Budget estimation: Saint-Petersburg

Car sharing is a business which demands heavy investments. Most of them are demanded for acquiring a car fleet and installing the necessary equipment. In in oder to make the picture more clear, we propose a rough estimation of the budget for the first year (Saint-Petersburg). We suggest to acquire 90 cars of different models, and we also expect Avis group to provide us with 10 additional cars. Also we have a rough estimation of the employees salaries expenses, rent of the office, etc. Quite significant investments are demanded for the marketing campaign. We suggest to place banners in various places, such as subways stations, subway trains, railway stations, airport and on the ground transport stations. Thus we will be able to reach the wide audience and attract potential customers to Zipcars

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The amount of investments needed for the first year for Saint-Petersburg as you can see on the table equals to EUR 1 465 163,5. This is the number which reflects the fact that establishing a car sharing company demands a heavy investment, especially the firs year when the car fleet and the equipment must be acquired and the technical system is to be developed.

Zipcar: Loyalty

Loyalty Program is needed on the one hand to get incentives and recognition to the customers who use Zipcar on the permanent basis and on the other hand to support the company’s long tern sustainability.

	Hours of travel needed to get the special card (cumulated)	Reduction from the base price	Bonuses
			“Happy Birthday”	“Happy New Year”
Silver Membership Card	> 20 hours	-10 %	+ 15 min.	+10 min.
Gold Membership Card	> 60 hours	-20 %	+ 30 min.	+ 20 min.

In addition, some promos and special conditions are going to be introduced.

Students	– 10%
“Friends are welcome!” (introduce Zipcar service to your friend and get 20 minutes for free)	+ 20 min.
Leaving the car at the special parking slots	+ 15 min.
Recharging the car at the gasoline (the fuel costs are compensated)	+ 15 min.
Public Transportation card*	+ 60 min.

*Partnership with public transportation

Idea: If a person who is signed to Zipcar service, has decided to purchase the transportation card for public transport, he gets one hour for free to use a Zipcar service – “Start your journey on public transport – complete it with Zipcar”.

• Supplementing, not replacing existing transit networks
• Locating Zipcar parking slots near mass transit stations

What do you think about these options? What kind of promos can make Zipcar carcharing service more attractive?

 

Mirketing mix. Price

It is reasonable to derive the tariff plan for Zipcar service in Russia based on market-oriented pricing model by setting a price based upon analysis and research compiled from the target market. Zipcar has already delivered its pricing scheme for American and European markets, however, it does not really suit the Russian reality. To come up with the pricing decision it was crucial to analize the competitors: in our case they were Anytime and Streetcar.

Anytime tariffs

Streetcar tariffs

In order to get the insights and understand people’s expectation on price, the content analysis [comments on Anytime carsharing service] was conducted. Here are some interesting findings:

Once I did not manage to book the car because there were no100 RUR on my account. While I was transferring the sum – the car was booked by someone else…

Autokadabra 

I would like to use this service [carsharing], but it was confused by the necessity to hold the full sum of car rent on my account….

Vk.com

…you can get into traffic jam driving the shared-car, so in that case the per minute tarification is more expensive [than use of taxi service]…

Зарулем.рф 

The main reason to have only one tariff plan is to reduce any kind of ambiguity among clients. In order to avoid inconveniences of having high deposit, the payment for Zipcar – Russia service can be connected with clients’ bank accounts. The service is aimed to promote simplicity and convenience that is why there is differentiation in terms of price for the cars-to-share. The car fleet is represented by Hyundai Solaris Hatchback, Ford Focus Ambiente, Nissan Almena and Opel Corsa.

Occasional Driving Plan
Included with every plan: gas, insurance and up to 100 free kilometers per day
No deposit, No application fee, No annual fee
Per 30 min	200 RUR
extra 15 min	+ 80 RUR
Per hour	330 RUR
Day rent	3000 RUR
For each additional kilometerThe tariff for long distance (starting from 101st km and onwards)	7 RUR/km
Additionally:
Compensation for refueling/parking at parking point	15 min. free