ADVANCED TOPICS IN

SUSTAINABILITY INNOVATION AND MARKETING

EVALUATION OF THE SUSTAINABILITY
MARKETING MIX REGARDING THE
4C`S OF FLINKSTER

SUMMER TERM 2012

Teaching team: Prof. Dr. Frank-Martin Belz
Krystallia Moysidou M.Sc.

Submitted by: Alejandro Aznar Argelich
Stephanie Leopold
Mark-Felix Schtz

Submitted on: 12. Juni 2014
Fakultt fr Wirtschaftswissenschaften
Professur fr Betriebswirtschaftslehre
Brau- und Lebensmittelindustrie
Table of Contents

I
Table of Contents
Table of Contents .................................................................................................................... I
List of illustrations ................................................................................................................. II
List of abbreviations ............................................................................................................. III
1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 1
2 Processes of Flinkster ..................................................................................................... 2
3 Customer Solution .......................................................................................................... 7
4 Communication ............................................................................................................ 12
5 Convenience ................................................................................................................. 15
5.1 General convenience aspects of car-sharing ........................................................ 15
5.2 Registration and booking process ........................................................................ 16
5.3 Finding, driving and returning the vehicle ........................................................... 17
5.4 e-Flinkster ............................................................................................................ 19
6 Customer Cost .............................................................................................................. 21
6.1 Purchase Costs ..................................................................................................... 21
6.2 Use Costs .............................................................................................................. 23
6.3 Post-Use Costs ..................................................................................................... 27
7 Conclusion and Outlook ............................................................................................... 28
7.1 Conclusion ........................................................................................................... 28
7.2 Future ideas to remedy Flinksters problems ........................................................ 29
List of references ..................................................................................................................... i
Additional references ............................................................................................................ iii
Eidesstattliche Erklrung ...................................................................................................... iv


II
List of illustrations
Figure 1 Process of using Flinkster (own illustration) ........................................................... 2
Figure 2 Flinkster registration process (own illustration) ...................................................... 3
Figure 3 City districts in Munich (Source: Flinkster Website) .............................................. 4
Figure 4 Booking a car (own illustration) .............................................................................. 5
Figure 5 Process of driving (own illustration) ....................................................................... 6
Figure 6 Flinkster central merketing message (left) and "hidden" financial appeal (right) . 12
Figure 7 Emotional appeal with hidden Zeitgeist appeal (left) Euphoria appeal (right) ..... 13
Figure 8 Sustainable Advertising of Flinkster ..................................................................... 14
Figure 9 The reintegration of the Flinkster brand into DB: Smartphone App Buttons. ...... 14
Figure 10 Exemplary Hourly and Km-based prices of the Flinkster tariff system .............. 24
Figure 11 Comparison of own car costs and Flinkster cost based on usage pattern for
germany-wide tariff .............................................................................................................. 27
Figure 12 Comparison of own car costs and Flinkster cost based on usage pattern for local
tariff ...................................................................................................................................... 27
Figure 13 QR-Code ............................................................................................................. 29


III
List of abbreviations
DB Deutsche Bahn
EV Electric Vehicle
CEV Combustion Engine Vehicle










1
1 Introduction
The car sharing service provider Flinkster, operated since 2009 by Deutsche Bahn through
its subsidiary company DB Rent GmbH, offers an individual and convenient mobility
service to individuals and business customers. With Flinkster, Deutsche Bahn supplements
its railway services by providing cars for DB customers in order to get to the final
destination. With now more than 800 stations in 140 cities in Germany, Flinkster has
widened its concept with the aim to bring a unique mobility solution to a broad user base.
The Flinkster car sharing model addresses people between 24 and 45 years of age within
large and mid-size cities (INTERVIEW 2012).
With a fleet of 2.500 cars in urban areas all over the country and a wide range of car types
and models available, Flinkster is the biggest car sharing network in Germany. Due to
Flinkster`s cooperation with other car sharing service providers in Europe, the round about
190.000 Flinkster customers have access to 2.000 additional cars in Austria, Switzerland,
and the Netherlands (DEUTSCHE BAHN 2012, STATTAUTO 2012, FLINKSTER 2012). Other-
wise, users of smaller German car sharing services which are partnering with Flinkster e.g.
STATTAUTO, teilAuto, book-n-drive, einfach mobil carsharing, and grnes-
auto have access to cars of the Flinkster car fleet.

Our approach facing the 4C`s as part of the sustainability marketing mix in the case of
the mobility service and car sharing provider Flinkster is based on intensive internet search,
an interview conducted with the marketing manager of Flinkster, Mr. Oscar Prz, an
monthly cost calculation tool developed by ourselves and hand-on field research including
test drives.





2
2 Processes of Flinkster
In order to use the Flinkster car sharing network, you generally need to follow three steps.
Before you can drive off with a car of your choice, you have to register and book a car
online first. The requirement of becoming an eligible member of the Flinkster programm is
to hold a valid driver`s license. Customers under 25 years of age have a restrictive choice
concerning car categories meaning that they are only allowed to use small and van size
cars. In the following, we will evaluate the registration and booking processes of Flinkster
in more detail.




