The Market plan was created by: Hassan Thigah 201600256Saleh Al-Sarraf 201600384Mohammed Hashim 201600505Khalid Al-Eid 201501405

The Market plan was supervised by:Dr. Mohammed Abdul-Rahim.

The market plan completion date: 5/8/2018 (Summer semester)

The marketing plan covers: 1 year from the plan creation date.

AutoRepair Marketing Plan

Cover Letter

This Marketing plan is dedicated to a mobile vehicle servicing company called AutoRepair. AutoRepair would be the first consumer available service company that provides its customers with a mobile vehicle service center in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia. Marketing a new product or service in today’s highly competitive environment can be a challenge to any business. The volatile condition of the market and the highly informed customer base make it an especially difficult task for businesses to remain and enter into the market. To combat this factor, AutoRepair must gain customer trust and loyalty. And we plan on gaining our customer’s trust and loyalty by ensuring that only certified professionals work on customer vehicles, provide a convenient service to our customers, and by providing our services at a competitive price.

2

AutoRepair Marketing Plan

Table of ContentsCover Letter.................................................................................................................2

Historical Background..................................................................................................4

Marketing Goals and Objectives..................................................................................4Mission statement:...............................................................................................................................4Short-term goals:..................................................................................................................................4Long-term goals:...................................................................................................................................4

General Objectives:.............................................................................................................4

Sales Objectives...................................................................................................................5

Pricing Objectives................................................................................................................5

Product Objectives...............................................................................................................5

Market Analysis...................................................................................................................5

Environmental Analysis................................................................................................6

Suppliers..............................................................................................................................6

Social/Cultural.....................................................................................................................6

Competition.........................................................................................................................7

Consumer Analysis.......................................................................................................7

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats Analysis........................................7

Strengths.............................................................................................................................7

Weaknesses.........................................................................................................................7

Opportunities......................................................................................................................8

Threats................................................................................................................................8

Marketing Focus..........................................................................................................8

Service Focus.......................................................................................................................8

Location...............................................................................................................................8

Promotion...........................................................................................................................9

Price....................................................................................................................................9

Appendix A:...............................................................................................................10

Appendix B:................................................................................................................11

Concept of how the service truck going to look and advertisement example:.....................11

Employee uniforms for summer and winter and it could be gifts for the customers:...........11

Appendix C:................................................................................................................12

Reference:..................................................................................................................13

3

AutoRepair Marketing Plan

Historical Background The business idea originated at the 20th of July 2018 from our personal frustration when we maintain our vehicles. It takes an appointment in advance by phone, and it is time to go to the workshop and wait for the service to finish. The idea is to startup a company that offers mobile vehicles maintenance service. We are going to be the first company that offers this service to consumers in Saudi Arabia, and we are going to offer our services at first in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia. We plan to attain our goals and objectives by attracting customers and maintaining a healthy relationship with them. While also attending to our other goals to ensure the success of our business.

Marketing Goals and Objectives

Mission statement:Our mission is to increase our customer's convenience and save their valuable time to enable them to get the most benefit out of it by offering services at their desired location.

Short-term goals: Build customers database. High efficiency. Provide value for the cost. Balance the budget. Gain customer’s trust.

Long-term goals: Maintain profitable relationship with our customers. Expand to other regions in Saudi Arabia. Diversify and grow revenue streams. Ensure financial sustainability.

General Objectives: Sales revenues increase steadily throughout the years. Institute a program of superior customer service through thorough evaluation of

service experience. Getting the job correctly from the first time.

Sales Objectives The number of cars in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia is about 4 million cars, and about 100 thousand new cars is sold every year in the eastern region alone. Within the average life expectancy of a vehicle, it is maintained 25 times, So the market for maintaining cars is very big in the targeted market. The objective is to service six cars daily per service truck.

4

AutoRepair Marketing Plan

There are many difficulties in this line of business. Starting with managing the spare parts inventory, so we intend to have strategic suppliers to be always able to meet the demand with the needed parts. Secondly, is the most difficult aspect of working in this market is to get the people to trust you with their vehicles, so we are going to offer one-week service guarantee after the service is finished.

Pricing ObjectivesThe weaknesses of our competitors that their location is fixed with high overhead costs, and the traditional way of contacting with customers. We are aiming to offer the same quality of dealership maintenance with the same pricing. However, our competitive advantage is going to be customer’s convenience. Our customers are going to make the appointments by a click on their mobile phone as a primary way of ordering, and we are going to offer the traditional way of making service appointment by phone as a secondary way for the elderly who would prefer making a phone call. Also, our inventory costs will be minimalized because we are implementing the ordering cost strategy. Another factor that will reduce our fixed costs as well as our inventory costs is that one of our partners owns a warehouse with sufficient space that he has agreed to allow us to store the vehicles and required inventory in for no charge.

