1. Introduction to UBER

In 2009 Uber entered the century-old business domain of transportation by offering Taxis rides to its consumers. However, this company didn’t operate with a similar business model rather innovated and transformed the ecosystem of the industry. Disrupting it into a whole new where Uber had the first-mover advantage of operating in the blue ocean. In its efforts, the company launched a mobile app in 2010 entering a hyper-growth mode achieving 72-billion of total business value in 2018. The report is about designing a marketing plan to allow further alignment with consumer’s behavior demands for safe efficient transportation.

1.1 The Purpose Statement

1.1.1 Uber’s Mission

“At Uber, we ignite opportunity by setting the world in motion. We take on big problems to help drivers, riders, delivery partners, and eaters get moving in more than 600 cities around the world. We welcome people from all backgrounds who seek the opportunity to help build a future where everyone and everything can move independently.”

1.1.1 Analysis of Purpose

According to Hess, Matt, Benlian, and Wiesböck (2016) the core principles need to be at the forefront of the formulation of any strategic level planning, as this gives the fundamental direction to be followed by the company in the long-term future. Urde (2016) adds that Uber’s core values are the services to ease out secure communing of its consumers, and should be effective in a marketing plan to be implemented. The reason for integrating the core values in strategic marketing as Uber would like to create expected value in the mind of consumers as it is delivered furthermore, having core values in mind the marketers are better equipped to make effective decisions regarding getting the message across the globe (Das, Bhatt, & Path, 2017).

Uber is operating in a global market hence according to Wirtz and Tang (2016) Uber’s marketing approach must be sensitive towards diversity. In an increasingly interconnected global village, Uber should market its services in a way that displays acceptance to different people and cultures. In addition to that, ease of movement at where any time with security is ensured. All these factors, mentioned in the purpose statement will define the strategy to be undertaken to achieve a suitable position in the market as well as enhance market share.

1.2 Financial Summary

Uber, being a private limited company has no legal obligation to disclose its financial information to the general public. However, various analysts have been given access to this information for valuation and other purposes, which will be the basis of the financial summary, as well as the limited disclosures made by the company.

The company announced that their revenue for last year’s 2^nd quarter was $2.8 billion, which was an increase of 63% from the previous quarter, whereas growth seen in the first quarter was 70%. The company reported a net loss of $891 million, compared to its reported profit of $2.5 billion in the quarter prior to this. For the year 2017, the company reported an overall net loss of $4.5 billion, despite a whopping revenue figure of $7.5 billion. The total figure of venture capital raised for Uber from its inception to now amounts to $24.2 billion, and its overall value was stated at $72 billion, in 2018. The company aims to go public soon, with a targeted valuation for this initial public offering of a total of $120 billion. To actually hit profit the organization need to organize its marketing activities to ensure consumers remain connected and consistent profit outcomes can be obtained. These parameters will be focused on the marketing plan.

2. Marketing Assumptions

Before formulating the strategy of any market strategy to be implemented, it is paramount that clear assumptions must be laid out, and held throughout for all potential strategies (Hanssens & Pauwels, 2016).

• Uber can connect missing links of the whole transport industry
• It is assumed that the regulatory framework governing Uber’s target market would not change dramatically.
• Uber’s Management is flexible towards change and understands consumer behavior continuously changes.
• Uber’s larger share of revenue comes from services provided on the Business to Consumer model.

3. Objectives and Strategies

3.1 Marketing Objectives

• To become the primary choice of the consumer for commuting in next 5 years.
• To improve marketing ROI by 35%.
• To improve consumer base followers on social media platforms by 50%.
• To increase consumer touchpoint to understand their needs by adopting customer co-creation.

3.2 Market Segmentation

Uber uses geography and demographics based segmentation of the consumers. Moreover, they classify segments in B2B and B2C categories. Since primary consumers in B2C model are Millennials who are the working class (Bonatti & Cisternas, 2018). Furthermore, Uber also targets university going students and senior citizens requiring assistive travel. Uber must analyze the demand by determining needs of each group. Service based packages are introduced catering traveler’s needs.

3.3 Distribution Strategy

The targeting strategy would be differentiation, as the Uber brand name is already well established in the global market, so differentiation from competitors would be prudent. Moreover, brand based differentiation would be coupled with cost leadership as primarily the consumers want minimum pricing (Clemons, Constantiou, Marton, & Tuunainen, 2019).  

3.4 Marketing Mix

The marketing mix stresses on the concept of the 7 P’s:

3.4.1 Product

Primary product is Uber ride hailing services, logistics, and courier. Which could be optimized by incorporating big data analytics and make it more customized and tailored to the needs of each customer.

3.4.2 Pricing Strategy

Pricing strategy appropriate for Uber is cost plus pricing where Uber only charge a percentage over its costs it would assist in maintain revenues. It is also recognized that pricing model must vary according to rush hours determining peak factor (Guda & Subramanian, 2019)xssss. This is also consistent with the cost-plus pricing as cost increases the price would increase. There is a simple base rate, expected duration rate and location rate.

3.4.3 Place

With presence in almost 770 cities globally, Uber does not rely on physical presence as much as it does on its digital networks. The infrastructure requirement is very low, which is an advantage to enter new markets as the required financing would be relatively lower.

3.4.4 People

People are critical aspect of business line, as a customer touch point and for consumer overall experience people as a resource must be optimized. Uber drivers to customer relationship officer must be trained to cater for consumer needs. In Uber consumer experience matters and most primary serviceability is given by people.

3.4.5 Partners

Uber should form strategic partnerships with existing players in the markets it chooses to enter. These could range from food delivery vendors to mobile medical services or grocery delivery businesses.

3.4.6 Processes

The process needs to be simplified as much as the data systems allowed to reduce the overheads passed on to Uber and also to make the customer experience as satisfying as possible with little delays and waste. Big Data analytics is critical here to improve Uber processes quicker to deliver consumers better services.

3.4.7 Promotion

Focus must be on making the brand more widely available to consumers in the market through social media marketing and celebrity endorsements. Here digital marketing is the key, the consumer need to have more connectivity with Uber on social media. Uber can connect with its consumers after 3 hours duration iteratively. This process includes that consumer questions are readily answered and consumer should feel like they are being heard and management is listening to what they have to say. In doing so, Uber will create a positive word of mouth online. This will support the marketing campaign for Uber like refer a friend. Consumers, will have a recall message that Uber is there for there for their commuting needs.

Furthermore, Uber must hold online educational videos guiding the consumer on how to respond to various situations like if Uber drivers mal-handle the processor asks for extra fees. Uber must educate its consumer and inform them how management has protected their interests. In doing so Uber will ensure there are no unwanted dissatisfied consumers.

4. Control

Marketing ROI needs to be monitored and controlled. Given the large revenues of Uber, the key to success is to effectively channelize expenses and ensure they generate desired outcomes. Controlling is critical to ensure the long-term survival and sustainability of the company. Also given the massive scale of the targeted markets. Primary marketing expenses would be rendered on social media for maximizing global reach. The management will be an evaluative point where they would determine if the marketing plan is going in the right direction by monitoring the current position with the planned. In doing so Marketing team would be able to effectively design strategies and adjust them as the need be.