Timing in Commercialization
mla
Writing requirement:
Commercialization
Commercialization is introducing the new product into the market
Write up your answers to the following important decision:
-Timing. Create detailed plan with explanation
Reminder:
Location: San Francisco USA
Ridecheap
Product Screening:
With so many different ridesharing services available for use in large cities like San Francisco today, it can definitely be confusing to decide just which services are the most convenient and cost-efficient. While most services offer promotional codes when you first sign-up, once your free rides run out you may find yourself paying more than average for your rides around the city. With an app on your phone in which you can enter your starting and ending destinations, it would be able to alert you which ridesharing service is the most cost-effective for your commute.
The product does not necessarily have a unique design, but it definitely has a unique feature that other apps do not, specifically in the sense that it works solely to save its users money on their commute. The even better part is that the app is simple enough to build to where it could be offered free to customers, and with the right levels of sponsorship, it could definitely create a large revenue.
Many ridesharing apps claim to have the cheapest prices, for example: Lift and Uber. With so many claims out there it is hard to know which product truly is the cheapest, especially with the surge rates that are now being applied when demand is high (Sunday brunch hours are 2.5x the normal rate for Uber& Lift will charge you 2.0x the normal rate for being in a more popular street pick up point). This app would have the knowledge to know when these rates are ending and give you options to wait 15 minutes for rush hour to end or chose to Lyft instead as it would save you $2 per mile.
This app would be the first of it’s kind on the market and therefore not have any direct competition at first. Once this app is on the App Stores for Apple and Android users it will be available to all smartphone users and therefore be available to the whole consumer market.
The ridesharing market is booming right now and is an industry that is definitely new to the marketplace – before your options included hailing a taxi or renting a car, now you can save money and know exactly when your ride will be there with a few clicks on your phone. The demand for Uber, Lyft, Sidecar, Rideshare, etc. is in high demand right now and we’re not sure how long the market will continue to boom for. However, we believe this app will be taking advantage of the success of the market and can continue to adapt and evolve as more companies enter the marketplace. We do not believe that this new genre of transportation is a fad but an evolution of the market that will be here for a long time to come.
Concept testing and development
DESCRIPTION
(The aim of our survey is to engage with our fellow students around campus and understand which transportation services appeal to them in the city. Today’s market offers several car-sharing apps. Their convenience and ease are slowly eliminating taxis and other forms of public transport. Our app will compare all forms of transportation and determine which option is the cheapest for users. Additionally, in an attempt to save our customers time, the app will calculate destination arrivals for each of their commute options. We intend to use the feedback from our surveys to guide us on how people would like the app to operate. We will draw attention to our app through promotional offers based on the amount they use our app. Overall, our aim is to identify the specific needs and wants of current ride-sharing users in order to make our app stand out and become successful.)
Test result
(We created a survey with 9 multiple choices questions on Surveymonkey.com and we obtained 22 responses by using the convenience sample method. The first question is “If our new product were available today, how likely would you be to recommend it to others?”, and we received 31.82% on both extremely likely and quite likely to recommend. Additionally, 27.27% chose moderately likely. The second question is “Are you willing to pay more for a service if there is little wait time?” and 54.55% of people said they were willing to pay more if they were in a hurry. Thirdly, 63.64% think this app should only be available in major cities around the world. The fourth question is “What is the most important feature about this new app?”. According to the survey, 40.91% of people choose quality and 36.36% of people think the most important feature is price. Our fifth question recorded 86.96% of people finding the idea of the app useful regardless of the high amount of promotional codes frequently distributed by various ridesharing services. Moreover, there are 82.61% of people who have experienced “surge rates” during rush hours. And as the result of the fourth question showed, price is the second important feature of this app. Thus, 63.64% of people think that this is worth to spend a little more time to find the cheapest way home. Then, for “Are you overwhelmed by the amount of options there are for ridesharing”, there are 56.52% of people who choose “no” and 43.48% of people choose “yes”. The last question is “What are your favorite means of transportation in San Francisco?”. Predictably, 42.11% of people choose Uber and 31.58% of people choose bus since public transportation is quite convenient in San Francisco.)
Through our survey research, we have derived from our collective data that our app would be successful in the ride-sharing and smartphone market today. Only 7.41% of those surveyed said they would be only slightly likely to recommend the application to others, demonstrating that their is a high interest level and large market for such a feature. Because of the continuously recovering economy, it makes sense that a free app promoting being economically savvy would be successful. Not only that, but ride-sharing is a relatively youthful alternative, further increasing the odds that the young consumers will be continuously looking to save money after a long night out, especially during a peak of surge pricing, versus an older couple who may not be using ride-sharing services or may not experience surge pricing because they may be home earlier than the younger demographic. Either way, we predict this app to be highly successful and will meet the unmet needs of our young consumer demographic today.