Before using the Flinkster service, you first need to get registered at Flinkster`s website
www.flinkster.de. In order to register, you simply follow three steps. First, you have the
choice between a national, local, or business tariff depending on your planned usage
frequency and whether you are a private or a business user. Whereas the national tariff fits
best for people who occasionally want to use a car, the local tariff is best for frequent car
sharing users leading to a monthly fee and a lower rate per hour used compared to the
national tariff, which does not include a monthly subscription fee. For some people, the
decision for a specific tariff might rather be difficult as they don`t know right away how
frequent they will be using the service. Due to a minimal contract duration of 12 months for
the local tariff switching from one tariff to another is difficult or may even have a deterrent
effect which may influence customers to turn towards the national tariff right from the
1
Registration process
2
Booking
3
Driving
STEPS TO USE THE FLINKSTER CAR SHARING
Figure 1 Process of using Flinkster (own illustration)

3
beginning. On the other hand, customers can switch into the local tariff if they feel that they
are using the service more frequently.
After registering with your personal data and billing information (debit or credit card
accepted) you will receive your personal access data including a customer ID and password
via E-Mail. To obtain your customer ID card and a chip attached to your driver`s license,
you need to find and go to a Flinkster sales office, which usually is a DB service center or
travel agency located in or close to German train stations or airports. The Flinkster website
will assist you with the search for near-by locations. For legitimation purposes you need to
bring your driver`s license and passport.




Once you are a registered Flinkster user, it only takes three further steps to book a car. You
can reserve a car anywhere at any time you like via a phone (toll-free number), internet, or
smartphone app. Entering your city, the preferred car size, booking period, and favored
location via search function, the website will list the available cars including car
information (price per hour, brand, model, license plate, and equipment) and directions to
its location.

Aligned to customer`s individual needs, Flinkster offers cars for rent by the hour, by day or
even for a couple of days. Customers can book a car in the long run or at short notice.
Whether you plan to go to a furniture store outside the city together with your friends at the
weekend or at a rainy day instantly need a car to pick up the cake for your brothers birthday
1
Choose tariff
2
Register with your personal data and billing
information
3
Search and go to sales office for legititmation
and customer ID card pick-up
REGISTRATION PROCESS
Figure 2 Flinkster registration process (own illustration)

4
party which will take place in 2 hours, the car sharing service of Flinkster will be the
solution to your need. When testing Flinkster ourselves, we were always able to find a
suitable car close by to fit our needs and preferences.
Flinkster cars predominantely can be picked up and returned at central car stations and
designated parking lots close to train stations or airports. In the city of Munich, customers
can either chose Flinkster`s stationary locations or can benefit from a large number of cars
spread in over fifty city districts in Munich. Flinkster has introduced the city district
concept so far in Munich only. We have always used cars located in the city district as they
were more convenient to reach. Whereas the stationary approach offers a wide range and
availability of cars, with the district based approach Flinkster offers cars close to the
location where you find yourself right now or close to where you live. If it is raining
outside, I don`t want to pay for a transportation ticket or take a cab to get to the Flinkster
station on the other side of the city. To our mind, the city district concept is an essential
step towards the cutback of obstacles and increase in convenience for using a car sharing
network.
Figure 3 City districts in Munich (Source: Flinkster Website)

5
After deciding on a car and its location, you will receive an reservation E-Mail giving you
specific information on the car`s location, which is especially important when deciding on a
car in a specific city district in order to find the booked car which is not always easy.
Testing the Flinkster service ourselves, we have always booked a car close to Mnchner
Freiheit. Although there are three city districts bordering on this part of the city, we
always had to walk about 5 to 10 minutes to get to the closest available car. There are
indeed 50 districts, but standing within one district and booking a car in that district does
not mean that the car is right in front of you. One time, we had to walk one km to get to our
chosen car. However, as the cars have the Flinkster logo on them and are painted in the
corporate identity colors red and white, the cars are easy to be identified.



After you have successfully found your car, you need to hold your driver`s license with the
chip onto the light bump on the front windshield and wait until the red light turns green.
The car will unlock providing that you have found the car you have booked. Then, get into
the car and look for the keys in the glove compartment or the safe. In case you need to
make stops e.g. running errands you are able to lock the car with the keys to make sure
nobody else can take the car. If you like you can have someone else with a valid driver`s
license to drive. However, you are bearing the financial risk of an accident. Fueling is
included in the usage fees charged by Flinkster. However, if there is less than a quarter of
fuel in the car, you need to find a gas station, refuel and pay with the credit card located in
the glove compartment in the car. Just as having an own car, you need to invest time for
searching for a gas station and fueling up the car. You also need to take into account that
Flinkster will charge you for the additional time and driven kilometers before, during, and
1
Choose city, car size and pick-up location
2
Enter booking period
3
Receive E-Mail with car information
BOOKING A CAR
Figure 4 Booking a car (own illustration)

6
after the fueling process. As a matter of fact other car sharing models such as DriveNow
reward its customers with 20 free minutes for fueling (DRIVENOW, 2012).
At the end of your trip you need to return the car to the location where you have picked it
up. In case you have picked up a car within a city district you need to find a public parking
spot in that exact district and return it there. Finding a public parting spot is difficult within
Munich. As you need to pay for every minute and kilometer driven, finding a parking lot in
a district costs money. As another disadvantage of this rule of bringing back the car where
you have picked it up is that one way drives are not possible. Our interview partner Mr.
Prz has justified this drawback with high logistic costs. How-ever, the company knows
about this inconvenience and is eager to improve. If you have any concerns such as
problems finding a parking space or need advice before, during, and after your drive, a toll-
free customer service hotline will help you. We have made use of this service and where
always satisfied with the service of the hotline. You are able to change, or even cancel your
existing reservation. If you need to change your plans you are free to do so without paying.
A strong disadvantage of the Flinkster booking system is that you can`t just pick a car you
find on the street, although nobody else has reserved it. You always need to reserve a car
first before you are able to open it and drive off. Due to our experience, the the time period
between booking a car and receiving the reservation E-Mail can take up to 30 minutes.
About two weeks after your trip with a Flinkster car you will receive an invoice. During the
registration process you can chose whether you want to receive an invoice via mail or E-
Mail, which costs 1,50 or if you want to help save paper and costs checking your invoice
on your Flinkster website profile online.
1
Find your car
2
Unlock the car: Hold ID card onto front windshield light
bump and wait until it turns green.
3
Get into the car and look for the keys in glove
compartement or safe.
4
Start driving and later return the car
PROCESS OF DRIVING
Figure 5 Process of driving (own illustration)


