Assignment: Problem Identification and Project Outline
The company that I we will be speaking on is Uber. Uber is a ride sharing app that is in most major city in the United States. Uber started in San Francisco and has branched out too many other cities. There are many different factors that go into the decision of where Uber can be successful. Uber needs to know the population of a city to be able to justify operating in that city. Not enough people in a city would not make it worth an individual to sign up for Uber and become a driver. Uber also needs to know everything it can about alternative modes of transportation already in existence in the city. Uber will also want to know what the density of the city and how far apart all main destination are, for example airports and the downtown areas, to be able to hire the correct number of drivers.
Population
Population data is an easy one to obtain but it is not a tell all piece of data. Market researches will obtain this information through city records and census records. We can not simply look at a population and assume what percentage would use Uber. After knowing the population, we must determine the diversity in the population. Uber's main customer base is people going out and drinking and using Uber for a safe ride home. A retirement city like Palm Spring or some cities in Florida with a high occupancy of elderly people might not be the best fit for Uber. Also knowing the density of the city is crucial for the success for Uber. If a city is to spread out it would not be worth the time, gas, and money for either Uber driver or customer to use Uber.
Competition
Knowing your competition is important when venturing your company into new territory. Information about how many people use public transportation will be valuable data. This will give Uber an estimate of how many people are already using alternative forms of transportation. Figuring out how many taxi services and cars are out on the road. Knowing how many people and how busy a taxi service is will be difficult because taxi companies swill not just hand over this information. There are other ways to go about trying to estimate though. Every taxi must be documented and registered with the city they operate. This means that it is public record to know how many taxi cabs there are in any given city. Knowing this data, one could extrapolate how busy and how much a population of the city uses alternative modes of transportation.
Terrain of the new Environment
Uber being a ride sharing app must know the terrain of the environment they are about to venture into. For example, If there is one airport in the city located a significant distance from down town this must be taken into consideration. Uber must meet right in the middle of customer needs and driver needs to be successful. If a lot of the main destination like bars, malls, airports, and downtown areas are to spread out it will make it difficult for a company like Uber to be successful. For example, an optimal drive, an Uber driver would pick up a passenger from downtown and drive them to the airport then pick up another customer then drive them back to down town. This would be an example of the best-case scenario. In a city not populated enough or a city spread to wide this would be very difficult to achieve.
Use the assignment above for this assignment
Write a 525- to 700-word paper in which you examine the applicability of different marketing research tools to the scenario that you selected in your Week 2 Learning Team Assignment: Market Research Implementation Plan: Problem Identification and Project Outline.
Address the following in your paper:
• Describe your business scenario.
• Explain secondary market search considerations and apply them to the selected scenario.
• Discuss the research design used in your project, such as qualitative, quantitative, or mixed.
• Develop at least one data collection instrument to address your market research scenario.
The response should include a reference list. Double-space, using Times New Roman 12 pnt font, one-inch margins, and APA style of writing and citations.