Research Report 1: Hertz

Introduction

Started out in the year 1918, Hertz has come a long way and has grown to become one of the world’s leading vehicle rental companies, operating in more than 7,700 locations in 145 countries world wide.

Hertz is the largest general use car rental brand in the world, and the number one airport car rental brand in the U.S. and at 69 major airports in Europe, operating both corporate and licensee locations in cities and airports in North America, Europe, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand.

In addition, the Company has licensee locations in cities and airports in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East.

With the arrival of the internet age and the rise in globalisation in the 90s, the company took a step further and launches its world wide website in 1996 to gain an edge over its competitors and extending its unique brand to the new IT savvy audience around the world.

The website displays a vast area of information about the company’s history, subsidiaries and partners, as well as its various products and services available such as rates and reservations, special offers, membership clubs and customer support and car sales.

Today, Hertz's Worldwide Reservations Centers handle approximately 40 million phone calls and deliver approximately 30 million reservations annually.

Features

Hertz’s is classifiable under the major e-commerce categories of both business to business (B2B) as well as business to consumers (B2C).

Due to the fact that the Hertz brand is a major globalised company, with its business and operations being established globally, its business models are therefore sophisticated and complex enough to cater to the different types of consumers, business clients and partners alike.

Its main business activity is still a car rental company. Therefore one of the main business models of their website takes the form of a virtual storefront catering to customers in need of transportation services. where by it detailed displays various categories of vehicle types, models and brands are available for rent to customers and travel agents, with easy step by step online bookings, rates and reservations.

It's e-commerce website also features a business to business model. Its includes partnerships with travel agents, airliners, railways, hotels, insurance companies and credit card companies, thus creating attractive and customised packages to the travel market. Another component of their business to business (B2B), Hertz offers global opportunities to join the Hertz franchise network which interested parties are able to do so online.

However, Hertz main emphasis is still business that is directly related to consumers. Although it features links to its various travel partners and opportunities to franchise the brand name, its webpages are located at the backend of the website, where unlike its B2C model, that is easily located at the website's homepage.

Besides being a click-and-mortar, they also have highly accessible physical stores (brick-and-mortar) located in hotels, airports, train stations and travel agencies to allow customers to rent a vehicle once they have reached their destination. These physical stores complement their online store as some customers do not know how to navigate their website or do not even have internet access. Furthermore, some customers would rather speak to a salesperson physically and for them to handle their transaction then to trust an online booking. They may also want to view and test the vehicles physically before renting them. Also, the physical stores allow any customers who wish to rent a car the last minute or for those who do not know their itinerary in advance and could not book a vehicle online. We feel that Hertz puts more emphasize on their physical stores as many customers would rather test drive the cars before renting them. Also, since their physical stores are highly accessible at convenient locations, many customers would not mind going down personally to do all transactions at one go instead of doing an online one first. Furthermore, the online website targets the minority customers who are busy, on-the-go, tech savvy businessman who needs a car ready for them once they reach their destination. Besides that, many customers may only need the website to get a quote on the car they intend to rent, they may not go ahead with the actual reservation of the car as they are still uncertain.

Payment schemes for online transactions are mostly paid through credit card and frequent traveler’s credit, though cash checks are also accepted only by mail. Hertz has an attractive membership schemes (Hertz club & Hertz club gold) that offers benefits and discount rates to members.

Hertz website provides links to all their related travel business partners within the United States, Europe and across Asia. Thus, taking the form of an information broker, stating the various discount programs and products and services offered from their business partners.

Characteristics

Right from the homepage, the website is informative about its special offers and rates. Customers are able to rent a car in four simple steps on their computer browser. Firstly, plan their trip from a simple user interface in the form of a calendar than choose their desired car, and finally book and confirm their choices.

The website is simple to navigate, with all its main features compiled into a menu box; there is also a language converter available as well as a country of residence selection option.

The overall design of the website is systematic and filled with practical and rich information about the company, its travel partners and the various products and services offered. Its design is also mostly incorporated by HTML format.

The website doesn’t have any flash imaginary or celebrity endorsements unlike other website design schemes such as Priceline.com. It also doesn’t incorporate any sound or any advertising pop ups from other companies. It is a serious website dedicated solely to its business without all the extra unwanted information that contains loads of undesired content unrelated to the consumers’ needs and wants.

Overall, Hertz e-commerce website, provides users with a fairly easy to navigate web pages that is available in multiple languages for the global consumer. Neatly categorised menu bar that display useful informative content.

Strength and Weakness

The Company clearly and very neatly displays its promotions and special benefits on its front page, with attractive believable tag lines such as “special offers”, “super savings” and “members’ privileges. The front page is very direct; right in the center of the page displays the interactive online booking system, which means fast and easy access to the immediate consumer.

The company also pays a lot of attention to its various business partners, establishing links to all of them, as well as displaying their partner’s products that are on special offer and discounts.

The website also allows various modes of payments like travelers’ checks and credit, internet online payment, phone payment and credit card payment.

However, one of the weaknesses of the website is the lack of visual components, like pictures of their product, or simple visual enhancements to make the website a little more attractive, it is rather wordy.

In conclusion, despite it’s disadvantages, Hertz’s website is able to provide important useful information. It is able to cater to a wide global audience with different products and services for the right kind of market. Being a globalised company, its website is able to be kept simple to understand and navigate, despite all the complication that can occur in a transnational corporation.