7
3 Customer Solution
Flinkster gives people, who do not own a car the opportunity to have access to a car at any
time of day (24 hours and 7 days a week) for a time period of just one hour (minimum) up
to as long as you want and therefore provides full personal mobility whenever there is a
need. Flinkster is the biggest car sharing network in Germany offering 2.500 cars at 800
locations resulting in a great availability of cars within 140 large and small German cities.
Therefore, the customer can be sure to have access to a car when he or she needs one.
Compared to competing car sharing models Flinkster is also offering the widest range of
car types and safe brands. According to occasion and budget, you can choose a safe car
from within six different car size categories (Mini, Small, Compact, Middle, Transporter
and Special) including safe cars of the brands Smart, Citroen, VW, Opel, Ford, Fiat, Seat
Leon, Alfa Romeo, and Mercedes. With Flinkster you can choose the most suitable car
according to your needs and brand preferences, e.g. a small car for running errands within
urban areas, a Mercedes station wagon for grocery shopping or even a van for moving.
According to the Euro-NCAP-Crashtest, the offered car brands are all ranked as safe (NCAP
2012). Most offered cars feature a navigation system (except for some cars in the category
Mini and Transporter) which helps you finding you destination and the car return location
easily.
Being a Flinkster member located in in Berlin, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Saarbrcken, and
Darmstadt you have the choice between CEVs and emission free and silent mobility
supporting an environmentally friendly way of mobility through the E-Flinkster program.
Out of the 2.500 Germany-wide offered cars, Flinkster provides a total of 100 electric cars
in five big German cities, operating the largest EV fleet in Germany. E-Flinkster is an
integrated part of the Flinkster service program meaning that the electric cars are accessable
for everyone registered as a Flinkster user. Based on personal needs, users can every now
and then pick an EV for short journeys in the city e.g. running errands and for longer
distances chose a CEV. Integrating the EV fleet into the car sharing and railway transport
network operated by Deutsche Bahn has created a new, sustainable, and effective form of
transportation. However, E-Flinkster so far is only available in five German cities and
therefore not every Flinkster customer has the choice between EVs and CEVs (FAZ 2011).

8
As the EVs are sofar not available in Munich, we did not have this choice either and there
not able to use this offer.
Being a member of a car sharing service in general can help saving the costs and duties
incurring when owning a car. Fixed costs and duties occurring with maintenance, insur-
ance, tax, and parking can be evaded. Having an own car, you need to have an insurance
which needs time and effort to find and check out the best provider. Every now and then
you have to take the car to the garage for regular services and inspections or in repair.
Using Flinkster`s car sharing, you can enjoy your freetime not bothering about these
errands and costs. The expenses for using Flinkster are transparent. You will effectively be
charged for the time using the car and the kilometers driven presupposed you decide on the
national tariff. Within the local tariff, you benefit from cheaper hourly rates at the expense
of a monthly fee. According to the Car sharing Atlas 2011 study conducted by Mobil in
Deutschland e.V (ATLAS 2011) Flinkster is leader in quality and price in Germany.
Customers pay by time and driven kilometers. In case the usage time is shorter or longer
than the booking period, customer get back 50 % of the price of the unused time. Moreover
with Flinkster no hidden costs and investments are necessary to benefit from mobility
compared to buying a car. Besides an activation fee Flinkster indeed points out co-
insurance fee in case of an accident. Nevertheless, this could also happen to a car owner
with a respective insurance policy (see chapter customer cost).
Flinkster is a use-related service as the use of a car is being sold. The members of Flinkster
have the right to use available cars any time they want without actually owning them.
Flinkster features the cars, takes care of them, and provides a solution to its customers. A
sustainable way of offering an ecological and social customer use solution includes five
applicable characteristics (Belz & Peattie 2009, p. 159) which will be addressed below:
1. Customer Satisfaction: Flinkster generally satisfies the customer`s need of flexible
mobility. Thats also how we have experienced the service. Moreover, Flinkster has
won several studies comparing different car sharing providers concerning quality,
convenience, and price. On the other hand, looking at forums in more detail, people
have some complaints about the Flinkster service (see chapter convenience).

