Zipcar: “It’s Not about Cars – It’s about Urban Life”

Zipcar’s service is the benefit of having a car, without actually owning one yourself. Zipcar first started out with the focus on the green-minded customers using promotional pitches such as “We <3 Earth.” It wasn’t long before CEO Scott Griffith decided to expand the service to urban customers living in cities too big to own a car, but still needed a reliable, comfortable, and stylish way to get around. Zipcar strategically places its car pods (a dozen or so vehicles located in a given neighborhood) close to its customers, about a ten minute walk away, making it a quick and easy approach to get on your way and down the road. Zipcar’s service does not just benefit the customer …show more content…

• I want to impress my boss. With this information, Zipcar saw that convenience needed to be side and side with their already well-known environmentally friendly brand image. By positioning Zipcar’s brand image with convenience and the environment, Zipcar not only appeals to the environmentally friendly consumer, but to the average city dweller that only needs a car every now and again. Looking at the benefit-oriented positioning compared to the positioning based on beliefs and values, I see each play a role in shaping Zipcar’s brand image and defining that image to the customers. Zipcar’s benefit-oriented positioning is a strong way to appeal to an important need of its customers, convenience. Customers living in densely populated areas that need a convenient way of driving a car but not actually owning one can find Zipcar’s service extremely useful. That being said I do see that this benefit-oriented positioning is really just a highlighted belief that Zipcar has about car-sharing. By highlighting this belief Zipcar can position itself to customers who share the same belief about convenience. Between benefit-oriented positioning and positioning based on beliefs and values, I believe that positioning based on beliefs and values is stronger. A product or service may have many offered benefits, but those benefits may not appeal to consumers who hold particular beliefs towards such a product or service. If a product or service appeals to a