Research Paper on Citibike Marketing Strategy

Introduction

The primary objective of the marketing plan is to increase the market share by at least twenty percent by luring customers from our competitors through better products, services, and pricing. The plan will see out revenues increase by at least ten percent in the next six months after the launch of the product. The target audience is millennials and other age groups of people who would like to consider themselves cool or environmentalists. Through the market plan, they will be able to see the intentions of the service as reducing the carbon footprint in the environment without necessarily having to compromise their working capability, and the time it would take them to reach their destination. Social media apps including Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat, will promote the use of our app to find bikes near them for a ride to their destination.

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Qualitative Objectives

The plan should also help customers learn more about our pricing. Currently, most of our consumers speculate the pricing while others do not know how much they can spend on bikes. The lack of sufficient information leads to lost sales due to the uncertainty. The market plan will decrease the resistance to use our products and with time perhaps eliminating it from our target markets. Increased knowledge in the value of our products should result in an estimated twenty-five percent increase in sales in the first quarter. The market plan should also help the company build a favorable brand image for the company. Consequently, we expect the company will be a household name in millennial-populated sections of the city in the next year. Through the marketing plan and incorporation of environmental considerations, we also wish to set our company up as a leading innovator and solution provider.

Market Plan Objectives

The company also wishes to establish itself as customer oriented in that they provide the best possible services to the consumers and would like to communicate that. The company has an added advantage over the competitors in that; they offer unlimited rides. Citibike limits their trips to only thirty minutes a day for single-day riders and forty-five minutes a day for annual members. Citibike also offers regular bikes which are not for everyone because of the differing physical capabilities of a person. Bike and Roll, on the other hand, have an eight-hour limit which is better compared to Citibike's time limit. However, Bike and Roll do not offer memberships to their consumers. Currently, people want a company they can feel like they belong to and in which they are valued. Offering consumers both safety though providence of helmets, unlimited time on the bikes at a constant rate either daily, monthly or yearly and the ability to ride even when one's body does not allow them.

A downside to our products and services is that everything is online. Consumers will get their services via the app, and the entire operation will be self-service. Although, technically this is not a bad thing, in fact, people are now leaning more towards self-sufficiency. The electric bikes which the company will manufacture will have various speeds under which the consumer can operate. This gives them a choice of speed while maneuvering the different traffic settings in different areas of New York. The new and improved technology through the marketing plan is intended to garner and steal customers away from the existing participants thus earning a larger market share by at least fifteen percent. The marketing plan should also help the consumers have a significant amount of product awareness which should propel them to going for our services more than they go for the competitors.

The Target Market Strategy

Currently, our group of targeted individuals will all be located within New York City which is where most of our docks and services will be. The fact that the company uses electric bikes rather than traditional bikes opens up the market from a broader perspective. We expect that the primary target market will be Millennials and the generation before them since they are not that much older. These include especially people in creative industries who may be more open-minded about traditional means of going to work. Targeting a younger generation also ensures that they are more willing to take risks by adopting non-conventional methods of going to work in New York or running their errands in the city.

The primary target customer is not gender-specific especially now in the age of feminism. Our bikes are safe and appropriate for all genders, and the marketing plan will communicate this. The target market is also people who can afford our services. The pricing and makings of our packages make it available for people even on a minimum wage. Hence, income should not be an issue with the availability of our products. The target market is also growing with more younger people settling down in New York where the culture is vast and accepting. If the marketing plan through the use of Social Media is successful, the company should be among the trending topics on the internet after the launch across the City.