9
2. Dual focus: With the Flinkster programm and its integrated E-Flinkster offer, the
company tries to follow a dual focus on both social and environmental improvement.
On the one hand, Flinkster promotes a mind shift to less individually-owned cars
within cities, which might reduce traffic jams and emission, making cites cleaner, and
lowering respective health issues. Using Flinkster might also change mobility behavior
patterns making customers more conscious about the cost of driving. Therefore,
Flinkster members think twice about using a car is necessary and might switch to more
environmental friendly and cheaper mobility concepts such as public transportation and
every now and then taking the bike or walking (Belz & Peattie 2009, p. 159). To sum it
up, Flinkster promotes social concerns. However, Flinkster`s effort is no larger than the
effort any other car sharing provider takes.
Furthermore, sharing of cars has a great environmental potential. The more cars are
shared, the fewer need to be produces, and the environmental impact related to the
extraction of resources and manufacturing can significantly be reduced. Flinkster
chooses efficient CEV engine cars with low gas consumption and emissions for its
fleet fighting against ecological problems (INTERVIEW 2012). In addition, the company
asks its customers if they really need their invoices to be printed and send to them. If
the customer likes a printed invoice, Flinkster will print on 100% recycled paper. On
the other hand, Flinkster does offer EVs but sofar only in a view city.
To sum up, there is still potential for improvement on social and ecological aspects of
the core service of sharing a car with Flinkster.
3. Life-cycle orientation: Flinkster chooses its cars based on gas usage and emissions but
not based on factors such as raw materials, transportation, and manufacturing and is
not considering the whole life cycle as a way to achieve ecological improvements.
Flinkster cars will be sold after use depending on their mileage or after an average of
two years.
4. Significant and continuous improvement: According to our interview partner Mr. Perez
(INTERVIEW 2012) Flinkster puts a lot of effort in continuous improvement regarding
improving the service (finding a way to offer one way rental) and the environmental
performance (E-Flinkster fleet). Moreover, we have experienced improvement
ourselves as the company just has updated the Flinkster app significantly improving the

10
accuracy of the location of cars on the map. However, the company puts less effort in
the development of socio-ecological improvements.
5. Competing offers: Customers reading about Flinkster`s achievements in press feel
secure that Flinkster is the right choice. According to independent studies, Flinkster is
market leader in terms of offered cars, customers and quality. Based on the indepen-
dent study Car Sharing Atlas 2011 (ATLAS 2011), Flinkster is the best car sharing
provider (school grade 2,08) after StadtMobil (2,67), CarToGo and Quicar (both school
grade 2,83). Besides price, the number of cars, the terms and conditions, usability, and
the website of the providers were evaluated. Also in a study on behalf of the German
newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung conducted by the website
www.verkehrsmittelvergleich, Flinkster came off as a winner (VERKEHRSMITTEL-
VERGLEICH 2012). According to the study customers can spontaneously and flexibly
rent a car. With a low price per kilometer and price per hour for a small car Flinkster is
also leader in price. Moreover, factors like the convenience of the registration and
booking process as well as the service quality and quality of the vehicles highlight the
outstanding service of Flinkster.
Brand Name Selection
The brand name Flinkster is deduced form the German superlative form am flinksten of
the adjective flink meaning being agile, brisky, breezly or speedy. Flink can charac-
terize a quick movement, a vital person or a fast car. With its brand name, Flinkster wants
to highlight that you have an access to a car very quick and easy compared to its
competitors to be the fastest and to be better than its competitors (INTERVIEW 2012). The
brand name Flinkster is easy to remember and pronounce and fits to its products. However,
the brand name does not stand for sustainability in general.
Brand Positioning
Flinkster is not specifically positioning itself as a sustainable brand. With its EVs, Flinkster
indeed improves its socio-ecological performance and develops a more and more sustain-
able business model.
The DB rental GmbH follows a multi-brand strategy. Besides Flinkster, the company also
offers the bike sharing program Call-a-bike. Both sharing programs are operated separately,

11
which means that Flinkster customers are not automatically able to rent a bike with Flink-
ster access data and has to register seperately for using the bike service. In the future, DB
rental considers the integration of car and bike sharing programs and the resulting extension
of the brand Flinkster (INTERVIEW 2012).
Conclusion on customer solution
To sum it up, Flinkster offers a unique solution for full personal mobility to the customer.
Nevertheless, from a social and ecological point of view there is potential for
improvements.

12
4 Communication
As pointed out in the customer solution part for the topic of dual focus, car-sharing in
general might have some sustainable advantages compared to owning a car, specifically
since the economic incentives of the car-sharing provider is aligned with sustainable
objectives for the most environmentally damaging aspects of mobility, as for instance
production
1
. Therefore, there are reasons why a car-sharing company may legitimately
claim to be at least more sustainable than owning a car. However, this I not the case for
Flinkster. Communication of sustainability is reduced to a minimum and largely connected
with the introduction of the e-Flinkster.
The central marketing message of what formerly was DB Carsharing it was renamed
Flinkster in 2009 - was organized around the idea of offering a connection service after a
customers train ride (Interview). With the introduction of the Flinkster brand another
positioning took place, namely the claim to be for everyone and therefore more of a
lifestyle positioning, which becomes even more obvious by the print ads introduced later.
Along with this repositioning the Flinkster brand was separated more strongly from the
umbrella corporation DB. This resulted amongst others in a much more cautious
communication of sustainability as opposed to DBs communication, which builds strongly
on sustainability (Deutsche Bahn Strategie, 2012).

