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Lyft: Our Generation's Taxi
- 1. “Our Generation’s Taxi” Hannah Kim Carolyn Huang
- 2. Hypothesis Lyft is more successful than Uber among the college demographic in Los Angeles due to its approachable branding.
- 3. Hypothesis Lyft is more successful than Uber among the college demographic in Los Angeles due to its approachable branding. TRUE 1. Lyft > Uber 2. Reason: Approachable Branding 1. Lyft < Uber or 2. Reason: Not Approachable Branding FALSE
- 4. Findings Lyft is more successful than Uber among the college demographic in Los Angeles due to its approachable branding. ^
- 5. Methodology • Secondary Research – Media Coverage – Industry Landscape – Competitive Landscape • Primary Research – Media Content Analysis – Focus Group – Insta-Poll – Twitter Content Analysis
- 6. Secondary Research • Press Coverage – Game changing for the transportation industry – Fierce competition • Industry Landscape – The “sharing economy” • Competitive Landscape – Uber, Sidecar, Taxis, Public Transit
- 8. Social Media #lyft popularity and top correlated hashtags
- 10. Uber Persona Hobby Wine Tasting Brand Hugo Boss Drink Espresso
- 11. The Real Deal Uber Lyft First Time Promo Code First Time Promo Code Fare Estimate -- Friend Promo Code Friend Promo Code uberPLUS Lyft Plus Fare Split Lyft Line International National
- 12. Primary Research • Media Content Analysis • Focus Group • Insta-Poll • Twitter Content Analysis
- 14. Focus Group: Keywords Lyft • Pink Moustache • Car Service • Taxi • Uber • Cheap Uber • Classy • Professional • Controversy • Town Cars • Pricey
- 15. In Car Experience Focus Group Lyft • Casual, interactive drivers • Creepy candy-giving Uber • Taxi-like, professional drivers • Gum/water is nice
- 16. ” In Car Experience Insta-Poll I like Uber better; I don't like talking to drivers. Lyft, I have to sit in the front seat and talk to drivers or fist pound. Uber, I can do my own thing. “
- 17. There’s Only Room For One Focus Group • People don’t need both apps • Stick with initial app
- 18. There’s Only Room For One Insta-Poll I’m used to getting Uber. Started with it first and I’m lazy to change. “ ”
- 19. What drives purchase decisions? Focus Group • Past experience • How close the drivers are located • Promo codes between friends • Rides are heavily social based
- 20. “ What drives purchase decisions? Insta-Poll I think Uber is more reliable. I like the drivers better. I've had bad Lyft driver experiences, and also the cars are blaringly ugly with the pink moustache.”
- 21. What would it take for you to call a Lyft next time you need a ride? Focus Group • A free ride Insta-Poll I guess I would call Uber if it’s cheaper.“ ”
- 22. Uber Lyft
- 23. Which would you call? 46% 34% 20% Insta-Poll Results Uber Lyft Either
- 24. Which would you call? Insta-Poll I would call Lyft, but sometimes I want to have the choice of not interacting with the driver. “ ”
- 25. Insta-Poll 50 19 16 12 6 5 4 2 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 # Mentions
- 29. Challenges & Limitations • Too much material to digest • Constantly updating app features • Insta-Poll and Focus Group only represent USC • Focus Group only included USC PR students • Uber’s international reach skews results
- 30. Scoreboard Media Content Analysis Focus Group Insta-Poll Twitter Content Analysis x
- 31. Summation Lyft is LESS successful than Uber among the college demographic in Los Angeles due to its approachable branding.
Editor's Notes
- CAROLYN Our hypothesis is “Lyft is more successful than Uber among the college demographic in Los Angeles due to its approachable branding.” 3 Key points: Lyft vs. Uber: We decided to specifically compare Lyft and Uber because they are the top competing ride-sharing services. College demographic: We focused on a college demographic not only because it’s a large customer segment for both companies, but also because both companies have identified the college demographic as a key consumer, as our content analysis will later reveal. Approachable Branding: “Approachable branding” is defined as the pure differentiator between Lyft and Uber: the way Lyft brands itself as a community-driven effort and “Your Friend with a Car.”
