Taxi Business Plan

Sales Strategy

At City Taxi, the sales process is the same for each of City Taxi’s two areas: taxi cab services and maintenance and repair services. The company intends to establish its presence online by developing a website from which sales will be generated. The District of Columbia Cab Commission regulates pricing for taxi cab services.

5.1 Marketing Strategy

Marketing Strategy

City Taxi markets its products and services as solutions to transportation needs in the city of San Francisco. Other target markets include customers in the low to mid income range. Direct mailings and television advertising will be the company’s main marketing channels.  These channels ensure that target customers are reached repeatedly and effectively. The company will monitor its market position through constant tracking by Value Pack and TCI Media, Inc.

TCI Media Services – The proposed advertising package, titled “The Championship,” will yield:

• One commercial in every regular season NBA game on TNT for the 1999-2000 season
• One commercial in 2000; 1999-2000 regular season Wizard games on HTS
• 900 6 a.m. – 12 a.m. commercials on a minimum of 4 networks
• Ads on the TV guide channel

5.1.1 Marketing Programs

City Taxi plans to communicate through direct mail and television advertising to generate sales. TCI MEDIA Services and Val-Pak Direct Marketing will spearhead the marketing campaign. The key message associated with our products and services is cleaner, efficient, flexible, and convenient taxi cabs.

Additional Plans–The company also has additional promotional plans which are diverse and include a range of marketing communications described below:

• Trade shows: company representatives will attend and participate in several trade shows to keep up with changes in the industry.
• Print advertising and article publishing : the company’s print advertising program will include advertisements in local newspapers and local journal publications like the San Francisco Magazine. City Taxi will feature articles on services provided in the above mentioned publications.

• Val-Pak Direct Marketing: the challenge of any direct marketer is to take a massive amount of amorphous data and create tailored messages to targeted market segments. Perhaps no company is more familiar with that challenge than Florida-based Val-Pak Direct Marketing, a leader in local, cooperative direct mail advertising. More than 53 million households in the United States receive Val-Pak coupons in their mailbox. In 1997, Val-Pak designed, printed and distributed more than 11 billion incentive coupons promoting various products and services. Val-Pak targets as few as 10,000 households or as many as 53 million with any given mailing.

5.2 Strategic Alliances

The company has strategic alliances with King Communications, Surfside Systems, and Commercial Electronic Services. These alliances are valuable to City Taxi because they allow the company to get updates on technology and added tech support, and they are valuable to the ally firms because City Taxi is a growing customer. All agreements come with a stipulation that if new technology becomes available, City Taxi will be notified and provided with the technology to expand on current technology, helping us maintain a competitive edge. Details of the strategic relationships that City Taxi has are given below.

• International Taxi cab and Livery Association (ITLA). ITLA is a non-profit association that represents the private, for-profit ground transpiration industry. City Taxi will use the resources made available by ITLA to get the latest industry trends and trade show information. ITLA conducts a variety of research projects on industry issues and the results of these studies are summarized in ITLA publications and made available to association members at a reduced fee.

• Rockwell International. Rockwell International has been brought in to help develop the call center and aid with the development of superior customer service techniques. City Taxi will work with Rockwell International in the setup of a cost efficient but productive call center.

• TCI Media, Inc. Currently, City Taxi is under a verbal agreement with TCI Media, Inc. to market its product and services through various cable networks.

• Surfside Systems. Surfside Systems will be the company’s supplier of dispatch software and CAD software.

• King Communications. King Communications will be the company’s supplier of mobile data and in-car credit/debit card processing equipment hardware. King Communications has made a commitment and guarantee that they will provide interface to Surfside Systems.

• Transportation, Inc. This alliance is a business relationship between Jerry Schafer (Transportation, Inc.) and Johnson Taylor (City Taxi). Transportation, Inc. is a competitor, but the relationship allows City Taxi to learn from their 20-year experience in the business and to overcome the shortfalls they have experienced.

• Barwood, Inc. Barwood will be the company’s source of used taxis when the need to add to our fleet arises.

• Val-Pak Direct Marketing. Val-Pak is a full-service marketing company that offers a simple, cost-effective way of increasing business. Val-Pak pioneered local cooperative direct mail in 1968, and has been the industry leader for over 30 years. The relationship gives us access to their powerful, cost effective variety of advertising formats allowing us to develop a direct mail program that is right for our business.

• Commercial Electronics Services (CES). CES is a supplier of advanced technology systems used in taxi cabs. The relationship will allow City Taxi to get the latest technology and the benefit of their excellent tech support. All systems are connected to their offices and given a serial number, that way, they are able to locate the system, evaluate the problem, and fix it right away.

• Mighty Cab Body Shop. The owner of Mighty Cab also owns a body shop. City Taxi will seek to establish a relationship with it for body work and towing services.