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Executive Summary
MapQuest is a well-established brand with millions of people using the companys routing services. The company has a long history and has recently updated its website to be able to meet the needs of consumers better. Nevertheless, customers loyalty is the only advantage of the company. MapQuest fails to provide timely updates in response to technological advancements. It is reactive to the actions of competitors and provides a very limited number of services. While Google and Yahoo continuously add new services, MapQuest introduces the same services with a two-year delay. The research findings suggest that the low risk of new entry of potential competitors gives MapQuest an opportunity to strengthen its leadership position on the market. However, failure to react to the new technologies quickly puts the company under the threat to be pushed out of the market by more technology-oriented competitors.
Corporate Strategy
MapQuest helps people find places. The company has more than 30 years of operating history and has headquarters in Denver and Mountville. Ten years ago, the company launched Internet, Wireless, and Business Solutions products worldwide. According to the corporate strategy, MapQuest is dedicated to providing more mapping, directions, and navigational services to help customers find and get to any place. The organizational mission and management philosophy are not clearly defined on the official website of the company. MapQuest is the most recognized and trusted brand on the internet. It is a leading consumer Web site for maps and directions. It serves more than 50 million users every month and has successfully extended desktop experience into mobile devices (MapQuest Corporate Overview 1). The company provides geospatial platforms enabling web and wireless applications for approximately 1,400 global brands.
External Environment
Porters five forces model
The risk of new entry by potential competitors is low. ProQuest attracts more than 70 percent of all customers seeking mapping services. The other 30 percent are divided by two competitors. The leading global search engines (Google, Yahoo, and MSN), control the market and minimize the threat of new entries by competitors. The small number of competitors results in a high degree of rivalry among established companies within the industry. Google and Yahoo offer the same packages of services. Three companies are rivals and fight to the market share. According to statistics, the number of internet users has increased by 7 percent, while the number of people using MapQuest has remained the same (approximately 70 percent). Thus, Yahoo and Google have a chance to increase their market shares. The bargaining power of buyers is significant because internet users have low loyalty to specific search engines. Nevertheless, according to recent statistics, Google is responsible for 80 percent of all internet queries. The bargaining power of suppliers is low because MapQuest provides services, not products. The threat of substitute products is also low because of the insignificant risk of new entries by potential competitors.
General Environment
MapQuest offers services to the global population; however, the major emphasis is made on the American population. Economic conditions in the country are favorable. The target demographics are people who travel these are the majority of the American population. Social factors have an insignificant impact on MapQuest operations. Global and political factors have no influence over MapQuests business activities. Technology, on the contrary, is the only factor that has a direct impact on a companys operations. Nevertheless, as the recent press releases propose, the company is devoted to technological progress even though slowly reacts to the innovations.
Competitor Environment
The number of people visiting MapQuest is not changing within the last two years. It is a good and a bad sign at the same time. It is good because it is an indicator of customer loyalty. It is bad because it means that the market share of competitors is increasing. Yahoo has a 32 percent share, while Google has a 25 percent share ( Competitors Nip at MapQuests Biz 1). MapQuest remains a leader for some reason, as McGloin, the general manager of MapQuest, has noted, the leading position is attributed to corporate strategy according to which close attention is paid to the wants of customers. MapQuest has offered a new service satellite images, however, they were not useful. The same service offered by Google has become very popular. In particular, Google Earth was used to help people affected by Hurricane Katrina to tag maps and messages on how people were doing after the hurricane.
Internal Environment
MapQuest is visited by 50 million people monthly. No information is available about the resources and capabilities of the company. However, the recent launch of the new beta version indicates that the company is continuously improving its services to meet the needs of customers better. New features added to the site include the ability to see the map and driving directions on the same page, opportunity to create routes for multiple cities, simplification of the navigation to a one-box approach, option to save routes and share maps with friends, and zooming option (Schonfeld 1). MapQuest plans to add the following features: rapid clip, dragging location pins, live traffic, and map annotation by site visitors. MapQuest Company is based on new technology architecture and remains focused on driving directions and routing. It currently employs Web 2.0 features which significantly improve the core mapping functions (Schonfeld 1).
Market Today
MapQuest remains a leader; however, market forecasts are not very favorable for the company. Most of the new features introduced by the site this October are already available on Google Maps and Yahoo Maps. MapQuest has failed to offer new services and features. In addition, the recent update was the first within the last 8 years (the previous update was done in 1999). MapQuest does not have a proactive corporate strategy. On the contrary, the strategy is reactive: Google Maps offered technology on mobile devices in 2005 which enabled consumers to move maps in any direction easily (Schonfeld 1). MapQuest offered the same service only two years later. Yahoo, for example, is testing with adding more types of data (subway locations), while MapQuest is not expanding the range of services (Schonfeld 1). Competitive analysis indicates that MapQuest is very vulnerable to innovations integrated by key competitors and is at risk of losing market share.
SWOT Analysis. The key strength of MapQuest is the loyalty of customers. The company has a long history and is delivering routing services for more than 30 years. However, the reactive strategy is a significant weakness that puts the company at risk of losing market share to competitors. Rare site updates (once in eight years) cannot meet the needs of customers because the site is slow to grasp the technological innovations appearing every month. MapQuest is at threat of being pushed out of the market. Competitors offer diverse services which allow consumers to visualize the places they plan to attend rather than find the routes. Google, for example, added maps with the store locations and the lists of price differences in specific areas. Nevertheless, MapQuest has an opportunity to remain the leader in the industry if more attention is paid to the diversification of services and continuous site improvement.
Recommendations
MapQuest is present on the internet for more than ten years and according to the article titled MapQuest Stays the Course with Tweaks the customers are loyal to the company because of: 1) focus on the usefulness of information, 2) economic viability, and 3) focus on the mass market (Watkins 1). Consumers have an established vision of MapQuest as the source of maps and directions and their loyalty, the key company strength, should be turned into an opportunity to expand company operations. First, the company has to conduct competitive analysis on a regular basis and keep track of the new technologies. The strategy should be turned from reactive to proactive. Second, site updates need to become regular and occur at least once every three months. Third, more attention should be paid to additional services. In addition to routing and directions, MapQuest should introduce other useful services which can be useful to site visitors (similar to pricing lists provided by Google). Fourth, MapQuest should give its consumers an opportunity to rate the services and provide reviews ( A new MapQuest beta with not much new 1). Consumers might give valuable advice on how to improve the site services. Finally, MapQuest should offer its consumers an opportunity to embed maps on their own sites and to observe live traffic. Both of these services are offered by competitors and are rated very high. In conclusion, MapQuests strategy should be reviewed to become more responsive to technological innovations and changing consumers needs.
Works Cited
A new MapQuest beta with not much new. Blog.Agrawals.Org 2007.
Competitors Nip at MapQuests Biz . Associated Press. 2005.
MapQuest Corporate Overview. MapQuest Official Website. 2007. Web.
Schonfeld, Erick. Exclusive: MapQuest Plays Catch-Up With Launch of Beta. TechnoCrunch.Com. 2007.
Watkins, Laura. MapQuest Stays the Course with Tweaks WordPress.Com. 2007. Web.
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