- CAROLYN In order to prove our hypothesis true, we must satisfy two prongs: 1. That Lyft is, indeed, more successful than Uber, and 2., that the reason Lyft is more successful is because of its approachable branding. We anticipate that our findings will lead down one of the three following paths: 1. True because true. 2. False because Lyft is less successful than Uber due to its approachable branding. 3. False because Lyft is less successful than Uber due to something other than its approachable branding.
- CAROLYN Our findings disprove our hypothesis for the first prong. Lyft is actually less successful than Uber among the college demographic in Los Angeles due to its approachable branding. Turns out the average LA college student would rather pay for a car service than a friend with a car.
- HANNAH ---secondary research summary-- Why did we choose to use these methods for our research? We started with secondary to gage where we should hone in on our hypothesis, and actually ended up changing our hypothesis throughout. Then we took a deep dive with our primary research by using the following methods: 1. Focus Group: Gain a deeper understand about how people feel about each brand. Limitations (to be included on Limitations sheet): All college students; only senior PR majors- greater awareness of branding. This was the first thing we did and later helped us narrow down our hypothesis first to Los Angeles, and then specifically to college students. 2. Insta-Poll: We did this to get opinions from USC students who WEREN’T PR majors, unlike our focus group. We took note of their gender and made sure they weren’t PR students. This started out with looking at Lyft/Uber and Taxi- we asked people which option they would use if they had to get a ride right now without using a personal vehicle. Depending on their answer we would ask them why they wouldn’t take the other option. i.e. if they said Lyft, we would say “Why?” and then “Why not Taxi or Uber?” This was done to understand how brand perception affects purchase decision. Understand comparisons. ---- This is the point when we threw out taxis ---- 3. Twitter Content Analysis: Get a broader brand perception that wasn’t just limited to college students- at this point we decided to expand past just college students. Social media was an easy way to do research outside of our obvious limitations of being on a college campus. We wanted to see what people were talking about on Twitter in regards to the brands Uber and Lyft. This was also done in order to get more information on brand perception. We mainly focused on sentiment for this analysis- positive v. negative v. neutral; in order to get a different and more specific lens than the Focus Group and Insta Poll. 4. Media Content Analysis: In addition to social media we wanted to look at what traditional media was saying about these two brands. We coded for specific words such as “black”, “sedan”, “pink”, “mustache”- words that we felt were representative of the brand and would also give us insight into what characteristics of the brand media focused on/were important. (price, convenience, etc.). This was another way for us to gauge brand perception from a different source.
- CAROLYN We started by looking at traditional media and noticed several media outlets were focusing on the competition between Lyft and other competitors. This led us to conduct a competitive analysis, which reveals Uber as Lyft’s top competitor. We conducted an industry analysis surrounding the transportation industry and found that Uber and Lyft are both paving the way for the “sharing” economy, a trend that is becoming popular not only in transportation, but also in areas such as hospitality (Airbnb). We then conducted a competitive analysis and found Uber to be the top competitor. Based on our competitive analysis, we decided to hone in on Lyft and Uber.
- CAROLYN Here is a sample of some of the press coverage we found in an article titled “Tech’s Fiercest Rivalry: Uber vs. Lyft,” which features Uber and Lyft as top competitors. This is a snippet of some of the press we found that directly compares Uber and Lyft. Biggest press coverage challenge: the news keeps changing!
- CAROLYN We found further data supporting Uber as a top competitor. When looking at a graph of relevant hashtags on Hashtagify, #Uber is the number one relevant search for #Lyft with a 23% correlation. That means that almost a quarter of tweets that contain #Lyft also contain #Uber.
