Development of Marketing Strategy for Mr. Lube

Categories: Company

Essay, Pages 9 (2202 words)

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Mr. Lube is an organization which deals in the automotive industry by providing oil and lube service to its customers. It is having business in major cities of Canada like Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, etc. The main service for Mr. Lube is oil changes but it is also having some other additional services like tires, filter replacement, and other fluid replacements. Oil prices start from $ 49.99 with the basic package to $ 99.97 for the synthetic package. Mr. Lube provides in-store services which are available at different places.

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Mr. Lube works with a market segmentation where its main target is to aim the people mostly from the age group of 18 to 50.

Along with this, Mr. Lube is working with some strategies where it identifies its strengths and weaknesses. Some of the common strategies are quality positioning strategies, flexibility positioning strategies, and speed positioning strategies. Moreover, it has some selling strategies as well where they use different kind of techniques to deal with the different group of customers.

When it comes to relationship strategy, we will be building a transactional and consultative strategy. In implementations, we will implement various techniques for the promotion of the business which includes a mix of plans.

INTRODUCTION

“No appointments necessary”, with this mission statement Arnold and Clifford Giese, a team of father and son started the business with the very first store in Alberta in 1976. The main motive of this team was to provide a fast oil change service without an appointment. After taking birth in Edmonton, Mr.

Lube had a great success. Following a good startup, the owners decided to expand the business by adding another couple of business-minded entrepreneurs. In 1981, with the initialization of franchise program, all the partners decided to work as per the true standards made by Mr. Lube founders Mr. Lube is all about taking care of cars as per customer's schedule, not theirs. (Our services, n.d.).

With this target, Mr. Lube started working and now it has more than 170 locations all over Canada. Ontario, Montreal, Vancouver, are some of the major places where it is working at a very high rate. It has turned out to be Canada's largest quick-lube brand and now has evolved itself into a complete automotive maintenance service provider. Along with the oil changes, Mr. Lube provides some other major services as well for the vehicles such as tires, filter replacement, and other fluid changes. Mr. Lube also works with national and local fleet companies, in which through a fleet club it provides the services to the commercial vehicles as well. In Ontario, it is also connected to the ministry for the emission testing system through which it helps in getting the emission test done for the renewal purpose. (Our services, n.d.) (Fleets, n.d.)

Along with lube services, it is also involved in various social services as well. ‘Mr. Lube kids drive’ is a program which was started in Ontario in 2000. Through this program, they raised over $ 550,000 for supporting children's welfare program. The main motive of this plan was to provide a better life for orphan kids. So, through this assignment, I will be selling the oil change service to the customer by considering various methods such as marketing mix, marketing segmentation, etc. Along with this, I will try to find out the ways through which I can implement other strategies for the success of my plan. (Mr. Lube Foundation, n.d.)

MARKETING MIX: -

1) Product: - Product is defined as the service or product offered by an organization. Here, we will be offering the oil change service which can also be considered as our product. Along with this, we have many more services which are offered. (Car Care, n.d.)

2) Price: - Price is the cost which we will be charging for the delivery of service. Price varies from the type of service because oil price packages vary with the quality and brand of oil. Our basic oil package starts from $ 49.99 to $ 97.99 which is a premium package.

3) Place: - The place will be the location where we deliver the service. We provide in-store services where customers bring the cars to the store and get the service. We have more than 13 stores in Toronto which are working for customers every day.

4) Promotion: - Promotion is a mixture of various activities in which the focus is to attract the customers through various techniques. These consist of coupons, promotional emails, movie tickets, etc. (Gift Cards, n.d.) (The Mr. Lube Club, n.d.)

Market Segmentation

Market segmentation is defined as a group of people which are targeted by an organization for a particular purpose. Here the market segmentation or the age group which we will be targeting is from age 18 to 50. Again, for this, we have divided them into 2 different categories as per their needs and requirements. For youngsters between the age group of 18 to 30, we will be offering them free movie tickets along with the oil changes. We have also planned to organize a boat party for all the club members at a very cheaper rate.

While for people within the age group of 30 to 50, we have several plans for them as well. In today's busy life, it is difficult to manage all the activities at a time. So, for this, we send personalized service reminders prior to service so that all the customers can arrange the schedule for that. Along with this, we will also send them coupons and discount cards. Moreover, we tied up with several Walmart stores so that people can get the oil change done and can also invest the same time in shopping. This concept will help in boosting the car count at Walmart stores.

Positioning and Strategic Competitive Advantage

Positioning is defined as the strategy used by an organization to consider its strength and weakness. The main purpose of this strategy is to know the specific areas to beat the opponents. So, there are some of the strategies and competitive advantages which we are having: -

• Quality positioning strategy: - Price and quality are two major things which are demanded by each and every customer. Customers demand quality rather than price. This is the reason, we provide a warranty approved service. There are endless automotive service providers in the market but when it comes to quality there are very few lefts. All the services we will do are under warranty and all the fluids and products are approved by dealers. Moreover, the owner's electronic manual (OEM) is used for the recommendation of services to customers which tells exactly the same time period for the services as dealers. This is one of the reasons Mr. Lube is a leading service provider with quality and warranty. (Electronic Owner’s Manual, n.d.) (What does warranty-approved service mean? n.d.)

