And similarly one can observe the reluctance that people have towards using Mass transport systems to go to their offices , agreed that the facilities in mass transport are not up to the mark, but how m
any of us are willing to try them , personally when I had to travel to the new airport in Bangalore I used the special air conditioned buses of BMTC to reach the airport and found the service and comfort to be much higher than taking a taxi ...This resistance among people to go in for car-pooling is a mind-set issue among us Indians, as most of associated cars with prestige rather than a means of transport and same is true to certain extent with use of Mass transport system (though this might change with improvement of the services) where most people would find it below their dignity to travel on a bus to their office...
But what role does marketing have to play in this scenario? We have concepts like Demarketing which can be applied in the current context, which basically looks at how one can reduce or limit the demand for consumption of a specific product or a service on a permanent or a temporary basis.
And with the increased awareness in environmental issues and the hike in petroleum prices it might be the right time to come up with a hard hitting campaign to promote the use of car pools and reduce the consumption of fossil fuels....
Infact one of the reasons why opted for using the mass transport (BMTC Buses) to reach the new airport in Bangalore was driven by the numerous 3/4 page ads by BMTC announcing the services, with routes timings and also a brief note on the environmental benefits of the service , giving emission or other equivalents of using the bus vs a taxi....
I come from Omaha where cars are not luxury but something that is very essential. We still have buses running around the city.... but 95% of the time its empty or run with 2-3 people from the black community. But I could see a sudden change in the trend... this is because of the increasing gas price here. Omaha has a vast land and people usually commute about 10-15 miles (one way) for office. Also, american cars gives a not-so-good mileage. With the increase in gas price, people find it really tough to manage their budget.
ReplyDeleteSo now people are moving towards using public transport... MAT (metro area transit) - which operates the bus service in omaha, neither did advertise nor urged people to use their service. Rather people themselves realized that using bus is a more economical way to commute.
So i feel, one day even indian people will understand the pain of increasing gas price and will automatically switch to public transport.
Well a very simple reason, as I see it, is that the government in India is itself not emphasizing on concepts such as car-pooling. Once the government starts pulling its weight for such a thing, positive results are bound to emerge. On a lighter note, the way fuel prices are slated to increase, soon people will start finding car-pooling and mass-transport as not only a viable but a necessary option.
ReplyDeletelike the concept of car pool as u sait it a prestige which comes in and also the our social structure is that we inidan never like to share anyhting as it find it obligatory so the concept will require sometime but i am sure with the increasig oil price we might adopt it fast
ReplyDeleteFood for thought
ReplyDeletesome was suggesting that car pooling and using the public transport would happen only when the price of petrol reaches 250/- per liter....
I agree with you Rajesh. Its all got to do with awareness one speards (everyone is a marketing guy)around. When the bus service to new airport was launched, it was a question mark. Subsequently and very interestingly there was a news "these buses are good". It was very surprising !(Bangalore crowd which has been always reluctant to use public transportation systems for one or the other reasons). What is more important is a serious look at a long term implecations of raising fule consumption on socio economics. Its all in the hands of public transportation systems like roadways, railways, they need to get on to serious marketing by creating this awarenss and benefits of using their services.
ReplyDeletePersonally I liked the ads which the bus service gave comparing it with the overall cost saving that would happen if one were to use it for traveling to the airport. And that pushed me to use the service and once I used it and found it to be good I decided to stick to it.
ReplyDeleteBut looking at the overall picture even now we have been protected from the fuel hike, in US the petrol prices have almost double in the last one year, if some thing similar were to happen in India we would see the rush for using the public transport system, which is happening in other countries.
But for a marketer it might be the right time for pushing in wider use to public transport , because the consumer are feeling the pinch of the fuel prices and inflation. Maybe if we able to capitalize on the increased consumer awareness we maybe able to succeed, but the prerequisite is that we have to have an efficient public transport system in place..
Found a related post on the issue of fuel price hike, but in the US context
ReplyDeletehttp://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/gasoline-anchor-price.htm
read in detail about why petroluem prices fluctuate so much - log on to www.petroleumprice.blogspot.com
ReplyDelete