Questions for Discussion

1. Evaluate Zipcar based on benefit-oriented positioning.

2. Describe the beliefs and values associated with Zipcar's brand image.

3. Compare positioning based on benefits to positioning based on beliefs and values. Which is stronger?

4. Based on what you know about the Zipcar brand, how will the company perform in the future relative to bigger, more experienced competitors?

product? regarding brand development Zipcar: "It's Not about Cars- Company Case it's about Urban Life" Fulfilling Consumer Needs 1. What are people buying when they purchase a Lite is on 2. What factors have contributed to the Life Is Good brand me 3. What recommendations would you make to Life is Go One of most important benefits Zipcar provides is com nience. Owning a car in a densely populated urban area cants a real hassle. Zipcar lets customers focus on driving, not onts complexities of car ownership. It gives them "Wheels when you want them," in four easy steps: "Join. Reserve. Unlock. Drive To join, you pay around $60 for an annual membership and ceive your personal Zipcard, which unlocks any of the thousands of cars located in urban areas around the world. Then, when you dwellers. The company's goal is for Zipsters to not have to wak more with today's highly targeted Web, it's hard to target at that hyper.ca level," says Griffith. "So our street teams do it block by block z code by zip code." Thus, in addition to local ads and transit adverts sledgehammer at an SUV, while on Harvard's campus, students For example, in San Francisco, passersby got to swing 2 side a MINI. In Washington, D.C., Zipcar street teams plantede tried to guess how many frozen IKEA meatballs were stuffed in- couch on a busy sidewalk with the sign "You need a Zipcar move this." And the company has launched several local "Lo Car Diet" events, in which it asks urban residents to give up the cars and blog about it. Zipcar gave a free bike to a lucky der 256 Part 3 Designing a Customer -Driven Strategy and Mix illustrates the challenges a company faces in balancing the role of the customer and the role of the company in determining the meaning of a brand. After viewing the video featuring Life Is Good, answer the fol- lowing questions: Imagine a world in which no one owns a car. Cars would still ex- ist, but rather than owning cars, people would just share them. Sounds crazy, right? But Scott Griffith, CEO of Zipcar, the world's largest car-share company, paints a picture of just such an imaginary world. And he has 700,000 passionate customers--or Zipsters, as they are called-who will back him up. Zipcar specializes in renting out cars by the hour or day. Although this may sound like a minor variation on the established rental car agency business, car sharing-a concept pioneered by Zipcar-is an entirely different concept. As Griffith took the driver's need a car, reserve one-minutes or months in advance-online seat of the young start-up company, he knew that if the company was going to achieve cruising speed, it needed to be far more than by phone, or using a smartphone app. You can choose the ca just another car service. Zipcar needed to be a well-positioned you want, when and where you want it, and drive it for as little brand that appealed to a customer base with unfulfilled needs. $7.50 an hour, including gas, insurance, and free miles. When you're ready, walk to the car, hold your Zipcard to the windshiga A Car Rental Company That Isn't about Cars to unlock the doors, and you're good to go. When you're done As Griffith considered what Zipcar had to offer, it was apparent you drop the car off at the same parking spot - Zipcar Worries that it couldn't be all things to all people. But the concept seemed about the maintenance and cleaning. particularly well suited to people who live or work in densely pop Zipcar not only eliminates the hassle of urban car ownership ulated neighborhoods in cities such as New York City, Boston, it also saves money. By living with less, the average Zipster sales Atlanta, San Francisco, and London. For these customers, own $600 a month on car payments, insurance, gas, maintenance, ing a car (or a second or third car) is difficult, costly, and environ and other car ownership expenses. mentally irresponsible. Interestingly, Zipcar doesn't see itself as a Zipcar's operating system is carefully aligned with its urban car-rental company. Instead, it's selling a lifestyle. "It's not about lifestyle positioning. For starters, Zipcar "pods" (a dozen or so cars," says CEO Griffith, "it's about urban life. We're creating a vehicles located in a given neighborhood) are stocked from a lifestyle brand that happens to have a lot of cars." portfolio of over 50 different models that trendy urbanites love Initially, the Zipcar brand was positioned exclusively round a The vehicles are both hip and fuel efficient: Toyota Priuses, Honda value system. As an urban lifestyle brand, Zipcar focused on traits CRVS, MINIS, Volvo S60s, BMW 328s, Toyota Tacomas, Toyota that city dwellers have in common. For starters, the lifestyle is Siennas, Subaru Outbacks, and others. And Zipcar is now testing rooted in environmental consciousness. At first, Zipcar focused plug-in hybrids and full electric vehicles, as well as full-size vans on green-minded customers with promotional pitches such as for big jobs. Each car has its own personality-a name and profie "We Earth" and "Imagine a world with a million fewer cars on created by a Zipster. For example, Prius Ping "jogs in the morning the road." Zipcar's vibrant green logo reflects this save-the-Earth doesn't say much," whereas Civic Carlos "teaches yoga; loves to philosophy. And Zipcar really does deliver on its environmental kayak." Such personal touches make it feel like you're borrowing promises. Studies show that every shared Zipcar takes up to the car from a friend, rather than being assigned whatever piece 20 cars off the road and cuts carbon emissions by up to 50 per of metal happens to be available. cent per user. On average, Zipsters travel 44 percent fewer miles than when they owned a car. To further eliminate hassles and make Zipcar as convenient as But it wasn't long before Griffith realized that if Zipcar was