Product Objectives We are going to offer both basic regular maintenance, and customized service. The wants of our customers are convenience, low prices, high quality service, and original spare parts. Moreover, the need of our customer is having their car serviced, and their perception is having value for their money, and getting the job right from the first time.We are going to attract more consumers by advertising through social media platforms, such as Snapchat, Twitter, and Instagram. Also, we are going to advertise through social media influencers because they have a large impact on their followers. Moreover, we are going to add a marketing feature that benefit the consumers that we already have by offering them 100 SR into their AutoRepair account if they invited someone to our company and ordered a service. The determining factors of our customers preference are offering original spare parts with affordable prices. Another factor is that they maintain their vehicles at their desired tome and location to maximize their convenience.

Market AnalysisIn the past year or two there has been a significant decline in the automotive industry sales due to economic factors. Hence, more and more people are choosing not to trade-in or purchase new vehicles and are instead retaining the car(s) they currently possess. While this is bad news for the automotive industry, it is great news for the automotive maintenance industry. The older vehicles get, the more maintenance it will need. Which in turn means that the automotive maintenance industry has seen a significant increase in sales within the last couple of years. Furthermore, within the last couple of months Saudi Arabia has finally permitted women to drive. With the introduction of women in

5

AutoRepair Marketing Plan

the automotive market, the number of cars on the road should statistically double. The current automotive maintenance industry in Saudi Arabia has remained untouched in terms of innovative ideas. Most people tend to service their vehicles at workshops that they trust. However, we at AutoRepair plan to capture these consumers by offering the most convenient way to service your vehicle. Currently in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia there are no competing organizations in the field. The traditional way of servicing your vehicle is to drive to a trusted mechanic’s workshop and have that mechanic do the work. Autojak offers most of the services that a traditional workshop offers, but at the convenience of having it done wherever you please instead of a fixed location. By offering this convenient solution, we plan to become a major shareholder in the local automotive maintenance industry.One of the largest factors that affect AutoRepair’s growth in the market is gaining customer trust. Customers tend to be skeptical of a new person/company handling their automotive needs. And we aim to put our customers minds at ease by assuring them that only our trained professionals will be conducting their vehicles service, and that we also provide guarantee that covers any faults that occur within a set period of time.The current theme of most western corporations is sustainability. Hence the rapid emergence of all electric vehicles. These vehicles could pose as a threat to the “life” of our business because they do not require any vehicle service. However, in Saudi Arabia that ideology is far away, and possesses no threat in the near future. And if there is an emergence of electric vehicles in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a mobile battery pack could be introduced among our services. The mobile battery pack would, in cases where the vehicles battery drains out, would charge the battery pack of the vehicle so that the customer could continue his journey.

Environmental AnalysisSuppliersAutoRepair’s warehouse would most probably be, due to Saudi regulation, within an Industrial zone in Khobar or Dammam. And although it may increase our travel distance to customers, it benefits us by being closer to our suppliers’ warehouses. And by being close to our suppliers, we would have no need to “stockpile” the automotive parts in our warehouse. Instead we would pick them up from the suppliers’ warehouses on a by demand basis.

Social/CulturalAutoRepair’s services are available to the general public as a whole. However, we offer to specialized consumers the opportunity to personalize their experience. The services we provide to specialized consumers include but are not limited to: Routine maintenance of the customers vehicle collection, and Track day services. Although these services are not day-to-day to any part of the public, the sheer number of vehicles in the region combined with our expert mechanics and customer convenience we be would ensure a constant expanding customer database and high customer retention. To boost sales, AutoRepair plans to advertise on the internet, social media, newspapers,

6

AutoRepair Marketing Plan

television commercials, and radio to ensure that the majority of the population would be reached.

CompetitionA possible competitor is a Jeddah based company called Autojack. Autojack currently only services fleets for large corporations such as FedEx, and they appear to have no current interest in the consumer market. However, following the launch and success of our AutoRepair, Autojack may feel as though they could enter into the consumer market and by doing so, they pose as a significant challenge to our expansion.

Consumer Analysis Our current target market is the automotive service industry in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. The services we provide will make it easier for our customers to service their vehicles at a time that is most convenient for them, this is achieved by booking an appointment through our telephone line, WhatsApp of by application. Furthermore, we can provide our customers with our servers at any location they desire. Unlike the current vehicle service companies that have a physical location, AutoRepair’s vehicle service vans go directly to our customers desired location. This business model presents our customers with the most convenient and efficient way service their vehicles.