- HANNAH Based off of our secondary research, we created two personas, one for each brand. These personify the BRANDS themselves, …. We created personas. If the BRANDS themselves were people; based on our research of how they brand themselves. If Lyft were a person, she would be someone who likes doing things in group settings and who has a fun and colorful personality.
- HANNAH Uber is sophisticated, simple and chic. He appreciates the finer things in life. And while extroverted in social settings, is probably not as approachable.
- HANNAH Clearly these two companies have extremely different branding strategies that affect the way people perceive them, as our data will show. But how different are their actual services? Looking at this comparison chart, we see that the only real different are that Uber offers a fare estimate tool that Lyft does not, and Uber is available as a service globally, whereas Lyft is only available in select cities in America. Both apps offer almost identical features/services except for the highlighted. This is the reality of what Uber and Lyft offer as services- and not people’s PERCEPTION of their services. Uber is available in over 50 countries whereas is only available in US cities. By showing that most of the features are the same; we can hone in on branding being the major differentiator between these services.
- CAROLYN Now we’ll go into the details of our key findings
- CAROLYN We looked at 5 different articles that specifically talk about Uber and Lyft within a college and coded for specific themes for both Uber and Lyft. For instance: “Price, Promotions, Approachable.” Clearly, the Lyft branding strategy was communicated. Lyft was more successful in communicating its branding. Interestingly enough, the themes we thought would show up with Uber “professional” didn’t make an appearance. However, it is clear that Lyft is associated with being approachable and friendly. Price was also mentioned more for Lyft than Uber. (WHY?)
- HANNAH The themes that we found in our focus group correlated with themes in Insta Poll. Interesting to note that “taxi” was not mentioned for “Uber.” I think this is a testament to the fact that “Uber” is seen as a luxurious service that is different from providing a taxi service. Also, while “Uber” was mentioned for Lyft; Lyft was not mentioned for Uber. I think this indicates that Uber is seen as independent/standing on its own- whereas Lyft is seen as the newcomer to the scene- this is corroborated later on as well.. Also interesting to note that “Controversy” showed up with Uber and not “Lyft.” This probably has to do with recent PR scandals surrounding Uber (not paying their employees well, dangerous situations with drivers, trying to undercut Lyft with shady practices) -- interesting that this is one of the first words that comes to mind with thinking about the brand. The way to act “sportsmanlike” for instance does filter into people’s perception of the brand. Cheap vs. Pricey This is really interesting… but hold this thought (PRICE IS ACTUALLY THE SAME- big reveal) -We’ll see later on if this is true. These words are pretty similar to the branding (from previous slides)= so the brands were successful in communicating themselves and having the audience internalize their branding. Even though Uber X and Lyft are essentially the same service- it appears that people associate Uber with their more luxurious sedan options that more closely resemble a chauffeur service rather than ridesharing.
- HANNAH -Drivers are more casual, more interactive, want to talk more. When drivers give candy it seems creepy. -Drivers are like taxi drivers- they’re not really interested in talking with you which comes off as more professional. The gum/water in Ubers is nice. Main takeaways: The branding isn’t just in our minds (as evidenced by keywords) but is reflected in the in-car experience. However, it seems to have backfired for Lyft. Yes the drivers are more friendly, but people don’t want that. The quote from the focus group (“Lyft/Uber is our generation’s taxi…”) Is very telling. Yes it’s a new way to get around (a departure from the traditional taxi model) but people still want the formal “service” experience that we get from taxis. Maybe people aren’t ready for the “Friend with a car” kind of concept. They want a cheaper, more convenient taxi. *This finding opposes our hypothesis- because we thought people would this approachable model (friendliness) is precisely why people chose Lyft.
- CAROLYN Here’s a quote from our Insta-poll to emphasize this point about in-car experience A quick survey that we did of 50 students One quote that we found in our Insta-Poll really supports this finding. Lyft IS known for its approachable model of “fist-bumping” your driver- but interestingly enough, people don’t want that. They like the independence of not talking to their driver.