The results also indicated that nearly half of the subjects found that the amount of ridesharing services available was overwhelming. With numerous options, and the frequency promotional codes distributed from each company, ridesharing is constantly changing. 63.64% of people believe that spending extra time to find the best deal is worthwhile, since it’s so hard to keep up with the different promotions, surge rates, and companies out there. The survey suggests to us that Uber and public transportation are the most preferred methods of transportation in San Francisco for the USF student population. However, we believe that public transportation will soon be replaced by ridesharing for many students at USF. This is due to the rising costs, strikes, and lack of reliability that many students complain about with public transportation on the Muni and Bart. Therefore, this app will accommodate people in the present, but is also looking into the future at what trends and needs may arise.
Marketing strategy development
Part 1 (Target Market):
The primary target market for Ridecheap will be students and workers who commute in and around the city on a daily basis. Students will be our main focus as they are very conscientious about the money they spend and savvy at finding the best deals possible. We are positive that students will greatly enjoy using our app to help them find cheap and time saving routes. Ridecheap will allow them to easily navigate through the various means of transportation and find the most time efficient and cheapest option.
For the working class many are not able to drive to their jobs because of lack of parking, expensive parking, gas costs or maybe they are motivated by public transportations less impactful environmental aspect. They will appreciate our services as it will give them an idea of the different prices of transportation. On some days they may need to get to work fast after waking up late and take a taxi or maybe they don’t mind a slow journey so will take the bus. The working class are also very savvy with their money in that they will review all the possibilities before making a decision which is exactly what our app will provide for them all in one convenient place.
Part 2 (Product’s value proposition):
This product is a rideshare application with unique features designed to enable users to save money by comparing all available transport options and determining the cheapest. Ridecheap also saves users time by calculating and approximating destination arrivals for the available options. This application can be used with most of the smart phones on the current market to ensure travels within the city are smoother and cost efficient. The application’s unique features will not only enable users to save on commuter costs but will also give them updates on when peak and rush hour rates will end and propose the best options for the users to choose from.
The value of this product is that it works to give consumers the most value for their dollar. Because ridesharing services are becoming popular, it almost expected that when one goes out for the evening, they will be using one to get home. While this is a good thing in the sense that worrying about designated drivers and where to park your car during a long evening have diminished, it has definitely added a huge cost to the transportation industry today. However, knowing that the cost of ridesharing services are increasing, the demand for a product like ours that works to diminish those transportation costs is high. Through offering a service that works to diminish transportation costs and ease convenience, consumers will be eager to use our application.
Part 3 (Sample advertisement):
Business Analysis
Part 1: Product Review
Ridecheap is an app that helps both Android and iPhone users save money on their commutes. The app is a new and unrivaled product that will be useful to consumers seeking to minimize their transportation costs. Ridecheap provides its utility by comparing all forms of transportation and their prices, including surge pricing for ride-sharing services, and recommending the most convenient and cost-effective alternative. For example, the app can analyze the price and arrival times of taxi and ride-sharing services, such as Uber and Lyft, with a view to recommending the most suitable alternative in terms of cost and time. It weighs the various options we have with price, time, convienience, and quality for you.
The market for ridesharing apps has been growing significantly in recent years. Both Uber and Lyft have supplied millions of rides between them in dozens of cities around United States. Overseas expansions are underway, which will grow popularitiy and user numbers significantly in the upcoming months. Commuters, especially the young generation, find ridesharing convenient and cost effective due to high parking and fuel charges for personal cars as well as difficulties in obtaining parking space. With difficulties of personal car use and discomfort of public transportation, ridesharing services are predicted to continue growing.
With the multiplicity of ridesharing apps, each claiming to be cheap or convenient, consumers may find it difficult to compare them. Surge pricing that comes into effect mostly at unpredictable rush hours complicates this task. Ridecheap fills the gap of lack of consumer awareness about the relative prices and arrival times of ridesharing services within an area.
Part 2: Selling Price Estimation
A survey was conducted to determine the demand for an app with the functionality of alerting consumers about the best price of ridesharing services. The results were convincingly in favour of the future success of the app. Over 90% of respondents reported that they were likely to recommend the app. About 87% found the idea of the app useful while 63.64% expressed their likelihood to invest some time in the app to identify the cheapest service to get them home. Forty-two percent of respondents reported having used Uber. Over 82% of respondents were found to have suffered surge pricing. Ridecheap will also appeal to 43.48% of consumers who felt overwhelmed by the sheer number of ridesharing services.
