Final Project BUS 605

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Anna Swan Marketing Decision Making Final Project December 9, 2021 The Rise of Uber The marketing phenomenon and company I chose to examine is Uber. Uber was the first company to start of its kind and is now considered a leader in their industry. What used to be a crazy phenomenon of hiring a random person to drive you from place to place is now one of the most used forms of transportation. Before the rise of Uber, calling a cab was the standard if one needed a ride to or from the airport or if you were on a trip to a new place without a car, a cab could take you where you needed to go. With the rise of smart phones and development of apps came Uber which is now much more convenient for customers as they can have a car in the click of a button. What started as an idea to replace cabs in bigger cities turned into a service used by many people daily. As Uber has gained more popularity, they have marketed higher levels of service almost to compete with chauffer services. Uber's rise wasn't always easy, as people were skeptical of the company with its rising popularity. It was surprising for some people the thought to hire a random person over an app to drive one around. While the phenomenon was very similar to cabs, those were not very prominent outside of large cities, and they were very easily identifiable. When Uber first came out there was some controversy over if it is safe or how to prevent getting in the wrong car. Even in present day, it is still difficult to feel safe getting into a random person's car, therefore, Uber has put into place many safety measures such as sharing your ride through the app to be
watched by a family member or friend and suggesting that the driver state the name of the customer before entering the car. When Uber first launched, they relied on the Silicon Valley and tech savvy community. The first issue to attack was that they not only had to attract riders but also drivers. The only way for Uber to make their money was to have enough drivers in the areas that got the most business. Once Uber was successful in being an attractive job to the drivers, they were able to start their marketing towards riders. I think that the start-up of Uber in the fact that they had two groups to appeal to was interesting as finding employees was a much different process than any other company launching for the first time. They started with marketing towards local technology influencers and then had their business travel through word of mouth. They then focused on local marketing expressing how their business can be useful to people all over the world and in different traffic situations. Uber started their in-app marketing to show their customers that they have a reliable car service where consumers can read ratings of drivers, easily hail a car, track their car, and ride, and have an easy single-step payment process. Once Uber developed a following, their marketing became more app focused. They would and still do, send push notifications to their customers phones promoting different times of day or promotions they have going on. They also developed a loyalty program as you can move up in as you take so many rides, rate your drivers and having good ratings from your drivers as well. This made using Uber more appealing rather than using their competitors as they began having companies join the industry. Uber's 4 P's are as following; their product is an app based cab. This allows consumers to find a temporary ride much easier than trying to hail taxis on the side of the road nor call a
headquarter center to get a cab. The pricing strategy is dependent on the time of day, area you are in and if there is a high demand for Ubers at that time. Uber provides an estimate for their rides once a destination is input in the app. Usually the rides cost anywhere from $6-9 but if there are big events in your area or you are requesting a long-distance ride those prices can rise quickly. As far as place goes, Uber is in 40+ countries and 600+ cities worldwide. Additionally, Uber is a phone app therefore it is accessible to anyone with a smartphone and has cellular service, thus being very accessible to the population. When Uber first started up their promotion and advertising strategies where very little. They relied mainly on the word of mouth to spread their business and then started promoting free first rides or their customers which drew customers in initially. Now they rely on promotions for their loyalty customers and social media and digital marketing for their advertising needs. Uber's biggest attraction to customers is a cheap, quick and easy ride anywhere you need to go. Whether it be a ride to the airport, a ride home from a bar, or simply to or from work, Uber is there to help. They market themselves as a much better alternative to cabs or taxis especially in areas that don't have a large number of cabs. The Uber app is easy to use as you input your destination, the app finds your current location via GPS services, calculates the price for the ride and sends a car. Eliminating the act of calling a cab and trying to describe your pickup location or even trying to hail a cab on the side of the road in a big city makes Uber more attractive to consumers than cabs or taxis. As far as Uber's marketing strategies go with attracting their customer, they have come out with television ads, in-app ads, and online ads but they are not as prominent as other companies in other industries. Once the word of Uber was spread, there wasn't much need for major advertising because they have a customer base and
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