Coasting Bikes — Ever Heard of Them?
A few days ago, an interesting article from Harvard Business Review appeared in my inbox. Some 2008 classic on design thinking written by Tim Brown. Design Thinking I support the design thinking idea a lot. Really a lot. Every engineer should receive a training. The IDEO shopping cart stuff never connected to the engineers around me. Not even me. The method however is powerful.
Reading through the HBR article, one of the great successes presented is the Shimano Coasting idea. Ever heard of it? Me not and I am a lot into bikes. It is about opening a new market to the biking industry. It failed. Is it due to design thinking? No, I do not think so. There is some 2010 analysis of the failure of the marketing campaign by Yanni Groth.
What caused Shimano’s Coasting-program to fail ? Interesting reading as well. Marketing…
As a small side joke: After describing the Shimano Coasting idea, the sub-headline is “Taking a Systems View”. Well, yes. That systems thing might have lead to a different solution.
This might be a bit what they were after. Not sure how successful it is commercially, but: Impressive to me and it lasts for some time, survived the COVID pandemic, so it probably is robust: Swapfiets based in the Netherlands (expanding). Get people on the bike. No. The people have a strong need for local transportation. A hassle-free bike is an answer top the need. You simply pay a small “transportation fee”, a.k.a. you rent the bike full service and you are all set. Bikes come in different flavors. There where I have seen them (the city of Groningen), the main options were color. Multiple things go together here:
- user need – simply forget your car in Groningen. Makes no sense.
- marketing see below…
- simplicity of the process to get a bike – use internet, generate an account, make an appointment, take the bike and ride away.
- low risk – it comes with two locks. If stolen, there is limited liability.
- corporate identity – they come with a blue front tire and are low-tech.
- infrastructure – there apparently a lot of infrastructure in the background to keep the city clean of abandoned and stolen bikes, get the bikes returned. The main feature is that you always have a ride. It never breaks. Well, it does occasionally, but you can swap it.
- maybe some secrets I did not discover first glance.
The success boils down to focus on customer experience. Bikes as a service.
More competent analysis on the marketing side by Jeroen Coelen: The hidden reason of Swapfiets’ success. Marketing is one thing. Here another “random” marketing analysis Discover Swapfiets’ Inbound Marketing Success | Topkee.
You ask me: Marketing is one thing. I would bet that proven service and dedication is what keeps the business going.
Hey guys at Swapfiets, would be cool if you would correct, comment, extend, whatever! Thanks.
One last thing: When I was in one of the joints, I overheard a conversation: “Oh, when you are new to biking, you should take this one. It only has the rear brake. More simple to ride. The one with two brakes is more advanced.” And: This is not Shimano bashing or anything. Just something to learn from.