Opportunities For the Brand
Uber should develop an onboarding strategy to maintain driver loyalty and not drive a wedge between itself and these individuals. The company can help people map out and engage in their future careers. Uber does not have an onboarding program, which alleviates an employee retention crisis potential. The company operates in a digital environment and benefits from creating an onboarding program to ensure it continues boosting its organizational capacity. It would use this system to gain a positive brand image as a caring entity that ascertains the importance of personnel growth. Uber offers low profits to its employees and may exhibit a high staff turnover requiring additional investment to get more drivers. An onboarding strategy may reduce the rate of attrition evidenced in employee turnover and ensure it can monitor progress.
Uber would gain a significant advantage by boosting customer satisfaction through co-branding with Spotify. Individuals would gain comfort and an ability to control what they listen to during their transit while the company would alleviate the potential for customer discomfort. The organization also benefits from integration with major companies such as Spotify, allowing it to gain a competitive advantage as they would gain some of the business’ clients. Spotify would boost Uber’s market presence by advertising its offerings on the app’s platform, further increasing its reach worldwide.
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
- Uber is the first company to provide a one-on-one interaction between taxi owners and people seeking these services. This makes it widely known globally over its competitors.
- The organization offers high-standard services with verified cars and drivers. It is crucial to note Uber Black clients enjoy higher standards than others using the service.
- Uber does not have commercial vehicles, alleviating typical taxi service taxation while having an unlimited number of vehicles available worldwide (Dean, 2021).
- The company has a low operational cost as it utilizes customer-to-driver interaction, eliminating the need for a dispatcher.
- Uber’s process is streamlined as its users employ a cashless payment system. It can choose and track highly-rated drivers while exhibiting an excellent record of its spending.
- Uber’s competition is weak in comparison; the company exhibited 95 million app downloads by potential users in 2019, a stark contrast to Lyft’s 25 million downloads (Dean, 2021).
- The company uses a dual rating system that enhances safety and trust.
- Drivers are loyal to Uber due to its convenience. They can work flexible hours or choose part-time employment with a choice of rejecting customers.
- Uber’s dynamic pricing system evidences lower prices than traditional taxi operators.
Weaknesses
- Easy market entrance as the idea is easily imitable. While many companies do not have a similar structure, they have proliferated in recent years, carving out parts of Uber’s market share.
- Uber has an ethically questionable relationship with its drivers as they do not have a real connection, leading to low loyalty (Dean, 2021).
- Uber does not have a loyalty program and does not bond or provide incentives to remain loyal.
- Driver operational costs are high while they earn a relatively small wage.
- It has an unpredictable business model that fluctuated variably when covid-19 hit.
- Uber has privacy concerns as drivers record where they pick up customers and their go-to location.
Opportunities
- Uber takes advantage of a market with dissatisfied customers owing to prolonged waiting times and high prices evidenced by traditional cab businesses.
- The organization may exploit significant and novel markets in areas such as India with expensive and inconvenient taxi services.
- Uber benefits from growing markets in developing suburbs with limited access to taxi services.
- Increasing Uber driver numbers result in low Estimated Arrival Times, leading to a larger market share as it becomes people’s preferred mode of transport.
- Uber Eat grew by 200% during the covid-19 period; the company should maximize this service as it posits a profitable diversification opportunity for the business entity (Dean, 2021).
Threats
- Uber’s drivers have low-profit margins, an issue that may result in negative publicity. New drivers might refrain from joining the company, reducing its talent pool.
- The company is limited in Germany due to licenses required to provide passenger transport services.
- Clashes between many Uber drivers and local authorities tarnish the company’s image despite the limited connection between the entity and its employees.
- The easy market entrance has increased the number of companies offering similar services, decreasing prices and market share through customer loss as Uber does not have a loyal customer base.
- Additional drivers and markets have opened the market for scandals and scammers, damaging Uber’s image as it is linked with transportation.
Campaign Strategy
Promotion
Uber benefits from a large customer base that entails about 95 million downloads of its app annually (Dean, 2021). It should use the app to provide a message to anyone that downloads it, informing them about a loyalty program for customers.
The organization may connect its loyalty program with other factions of its business, such as Uber Eats. In this way, a customer would gain a particular number of points based on the distance traveled. These points should be separate from the rating system and allow customers to choose from options such as discounted rides or free meals and deliveries using Uber Eats. Customers who accumulate the top three highest points could be treated to a two-day trip courtesy of Uber and a second ticket. This issue would allow Uber to market itself to the second individual and posit a customer-friendly entity that gives back to its clients.
Uber should provide its customers with Uber Eats and ride discounts if they use Uber Cash to make payments. The company will gain additional revenue from customer loyalty and increased market share if it offers a bonus for using Uber Cash rather than other payment systems.
Metrics
Uber should discern whether its campaign elicits a high engagement rate as it seeks to gain customers. It should hire a social media employee to communicate with customers and determine various issues they would like in its loyalty program. Customers offer valuable insight that enables organizations to develop accurate measures to establish their business structures. The business should determine if the rate matches a conversion value, with a more excellent conversion to engagement ratio exhibiting positive business development. Conversion refers to the number of customers involved in the engagement section that utilize Uber’s loyalty program. It should discern if its loyalty program leads existing customers to use its services more or drive longer distances than previously recorded.
Furthermore, Uber should measure client retention rate to discern if it showcases increasing loyalty. These values should be analyzed every month, enabling the business to continually alter its marketing strategy to match the highest retention rate evidenced in this period. Measuring revenue growth via the loyalty program allows Uber to ascertain its relevance in business development.
Mock-ups
Billboard
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References
Dean, B. (2021). Uber statistics 2022: How many people ride with uber? Backlinko. Web.
Dyer, J. H., Godfrey, P., Jensen, R., & Bryce, D. (2021). Strategic Management. John Wiley & Sons.