1
The car-sharing company is incentivized to keep cars as long as it is viable and therefore is likely to buy cars
that are long-lasting, countering some aspects of throwaway society.
Figure 6 Flinkster central merketing message (left) and "hidden" financial appeal (right)

13
Flinkster is communicating through several channels starting with several Social media
channels, directmail in form of a newsletter, print advertising and of course the Flinkster
website. On the homepage the only places in which sustainability issues are mentioned is if
e-Flinkster, the electric cars of Flinkster are concerned and (surprisingly as an external link)
some tips for CO
2
-low-emission driving, to the DEKRA website.
Especially in its print ads Flinkster is employing all different kinds of appeals. According to
the systematic used in Belz and Peattie, (p.186), Flinkster of course uses some financial
appeals, however due to the Lifestyle positioning those messages are rather limited and
sometimes even not directly addressing financial aspects. Management appeals on the
contrary are rather inexistent.
Most of the advertising can be categorized into euphoria and especially emotional appeals
that are sometimes linked to Zeitgeist appeals. For instance, Flinkster proposes to be a
service for men to impress women by a certain lifestyle, of course implicitly proposing this
lifestyle to be a sustainable one but never explicitly mentioning it and thereby connecting
some Zeitgeist aspects with an emotional appeal.
Especially contests won by Flinkster also feature some comparative advertising, since they
are promoted on the services webpage (ATLAS, 2011).
Furthermore, Flinkster is an interesting position towards third-party labels. With the
Blauer Engel label Flinkster received a third-party label for saving the climate (Blauer
Engel, 2012). Most interestingly Flinkster, even though communicating in a press release
that they received the label, do not use it as a means of marketing. This very fact supports
the supposition of the cautious communication of sustainability.
Figure 7 Emotional appeal with hidden Zeitgeist appeal (left) Euphoria appeal (right)

14
As mentioned above the only aspect in which Flinskter communicates sustainable values is
in connection with its e-Flinkster program. With respect to this it certainly is a questionable
position if EVs are more sustainable than ICE cars
2
.


In spite of the aforementioned separation from the main brand DB, Flinkster still has some
connections to it. Especially with regard to the e-Flinkster program Flinkster essentially
may benefit from the trust enjoyed by DB in Germany. In fact the step to introduce EVs
into the fleet may be seen as the first step to reintegrate Flinkster into the DB branding and
use this trusted brand more for Flinksters sustainable messages (Belz & Peattie, p.189).
A further hint into this direction is the recent alignment of the smartphone apps of DB,
Flinkster and Call-a-Bike (see Figure x). By establishing Flinkster under the roof of the DB
umbrella brand and better integrating the three services Flinkster may become an integral
part of the sustainability strategy of DB and therefore may evolve into a service, which
communicates sustainability.



2
Due to space contraitns we will not discuss this issue into detail here, however, Flinkster may communicate
more credible if it would
Figure 8 Sustainable Advertising of Flinkster
Figure 9 The reintegration of the Flinkster brand into DB: Smartphone App Buttons.


15
5 Convenience
5.1 General convenience aspects of car-sharing
A product or service can be defined as convenient when (Belz & Peattie, 2009, p.225ff):
It is appropriate in time and place
Removes discomfort or trouble
Promotes ease
Suits well to ones wants
Convenience is the substitute of Place or Distribution from the classical Marketing Mix
when referring to the 4 Cs of Sustainability Marketing. For that reason, it is a crucial
aspect for the case of car sharing services, since one important factor is the availability of
the service. Having vehicles available at any time, nearby, and perhaps also in several cities
within a country is important in terms of convenience, and fulfils the first dimension of the
definition of convenience mentioned above: Appropriate in time and place. Removing
discomfort or trouble rather refers to issues such as not needing to pay vehicle insurance
fees, TV, repair or re-sell the car. Car-sharing doesnt feature the same ease as owning a
car but after having registered and yearly or monthly fees have been paid the process is
usually made as easy as possible. Finally, if there are several car models, with different
brands and sizes, the service may be suiting well to ones wants.
Furthermore, there are four main product life stages that need to be considered when
referring to convenience: Pre-Purchase, Purchase, Use and Post-use (Belz & Peattie, 2009,
p. 225ff). Distribution issues or the process of making the products or services available
and accessible at a place and time that suits consumers thereby is the central aspect for all
of those stages. Convenience can be delivered during the different stages of the
consumption process, such as pre-purchase through provision of information, product or
service usage through the incorporation of convenient features or supporting services.
Delivering successful sustainability solutions to consumers will depend on them being
convenient for the mentioned consumers, as well as technically effective and affordable.
In the specific case of car sharing, when referring to the pre-purchase and purchase phase, it
can be said that searching costs are rather high for car sharing, since it involves a new way

16
of understanding mobility, for instance booking beforehand is a completely new behavior.
Therefore this stage holds some significant inconveniences. For the use phase it can be
highlighted that, owing to the dominance of private car ownership in industrialized
economies and the convenience of going anywhere, any time, car sharing is the
alternative that offers less convenience. No personalization of cars is possible in addition,
since it is not possible to keep personal belongings in the cars (Car-Sharing Project, 2011).
With regard to post-use, car sharing services can be regarded as convenient for the
customers since they dont need to take care of the vehicle at the end of its product
lifecycle.
How Flinkster tries to reduce search costs is already discussed in the chapter for Customer
Cost. Since the Post-use stage also is rather irrelevant for Flinkster, we will concentrate on
the (in)conveniences of the use stage here. We organized convenience and inconvenience
aspects directly related to Flinkster according to the stages that are previous to the use of
the service registration and booking process, the use of the service itself finding, driving,
and returning the car-, and the specific offer of EVs eFlinkster.
5.2 Registration and booking process
The pre-registration process in the internet is designed easy and fast, however it is
necessary to go to a registration office after registering online, probably far away from
where one lives (e.g. in Munich, Hauptbahnhof). In terms of combination of services the
free registration for Bahncard users adds another level of convenience in as much as they
are able to seamlessly use the services of both offers, train and car-sharing. In this context
is e.g. possible to earn Bahn-Bonus-points with Flinkster. However, some users stated that
Flinkster was asking them to prove their credit rating.
Auch ich musste mich von der Deutschen Bahn als "Risikogruppe" beschimpfen lassen
und wurde trotz einer reinen Schufa-Weste und einem eingereichten Gehaltsnachweis zu
einer Kaution ber 200 Euro verdonnert. [] (Testberichte.de, 2010)
Taking that into consideration the registration process is rather easy to conduct, with
potential for improvement.

