Advertising

Ingogo is in the growing stage. The company has to spend huge sum in advertising activities. These activities should be conducted in a specified budget and there should always be a special budget for conducting any marketing activities in an emergency (Tej Adidam, Gajre & Kejriwal, 2009)

Ingogo Marketing Mix Strategies

 Marketing Mix

The formulation of an effective marketing plan is possible only through an effective marketing mix strategy. There are some changes which are necessary and have to be made in the marketing mix of Ingogo-

• Product

Ingogo started with a good approach in the market with a fixed fare strategy. But the organization is in the need to add new services which are addressed to different segments differently (Tsimonis & Dimitriadis, 2014). They are providing an economic ride, but people also hire cabs for making an impression. Also, there are people who want even cheaper rides. The organization Ingogo has to introduce few different variants of services which are catered to different segments differently. There is an urgent need for this change as this will help the organization to increase their market size and is the key way to gain loyal customers (Winter & Sundqvist, 2009). 

• Price

Core approaches for the marketing plan of Ingogo

Ingogo price policy is the main strength of the organization. But with the incorporation of new services according to different segments the organization has to incorporate this biggest strength of fixed fare pricing into the various different activities too. So, with their fixed pricing approach they have to adopt the price penetration strategy too. The customers should be asked for value for money charges and the adaptation of this policy in pricing will help the organization in growth and development. Also, the company’s credibility in the market will increase due to their fare pricing policy. Pricing of the services should also be finalized after taking into consideration the different pricing policies of the competitors (Bremner, 2013). 

• Place

Currently, Ingogo is functional only in the five cities of Australia, which are Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Adelaide. The company’s headquarter is in Sydney. The organization has to expand its focus on few different cities too. The organization should expand its base in Darwin, Hobart and Canberra too. These are the major cities of Australia, the organization have to focus on new places which will help in increasing the market of the targeted audience (Everard, 2017).

• Promotion

Still in the growing and developing stage the Ingogo need to be a part of many promotional activities. Ingogo mainly conducts all their promotions through their mobile app and website. The company has to indulge in some differentiated services like its competitors to create an enormous amount of publicity amongst people and in the market. The Ingogo have to be a part of media and has to form a good image in the market. It has to work on its promotional activities which are currently very below standards. The company has to utilize the platform of social media for creating a huge buzz about Ingogo. Also, the social media can be used for building strong customer relationship, this will build hard core loyal customers for the organization (Speranza, 2010).

5.2 Budget for Promotion Mix

• A “promotional budget” is a specific amount of money that is set aside and is allocated for all the promotional activities for a product or service of an organization. The budget is formed according different circumstances which surrounds an organization. In case of a growing and developing company like Ingogo there is a vital need for incurring high investments on various different activities of the organization. For a company like Uber, which has already created a name for itself and is fully developed requires a promotional budget for maintaining the brand image, which involves a bit less amount of money in comparison to Ingogo. The budget for Ingogo is decided on the basis of a number of factors which are vital for examination in the context of the market size and the targeted audience (Vujic, Vasiljevic-Blagojevic & Peric, 2014).
• The promotional activities are the only way through which a company’s image is formed in the mind of the people. A good promotional campaign can do wonders while a bad one can completely destroy an image of an organization in the market. The budget allocation should be well planned and initially should be done for the next twelve months. For every $100 earned, $5 has to be allocated for marketing (Tamura, 2016). But as Ingogo is a growing and developing organization it has to spend around $10 for every $100 dollar earned. So, if Ingogo earned around $1,000,000 then the amount to be spend on marketing will be $100,000. This budget has to be allocated accordingly-
• On channels 20%.
• On advertising 40%.
• On digital communication 30%. As the Ingogo is accessible only through website and mobile application a huge amount has to be incurred on digital media (Yao, Chen & Zhao, 2013).
• On public relations 10%.

Conclusion

The organization Ingogo is currently is an urgent need of increasing their sales and market. The proposed marketing plan will focus on the main problem of the organization which are poor marketing strategies and a small market size. These strategies which have been proposed for targeting, segmenting, positioning and the different strategies of the marketing mix have to be executed perfectly and they require regular monitoring too. This is needed to make any urgent changes which are essential due to any change in the market or the customers. The organization Ingogo should also conduct regular surveys and get feedback from people to know about their image in the market and also about their various promotional activities.

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