- HANNAH WHOEVER GETS THEIR FOOT IN THE DOOR FIRST -Whoever they download first (usually because of a promotion/friend use it) - is the one they stick with Promo codes is what attracts students to begin using these services. How MUCH they save can be a big influencer- for instance, one student mentioned that the first rides were free for both Uber/Lyft and she went with the code that discounted more. -For instance, someone mentioned in the focus group that they recently deleted one of the two apps because they felt they didn’t need both on their phone (takes up space ; and provide essentially the same service ) -This concept is reflected in the Insta-Poll as well- branding is less important than whoever gets to the customer first. -This is especially relevant to Lyft- since it’s a newer company than Uber and is less established and less well-known. They are going to need to garner more publicity and provide STEEPER discounts/promos to attract that initial audience that is going to stay loyal to them. They can’t rely merely on a more approachable brand strategy because as seen from our focus group- people still desire professionalism. KEY TAKEAWAY- whoever gets in the door first usually wins! With other competitors, different services/features might influence consumers to convert. However, since Uber and Lyft are so similar- it’s even more vital for them to be the first to get their foot in the door.
- CAROLYN Unless offered a significant discount or NEW feature; people aren’t going to change their habits. If what they have works, they’re going to stick with it.
- HANNAH So we’ve talked a lot about brand PERCEPTION. Now let’s get down to what actually drives purchasing decision. What’s behind your choice to pick Uber or Lyft on a night out or when you need a fast ride? -obviously past experience and word-of-mouth play a huge role. -convenience- how fast can the drivers get here? -Promo codes between friends- so that you and your friends can both save- win/win situation. -Socially based- people use what their friends use. Also, most likely to use these services when with friends. Lessons for Lyft: -Lyft needs to build up trust; the reputation that Uber has established. By providing reliable customer service and being accessible as a company- show that they are legit.
- CAROLYN bad experience and word-of-mouth (my friend had a bad experience) Can all negatively impact people’s perception of the brand. Branding is memorable, but can have a negative impact or negative connotations. People are also not immune to external branding like the pink moustache. Even though price may play the ultimate deciding role in which service you choose to take; these sentiments should not be ignored either. 10% of insta-poll respondents mentioned the moustache without any prompting.
- HANNAH It really just comes down to the money!
- HANNAH MOMENT Uber is Apple and Lyft is Samsung. This was a comparison made from our focus group. Lyft is Uber’s less-established brother. Lyft is an alternative option – maybe one to use when Uber’s surge prices are ridiculous or when there are no Uber drivers around. This whole time we had viewed them on the same playing field (at least in Los Angeles) due to media coverage and exposure on campus. This was a big insight!
- CAROLYN In our focus group, Uber came out as the winner. Who won in our insta-poll? Uber. Our insta-poll results include this. As you can see, Uber wins here based on the Insta-Poll.
- CAROLYN So why did more people choose Uber? This quote from our Insta-Poll summarizes it in a nutshell. Our next AHA Moment! Lyft’s branding strategy as friendly and approachable actually repels the consumer. When we asked those who chose Uber why they didn’t choose Lyft- they gave us some interesting insight. Approachable has opposite effect that Lyft wants: actually repelling people rather than attracting them. This is also brought up in the focus group.
- CAROLYN This graph was created based on the quotes from our Insta Poll. We coded our Insta Poll results for certain themes, which leads us to the following insights. Price and promotions is obviously a core factor that consumers consider when choosing between an Uber and a Lyft. Using an app that people are talking about or that their friends are using supports our earlier key insight. Bar Graph for coding and numbers for Uber/Lyft out of 41 total quotes. As we might have expected, and as our data from the focus group shows, price and promotions are the number one concern for college students taking Lyft or Uber. Social Influence, apparent through word of mouth and friend influence, comes in at second with 19/41 possible mentions. Other notable associations with Lyft and Uber include convenience and the in-car experience. People really care about price, and ultimately free is as cheap as you go.
