Has your car ever run out of gas? Has it ever “run on fumes” while you search for a nearby gas station? For most people, these events have likely happened a few times. Wouldn’t it be nice if your car automatically had its tank filled up without needing to take it to a filling station? And maybe get oil changes and wipers replaced without needing to spend hours at a repair shop? Well, a new company named Yoshi has the answer to this dilemma.
Yoshi is an on-site refueling and car maintenance service that brings gasoline and other services directly to your car. Using an app, drivers can schedule fuel deliveries and select maintenance services. Yoshi’s trained mechanics pump the gas and handle maintenance while the car is parked at work or at home.
Refueling can be scheduled once ($7/delivery), or on a regular basis ($20/month). Additional services include oil change, car wash and detail, repairs, windshield fluid, wiper blade changes, window cleaning, and tire air check and fill. The service is currently in 12 cities and is also used by companies to keep their car fleets fueled up and ready to go.
Fill ‘er up.
Group Activities and Discussion Questions:
- Discuss the importance of clearly defining a target market.
- Poll students. Ask who would be interested in a system to automatically refuel their cars.
- Show Yoshi’s site: http://www.startyoshi.com/
- Show video of the service: https://youtu.be/xmqrZ2DvwVE
- For Yoshi, what is the target market? Consumers? Corporations?
- Divide students into teams and have each team develop a profile of a target market for Yoshi. Include demographics, psychographics, behaviors, values, attitudes, etc.
- Based on the target market profile, what makes this product unique for these customers?
- Debrief the exercise.
Source: Harlow, T. (1 March, 2018). New on-demand fuel service will allow Twin City drivers to skip the gas station. Minneapolis Star Tribune.
