E-Scooter Sharing: The Solution to Last Mile Transport in NZ & AU - Essay Sample

Introduction

Flamingo scooters is an electric scooter-share company that is dockless. It is based in New Zealand and Australia to provide transport options to its clients. Flamingo Scooters was founded in the year 2018, June, with the sole purpose of reducing the dependence of cars by people (Flamingo Technologies Limited, 2020). The company considers its products as the first and last mile transport options that are reliable. In New Zealand, Flamingo Scooters is the only e-scooter operator in Wellington, Christchurch, and Auckland (Flamingo Technologies Limited, 2020). The essay will explore the Flamingo Scooters Company and create a marketing plan for strengthening the company's business in New Zealand. The marketing plan for Flamingo Scooters will entail describing the company, its products, and its core competencies. An analysis of the market, macro-environment, competitors, opportunities, and threats, and the marketing strategy will be provided.

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Company Description

Flamingo Scooters provide clients with an alternative and faster option of transport. The company is based in New Zealand and Australia. In New Zealand, the Flamingo Scooters shops are located in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch. According to Idealog (2019), Flamingo Scooters is the only operating company in the three markets. The core competencies of the Flamingo Scooters Company entail providing more effective transport options to people. The company considers its products as offering a first- and last-mile transport option to individuals in a manner that ensures that fast, easy, and safe way of moving around the city. A significant sustainable competitive advantage of the Flamingo Scooters products is reducing the dependence on the usage of cars and congestion on roads, which is an advantage to reducing air pollution to the environment (Flamingo Technologies Limited, 2020). The company's ability to release new and competitive products keeps it at the top of business compared to others in the industry. The e-scooter services are the most efficient for clients in the city (Idealog, 2019). Flamingo Scooters utilizes a competitive pitching strategy to market its products, and that makes customers recognize its capacity to deliver services within the New Zealand City effectively. The company is also owned and operated locally, and that creates one of the most significant competitive advantages against other major players in the transport sector. It is easy for the government and clients to develop trusted relationships with a locally owned company.

The Market

Flamingo Scooters is an international brand and serving clients all over the world. in New Zealand, Flamingo Scooters concentrates on serving three significant markets in Auckland, Wellington, and Christchurch regions. In Auckland, the company serves the local and foreign customers interested in purchasing e-scooter outfits, waves, and Lime (Idealog, 2019). The customers are majorly young entrepreneurs, sporting individuals, and people interested in moving very fast within the city. Customers choose Flamingo Scooters for short and on-demand trips in the towns within New Zealand. The main clients are the Kiwis who want to experience safety, convenience, and fun moving around the city. People at the bus stops and train stations also use Flamingo scooters to ride from the locations to move around the city (Radio New Zealand, 2019). The market size for Flamingo Scooters in New Zealand is a third of 1,300 in Christchurch, a third of 1875 scooters for the three brands licensed in Auckland. In Wellington, the market size for Scooters is half of the 800 scooters licensed for two companies in the city.

Macro Environment

The macro-environment for Flamingo Scooters entails the political, legal, environmental, economic, technological, and social factors that impact the business's successful operations. The two most critical macro-environmental factors that affect on Flamingo Scooters are technological and legal factors. Legally, all scooter riders can ride the devices on most of the roads and footpaths in New Zealand provided they keep to the side (Deguara, 2019). Passengers cannot use the cycleways and must wear helmets. Riders must also be 18 years and can only ride as 10kmh as per the regulating bodies in New Zealand. Technologically, scooters in the market must have the latest technology to provide the best services to the customers. E-scooters from Flamingo have an app where a client can create an account, add a payment method, and find an available scooter on the location services online.

Competitor Analysis

The e-scooter industry is competitive with other companies offering discounts to attract more customers for their products. Flamingo Scooters compete with companies such as Nick Hyland and Jackson Love, Lime, Wave, Bird, and Uber (Idealog, 2019; Radio New Zealand, 2019). The company is different from its competitors in New Zealand and globally. Uber does not own it, but young people experienced in software development, business, and finance. The company also has experience in operating start-up accelerator programs to outdo the competitors by providing benefits and better deals to clients (Radio New Zeland, 2019). Students get discounts, and customers get a helmet for every delivery made, $1 is waved as unlock fee when a rider

A significant competitor for Flamingo Scooters in New Zealand is Lime that competes with the company in the New Zealand market (Idealog, 2019). Lime sets its price for scooters at eight cents per minute. From time to time, Lime revises the rates to include super-sized deals that attract more customers to use their services and products. However, the scooter made by Lime to customer is five kilograms heavier when compared to that offered by the Flamingo Scooters (Radio New Zealand, 2019). Lime has not released its scooter products in the Auckland market.