Ridecheap will be offered free of charge to consumers to gain rapid intial growth and buyer lock-in. Revenue will be made in form of sponsorships by ridesharing services and other affiliates and in-app advertisements.The minimum advertising and sponsorship fee will be $2.00 per unit which is price per unit. This counts as the price per installation from our customers. We predict that we will have 500,000 user downloads in the first twelve months of launching the app, which will account for a total profit of $1,000,000 within the first year of our launch.
Part 3: Sales Volume
Our app’s main focus is bringing in major apps like Muni, Uber, Lyft, Yellow Cab (Easy taxi) and Bart all together. This will give our customers a side by side comparison of what prices and what routes each different transportation system will offer. In order to determine our sales volume we need to analyze how many times each of the apps lised above have been downloaded.
According to www.http://xyo.net/ we got the following results, for times downloaded:
Uber: 5,000,000
Lyft: 1,700,000
Muni Alerts: 50,000
Easy Taxi: 6,800,000
RideScout (Bart): 37,000
As we can see from the following results, that Easy taxi (yellow Cab) is the most commonly downloaded app. Next in line are the private car companies that have recently emerged in Uber and Lyft. Public transportation is rarely being used in recent years as we can see with the relatively low numbers in busses and trains. Car companies have become more popular because they pick their clienents up wherever the please, whereas trains and busses are only avalaible at thier designated stops. Many people have reverted to Uber and Lyft as payment is made via online credit cards. This gives thier clients the freedom of getting in out of cars without having cash on them.
With the use of app only avaliable primarily in San Francisco at first we would like to base our sales volume around the numbers of Muni’s and Bart’s apps downloaded. Since, Muni and Bart are focused on the Bay Area it will be easier to determine aobtainabmle number. Therefore, we came up with the goal of having 500,000 downloads within the first year and $1,000,000 as the sales volume for the first twelve months with growth after international expansion in the next few years.
Product Development
Test Marketing
Description of Market Test
A market test was conducted to assess the receptiveness of RideCheap by the intended market segment. The test was carried out among fellow students and friends. These groups were chosen because of convenience, cost, and their similarity to the actual users of the app. The goal of the market test was to assess the conditions under which the app would be used the most, the reaction of the users to the app, and the detailed feedback concerning the app’s features, advantages, and potential shortcomings.
To complete the market test, the app was made available to a select group of 30 students within the campus. They were encouraged to record their initial reactions about the product on dimensions that included “look and feel”, usefulness, ease of use, and general utility with relation to price and convenience in facilitating their commuting. Participant’s feedback was unstructured in the sense that they were encouraged to share their thoughts, experiences, reactions, and general views about the product in a manner they pleased.Test participants could send feedback by phone and email. Oral feedback was also gathered whenever we met any of the test participants.
Test Results:
Positive:
Following the market test, a great deal of feedback was received. It was encouraging that test participants were eager to share their views regarding Ridecheap. A large proportion of the feedback was positive, expressing satisfaction with the product and a strong willingness to continue using it as well as recommending it to friends and acquaintances.
Test participants rated the app’s visual appearance and user interface favorably, in terms of usability. Specifically, it displayed easily recognizable icons of available ridesharing services and legible text. In addition, the buttons across the bottom of the app window gave users comprehensive range of functionality, such as the button to compare prices, arrival times, and routes for different ridesharing services; the buttons for each ridesharing service to make orders; a contacts button; and a ‘coupons’ button. These features made the app enjoyable to use and contributed towards the desire to recommend it to other commuters and friends.
Negative:
As noted previously, the feedback was largely favorable, except for a tiny bit of reservation expressed by some test participants who worried that orders made from Ridecheap may not be honored by the ridesharing services who would prefer the order be made from their own apps. Another downside to the visual appearance was the advertisements, so we will have to find away to allow advertisers for profit, without it bothering the consumers to a degree in which they won’t use the app.
In conclusion, we feel confident that our research leading up to the marketing test has helped us create a product that has little glitches and will be received positively by our target audience. After presenting the idea behind Ridecheap and the blueprint of the product, we received a high level of positive feedback. Those who didn’t give us a highly positive reaction are people who don’t frequently use public transportation and ridesharing services, and were not very interested in the product because of that. I believe our big challenge is going to be marketing that this service is authorized and accurate. Additionally, managing advertisements will be a challenge, as we don’t want to devalue the app or bombard people. However, this will be the main source of income, so it’s a very important feature we must include.
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When it comes to commercialization, timing is a very important factor to consider. Timing can determine whether the new product will be able to thrive in the market or not. Before launching the Ridecheap product in the market, it is wise to analyze the current situation in the market. According to the report and research regarding the market and other substitute products, launching the product at this time will be the most suitable time due to some reasons.
One reason is that this product does not have a unique………………
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