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats Analysis StrengthsOur main and first strength is that we are providing convenient mobile vehicle service at nearly the same price of our competitors which they are providing a traditional way of vehicle maintenance. Secondly, we are employing licensed vehicle maintenance professionals to be able to maintain the vehicle at the highest quality. Our competitive advantage in the automotive service industry is gained by providing our customers with our services at their desired location.

WeaknessesThe first weakness is raising sufficient capital to start up the business, so we are going to take a loan to be able to start the business.Secondly, getting the people to trust and try our service, because the people usually are a bit cautious to try new maintenance provider when it comes to their vehicles. Thirdly, government policies and requirements are always updated to operate vehicle maintenance services, so we have to be flexible to changes.

OpportunitiesFirstly, the timing of entering vehicle maintenance market is excellent, because the sales of new vehicles have gotten lower by 55% in the past two years in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia, and the old vehicles are more demanding than the new ones. Secondly, living in Saudi Arabia in general is getting more expensive, so the people have to work more to be able to cover their living expenses, so the free time of the individual is

7

AutoRepair Marketing Plan

becoming more and more less. Thirdly, the females in Saudi Arabia are able now to drive a vehicle, and it is more convenient for them to be able to get their vehicle serviced without going to a place crowded with males.

ThreatsThe main threat is that there is a specific competitor (Autojak) that do the same service for businesses to expand and service individual consumers in the market. Another threat, is the increasing prices of gasoline in Saudi Arabia.

Marketing FocusService FocusTo service our customer’s vehicles, AutoRepair will utilize medium sized vans equipped with machines and tools that allow us to service their vehicles regardless of their location.Our current aim is to provide this service to any customer in the general population of the eastern region of Saudi Arabia who owns a vehicle. We predict high demand for our services due to the fact that many people do not have enough time go to workshop to check their cars or maybe women would not feel comfortable going to the workshop. So, this idea will help people to save time. For example, instead of going to the workshop and spend about 30 min, our idea will save your time, while you are working we can do the service for you. In this time, we do not have any direct competitors, especially in the Eastern province. As we mentioned that we don’t have direct competitors on the market. However, our indirect competitors are the workshops. What distinguishes AutoRepair from workshops is that we work seven days a week, also customer don’t have to come to us, we come to the place that customer want. We also ensure that our mechanics are certified professionals, therefore we could ensure the quality of our service is consistent with each visit.

LocationFor our current phase, we will have a warehouse to store the vehicles and parts (if needed). The warehouse will be located in an industrial zone within the Eastern province of Saudi Arabia, which will allow us to serve the areas of Dammam, Khobar, Jubail, Abqaiq, and Ras Tanura. We chose this location because there are currently no competitors in the region who provide similar services, also there are many foreigners who work in demanding companies like Aramco which mean that many of them do not have the time, or the experience to try any workshop. So, the market in the eastern region is very active, and people are willing to pay a premium for quality of service and convenience. As previously mentioned, we have no physical location. Instead, our vans will go anywhere our customer ask us to go.

8

AutoRepair Marketing Plan

PromotionAutoRepair’s advertising campaign will, in the beginning, cover most major media sources Such as newspapers, magazines, radio, television, online targeted advertisements, and social media. However, we expect that the most effective means of advertisement will be through social media. We plan to crate accounts on Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat for our business to better reach the majority of the social media users. And we also plan to introduce a “stamp card” system for our customers that will be run either through the app or by physical cards. Where each time we serve a customer’s vehicle, a “stamp” is recorded. After a customer accumulates 10 stamps, their next general service will be free of charge.

PriceOur pricing objective is to generate enough revenue that would compensate our inputs, while also strategically setting our prices to generate attractive profits for our investors and partners. However, we must remain competitively priced, therefore our prices will be slightly higher than the workshop by a 10% to 15% margin. We would prefer to have our prices to match or be lower than existing stationary workshops, but AutoRepair is a mobile service provider. Therefore, our total cost per customer will be higher and in order to turn a profit a slight increase in price is necessary. From a customer’s point of view, the slightly higher price will be justified by the convenience.

9

AutoRepair Marketing Plan

Appendix A:

Source: Abdullatif Jameel Internal Analysis

Source: mci.gov.sa

10

AutoRepair Marketing Plan

Appendix B:Concept of how the service truck going to look and advertisement example:

Employee uniforms for summer and winter and it could be gifts for the customers:

11

AutoRepair Marketing Plan

Appendix C:

12

AutoRepair Marketing Plan

References:

Mci.gov.sa (2015, 4, 25). Measurement Of Consumer’s Satisfaction.

https://mci.gov.sa/en/MediaCenter/Measuring-satisfaction/Pages/Agencies-cars-

questionnaire

Almusbahi. abdulrahman (2018, 8, 1). Vehicle imports declines by 55%.https://www.okaz.com.sa/article/1661376

13