SWOT Analysis

SWOT is a tool used to evaluate a business's situation based on its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (Gurel & Tat, 2017). For Flamingo Scooters, an analysis of the opportunities and risks of the company are analyzed. The opportunities entail entering more New Zealand markets, including regions such as Dunedin and Hutt Valley markets. Other competitors like Lime have entered into this market, and Flamingo Scooters can offer competition to this organization in the new market. The company can also increase the safety of the scooters that may develop safety issues when riders are using. That will encourage more clients to have trust with the company.

The threats entail the exploitation or disturbance of the fledgling industry by two trucks who charge the companies $200 every time they pick (Keogh, 2020). That may slow the growth of business in the market due to the low availability of the scooters at the bus stops and train stations or other places where they are packed for clients to use. The company also faces the threat of ineffective services to clients due to handling and safety issues with the Flamingo Scooters. The scooters from the company are considered to be the least sturdy and thus challenging to steer. Scooters from other companies will be more preferable for clients who are looking for sturdy scooters when speeding. The e-scooter is also not safe for users, especially in its messaging system in the app. The breaks take longer to stop when compared to other brands. Therefore, that will affect the company through stiff competition from other brands that are safer with breaks and messaging systems in their apps.

Target Marketing Strategy

A target marketing strategy that Flamingo Scooters can use to promote and sell its products in the market is digital or internet marketing. It will entail using webpages and social media pages to advertise the scooters products online. Kingsnorth (2016) stated that consumers find buying on the internet convenient, quicker, and safe. Internet marketing increases the confidence of clients to the company. The affiliate marketing theory applies to the internet marketing that Flamingo Scooters Company will adopt shortly. Affiliate marketing theory requires commissioning the salesperson and best foo online marketing on websites and social media pages (Suresh et al., 2018). Facebook and Instagram are social media pages that the company should use in digital marketing. They will include paid links to help clients purchase from the vendors’ website. That will increase the customer base for the business.

Recommendation

One element of marketing strategy that Flamingo Scooters should focus on in its marketing strategy is growth strategies. It is recommended for Flamingo Scooters to focus on implementing a market penetration growth strategy to help the company increase market share in the existing markets (Suttle, 2019). Through a market growth strategy, the business can lower its prices and differentiate its scooters more to grow their business in New Zealand. The company has been providing similar products as the competitors at the same rates. Lowering the cost will strengthen the business in the existing Mew Zealand markets.

References

Deguara, B. (2019, June 25). How New Zealand's e-scooter options compare. Stuff. https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/113770076/how-new-zealands-escooter-options-compare

Flamingo Technologies Limited. (2020). About Flamingo. https://flamingoscooters.com/about

Gurel, E., & Tat, M. (2017). SWOT analysis: A theoretical review. The Journal of International Social Research, 10(51), 994-1006. http://www.sosyalarastirmalar.com/cilt10/sayi51_pdf/6iksisat_kamu_isletme/gurel_emet.pdf

Idealog. (2019, July 31). New Zealand-owned e-scooter company Flamingo flaps into the Auckland market. https://idealog.co.nz/tech/2019/07/nz-owned-e-scooter-company-flamingo-flaps-its-way-auckland-market

Keogh, B. (2020, January 15). Auckland e-scooters: Beam, Neuron, Flamingo, and Jump, which is the best? Stuff. https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/118754472/auckland-escooters-beam-neuron-flamingo-and-jump-which-is-the-best

Kingsnorth, S. (2016). Digital Marketing strategy: An integrated approach to online marketing. KoganPage. https://www.nima.today/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Digital-Marketing-Strategy-Simon-Kingsnorth.pdf

Radio New Zealand. (2019, August 21). E-scooter war heats up as companies try new tactics in a competitive market. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/397204/e-scooter-war-heats-up-as-companies-try-new-tactics-in-a-competitive-market

Suresh, V., Selvi, V., Maran, K., & Priya, A. (2018). A study on the impact of an affiliate marketing in e-business for consumers’ perspective. International Journal of Engineering and Technology, 10(2), 471-475. http://www.enggjournals.com/ijet/docs/IJET18-10-02-050.pdf

Suttle, R. (2019, February 12). Growth strategies in business. Chron. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/growth-strategies-business-4510.html