- HANNAH Now we’re moving onto the Twitter content analysis! We looked at all of the Tweets for the hashtags #Uber and #lyft for one day in October. AHA MOMENT!!! Uber has way more tweets than Lyft. The sheer amount was staggering! Since Uber is far more widespread this makes sense, but was also surprising. Total Uber : 272 ; Lyft : 76 AHA MOMENT!!! Lots of negative sentiment for Uber. Even when scaled for the number disparity- Uber has many more negative tweets!
- HANNAH Positive Sentiment Not surprisingly “Lyft” is one of the most mentioned words. “Uber” is also a top mentioned word for Lyft as you will see. This is relevant to our research/hypothesis since it shows that these two services are often mentioned in the same breath. I think everyone sees them as direct competitors. Taxis and sidecar are also two different competitors that are featured in the word cloud. Vegas/government/petition/judge/support -- Has to do with people advocating to have Uber legalized in their cities. Shows desire. Kittens/Cat- Uber had a successful campaign where they delivered kittens to you in Uber cars. Their marketing is all over the place, but obviously successful in generating conversation. Amazing/Good/Great/Useful/Favorite - positive sentiment. Tech/future - reflects views of focus group that this service is the future Examples: #Vegas Judge rules in favor of #uber. “I think competition in business is a great thing.” Smart. Using feline's online popularity AND supporting stress relief. Well done #uber #marketing #cats Negative Sentiment PR / Shady Illegal Expose Drivers/Background Checks Minimum Wage/ Firing This has to do with some of Uber’s shady marketing techniques that has roused hatred not only with taxi drivers but also journalists. For instance- after LA Weekly published a negative expose on Uber- the PR team tried to trick them into publishing a “citizen op ed” piece in support of Uber. People also criticize how they treat their drivers/ how much they are paid… their safety. The criticism for Uber is mostly their business model and not the actual service/in-car experience Examples - #uber drivers say they're making less than #minimumwage #Uber's shady firing policy: Man who spoke up on #Reddit is mysteriously fired:
- HANNAH Positive Sentiment CHEAPER - interesting. Taxi and Ubers Cheaper doesn’t show up with Uber Awesome/great DRIVERs- emphasis on how good the drivers were. “Don’t drink and drive, drink and lyft” Negative Sentiment Do you notice how much smaller this word cloud is than the ones for Uber? It’s very interesting that there is so much less content for Lyft than Uber. This is obviously influenced by the fact that Uber is much more well known. Uber is in 50 countries whereas Lyft is exclusively in the U.S. Also, Lyft hasn’t had as much negative coverage of not treating their drivers well/underhand marketing strategies. Most of the criticism of Lyft wasn’t directed only at this service- There was lyft/uber/taxi mentioned as well. For instance, “Our case against Uber, Uberx and Lyft.” ----- This is actually a win for Lyft and can serve as a learning experience. i.e. THESE are the things that people hate about Uber and give them a bad rep. Pitfalls to avoid and ways to improve.
- CAROLYN Too much material to digest > lots of work for two people, plus lots of work to just sift through. > difficult to find angle for hypothesis Focus group w/ PR students: Bad b/c PR students more aware of marketing and aware of our project and we were there Uber’s international presence inherently garners more publicity and usage
- HANNAH Focus group: Uber Insta-Poll: Uber Twitter Content Analysis: Lyft, because even if you scaled Uber, Lyft has less negative. However, this isn’t an overwhelming win because they also lacked positive associations. Recall secondary hashtag research. Uber is a much better standalone, and Lyft is still the “younger brother.”
- CAROLYN Circling back to our hypothesis, we believe that Lyft is LESS successful than Uber among the college demographic in Los Angeles due to its approachable branding. Rather, the approachable branding and the only differentiator between Lyft and Uber services, has made Lyft LESS successful and less popular.