Services Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Services Marketing - Essay ExampleUK motorbus industry having about 9000 licensed bus companies at once supports about 170,000 odd jobs. There be about 22000 bus services registered within UK. Stagecoach comprises of ace of the largest bus operators in UK. It runs about 8100 buses and employs around 35000 staff. It is besides engaged in providing rail and tram services in UK. Size The daily travel density across the country is about 2 meg people. Major competitors for the concern include Cowie, FirstBus, Arriva, West Midlands Travel, National Express, First and GoAhead. Other competitors include international bus service agencies and independent operators (Arriva. 2013). Competitive Structure Since 1985, the bus industry has seen a ingathering that is remarkable. Presently, 4 of the major bus operators, namely, Cowie, FirstBus, Stagecoach and West Midlands Travel have more than 50% grocery share. However, the typical food merchandise structure specific to a bus industry is that unlike other manufacturing and service concerns, bus service industry focuses majorly on numerous topical anaesthetic markets. The local market is evidently the large urban areas (Tsiotsou, and Goldsmith, 2012). What is also striking about the market is that each unmatchable of the big 4 operators has almost equal market share with none having a significant market presence in all of the regions. If any of these big four operators want to become a market leader, they would necessarily need a very aggressive marketing strategy to acquire the market of other competitors. Competition is very limited because each one has its own market niche and customer set (Competition Commission, 2013). Opportunity and Threat Analysis Opportunities Acquisitions Stagecoach is operating in a market where there are primarily three major competitors, namely, Cowie, FirstBus and West Midlands. Here, each bus operator has almost equal share in the industry ad each one acts as a major market player. C ompetition is faced by these 3 bus operators alone rest smaller operators do not fuck off significant threat (Reuters, 2013). This is because the bus market in US is geographically segregated. Each player has his set and defined market area. Players do not vie in each others defined territories. This culminates in what is known as a lack of head to head competition. Bus operators are outpouring excess profits because of lack of competition in their area of operation. Cities like Oxford, Nottingham and Sheffield were among the few places where there was some sort of competition observed (The Courier, 2012). With a placement to become a market leader and overcome much(prenominal) competition, Stagecoach can employ a consolidation strategy. It can expand its operations, and thereby market share by a series of acquisitions of smaller bus operators. With such acquisition based expansion, benefits to passengers will be felt directly in the figure of falling prices, better services a nd higher frequencies. As for the firms, intense rivalry shall lead to one large firm being replaced by the other such that it leads to complete shutdown of the weaker firm (ReportLinker, 2013). Emerging markets and expansion abroad Stagecoach operates majorly in UK and is expanding its operations in USA, NewZealand and Canada. Emerging nations like Brazil, China, India and Indonesia are countries full of growth opportunities. Expansion of bus services in these countries would be a great business opportunity. Countries like China and India have a huge