• Flexibility positioning strategy: - Flexibility positioning strategy means that doing multiple jobs or innovating multiple services at a time. This strategy works very well for our organization because we are doing a total of more than 21 services along with oil changes. Some of our major services will be transmission, differential, coolant fluid replacements, filters and PCV valves replacements, wipers, batteries, flushes and tires and many more. Since customers are getting all the services under one roof, they prefer coming over here rather than going to other places. (Our Services, n.d.) (Tire Services, n.d.)

• Speed positioning strategy: - Speed is another factor which is playing a crucial role in the success of our organization. As mentioned above, people want the security of the service they are getting but they also want time-saving service. So, this the reason we are almost on top because we are providing warranty job and there is no waiting time as well. We guarantee 20 minutes oil change service. While people need to book appointments with dealers and other service providers. So, this is another great strategy for us because we work as per people's schedules, not ours.

Selling plan guidelines

v Personal selling philosophy

ü Transactional Selling: - There are various kinds of philosophies which are working in our selling plan. One of them is transactional selling where our focus will be to just convince the customer of the service. The motive over here is to convenience the customer for getting other additional services along with oil change. Those services could include anything such as transmission, filters or coolant replacement.

ü Consultative Selling: - Our business works with consultative customers. Here our advisors will be working as a consultant for the customers where they guide customers in getting the right service. Advisors will be updating customers about other services as per time and mileage.

The advisors can take the help of a system where they have the record of all the services which are done at Mr. Lube stores in any part of Canada. So, with the help of this system, they can recommend the services. (Basic Maintenance Schedules, n.d.)

Relationship strategy

ü Transactional Relationships: - This strategy is used for those customers who are concerned more about price and convenience rather than a long-term relationship. So, to deal with such customers, we prefer using several techniques like price matching, an extra discount on services. Here, the main motive of service will be to boost revenue rather than adding a new customer. Customers are offered other services at a cheaper rate.

ü Consultative Relationships: - Failure is a part of life. Same way, services can also fail even though they are done perfectly. So, in such situations, sometimes customers face a lot of problems. In spite of covering a warranty approved service, we take it as a job to contact the customer even after service if anything unwanted happens. Therefore, in such cases, we plan to provide customers with rental vehicles or other alternative solutions until the problem is solved.

Professional/career goals

Mr. Lube is not just an organization working in the automotive field for business but it is also on the organization which is involved in various social activities. Mr. Lube is having a clear vision of uplifting the society. This is the reason Mr. Lube actively takes part in various community activities and environmental policies. Since 2006 we are taking part in community activities where we raise funds for various social activities. Mr. Lube celebrates every second weekend of may as MS Weekend where we raise the funds for a cause that’s dear to us multiple sclerosis (MS). (Mr. Lube MS Weekend, n.d.)

Along with this, Mr. Lube understands it's role towards environment very well. This is the reason we are having an environmental policy where our focus is to safeguard the health of our employees, customers, and society. This is the reason we inform all our workers about WHIMS (workplace hazardous material information sheet) which makes them aware of the safety hazards and how to handle the products. (Environmental Policy FAQs, n.d.)

We are having a proper disposable system where we dispose the used oil filters, waste oil, and used oil bottles so that they don't harm the environment in any way. We encourage customers to return used oil and products so that we can dispose of them well. we are using environmental friendly shops to clean shops and all the stores are installed with interceptor so that waste oil can be prevented from getting mixed with fresh water. All the emergency numbers and booklets with emergency procedures are available in every store of Mr. Lube. (Environmental Policy FAQs, n.d.)

Implementation

Implementations basically define the activities through which we will be promoting the service. There are various strategies which are planned to implement. For Walmart stores, we have decided to give "shop and save" coupons in which customers will be getting $ 10 off on oil change if they buy something from Walmart. While on other stores, we will give flyers with having promotional codes through which they can get $ 10 off on an oil change. We have also planned to use radio channels for the promotion of our service.

Another plan which we will be following is informing the customers about the services as per their time and mileage. We will also be sending them reminders about additional services along with the oil change so that they can plan their budget for that as well. we will be also handing over them a copy of their owner’s manual at the beginning of service so that they know the importance and price of the services.

Conclusion

All in all, it can be said that since the very first day of business, Mr. Lube came up with a mindset of serving customers in the automotive industry. Now, it is one of the leading companies in an auto industry. Along with this, it is also doing other social activities such as donations, campaigns, etc. When it comes to selling strategies, we are using transactional selling and consultative selling where they have different strategies for different kind of customers. Finally, there were some strategies which were implemented by us in order to boost the car count at stores in which the implementations worked well for us because when we compared this year’s data with last years, we found that we were positive in car count and revenue as well.