Introduction to Ingogo

The aim of this assignment is to prepare a marketing plan for an organization. The chosen organization for this assignment is Ingogo. Ingogo is a growing company in the Australian market (Ltd, 2018). The organization provides services like online booking of different kinds of taxis and helps in the payments. The fares of the tax rides are transacted via mobile application that is operated by the taxi drivers. The organization is spread is Australia and currently it serves to the people of Brisbane, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Perth. This assignment will conduct an overall business analysis that will help to find key information about how the organization can expand their business outside Australia as well. This paper will provide key information about the market segmentation, targeting and the positioning of the products. The paper will also provide information about the marketing and the financial objectives that the organization needs to fulfil to sustain and expand their business in the market. The paper will also contain marketing mix strategy of the Ingogo. SWOT analysis will also be conducted to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the weaknesses and the external threats and the opportunities that affect the organization. The assignment will give information about how the organization can allocate their budget effectively buy maintaining a good market share and at the same time earn sustainable profit.

Ingogo is an Australian organization that deals with providing services like bookings and payments of the taxis. The organization was founded in August 2011 by an Australian entrepreneur name Hamish Petrie. Hamish Petrie is also the current CEO of the organization. The organization is growing in the market and within the span of 7 years the organization is successful in expanding their business in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth (Allsop, 2014, p. 14). The organization has its own GPS-enabled booking system that allows the nearby taxi drivers who are linked with the organization to pick up the passenger. Ongogo is the first organization in Australia to provide fixed transportation fares that include the charges and there is no extra surge pricing for the traffic jams. The organization offer services like advance booking by 2 days to their customers.

Ingogo provides excellent transportation facility to the customers. The organization offer service like online booking of cabs and payments (De carlos, Araujo & Fraiz, 2016, p. 39-58). The organization helps the consumer to book the cabs at any place at any point of time with the help of the android app that is free to install in the android and the IOS devices (Tracy, 2012, P. 30-34). The price is fixed and there is no extra cost for the traffic jams. This has helped the customer in transportation. The organization also helped there to advance their cab in advance.

Services Offered by Ingogo

The organization helps their customers to get their services by booking their services online with the help of their application that is available in the Play store and Apple store. Customer can book their services anytime at any place (Prata, Mont’Alvao & Quaresma, 2013).

Ingogo markets their product by targeting the consumers who are the daily commuters. Ingogo has their own website (https://www.ingogo.com.au/), which help the consumers to know about the services that they provides. The organization also has a good social media presence, with a facebook page and an Instagram account. The organization uses the social media intensively as most of the targeted customer uses the social media (Alhabash & Ma, 2017). Apart from this the organization also markets their services via different media channels like television and radio. The organization has been successful in creating good brand awareness in the market by using the following advertising channels.

Ingogo’s mission is to help the daily commuter to commute in an easier and cheaper way. Their main aim is to help the commuter to get the services in correct fair without charging extra for the traffic jams (Castro et al., 2013, p. 17). They want to make the life easier for the consumer by providing them hassle free booking.

Their vision is to sustain and expand not only in the market of Australia but also in oversees market. Their aim is to be the leading transportation services in the world by overshadowing Uber (Rayle et al., 2014). The organization has already excelled in last few years within the market of Australia inspite of having tough competitors like Uber.  

The SMART goal setting technique helps the organization to set marketing and financial goals that the organization wants to achieve for their growth in the industry. SMART is the acronym for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound.

Specific:

Market objectives

• To expand the business in Australian markets.
• To expand the business in the global market and countries like India, New Zealand etc.
• To become the leading taxi service provider in the world.

Financial objectives

• To increase sales and profit figures
• To increase goodwill of the firm
• To generate more revenue streams

Measurable:

Marketing objectives

• Target countries like India, New Zealand.
• To increase their brand awareness in the foreign market so that they can get boost in their market share.

Financial Objectives

• The company plans to increase its revenue generation by 10%within the next 2 years.
• Lowering down the expenses

Achievable:

Marketing objectives

• To expand their business in the foreign market the organization need to create brand awareness and catering to new customers
• Uber has been successful in expanding their business in the global market.
  The organization can also expand their market if they get investors who are ready to invest in the organization.