17
When booking a car it is possible to book a vehicle weeks or months ahead. The process
itself is designed rather convenient in as much one is able to see all cars that are free for a
specified time or at which times a specific car is available. An extension of the booking
time while already in the car is possible quite easily by calling the hotline, however
cancelling reservations is only possible up to 24 hours before, after which one is obliged to
pay at least half the hourly price. A user stated in this context:
With Flinkster you can easily book weeks/months ahead. You just select the parking
district/zone and then you see the availability per vehicle. The good thing there is you
can cancel up to 24 hours before and there's no cancellation fee (Toytown, 2012)
The means of booking a car are reduced to the internet and the smartphone app. While the
internet booking process is fine, the smartphone app has been reported to have some error
potential, for instance because of wrong map sizing, wrong prices or false reporting of the
vehicles location (Androidzoom, 2011).
What probably is the most important inconvenience here is that spontaneous booking is
simply not possible, since there is a waiting time of at least 15 minutes until one receives
the confirmation e-mail. Instantly booking a car from the street is not possible. Although
the booking process itself is rather easy this very fact is a major inconvenience for at least
some users that are not used to prior planning of trips, which needs a rather large behavioral
change.
An user stated with regard to prior booking:
Flinkster works out to be the cheapest option significantly...The main 'con' of Flinkster
though is that you have to book ahead, and there are some cars which are quite popular
and booked out on the weekends for example (e.g. their C-Class station wagons).
(Toytown, 2012)
5.3 Finding, driving and returning the vehicle
Flinkster offers a significant number of vehicle models and pricing schemes that adapt to
different customer needs as e.g. doing the weekly shopping, transporting furniture,
spending one whole day or weekend travelling around Bavaria. For instance, there are

18
models ranging in size from Smarts over Audi A4 models to a full-fledged transporter in 6
different classes and pricing schemes for different usage patterns (see Customer Cost) and
special daily or weekly tariffs for longer periods. Another point of special convenience is
not only the variability of available cars but also the ubiquity, since Flinkster is present
throughout Germany and even in other countries.
In the process of finding the vehicle the station-based approach is helpful since it clear
where the car is located. In our own test-drive however, it took some time until we found
the car, since this car was employed for the district-based approach. In returning the vehicle
the station-based approach is also instrumental in saving time for finding a parking spot.
This point may even be an advantage compared to an own car. However, the station-based
approach also holds inconveniences since because of only few stations the way to the car
becomes much farther, which is only partly remedied by the district-based approach that in
turn has inconveniences in returning the car since one needs to find a parking spot.. Also
there is no possibility of making one-way trips, since the car needs to be parked in the
location it was picked up, as opposed to services that allow parking anywhere within the
city limits (e.g. DriveNow).
From what I can see, the [] advantage that DriveNow has is you are not
confined to a certain parking zone like with Flinkster [].(Toytown, 2012)
This in fact takes a lot of flexibility from the user, since standing time of the car has to be
paid for, which we see as a major psychological inconvenience.
This was also confirmed by a user stating:
Flinkster works out cheaper than DriveNow for trips longer in duration as there is
a daily fee plus a km charge [] for example, Flinkster is better than DriveNow for
a trip to IKEA where with DriveNow you would pay 10 cents per minute while
parked there. (Toytown, 2012)
Considering other financially psychological aspects of inconvenience it is worth noting that
the first hour of hourly paying for driving is always compulsory. Returning the vehicle
early after an hour has been driven, will result in an discount on the remaining booking
time of 50%, therefore at last parts of planning driving time wrongly can be remedied with

19
this and some of the inconvenience of prior planning is remedied. Penalties for returning
cars late are rather high at 25 for being 15 minutes late, which also stresses the point of the
need for prior planning.
5.4 e-Flinkster
In general the booking and use of e-Flinkster is as easy as using the CEVs of Flinkster,
even taking a away the responsibility to fuel up the car, since this is conducted at the
stations. Surprisingly the prices for using EVs are already starting at 1,50 and therefore are
cheaper than the normal cars.
The variety of cars is only limited to the sizes between eSmarts and Toyota Prius, however
it seems rather difficult so expect EV transporters.
Some of the insecurity users might perceive when first using the offer is remedied by a
good explanation of differences between EVs and CEVs and for example a clear
communication about the status of battery and the remaining range. The maximum range of
most EVs is 130km and therefore sufficient for most drives inside a city. However, it is not
enough for daily or weekly trips with Flinkster, what also has to be considered. In case the
battery is threatening to run out of charge the cars can be laoded at public charging statiosn
offered by Vattenfall. However, this would add a large inconvenience to using the EVs,
therefore this situation is avoided by Flinkster as far as it is possible, since the loading take
up to one hour.
Finally, the availability of E-Flinksters as one important aspect of convenience is criticized
by many users, since the EVs are said to be booked up for days (Flinkster Facebook Page,
2012).
As a conclusion for this part, it can be affirmed that Flinkster proves to be a mostly
convenient service in terms of availability for germany-wide availability, variety of
vehicles offer and adaptability to user needs and preferences offering 6 different groups of
vehicles suiting different transportation needs and a whoe assortment of usage-related
tariffs. A main drawback, however, is the need for prior planning, since it needs a major
psychological change and sometimes it is even not clear how long a car is needed.
Furthermore, the mostly station-based approach leads to longer transportation to actually

