Primary Consideration for the Establishment of the ZipCar Scheme for the City of

Westminster Council
By:
Horace E. Nwabunwene
The initiative of the City of Westminster Council, to partner with ZipCar, in introducing a car
scheme for residents and employees, both in Westminster, other parts of London, and around
the world, indicate a deliberate plan to tailor the focus of government and agencies, to the
improvement of mobility. It is a preliminary arrangement to introduce and entrench the
culture of car use, irrespective of affordability. There is an obvious intent of the scheme, to
facilitate the decongestion of the cities, owing to the fact of a de-emphasis on private
ownership of vehicles, to public use of the scheme vehicles, thereby eeping several private
vehicles, off the road.
In the midst of this laudable initiative, it is clear that the scheme would normally succeed,
given the strength of intent ascribed to it, by its owners. !owever, it is not clear, from the
presentation of the scheme"s outlay, whether, before, it was established, certain very
important factors were thoroughly considered. #s a matter of fact, this scheme, should
primarily entail the creation of a comprehensive maret plan. This maret plan should, in the
first instance, ensure that salient determinants of the success of the scheme, are in place. The
salient determinants, are, for the purpose of this study, advertising and mareting
communications.
In the view of $o et al %&''(), there is an evident basis for considering that, before
proceeding with any pro*ect, there must be in place, a viable maret plan. #ccordingly, this
maret plan should clearly show how the pro*ect, and in this case, the car scheme, will be
advertised, so that it gets to the attention of its end-users. The importance of advertisement, is
conse+uently stressed by Thatcher et al %&','), by viewing advertisement as the bringing to
awareness, the e-istence of a product, to the staeholders of the organisation, responsible for
its manufacture. They opine that without advertisement, it does imply, to some e-tent, that
such a pro*ect lacs recognition, both in the short- and long-terms, and thus, becomes
unviable. .esides, it is e+ually imperative, in their words, to see mareting communications,
as /the only means of speaing the language of end-users, through the pro*ects0. This implies
that, *ust lie in communications, mareting communications, according to $abrielli et al
%&''(), /represents the voice by which companies can establish a dialogue with customers
and other staeholders, about their product or service offerings, and1or other company
issues0. In other words, mareting communications is closely related to advertising, in the
sense that, although they are both about public nowledge of the product, advertising tends to
build this nowledge, while mareting communications sustains it.
It is e+ually imperative to observe that the outlay does show that the scheme intends to have
more than ,'' cars by the end of &',', and 2'' cars, by the end of &',&. This is laudable,
and e+ually commendable. !owever, it is not clear, how many cars the scheme wants to start-
off with, at inception. It will be the advantage of the development of a maret plan for the
scheme to now, from the onset, how many cars, it has in its itty, for tae-off.

The conception of the scheme is ideally an invaluable one, even as it sees to ensure that
mobility is enhanced, both in the 3nited 4ingdom, and elsewhere. It is important to stress
though, that, the scheme will be a better sell, if, from the onset, all staeholders are ept in
the picture, and continuously reminded of its e-istence. The plan that should ensure that this
is done, should be put in place. This plan, should e+ually detail the methods, patterns, as well
as strategies for this implementation. The success of the scheme rests, partially with the
ability of the initiators of the scheme, to commence with this plan of events for its success,
and fully with their abilities to ensure that the plans, are brought to a logical end, through
fruitful implementation.
eferences
$abrielli, 5. and .alboni, .. %&''(), /678 9ractice Towards Integrated 7areting
Communications0, in 7areting Intelligence and 9lanning. 8merald $roup 9ublishing
Limited. 5ol. &:, ;o. <, &',', pp. &=>-&('.
$o, ?. and !acioglu, $. %&''(), /The ?rganisational @oles of 7areting and 7areting
7anagers0, in 7areting Intelligence and 9lanning. 8merald $roup 9ublishing Limited. 5ol.
&:, ;o. <, &',', pp. &(,-<'(.
Thatcher, 6.7... and .rown, 6.#. %&','), /Individual Creativity in TeamsA The Importance
of Communication 7edia 7i-0, in Becision 6upport 6ystems. 8lsevier 9ublishers, 2(
%&','), &('-<''.