Marketing Assignment: News Article Analysis on Uber On-Demand Bike Scheme Comes To Melbourne
Question
Task: Prepare a marketing assignment analysing a news article of your choice and identify potential stakeholders and issues in the article.
Answer
Introduction
News article analysis presented in the marketing assignment helps to identify specific areas of the article properly as different aspects of a topic can be identified easily. The current study has focused on the analysis of a news article “Uber on-demand bike scheme comes to Melbourne” for answering two key questions including the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal and identification of key stakeholders.
1.Identifying the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal from the Article
Based on the article analysis, it has been identified that “Sustainable cities and Communities” can be developed in Melbourne by the increasing use of electric bike. Maintaining sustainability in cities and communities throughout the worldis one of the major United Nations Sustainable Development goals and different countries throughout the world are trying to adopt effective strategies to enhance sustainability (UNSDG, 2020). The electric bike has a remote monitoring process that has popularity throughout Europe and currently launching electric bikes in Melbourne would help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance sustainability. As the use of a bike is safe and environment friendly, the UNSDG can be easily achieved under this scheme.
2. Identification of essential Stakeholders
The article analysis says that after launching the electric bicycle in Melbourne the target of making bicycle-friendly city can be achieved (Skatssoon, 2020). This is because electric bicycle is eco-friendly and hence, environmental pollution can be easily decreased. Key stakeholders in this program are the public of Melbourne, Buyer of the Product, the local government and local sellers and producers. Buyers are key stakeholders as they are customers of electric bicycle and hence if they cannot get a quality bicycle, producers would be hampered. On the other side, the local government has the aim to enhance environmental sustainability and it can be developed by launching electric bicycle. Public needs high-quality service from the service provider for fulfilling their day to day activities on time. Producers want to provide high-quality products for enhancing the satisfaction level of customers in Melbourne. Hence, it can be stated that stakeholders are related to each other in terms of product benefits. Hence, it is important to focus on the quality maintenance process that can fulfill the objectives of all stakeholders properly. Sellers would be satisfied with their profit if they can deliver products on time to the customers and hence, producers have to deliver products in the market based on quality checking.
Reflective Analysis
3. Potential Marketing Issues
The entire article reveals that electric bicycle launching would help to enhance the quality of lifestylein Melbourne(Skatssoon, 2020). As it is an uber on-demand bike scheme, the public would get on-time service according to their needs. One of the major potential marketing issues regarding the launch of this scheme I have identifiedis the high initial cost. This is because publicity regarding the scheme is essential at the initial stage otherwise; the sale cannot be developed in the market. Aggregate marketing cost includes advertisement through social media sites, offline advertisement and so on. Based on the view of Kim, Shin& Min (2016), marketing cost is an important factor in the case of launching a new product. This is because, based on the overall cost, the profit has been aimed by a business. Hence, the high initial investment is essential for getting easy success in case of launching the scheme. The second most important potential marketing issue I have foundis market segmentation. The reason is a specific target market is needed to be selected by the producers for entering into the market easily. Electric bicycles are not preferred by all customers throughout the globe and in the case of a specific city also, the product cannot be sold to all customers. Hence, segmentation has to be made in Melbourne based on evaluating market demand. According to the view of Liu, Liao, Huang& Liao (2019), market segmentation is an essential marketing technique for enhancing the market growth of a specific product.According to my point of view, the third major marketing issue in case of launching a new scheme is pricing as based on this strategy the business would be developed in Melbourne. As mentioned by Kienzler and Kowalkowski (2017), pricing strategy development is a comprehensive issue in the competitive market as a market survey is important before applying a specific pricing strategy.
4. Response to the Issues
Based on the above potential issue analysis, I can say that proper marketing planning is essential for launching uber on-demand bike scheme successfully. The reason is that the effective marketing planning would help to identify actual budget and based on the budget, financial and material resources can be allocated. As depicted by Peers, Van Heerde& Dekimpe (2017), budget is an important technique of enhancing market plan and controlling the overall cost of a product. Hence, I think the preparation of an appropriate budget would help to overcome the cost problem easily. Focusing on the budget allows the companies to consider the financial constraints of a project well in advance and plan for its mitigation, which, in this case, would help Uber to make its initiative successful and ensure that the project is completed without any glitches. In order to implement the market segmentation process effectively, it is important to focus on the actual requirements of the business and demand of customers. This is because it would help to identify what types of customers are needed for the service. I think this would help to target the market successfully and the new electric bike would be launched. According to my point of view, in terms of adopting the right pricing strategy in Melbourne, the competition level regarding the use of bike is needed to be evaluated. The background of the target customers needs to be identified based on which the pricing strategies to be followed by the company need to be determined. Based on a market survey the evaluation can be made and it would help to identify what type of pricing strategy is needed to be implemented. The market survey evaluation process would also allow the company to gauge the demand for the services and thus, make appropriate modifications in the service-delivery systems accordingly.
Conclusion
Based on the above discussion, it has been identified that the new bike scheme would help to achieve the sustainability goal of the United Nations easily. The marketing plan development is essential to get success in the uber on-demand bike scheme as it would help to make a reasonable budget and market survey can be conducted which is essential to enhance the growth of service in Melbourne.
References
Kienzler, M., & Kowalkowski, C. (2017). Pricing strategy: A review of 22 years of marketing research. Journal of Business Research, 78, 101-110.
Kim, N., Shin, S., & Min, S. (2016). Strategic marketing capability: Mobilizing technological resources for new product advantage. Journal of Business Research, 69(12), 5644-5652.
Liu, J., Liao, X., Huang, W., & Liao, X. (2019). Market segmentation: A multiple criteria approach combining preference analysis and segmentation decision. Marketing assignmentOmega, 83, 1-13. Peers, Y., Van Heerde, H. J., & Dekimpe, M. G. (2017). Marketing budget allocation across countries: the role of international business cycles. Marketing Science, 36(5), 792-809.
Skatssoon, J., (2020). Uber on-demand bike scheme comes to Melbourne - Government News. Retrieved 9 April 2020, from https://www.governmentnews.com.au/uber-bike-on-demand-scheme-comes-to-melbourne/
UNSDG, (2020). Retrieved 9 April 2020, from https://www.un.org/development/desa/disabilities/envision2030.html
