Hertz Company Marketing Communications - Case Study Example

Name: Date: Institution: Marketing Communications Over the past few years, car rental business has significantly improved due to the increased international travel in Australia. Corporate travel activity within Australia has positively contributed to the expansion of company budgets on travel. This has positively increased the demand for rental vehicles within the country. This also has increased the revenues for the involved companies (Floor, & Raaij, 2011). A good example of a company offering car rental services within Australia is Hertz Company. The Hertz company will meet the demand of the customers by ensuring that the fleet is upgraded continually ensuring that the rental vehicles available are comfortable and competitive. By upgrading their fleet, ensures that the company is able to raise the capital investment, which is above the wage expenditure. The company has also invested in online marketing and in software making it easier for booking services. Hertz is a company that operates car rental brands in many countries around the globe. This organization has over 10300corporates licensed in different countries such as the North America, Latin America, Australia, Asia, Europe, New Zealand and the Middle East. In Australia, the company has more than 220 locations that include major airports, regional towns, and cities within the country. The company has a wide range of vehicles which are well maintained. The company provides; mini vans, trucks, commercial vehicles, 4WDs and mining vehicles are available for hire. The company also offers high innovative products and services which include Hertz gold plus reward. In the year 2016, Hertz Australia launched a new marketing campaign. The target market is the business travelers as well as the leisure travelers. The main reason for launching this program was to promote the global loyalty program known as the Gold plus Reward. The program was to run through the Hertz network and it was to run across the social, digital and outdoor leverages. The gold plus reward program is a program which is point based. The points are redeemable around the globe across the Hertz network. This campaign program is beneficial to the Hertz customers in a number of ways which include; skipping the queues, complimentary upgrades and free rental days. In this campaign program, individual who was to join the Gold Campaign on or before the end of August 2016 was to be rewarded with bonus points which amounted to 550 (Yeshin, 2012). The bonus points would be enough for an individual to redeem a free weekend rental day. The manager of the Hertz Australian described this loyalty program as the best program that was aimed at offering tangible benefits to all the Australian travelers. The program gold plus reward is a communication platform which was aimed at ensuring that the members were in a position to achieve the status and also to retain it across the major tiers within Australia. These tiers were; gold, president’s circle, and the five star. The gold tier- this the entry level for members into the program, where the members had to earn points after spending each US dollar on Hertz. In a five star tier, members were to qualify for this program after sending renting a vehicle for seven times within a calendar year. A member would also qualify for this tier if he/she spent $1,500 and above in the same given period of time. Members in this tier were subjected to a free upgrade to rental cars which were of higher standards and were to earn 10% points with the Hertz Australia (Dahlén, Lange, & Smith, 2010). When customers were able to rent cars for about twenty or more times within a calendar year, they qualified for the president’s circle status. A member would also qualify for this tier by spending about $4000 US dollars. The customer would also earn 25% bonus points. The customer in this tier is also guaranteed for a one class car update. The company also in October 2916 it appointed Net Booster as a marketing partner. The net booster company operates on the digital performance marketing. Due to a high competition in the market, the company decided to appoint the net booster digital company so that it could help in managing the paid media activity across different countries in Europe. The net booster company is to drive innovativeness in the complex travel market as it helps the Hertz company to unlock and reach new customers within Europe. This European digital marketing agency invests in technology covering the online marketing. On the other hand, Hertz global company is one of the most recognized companies offering rental vehicles. It is also known to offer other services such as the mobile Wi-Fi, and also owns vehicles leasing. The Hertz company operates a 24/7 rental business of vehicle. It also sells vehicles in its international market through a program known as rent2buy program. Competition in the market is healthy. Hertz Company faces a strong competition from AVIS Company. This company has been viewed one of the best car rental business in the market. The AVIS Company has a well-developed website where the customers are able to easily access customer services. This company is creating a great influence on the non-business travelers so that they can be their members. Busy executives prefer AVIS services since they have an advanced payment system and the executives are therefore able to book the rental cars in advance. The company is also preferred by small business owners. This is because; it is able to offer affordable rental cars. The company will also offer to its members a 25% car rental fee. The company also provides its members with great awards such as skipping long queues, and free membership. The company also provides discounts to the senior members. The Hertz Company works mostly with the following individuals; people who like traveling a lot, particularly the international travelers who will prefer upscale vehicles. On the other side, AVIs company will work with the business travelers either huge enterprises or owners of small businesses and also executives who are known to rent vehicles or regular basis. Hertz Company applied the following strategies in the congested rental vehicle market in order to expand its market share; the company developed a three point turn strategy. In this strategy, the company aimed at creating awareness to its customers. It then harnessed a high demand in the market through market search. Finally, it generated customer loyalty through a program known as CRM. The company was able to influence and to attract many customers through this strategy and became more competitive in the market. The other strategy used by Hertz Company is a programmatic strategy (Roberts-Lombard, 2010). By introducing this programmatic buying strategy, the following were achieved; an increase in the volume of reservations, cost per reservation as increased it also had an impact on the share of voice. Through this strategy, the company was able to penetrate the car rental market which had a lot of competitors. Finally, the company adopted a contact strategy; this was a strategy that was aimed at creating a strong rapport between the management and the customers. The management was able to reach its customers via emails. This involved birthday and holiday e-cards which played a crucial role in bringing the customers close to the brand. The two rental car companies have been doing well in the market. This is because; they embrace competition which is healthy in meeting the demands of the customers. The companies have the business travelers, executives, small business owners and tourists as the target market. In many cases, tourists, and even business travelers will not be in a position to have their own vehicles, particularly when they leave their countries via airplanes. On landing in Australian airports, they will require having vehicles so that they can get to their destinations. Hertz Company has invested in this market which is expanding annually due to the increased number of international traveler within Australia. The strategies adopted by the company are fruitful and they can help the company to generate high revenues and therefore it will have enough capital for investment. Creating a close rapport with the customers will help the customer have great trust in the company. The number of customers is likely to increase due to the word of mouth advertisement as well as social media advertisement. The company has also invested in online advertisement (Wedel, & Kamakura, 2012). This will ensure that many people are able to access full information and services offered by the company. By creating awareness, the company will also have new membership subscription. This will ensure that the company has a huge experienced customer and as a result, the company will attract many people from different regions. The company has also invested in software. The main reason for software investment is to ensure that the company is able to offer services easily to their customers. An individual is in a position to book for a vehicle in advance. And the individual is also able to pay for the services in advance through the company’s advanced payment program. All these investments are meant to ensure that customer services are offered timely and efficiently. The company should, therefore, keep on improving their services and continually upgrade their vehicle in order for the company to remain competitive within the market. References Dahlén, M., Lange, F. and Smith, T., 2010. Marketing communications: A brand narrative approach. John Wiley & Sons. Floor, K. and van Raaij, W.F., 2011. Marketing communication strategy. Noordhoff Uitgevers. Roberts-Lombard, M., 2010. Employees as customers-An internal marketing study of the Avis car rental group in South Africa. African Journal of Business Management, 4(4), p.62. Wedel, M. and Kamakura, W.A., 2012. Market segmentation: Conceptual and methodological foundations (Vol. 8). Springer Science & Business Media. Yeshin, T., 2012. Integrated marketing communications. Routledge. Read More