MANAGING RESEARCH REPORT

Managing Research Report

Table of Contents

Introduction3

Analysis of Current Situation3

Proposal6

Growth Opportunities6

Business Model8

Service8

Marketing Strategy11

Sales11

Marketing11

Radio12

Newspapers/Magazines12

Internet12

Managing Resources13

Customer Retention14

Conclusion16

References17

Managing Research Report

Introduction

Blue Chip cars is a performance car hire firm 'offering the very best in top of the range Sports car hire as well as high end prestige cars such as Aston Martin and Mercedes'.(Blue Chip 2004) The company currently operates from a show room type outlet offering car hire to businesses and individuals. They also have a web site www.bluechipcars.co.uk which displays a selection of the cars they offer as well as a guideline to their tariffs and an online query form for customers to enquire about booking a car.

Car hire firms have steadily grown over the past few years and to gain a competitive advantage over rivals there are a number of things that Blue Chip can do in order to increase sales and awareness of the service they offer. This report aims to identify an e-business proposal for a more active web presence for Blue Chip in order to attract more clients and gain a competitive advantage over rival car hire firms as well as advertise to a national audience.

Analysis of Current Situation

Currently Blue Chip does the majority of its bookings through telephone or through the office at where they are located in Kings Cross, London. Already operating costs are high due to the location of the office and land on which the cars are stored. The business specialises in high end luxury and sport cars, some of which are extremely rare and appeal to a niche market. Examples of such cars include the Ferrari Spider and Aston Martin Vanquish, just being able to test drive one of these cars is a rare occurrence. Customers interested in hiring these cars have a large disposable income with the costs ranging from £ 500 upwards per day. All bookings as stated are currently made in person with face to face or voice to voice contact (Bitner, Booms and Mohr, 2002).

The customer base is restricted mainly to the London area, catering the needs of wealthy individuals and businesses as well as people coming from abroad who wish to continue their wealthy lifestyle whilst visiting the UK. They also cater for weddings, birthdays and special events. Their current web presence is somewhat lacking and contains a selection of vehicle pictures but seems to miss a number out in addition to provides a booking query form for enquiring about making a booking (Anton, 1996).

Many car hire firms offer the same service which is solely car hire which can be booked over the phone or through their offices. However, this is as far as many go and little offer any more than the standard service. The proposal for Blue Chip is to offer what many different car rental firms lack which is the offering of a complete 100% web based booking and transaction service which will attract a larger customer base as well as being able to attract customers from other businesses such as holiday firms and local ...