20
reaching a car, which is a major time inconvenience of the service. In addition the need to
return a car to stations or districts makes one way drives rather impossible, which makes
Flinkster inconvenient at least for some use cases as for instance visiting a friend.
This very last aspect was, referred to as the biggest inconvenience of Flinkster services on
the Internet forums, opinion websites, and also in our view. In the interview we conducted,
scar Prez, the Marketing manager of Flinkster, said that the company is aware of this
inconvenience and that, besides the logistic problems this brings with it, the company is
working to improve and overcome this inconvenience.
Finally Flinkster is one of the leading car-sharing companies that provide E-Mobility
(Atlas, 2011). It is especially viable for them since they are able to charge the cars at their
station, which is challenge for an car placement approach of e.g. DriveNow. Although the
e-Flinkster program has some conceptual inconveniences, Flinskter tries to remedy this by
a little lower price and at least some of it is also remedied by the psychological conviction
fo some users to actually do good for the environment.
Besides, we can extract a second conclusion with regard to our findings in communication.
Even though Flinkster claims to be a service for everyone (Flinkster ist fr alle da), we
have concluded through our test drive and after researching opinion websites and Internet
forums that this is not entirely true. First of all, old people or age groups without any IT
skills, only have the possibility of using the phone booking, and a map or their personal
knowledge of the streets to find the car. Secondly, users without Smartphones and Internet
will have difficulties finding an booking the cars, since they need to do it at home, at the
office, at a caf, etc. and find the car without the help of a GPS afterwards. Last, people
with alleged financial problems need to pay a security deposit of 200 .






21
6 Customer Cost
The classical dimensions of customer cost are not applicable that strictly to the business
model of car-sharing. Especially the dimension price reduces largely to the upfront price a
user has to pay for registration. This is why we integrated the price into the use dimension,
since most of the Flinkster-pricing applies to the actual usage of car-sharing.
6.1 Purchase Costs
With regard to car-sharing gathering initial information is the most crucial aspect of
purchase costs, since it is likely that most customers are new users rather than changing
from another car-sharing system.
Two important consecutive evaluation processes of the customer are involved here, which
bear vastly different types of purchase costs: The first is related to the situation most new
users find themselves in, i.e. owning a car. Users therefore have to conduct a comparison
between car-sharing and car-owning. In contrast, in the second evaluation process the
potential customer has to search for the different car-sharing offers and compare them with
each other.
While conducting the first process an initial search for information about car-sharing is
needed. It may be particularly hard to visualize a lifestyle without owning a car for some
individuals, since they lack experience with car-sharing and are hardly able to verify if the
ecological value promoted by some car-sharing companies is indeed existent. This is why
car-sharing features mostly experience and credence qualities as opposed to search
qualities. The higher the portion of those qualities in a product the higher are the purchase
costs (Belz, p.204ff) and consequently, this research inflicts some significant monetary,
timely and psychological cost on the customer.
Furthermore, it is the first consideration of car-sharing for most consumers, which means
the consumer bears a whole array of risks. First of all it is uncertain if it is financially
worthwhile to rely on car-sharing. Consumers may think of situations, in which it would be
more favorable to own a car, as for instance for longer excursions. Secondly, time risk may
be a factor insofar as customers cannot get into a car instantly in most cases, but first have

22
to search for a car and book it. In eyes of the customer car-sharing, thus, might be costlier
in terms of time
3
. Thirdly, a social risk might be involved, since the social environment
might react unfavorably to the consumer using car-sharing. Consider, for instance a wealthy
neighborhood, in which status signaled by cars may be of importance. Finally, the
psychological risk is relevant, which can arguably be the most important. Often
psychological risk is associated with a loss aversion towards giving up current benefits
(Belz, p.205). The case of car-sharing is highly relevant for this, since the convenience of
owning a car is a benefit which is fixed in many consumer minds and therefore cannot be
competed with by car-sharing. Parts of this perception are irrational and biased towards
owning a car, other parts are in fact justified with car-sharing being more inconvenient (for
the detailed reasons see the convenience part).
The second evaluation process is largely concerned with comparing different car-sharing
offers. Since they differentiate mostly by pricing scheme and the actual process of using a
car (see chapter customer solution), and these qualities are easily researchable, search and
information costs are a large part of the purchase costs in this case. However, those are
visible search qualities, which are not a subject to the difficulties with experience and
credence qualities, which is why in relation to the first part of the process these costs are
rather low.
A special position can be ascribed to the differences in the way the car-sharing providers
approach problems of the first part of the process, since they also may be subject of
research in the second evaluation. In the following we will therefore elaborate on the
approaches of Flinkster to solve several of those problems.
With regard to making credence and experience qualities more graspable Flinkster has quite
diverse approaches. Speaking of experience the free registration of Bahncard users is one
means to make potential customers try the service and gather own experience, especially
regarding the fact that Flinkster is also meant as a follow-up service after using a train of
DB. Also an early lock-in of people who have not owned a car before is tried by launching

3
One may see this aspect also as transportation cost, another part of purchase costs. However, we decided to
account or this factor in terms of time.

