Executive Summary
United States Instrument Rental’s (“USIR”) most significant problem is that it does not understand its customers, resulting in a lack of perceived differentiation with its competitors and an overall low usage rate of equipment rental among its target audience. Two principal obstacles facing USIR include a lack of intelligence regarding the motivation that drives the decisions of different size companies and each person involved in the buying center, and a seemingly narrow overall awareness of the rental concept among its customers. In the near-term, USIR’s intermediate marketing goals must be to focus on retaining current customers and expanding their usage of equipment rental services. Long-term, USIR’s bottom line goal should be to retain its current market share leader position and continue to grow sales faster than the market. An approach focusing on customer intimacy through customer segmentation provides USIR with the most attractive prospects because it allows the company to better understand the motivations and behaviors of its customers, provides the opportunity to develop effective methods to broaden awareness of the rental equipment concept, and leverages some of the earlier investments that can differentiate USIR from its competitors.
Case Analysis
The primary challenge that USIR faces in achieving both its intermediate and bottom-line goals is the lack of adequate segmentation of its target customer base. It is important to segment the target customer base such that USIR can effectively focus its marketing towards the different needs of the customer depending on the size of the company and/or the position/responsibility of that particular customer (e.g. end user vs. decision maker and). USIR has early indications that support the ...