Running Head: SELF FLYING CARS
The Self Flying Car
AIU Online
Professor Frank Nolan
Joseph Slabaugh
2-22-2018
The Self-Flying Car
Abstract
This paper is a review of the marketing plan for the self-flying car, also known as an autonomous flying vehicle.
The Self-Flying Car
Introduction:
I have been passionate about the emerging industry of autonomous transportation for a few years now. I believe the industry will be as big or bigger than the car itself was in moving humanity forward. Maybe even bigger than the internet. Transportation and communications systems can make or break a civilized society. The better the systems, the better it is for that society to function, and the bigger the economy.
History
The idea of an automobile was radical when it was first proposed. Who would want to travel 25 miles an hour, they asked. We had horses for traveling at the time, and they had an industry build around shoeing horses, making buggy whips, as well as buggies. With the creation of cars, most of that went away. But the productivity of the world improved.
Then after the inventor of the car introduced his invention he is quoted advancing the idea of a flying version of that invention. But that did not take long to have a version of that to come to pass, but it would be 6 decades since and it has so far not had commercial success, but it is about to be launched, but at the same time, the idea of that flying car being autonomous is taking hold. That idea could revolutionize the transportation industry forever. It would open up so much of the earth as a place to build a home, without the need for road building. It would open up forest land as a place to build your home.
Introduction of the product to the market
To start the introduction, I would post videos on social media, and then do interviews on the legacy media networks to get a buzz going about the product, and drive traffic to the videos and the company website. I would then interview owners, with their permission and a discount towards their purchase, and post the videos online too.
We would also continue the social media campaigns and with some advertisements on both pay per click targeting the wealthier population and some select traditional media networks too. This would be limited as we initially would only be targeting wealthier buyers. The middle class and later still, the economy class would be targeted as the technology would be cheaper to produce.
Product
The product is a vehicle that flies autonomously, and it would have a few unique features. These features would be an automated AI system that would communicate with fellow flying vehicles and adjust its flight path to avoid collision. The other unique system would be the idea that you could put in a destination (longitude and latitude) and the computer would map out a direct flight plan, with the anti-collision system making it adjust that as needed. This would be great for people, both for a worker going to work, and doing work on the commute, as well as for a drunk going home from the bar.
The product would be sold to wealthier buyers at first, so they could have them custom made to help fund the future research and development in the business of the SFCs. This would drive down the costs over time, similar to how cars themselves became more inexpensive over time.
Mission Statement
All companies that serve the public with a product or service have to have a mission, and it better not just be financial in nature. It is OK to have a financial objective, as all companies need it to fund their operation, invest more into research, pay their workers to create the product, but to sell a product for the public consumption, you need a mission, to change something about the buyer’s life. In our case, we want to make a safe, time-saving transportation system. Safety is very important in something like this. So is saving time. The shortest distance between two points is generally a straight line, but even air travel today does not always go in a straight line to the destination, but to an airport, which then generally requires a taxi. This can end up costing time that product will fix. We will make it so that a person can go to anybody’s house with their personal vehicle in less time than waiting in airports and then on taxis, etc. So, our mission statement is Safe, Time-Saving Transportation.
Target market
The first target market is wealthier folks that can afford this as an expensive toy. They could custom build it like the Elvis custom build Cadillac car. But then more serious buyers in the middle class will want into the market and buy their own cars. Years down the road, an economy car will also be released.
There are about 17 million cars and trucks sold a year, and there are around 268 million autos in the us, and over a billion worldwide. This may include some that are close to being in need of being scrapped, but that shows how big the market is. There are about seven billion people on earth, and with about 1 in 7 worldwide having an automobile, that shows that there is a demand. Not to mention that if we can provide them a safer alternative, we can get a larger market share. Some may refinance their homes to get these cars to get away from driving on the roads.
Competition
There are 30 automobile brands in the US, all looking for a piece of the 17 million cars sold yearly. Geely, VW, Hyundai, Toyota, BMW Group, Ford, Daimler, FCA, Nissan, Renault, Tata, Honda, PSA, and GM have some of the most popular car brands in the US and the UK. But new companies like Tesla are also making a dent in the market. Each one has its advantages, and disadvantages in this fight for market dominance.
Tesla is one of the more advanced companies, but the more traditional companies have the dealership space.
Strategy and distribution
As for the strategy, we would adopt the Tesla Model of buying our own dealer spaces throughout the country in well to do areas rather than trying to make deals with dealerships.
Pricing
Our pricing with start at around $300,000 per car for the 1st part of the rollout of the product but what go down over time to maybe around $10,000 in 50 to 80 years.
CRM
Customer relationships are very important to any company and how you deal with that is going to make or break the overall reputation of the company and therefore the bottom line of the business. In the beginning customer relationships would be managed by a local team at each dealership calling to check up on each buyer from time to time and I'll bring tune-ups as needed. as time goes on and more buyers I had a car, social media will be used as well as if feedback system where the customer could ask for service online or in person to have a technician check out issues checked out on video chat.
Conclusion
Self-flying cars are almost here, and it will change how we view transportation. But a lot of questions are still being asked as to how this all will work, and rightfully so. We need to make sure that we are doing it correctly. But that does not mean that we should stop the progress, rather that we should carefully look into the future and develop this technology for our future Generations to enjoy.
References:
Lavars, Nick. (2018) 8 flying taxis that are so crazy, they just might work, New Atlas, https://newatlas.com/eight-flying-taxis/51726/
BBC Click, (2015) Are self-flying cars on the horizon?
Kokesh, Adam, Youtube, (2018) Flying Taxis Are Almost Here!!!
Benjamin Zhang, Mike Nudelman and Skye Gould (2015) These 14 giant corporations dominate the global auto industry, Business Insider, http://www.businessinsider.com/car-companies-of-the-world-2015-2