Financial objectives

• Maximizing production
• The brand awareness can be increased by continuous promotion of the brand through the effective media channels like social media, radio and television advertisements.

 Relevant:

Marketing

• This is necessary for the organization success and to tackle the rising competition on the market.
• This is the right time for the organization to expand their business in the foreign market because the organization is in the growing phase and this will attract more customers and will help to expand in the organization.

Finance

• Increase in customer base
• Retention of customers
• Clearing of closing stock

 Time bound:

Marketing objectives

• In the next 2 year the organization can focus on increasing the product awareness and services in remaining cities of Australia.
• After expanding the business in the organization, Ingogo needs to focus on advertising campaigns and creating brand awareness in the foreign markets with the help of some unique marketing strategies.

Finance objectives

• The whole process will take 5 years of time.

Promotion mix budget:

Year Promotional channel	1st year	2nd year	3rd year	4th year	5th year
Facebook	$300/month	$300/month	$300/month	$300/month	$300/month
Local newspaper	$100	$100	–	–	–
Sales mail	$60/month	$60/month	$60/month	$60/month	$60/month
Sales call	$40/month	$45/month	$50/month	$55/month	$65/month
Instagram	$150/month	$150/month	$150/month	$150/month	$150/month

 Source: (Hosseini & Vavaie, 2012)

Ingogo is founded in the year 2011, by which we can say that the organization is new in the market. The organization has a unique selling proposition that it does not charge any extra amount for the traffic jams, which has helped them to capture a good amount of market share (Ashley & Tuten, 2015, p. 15-27). In the product life cycle the service that the organization is offering is going towards the growth phase from the introductory phase (Bilir, 2014). The transportation industry is filled with competitors. There are local taxies, Uber, Ola and other substitute way of transportation that has increased the competition in the market. For expanding the business in the overseas market the organization needs to focus on creating good brand awareness and then they should focus on maximising their market share.

Marketing and Promotion Strategy for Ingogo

Market segmentation is a process of segmenting the customer’s base according to their needs and demands, regions and other different attributes (Wedel
& Kamakura, 2012). The market segmentation helps the organization to target the customer base effectively. Market segmentation is very important for the growing organizations like Ingogo. Ingogo’s target audience is mainly the daily commuters. The office goers, students and other consumers who regularly travel are the main customer base of the organization. The customers who do not like travelling in trains and metros are in the radar of the Ingogo. Australian’s are comfort lovers and easy goers they are the most suitable customers for the transportation industries. Ingogo mainly targets the consumers above the age of 30 years.

The industry of the Ingogo is highly competitive due to the presence of different organizations who also offers the same service like the Ingogo offers. The organization has to face a tough competition from the established companies like Uber, Baidu, Ola etc (Paronda, Regidor & Gaabucayan-Napalang, 2016). The organizations have to market their product in such a way that it can create a good amount of market share. The organization needs to have some unique selling proposition so that the organization can overshadow its competitors and make a mark in the industry. Uber is one of the toughest competitors for the organization as because Uber has a great amount of market share and it already got a good global presence which helped the organization to operate their business smoothly. Ingogo should market their product in such a way that the organization gets global recognition.

The SWOT analysis will help to find the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that the organization have or is facing in the market.

Strengths of Ingogo are:

• Well-recognised and popular brand in Australia.
• The drivers of Ingogo taxis are well trained and certtfied. The standard of service that the organization is offering has helped the organization to expand their business in such sort span of time. The cars that they are offering for services have proper safety standards and all are equipped with CCTV cameras for the safety of the passengers.
• The organization has a huge number of cars available all the time. The customers can get the service whenever they want.
• GPS enabled cars which help the customers to track their cars, which increases the safety standards of the passengers.
• Cashless payment option, which reduces the risk of theft and other issues.
• The fair is fixed. Ingogo is the first transportation company in Australia to have a fixed fare rates which means the fair will not surge in case of traffic jams or any other kind of issues.
• The prices for the services are cheaper than the traditional taxi operators and there are many discounts given to the regular customers.

Weaknesses of Ingogo are:

• The industry is full of competition and the idea can be easily imitated by the new organizations, which will increase the competition by a huge margin.
• Presence of Uber can affect the market share of a growing company life Ingogo, as Uber is an established brand in the environment.
• Cost of the operating vehicles is very high. The whole process can be messy sometimes and it can affect the organization.
• The business model is very unpredictable and the business can suffer loss during any economic crisis or inflation.

