1. Vision mission goals

* To reach car-less people of urban areas who did not want to own a car or deal with car ownership issues, but who could get easy access at their convenience by charging lower prices * Be a pioneer in the car sharing/rental market in the United States with long-term potential. * The main goal of Zipcar is to satisfy unmet consumer needs regarding a convenient access to transportation by offering car-sharing service that works with advanced wireless platform.

2. Current Target Markets
Basically Zipcar wants to attract people who do not have a car, and people who are not interested in dealing with the hassle of owning a car due to traffic jams, maintenance costs, not enough parking lots especially in urban areas. This company wants to facilitate its customer’s life by allowing them to access Zipcar’s parked cars at designated spots.
Then we can mention that the companies target markets are: * Males and females who are cost-conscious customers * College-educated and web-connected individuals * People who care about the environment and prefer “green” options * Executives and workaholics who do not have enough time to keep a car due to their busy lives.

3. Current Positioning Strategy

Zipcar positions itself as a trendy company and the green solution to the problems of metropolitan cities such as traffic jams, and high cost of car ownership. The company attracts its target markets by offering a low cost and convenience driven model.

4. Current Marketing Mix

Price
$4.50 and hour and 40 cents a miles. Zipcar also has a $44 per day maximum daily rate. The price represents a low cost for people who drive short distances
Product
It’s a car sharing service which allows members to rent a car for limited amount of time, through online reservation or by phone
Place
Based in Boston, Massachusetts
Promotion
Low-budget tactics. 30%-40% word of mouth, 25% free media coverage, and the rest through guerrilla marketing such as placing ads on their cars, brochures, bumper stickers.
Performance
Currently the company is not facing very high competition in the car-sharing growing market, however Zipcar business plan seemed not to have worked effectively as it was planned. It was assumed that 350 member will be part of Zipcar, but September results showed that only 239 members were part of the company. This issue compromised the company performance as high costs in form of overheads were incurred.
Furthermore, the initial investment was not enough due to the company required an additional $1.3 million to be invested. The business was launched even though the required wireless platform was not ready to be implemented that is why any Zipcard could open any Zipcar and the billing system and records of the members were done manually. Furthermore, the costing model needed to be changed as the initial plan was to charge $25 non-refundable application fee plus $300 annual deposit, however customers found it really expensive that is why Zipcard decided to charge $75 per year but the hourly rate was increased from $1.50 to $4.5 to $7. This lead to a decrease in the amount of each member contribution which was initially estimated to be $2559.2 but when the business started to run it dropped to $1723.2 per customer. Regarding to the variable costs they increased dramatically since at the beginning it was estimated $7580 per car but in May the variable costs per car increased to $9338 (additional parking charge of $600 and parking and fuel costs were higher than planned).
Currently, Zipcar has 350 members and owns 12 cars and even though the company was forced to modify its variable and overhead costs, it seems not to have any financial trouble.

Total revenue $603155
Total COGS $112056
The gross income is enough to cover the overhead costs
The gross income is enough to cover the overhead costs
Gross Income $391099

Overhead costs $180975

According to the Financial Statements, we can see that the company has a regular cash flow and an additional revenue stream, which basically consists in increasing the number of members, is expected for the next five years.

The cost of parking is the one which hurts the company’s ROI the most

Decision Criteria

* Attract potential investors by marketing the idea that the car sharing market is growing at rate of 30% per year.

* Decrease Overhead costs by increasing the number of memberships. It was estimated that Zipcar can perform well and break-even at least with 350 members.

* Expand the business to other metropolitan cities such as Boston which have similar population and density.

* Invest on Research and Development. For example work with a high-quality wireless technology which is safe and protects customers’ privacy. This can give a hike to the company among its competitors.

* Take advantage of the “green” trend that we are living nowadays and sell the company’s services as environmentally friendly and highlighting its social responsibility.

* Buy hybrid vehicles for the company to attract environmentally friendly customers.

* Target a different target market such as corporate markets along with the ones Zipcar is currently doing. Offer a new set of cars for the new segment (big cars).

* Strengthen current Zipcar’s partnerships with car dealers and colleges.

* Increase customer’s awareness and keep offering a good service to keep customer’s loyalty.

* Set a competitive price and be the market leader in the next five years.

* Increase Zipcar’s market share 30% quarterly by reducing costs (lease, insurance, parking), develop a better technology, find new partnerships and improving the service to their members.

* Time( will have competition so need to ensure fast turnover) * Matches company’s vision and mission * Feasibility