US Industry in 2000 Holden Trucking Services - Case Study Example

Company Introduction: Holden Trucking Services Holden Trucking Services is a firm which offers easy, efficiency and affordable trucking services to individual and organisations. Holden Trucking Services was founded in 2009 to close the gap left by the fact that most moving companies in the USA as well as the world are expensive, inefficient to most people. Holden Trucking Services offers localised services rather than centralised as the other trucking services. The firm intends to manage its growth b y looking into these underserved markets and offer the market the services in an efficient and affordable manner to make sure that they can easily afford the services. Strategic Mission Statement The mission of Holden Trucking Services is to be preferred trucking firm by being able to deliver the most affordable, high quality and efficient trucking services to the customers. According to Radhakrishnan (2001), trucking services form a very important part of the supply chain for many business and it is critical that it is efficient in terms of service as well as cost. This is what Holden Trucking Services will seek to be doing, that is, provide efficient and reliable services to customers at affordable prices. In its growth outlook, Holden Trucking Services looks to serve the African market. The African market is the most underserved market in this sector of the global economy. Africa is expected to be next big economy in the next twenty years. According to market experts, the current fast growing markets such as India and China will have reached their optimum growth by the year 2050. At the current moment, every firm including trucking firms are concentrating their foreign market growth in the BRICS market. As the African market is being ignored, it is going to be easy for Holden Trucking Services to establish itself as the trucking firm of choice and be able to take advantage when the opportune e time comes. The African market is already a ripe market and is underserved and even without having to wait for the opportunities time. Most African countries don’t have dependable trucking services of their own and therefore depend on foreign firms. None of these foreign firms have been gracious enough to offer localised trucking services. This means that the services are too expensive for the local African market. The services are also inefficient and not dependable especially where time of delivery is critical. Holden Trucking Services will be the trucking firm to fill this gap to make sure that the local market is well served. Marketing Plan Holden Trucking Services will reach the market by personalising the services. The market will be divided into smaller cells with each cell being given as much autonomy as possible. This will make sure that every area can be served individually and this will increase the quality of the service to the customers. Holden Trucking Services will also seek to be a low-price leader. The modern trucking business is too expensive for most customers an this always has a negative implication of the customers because most of the customers are businesses which would benefit a lot if they could find a cheaper way to deliver their goods so that they can expand their profit margins (Kendall, 2005). Offering low prices and high quality of service to the customer will be an easy way to enter in the market and Holden Trucking Services seeks to use this as a way to make sure that it curves a market share for itself. Segmentation of the Market Holden Trucking Services will seek to serve the underserved market. Such underserved market include the small scale businesses which usually cannot afford to have their own trucks but at the same time find trucking services prohibitively high. In this regard, to be able to serve this market, Holden Trucking Services will use two main strategies. First, it will include smaller trucks rather than having only large trucks. These smaller trucks will help in making sure that the firm is able to dispatch customer’s merchandise even when the merchandise is not full truck, without incurring costs of infancy. Secondly, Holden Trucking Services will use bundling of services. Bundling will mean that customers who come from the same local areas can unite and buy services as one customer. This will reduce costs on them as well as Holden Trucking Services and will be good for loads whose delivery is not time-critical. SWOT Analysis for Holden Trucking Services Strengths The biggest strength that Holden Trucking Services ill have as a trucking company will be the fact that it will operate as a localised firm and this will help in delivering personalised and more affordable services to the customers. This will position the firms above every other competitor in the market. Holden Trucking Services also seeks to serve the underserved market and this will help in making sure that Holden Trucking Services will not face too tight competition. It will also mean that the firm is able to provide a unique product which will differentiate it in the market. Holden Trucking Services will also be able to lure it customers based in affordable and efficient services as these are not available in the current market. By being able to work closely with its customers and knowing their personal needs, Holden Trucking Services will be able to have a lead in the market. As Stransman (2011) says, personalised customer service is the most efficient way to retain customers. Holden Trucking Services will use this as a way to maintain good relations with its customers. Weaknesses Holden Trucking Services is a relatively new firm and this means that it will have difficulties entering the market as the already established trucking firms are the trusted ones. Holden Trucking Services will need to establish its brand in order to be able to compete with the industry players. Funding will also be a big challenge for Holden Trucking Services especially due to the fact hat trucking business requires a lot of investment. In the current world, developing infrastructure fro a trucking business is no longer about buying trucks and employing drivers but includes having GPS tracking services in order to bring efficiency and productivity (Mowery, 1999). This is going to be a challenge for the firm. The other main weakness is the fact that the firm does not have the experience necessary to operate in this sector of the economy. Running a trucking business requires not only the employees to be experienced but the firms as a unit to be very experienced. There is no shortcut to experience and Holden Trucking Services will have to learn on the job. Opportunities As already identified, there are underserved markets and this will mean that Holden Trucking Services will be able to serve this market as a way to launch its business. Holden Trucking Services will seek to look at the underserved markets and establish itself there. One such market is the African market. Globalisation has also brought new opportunities for trucking business. As trade around the globe increases, goods have to be delivered from one corner of the world to the other and this has increased the need for trucking services than ever before. As a result, Holden Trucking Services has a very big future ahead as it seeks to be the leader of thus industry which is set to be a very important part of the global economy. Threats The biggest threat to Holden Trucking Services is the fact that Holden Trucking Services may find itself in competition with other upcoming businesses. If other upcoming businesses choose to serve this underserved market which Holden Trucking Services seeks to serve, this will increase competition and reduce the chance for the firm to succeed. The other challenge is the fact the already existing trucking firms may choose to enter the same underserved market. As discussed, Holden Trucking Services is launching itself in the underserved market. There is no guarantee that these markets will remain underserved by the other industry players. The already existing trucking firms could decide to come aboard and start service these ignored market and this could introduce big problems for the Holden Trucking Services. Positioning of the Holden Trucking Services Holden Trucking Services will position itself as a firm that serves the middle class businesses which will mean that it will not be dealing with the high end businesses. Holden Trucking Services will seek to work with those customers who find the prices offered by the major trucking firms prohibitive. It will seek to provide the same high quality services as offered by the other firms, or even better services, but at the same time relieve the customers from prohibitively high costs which make it harder for them to benefit from trucking services. In this regard, Holden Trucking Services will seek to create a brand that the low income earners it the medium businesses can afford easily without straining their income. The good thing with this is the fact that this is a very big market and if well utilised, will help he firm to grow at a very fast rate. References: Kendall, G. (2005). Multidisciplinary Scheduling: Theory and Applications: 1st International Conference, MISTA '03 Nottingham, UK, 13-15 August 2003. Selected Papers. Hoboken, NJ: Springer. Mowery, D. (1999). U.S. Industry in 2000: Studies in Competitive Performance. New York City, NY: National Academies Press. Radhakrishnan, P. (2001). Logistics and Supply Chain Management. New York City, NY: Allied Publishers. Stransman, A. (2011). Don't Let Your Dream Business Turn Into a Nightmare: Second Edition. London, UK: Alan Stransman. Read More