possible, company promotional tactics are designed to appeal to any going to grow, it needed to move beyond just being green. So than 10 minutes to get to one of its car pods- no easy task. Even the brand has broadened its positioning to include other urban lifestyle benefits - benefits that Zipcar appeals to on its site in re- sponse to the question, "Who exactly is the car-sharing type?" Zipcar provides the most common reasons for car-sharing: ing, Zipcar reps are beating the streets in true guerilla fashion - I don't want the hassle of owning a car. I want to save money. I take public transit, but need a car sometimes. Once in a while I need a second car. I need a big car for a big job. I want a cute car to match my new shoes. I want to impress my boss. product category and evaluate each brand's packaging on these Products, Services, and Brands: Building Customer Value 257 $2 million to more than $136 million, and it's looking double tham number in one year's time. Zipcar has also reached the milestone of being profitable. With 10 million people now within a 10-minute walk of a Zipcar, there's plenty of room to grow. And as more cars are added, Zipcar's reach will only increase Zipcar's rapid growth has sounded alarms at the traditional car- rental giants. Enterprise, Hertz, Avis, Thrifty, and even U-Haul now have their own car-sharing operations. But Zipcar has a 10-year head start, cozy relationships in targeted neighborhoods, and an urban hipster cred that corporate giants like Hertz will have trouble matching. To Zipsters, Hertz rents cars, but Zipcar is a part of their hectic urban lives. n each of the cities where it operates. Surveyed dieters reported sawing 67 percent on vehicle costs compared to operating their own cars. Nearly half of them also said that they lost weight. Zocar's orientation around the urban, environmentally conscious Fostering Brand Community Mest le fosters a tight-knit sense of customer community. Zipsters de as fanatically loyal as the hardcore fans of Harley-Davidson or Dades. Loyal Zipsters serve as neighborhood brand ambassa- Apple, brands that have been nurturing customer relationships for dors: 30 percent of new members join up at the recommendation of exsting customers. "When I meet another Zipcar member at a party or something, I feel like we have something in common," says one Boon Zipster. "It's like we're both making intelligent choices about ar lives. And just like Harley owners get together on weekends to de the Internet is littered with announcements for Zipster parties at 8-1. List the names of the store brands found in the following stores: Walmart, Best parable national brand. (AACSB: Communication; Reflective Thinking) 62. A product's package is often referred to as a "silent salesperson" and is the last marketing effort consumers see before they make a selection in the store. One model used to evaluate a product's package is the VIEW model: visibility, infor- mation, emotion, and workability. Visibility refers to the package's ability to stand out among competing products on the store shelf. Information is the type and amount of information included on the package. Some packages try to simulate emotion to influence buyers. Finally, all product packages perform the basic func- tion of workability-protecting and dispensing the product. Select two compet- other brand's packaging. (AACSB: Communication; Reflective Thinking) dimensions. Which brand has superior packaging? Suggest ways to improve the Mymktlab Only - comprehensive writing assignment for this chapter. hers restaurants, and comedy clubs, among other places As Zipcar has taken off, it has broadened the appeal of its trand to include a different type of urban dweller -- businesses and other organizations. Companies such as Google now en- courage employees to be environmentally conscious by com- muting via a company shuttle and then using Zipcars for both business and personal use during the day. Other companies are ung Zipcar as an alternative to black sedans, long taxi rides, and congested parking lots. Government agencies are getting into the game as well. The city of Chicago recently partnered with Zocar to provide a more efficient and sustainable transportation aternative for city agencies. And Washington, D.C., now saves more than $1 million a year using Zipcar. Fleet manager Ralph Burns says that he has departments lining up. "Agencies putting their budgets together for next year are calling me up and saying, Ralph. I've got 25 cars I want to get rid of!" How is Zipcar's strategy of positioning itself as an urban lifestyle brand working? By all accounts, the young car-sharing nicher has the pedal to the metal and its tires are smoking. In just the past Sigit years, Zipcar's annual revenues have rocketed 68-fold, from Assisted-graded writing questions: Questions for Discussion 1. Evaluate Zipcar based on benefit-oriented positioning. 2. Describe the beliefs and values associated with Zipcar's brand image. 3. Compare positioning based on benefits to positioning based on beliefs and values. Which is stronger? 4. Based on what you know about the Zipcar brand, how will the company perform in the future relative to bigger, more experi- enced competitors? Sources: Jerry Hirsch, Zipcar CEO Talks about Car Sharing as Lifestyle Choice, Seattle Times, May 13, 2012, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com html/businesstechnology/2018197748_inpersonzipcar14.html; "Zipcar Rolling into Profits, Stock Headed to $22, Forbes, February 23, 2012, www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2012/02/23/zipcar-rolling-into- profitability-stock-headed-to-221; Kunur Patel, Zipcar: An America's Hot- test Brands Case Study," Advertising Age, November 16, 2009, p. 16; Paul Keegan, "Zipcar: The Best New Idea in Business," Fortune, August 27, 2009, accessed at www.fortune.com: Stephanie Clifford, "How Fast Can This Thing Go, Anyway?" Inc., March 1, 2008, www.inc.com/magazine/ 20080301/how-fast-can-this-thing-go-anyway.html,andwww.zipcar.com, accessed October 2012 MyMarketingLab So to mymktlab.com for Auto-graded writing questions as well as the following your choice and compare the price and quality of one of the products to a com- ing brands in a