The opportunities that Ingogo has:

• As discusses earlier the cost and the fare of the traditional cab system are high, which is dissatisfying for the customer who uses the traditional cab services.
• The organization can expand their market in the new markets which can provide them high revenues for example countries like India.
• The organization can expand their market in the urban and rural areas where the taxi services are not available.
• Many organizations are looking forward to bring electric cars in the market, which will help them to reduce the operational costs of the taxi.  

Threats of Ingogo are:

• The low-profit margin is affecting the drivers and they are not happy with what they are getting form this industry.
• Legislations in different countries for example Germany banned the taxi services of Ingogo due to serious privacy issues.
• The price reduction sue to the increased level of competition will affect the drivers.  

In the next 5 years time Ingogo will look to expand their market especially in the rural and urban areas of Australia. The aim of the organization should be to take a greater amount of market share so that they can be as successful as Uber. The main motive of the organization should be increasing the product and the brand awareness of the organization. The purchase intent needs to be created by using various marketing tool and strategy.

Objectives	Strategies
Build brand and product awareness with the help of innovating strategy.	· Advertisement in the various local Medias like newspaper, radio. · Create sales letter on a regular basis to the key stakeholders or the potential buyers about their product.
Maximise the customer’s knowledge	· Data mining of the database of the previous customer and existing customer will help to find small details. · Personal information needs to be collected from the social media like Instagram and the facebook. · Collect customer’s feedback.

Objectives	Strategies
Consumer promotions	· The organization can offer free first ride to the customer. · Discounts for the existing customers.
Advertising campaign	· Advertising campaign needs to be done.

Objectives	Strategies
Expand geographically	· Expand the business in rural and Urban areas. · The organization should look to expand their market in Australia.
Expand overseas	· Expand the market in the overseas market as well.

Objectives	Strategies
Product line expansion	· Diversify the organizations product line.

Objectives	Strategies
Geographical expansion in the foreign market	· Select the countries where the taxi services are costly.

Conclusion: 

The assignment deals with the marketing plan of an Australian taxi services. Ingogo is an online taxi booking and payment service provider established in the year 2011 by the entrepreneur Hamish Petrie. The organization provides services like transportation. The organization provides many benefits to its customers for example it helps the customers to book the services in 2 days advance. The organization is also the first Australian company to have fixed fare, which means that the fare will not get affected by traffic jams or any other kind of issues. The organization is currently spread in some of the cities of Australia like – Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane. The organization is having tough competition due to the presence of an established brand like Uber. The organization need to work hard with their marketing strategy and plan that will help the organization to expand their brand as well as will help the organization to make better revenue in the market.

References: 

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Castro, P. S., Zhang, D., Chen, C., Li, S., & Pan, G. (2013). From taxi GPS traces to social and community dynamics: A survey. ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR), 46(2), 17.

de Carlos, P., Araújo, N., & Fraiz, J. A. (2016). The new intermediaries of tourist distribution: analysis of online accommodation booking sites. The International Journal of Management Science and Information Technology (IJMSIT), (19), 39-58.

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Ltd, i. (2018). ingogo | Taxis done better. For Passengers, Drivers and Businesses. Retrieved from https://www.ingogo.com.au/

Paronda, A. G. A., Regidor, J. R. F., & Gaabucayan-Napalang, M. S. (2016). An Exploratory Study on Uber, GrabCar, and Conventional Taxis in Metro Manila.

Prata, W., Mont’Alvão, C. R., & Quaresma, M. (2013, July). Usability testing of mobile applications store: purchase, search and reviews. In International Conference of Design, User Experience, and Usability (pp. 714-722). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

Rayle, L., Shaheen, S., Chan, N., Dai, D., & Cervero, R. (2014). App-based, on-demand ride services: Comparing taxi and ridesourcing trips and user characteristics in san francisco university of california transportation center (uctc). University of California, Berkeley, United States.

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Hosseini, M. H., & Vavaie, M. S. (2012). Analyzing The Influence of Promotion Mix On Increase of Sale in Cosmetics and Beauty Products. Asian Journal of Business and Management Sciences, 1(4), 99-113.