Chapter 12 - Promotional Strategy and New Media, Chapter 2 - Elements of Marketing Strategy; Planning; and Competition, Chapter 4 - Understand Business-to-Consumer Markets, Chapter 7 - Product Strategy and New Product Development, Chapter 9 - Service as the Core Offering
by marketingmanagement4e

I Can’t Get No Food Truck Tacos

Any music festival-goes knows that maintaining their body with fuel during the event is a chore. In the midst of planning out logistics for when to see your favorite bands (and when to get to that stage to get a good spot) you have to remember to set aside time to feed yourself. With thousands of people in attendance, long lines can suck up an hour of time.

(A sea of hungry melomaniacs)

However, one online delivery company is trying to solve this inconvenience for us. Postmates teamed up with vendors at a few festivals this year to allow music-lovers to skip the line, not a set, by ordering online.

Users select, pay, and can even customize their order through the app, and receive message updates on its status. When it’s ready, they walk up to the food truck or to the Postmates Pickup counter, show their order number, and skedaddle back to the show.

postmates-kogi

This would be a game-changing innovation if not for one thing- reception. Some festivals don’t have Wi-Fi, so your ability to order is limited to your phone, data plan, and coverage. Some festivals offer free Wi-Fi, but after the effect of thousands of people all trying to use their phones at once, it’s merely a tease of what could be.

Postmates has a clear niche cut out for itself, but it faces an infrastructure issue. In order for it to take off, it needs to partner not only with food vendors across the nation to adopt and practice the service for its customers, but it also must act as a lobbyist for better wireless service at festivals. As a future customer, I’d love for it to work out immediately. But from a marketing management perspective, here are some questions to consider:

 

  • If you were a marketing manager at Postmates, how would you convince festival operators to not only allow your service, but convince them to bolster their Wi-Fi? What is your value proposition?
  • Postmates would want as many people as possible to use their service, but if everyone used the app instead of waiting at a food truck in-person, the lines and wait times would be just as long. How can Postmates continue to innovate as they gain more users to ensure they don’t lose relevancy and service quality?
  • What other markets might Postmates be able to enter? How would their strategy change?