Our group meetings on Wednesday provided a new level of insight into what it would take to market my concept in another country, particularly in growing Asian markets. While I’m comfortable with my venture concept from a technical standpoint – I’m a hobbyist who understands the technical and financial nuances of the domestic used car market and restoration process – I’m much less adept at understanding the cultural intricacies of many developing countries simply because I haven’t experienced them. I had hoped to piggyback a lot of my marketing strategy based on how micro-finance companies go about their business. However, some of my international classmates suggested that there would be cultural forces acting against certain aspects of my plans.
For example, there is still a significant amount of discrimination which may inhibit business owners from using my service because of their gender or socioeconomic class. While it’s possible for microfinance companies to offer loans to underrepresented or oppressed facets of the population, the connotations of using private transportation to aggressively grow a business may still be subject to harsher discrimination. In many large cities in India there are also already cab companies which offer transportation services to business people, offering another strong force of indirect competition.
As an alternative, I had already done a significant amount of research on this concept for an American market early on in my decision making. There are many companies which offer tax deductable donation services to people with junk cars in the US. A person can donate their old car and receive a decrease to their taxable income. These cars typically enter the for-profit salvage market by specialized companies who purchase the car from the charity and hand them a small amount of cash. However, I haven’t been able to find a service which targets training mechanics by using the parts directly, or marketing the repaired cars to needy organizations.
Interestingly, there’s a very successful non-profit in Pittsburgh called Free Ride, which does exactly what I was planning to do – but with bicycles. Free Ride repairs donated bicycles and gives them to various organizations, homeless shelters, etc. They also work education into their model, as customers can contribute by repairing bikes as well. I plan to contact Free Ride when they’re open this week, and attend their next event on March 7th if I can. They might be a valuable well of information.
This week’s reading on marketing strategy further emphasized how I can use existing channels to develop my venture and that’s currently my mode of thinking. 1.) I know how to rebuild and deal with used cars. 2.) Vocational schools and independent education facilities already exist and have a high demand for their graduates. 3.) People in the US are already used to ‘donating’ their cars to charity, so there will be little to no switching cost to do business with my venture. 4.) Supplying not just financial resources but educational opportunities and the assurance that the rebuilt car(s) will be used to supply community focused organizations with transportation is a competitive advantage. It’s much more appealing than the ‘junk your car and give the money to charity’ model. 5.) I hope to leverage the local connection to Free Ride to gain advice and knowledge about the process of receiving donations and rebuilding machines into something useful. They may also help me identify organizations that would be in need of the highly discounted rebuilt vehicles (churches, shelters, local Pittsburgh philanthropies).
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