AB 219 Unit 8 assignment New Balance Hubway

New Balance Hubway

Catherine Ocasio

AB219-01

Kaplan University

April 25, 2017

Part 1

New Balance Hubway usually makes use of the online platforms in encouraging the customers in their services. It often uses the social media platforms like the Twitter and Facebook just but to mention a few. The New Balance Hubway makes use of Facebook to keep the clients updated as well as informed about the activities of the company. The company uses Twitter in getting the feedback from its customers about the company and its services. The social media facilitates marketing of the products and services and it assists in building good relationship between the business and the customers. By having good relationship, the company is able to get immediate feedback from the customers. The company website contains very important details about the company such as the services offered, the price, the news as well as other links to additional informative locations. In addition, the website indicates the advantages of bike riding as well as purchasing of biking helmets can be done via the website. After viewing the Hubway, I would try it without making physical visit to the kiosk. The Hubway is an amazing way of making travelling easy. In addition, Hubway promotes healthy living standards while taking care of the environment.

The New Balance Hubway endeavors to offer customer services through making renting process of the bike much easier, convenient as well as faster than it is currently. The company aims at giving the customers information about the company together with its services as they happen. The New Balance Hubway also strives to give customer service by making its website to be user friendly as well as very welcoming. The company make it simple to get the available bikes and get to know where they are located together with their applications. It is also simple to inform the company when the bike is not in good conditions by just re-docking the bike then pressing red button found on the dock. In case the station is full and a client wants to return the bike, the company gives additional 15 minutes for the client to return to the bike in another station. The bike in the Hubway are very comfortable for many different people thus making the demand of their bikes to be high. It is very easy and fast to get a bike from the company since the wait time is short. In addition, the Hubway has bicycle benefits stickers which one can place the helmet hence making their services better than their competitors.

Part 2

The New Balance Hubway is targeting for the intensive distribution. This type of distribution allows the company to have bike stations in many different locations. The more stations the company has, the more sales they will produce hence high profit turn over. Many of the people will make use of their services hence the process of returning the bikes will be much easier when the company has many stations (Mallen, 2013). The New Balance Hubway has the intention of expanding the stations and this will result to more customers to the business. If the company has more stations as well as bikes, it will have more customers hence the company will register more sales for a given period of time.

The New Balance Hubway can be considered to be an automatic vending non-store retailer. This is because the products are usually self-service and the customers can use them in an easy way without any assistance. In the company, it is not a must to have employees because the clients can do the purchase of the access passes, they can add the time credit or they can even check the other stations at the kiosk. The automatic vending is currently becoming a popular type of non-store retailer because the customers can purchase products without physical meet with the employees since the purchase is usually done online.

The New Balance Hubway can be said to be a low level of service which has narrow product line. The reason for this conclusion is that the company has one product which is bikes together with the helmet. Another reason is because there is no physical contact between the employees and the customers. The products of New Balance Hubway in all stations are the same for the clients to obtain. The customer service of the Hubway is high because the company has to make sure that the customers should be informed as well as stratified but the real service level due to the fact that it’s not a must to employees at the various stations.

The New Balance Hubway usually makes use of the direct channel for the consumer products. The services of the company are available online or even at kiosk sites. The Hubway is directly linked to the customers where there is no need of any middle man. The clients can simply visit the company website and make a payment for him/her to be allowed to use a given bike. It is not necessary for the company to have direct contact with the clients since all the transactions are done electronically thus making it simple. In addition, the company has made it possible for the clients to contact the company directly in case a bike has problems.

The market factors usually have the most influence on method and the level of distribution intensity used by New Balance Hubway in distributing the services. In economics, the market factors generally refers to the markets in which the services of the factors of production are usually sold or bought, such as capital markets, market for the raw materials, the labor markets as well as market for the management or the entrepreneurial resources (Cavusgil et al., 2014). The company uses the size of the market and the geographic location in determining the good place to set up the bike stations. This information guides the company in determining the marketing strategy to use.

The best classification of the New Balance Hubway’s retail operation is the specialty store. A specialty store is a retail business which usually focusses on a particular category of products. The classification of the retail operations is not usually determined by the product the company sells but the extent of the product offering. The company usually provides specific products which is the bike thus a client would only visit the company if he would like to rent a bike. This type of retail operations only provides a specific product. Another example of the company which can be classified as specialty store is the Ashley’s Furniture which only offers furniture as its product.

When the New Balance Hubways discusses on the number of bikes available in the different stations, it focusses on the managing service capacity of the company. The main goal of managing service capacity is making sure that the resources meet the present as well as the future requirements of the company in a manner which is effective and cost-effective. Managing service capacity assists the business as well as gives the customer exactly what they require and which will fully satisfy their wants. The New Balance Hubways are planning for the expansion which will be usually operating at the optimum capacity.

The Spotcycle application assists the customers to minimize the wait times. This application permits the customers to access all locations with the Hubway stations and make a choice on the nearby available station. This generally saves customer time and is more convenient. The Spotcycle application also gives the customer information on the station which is full or the station which is closed or even out of order. The customers can get everything they require before they leave hence saving the customer time. This applications eliminates the issues which the customers may have when returning the bikes or renting the bikes hence reducing the wait time.

The above statement is true since cycling is currently becoming very popular among the young as well as the old. The current generation is more concerned on the health as well as saving the environment. The New Balance Hubway keeps an individual in shape as well as saves the environment. The services of the Hubway is self-service hence there is no need of waiting for an employee to serve you or give any assistance and this saves time. New Balance Hubway provides great customer service and it keeps the customers informed using the social media. In addition, its application assists in saving the time of customers.

References

Mallen, B. (2013). Selecting channels of distribution: a multi‐stage process. International Journal of Physical Distribution & Logistics Management.

Cavusgil, S. T., Knight, G., Riesenberger, J. R., Rammal, H. G., & Rose, E. L. (2014).International business. Pearson Australia.