Marketing & Innovation Business Case: ladies Taxi Service, Paris

Résumé du document

Nowadays, women do not feel safe in the streets of Paris. In 2008, 10% to 12% of the people interrogated in Paris claimed to be worried about their security in the day-to-day life . Taxis and public transport are not an exception. Some recent events such as the murder of a young Swedish girl by a taxi driver have considerably reduced the trust of customers in taxi services.

In view of these events and as young entrepreneurs in the taxi service sector in Paris, we have decided to take into account those facts and find a solution to win back our female customers. So, we will be launching an exclusive taxi service called ‘Ladies Taxi' for women only (and children subject to an age limit for boys) in September 2011. Our taxi service will be an innovation in the Parisian private transport sector as our team of taxi drivers will be composed of women only. Our company will be registered as a taxi company, owning a fleet of 15 to 20 taxis ready to operate in the Paris area. To support our activity and guarantee an easy access to our services, a call center and a website will be available to our customers in order to book a car in advance.
Indeed, today, the frequent taxi customers are represented by women (35%), business related (30%), tourists (10% to 15%) and others (10% to 15%) . It is then crucial to win the trust of women who represent the biggest segment of taxi users. Therefore, the primary market for our company will be urban and active women from between 20 and 50 years. These women have good jobs with a medium to high level of responsibility. They enjoy going out at night and would be very interested in a transport service that would provide them security and comfort.
There are currently 16,623 taxi drivers operating in the Paris area and 12% of these are female taxi drivers. During the past decade, this figure has increased as customers are paying less attention to old cliches about women's way of driving. Moreover, according to the town council's estimation, the 200,000 taxi rides completed daily in the city do not meet the increasing demand of customers (tourists, business). Above all, Parisian women, the largest segment of taxi users, do not find the existing taxi system safe. Therefore, there is an opportunity to launch a new taxi service that will bring them peace.

Extraits

[...] Indeed, we will put advertising banners on the side of our cars. By doing this, we can offer our cars as advertising support to feminine brands (fashion or people magazines and typical product for women like make-up brands). This advertising is very interesting for sponsors. Indeed, our cars are supposed to move a lot in Paris and should be seen by many people who will be potential consumers. It's a real opportunity to communicate a product quickly and efficiently because of the mobility of the support. [...]

[...] The technological factors With the development of the GPS system, the transport sector and especially the taxi services have experienced a revolution. As this system enables the precise location of all vehicles, it increases profitability for customers by reducing the time one spends in waiting for a taxi. Moreover, hybrid cars, using organic fuel, are becoming more popular throughout the transport industry as they allow considerable savings. In the same way, electrical cars will come up on a massive scale in the next decade and profoundly change the transport service sector including taxi services. [...]

[...] Marketing & Innovative Business Case: Ladies Taxi Service, Paris Table of contents Introduction 2 I. The external environment 3 a. PESTEL analysis 3 b. COMPETITIVE FORCES 5 II. The Strategy 6 a. Essential core competencies 6 b. Essential resources 7 c. Choosing the value 9 d. Providing the value 11 e. Strategic partnerships : 13 III. [...]

[...] Finally, we need to keep an eye on the competition in order to keep our differentiation: a service exclusively for women offered by women. Choosing our value Segmentation The market of the transport services in Paris is segmented as following: Frequent taxi users: women to 35 corporate clients to 35 and finally tourists and other to 15 These people are using taxi services more than once a week. Occasional taxi users: tourists, night clubbers, occasional travelers, old people Public transports users: public transport (RER, metro, bus, and tramway) is used by 75% of Parisian citizens every day because of its price and convenience. [...]

[...] Finally, our possibilities of expansion are numerous and promising. Extending the number of taxis will be necessary to respond to the demand and increase our revenue. Moreover, enlarging our targeted audience to international and especially English-speaking tourists will also increase our revenue and our reputation. To conclude, one of our main objectives will be to expand our activity from local to national and implement our company throughout the big cities in France, to be the reference of ‘girly & security taxis'. [...]