23
programs like Flinkster Campus (Flinkster Campus, 2012). Students are able to use
Flinkster with even lower prices and therefore not adapt their usage patterns but learn a new
usage pattern for mobility from scratch (Interview, 2012). By building a large userbase
customers are also able to build on experience of friends, which features a much more
credible information base than simply searching for information in the internet.
Credence qualities in car-sharing are especially represented by the claim to offer a green
approach to mobility. Flinksters approach to communication in this case is surprisingly
thrifty as opposed to the massive green communication claim of the parent company DB
(see Chapter Communication). Apart from their Communication in relation to eFlinkster
therefore customers cannot expect the service to be fully sustainable.
Social risk is rather a minor factor for Flinkster due to the construction of the service as a
follow-up service. The station-based approach is mostly meant for using cars following a
train ride, where the social environment of someone does not play a significant role. The
rather new district-based stationing of cars, however, may change this, especially for
customers in an environment in which cars are seen as a status symbol. Thus, Flinkster also
offers larger cars in those quarters like e.g. Mercedes C-Klasse. Time risk may be another
critical factor. In fact this type of risk is most probably the one with most disadvantages for
Flinkster as compared to other car-sharing systems since one has to book cars a minimum
of 15 minutes in advance (see chapter Convenience).
To avoid information redundancy financial and psychological risks addressed by Flinkster,
are discussed in the use cost section, since they are closely related to switching costs.
6.2 Use Costs
As explained beforehand we will treat price as part of the use costs, since in the case of car-
sharing, the actual monetary cost, i.e. price, is vastly dependent on the extent of usage.
Price
Owning a car is a classical case of underestimating use costs only being aware of the initial
monetary costs. Car-sharing is instrumental in eliminating most of those initial capital costs
at the same time making consumers aware of the actual usage cost of cars. The most
important difference for consumers is most probably the distribution of payments over

24
time. While buying a car features high early upfront costs and lower cost with regard to
usage later on, car-sharing is affected by a steady payment stream that is vastly lower than
the upfront cost, however higher than the usage cost of an owned car
4
. The finding that
often consumers irrationally favor approaches, with lower upfront cost, is a thriving
advantage of car-sharing in this case. This advantage may be especially applicable to new
drivers, who did not own a car up to now.
Flinkster demands an upfront fee of 50 and no fee at all for Bahncard-Owners. It is almost
assured that frequent train customers therefore eventually register for the Car-Sharing
service thus being able to use Flinkster as a continuing service. By this unique initial cost
policy Flinkster approaches the problem of the high awareness for price (Belz, p.204).
Figure 10 Exemplary Hourly and Km-based prices of the Flinkster tariff system
A special case also is the dual tariff system. The germany-wide tariff has higher hourly but
lower km-based cost, whereas it is vice versa for the local tariff. In addition a monthly lump
sum cost of 10 has to be paid for the local tariff. By this dual pricing system Flinkster tries
to match two usage patterns, thus making it more convenient for consumers that match such
patterns to change from owning a car to sharing a car. Offering such different usage
patterns also addresses financial risk of the research during the purchase cost stage
(Interview). A third especially low-priced tariff is connected with the aforementioned
Campus program. This particular example makes it obvious how Flinkster tries to adapt to
most different users and to make the offer financially viable for them.

4
This contemplation applies only to pure monetary cost.
GERMANY-WIDE TARIFF LOCAL TARIFF (E.G. BERLIN)
HOURLY PRICE
(E.G.KOMPAKT CLASS)
6,00/H 2,50/H
KM-BASED PRICE
(E.G. KOMPAKT CLASS)
0,18/KM 0,26/KM

25
Switching cost
Switching costs are probably the most important costs for customers with regard to car-
sharing. Since having an own car nearby and being able to simply going to the parking
place and start a trip is a behavioral pattern that is deadlocked in many of consumers
minds, it is particularly difficult for car-sharing schemes to approach this type of cost,
because it is closely associated with the notion of psychological risk (Belz, p.205f).
Committing to car-sharing implies a significant change in behavior, since cars need to be
booked beforehand, located and physically found. Therefore, sharing indeed requires much
more planning than simply owning. A psychological effect of irrationally overvaluing
options currently possessed might even add to this factual inconvenience (Gourville, 2006).
A challenge for car-sharing providers therefore is to approach this problem by lowering the
switching cost. Flinksters special problem in this context may be the station-based
approach, which implies a rather long way to the car on average. By introducing a slightly
more decentralized way of placing the cars, namely a city-neighbourhood-based placement
of cars, Flinkster tries to remedy this. The test-drive of the authors showed that the
approach is working reasonably, since we had a walk of about 600m until we found the car.
The need to book a car, therefore the loss of spontaneity and need for prior planning
(maybe the most tremendous behavioral change needed), is approached by providing
simple booking approaches, like the smartphone app and a calendar-based online booking-
terminal. To explain the system further a 24/7 hotline is offered, which is accountable for
all questions around Flinkster that may occur. According to our experience the system was
quite well explained already, however, the need to call the hotline was still there, since we
experienced uncertainties about returning the car correctly. The hotline turned out to be
astonishingly helpful and was instrumental in eliminating all uncertainties and even some
of the initial search costs, which additionally reduces purchase costs. However, the central
problem of the loss of spontaneity remains, since instant booking is still not possible. In
addition the problem of less flexibility due to the impossibility of one-way drives is not
addressed at all and adds to the inhibition of customers to choose Flinkster.
The psychological switching cost is not only approached by some of the qualities
mentioned above but also by the low initial price. The lower initial capital cost are

26
differentiating car-sharing-offers strongly from car-owning. Besides addressing purchase
costs and experience qualities this is another reason why Flinkster tries to focus on students
early with their Campus program, since they are experiencing the uncertainty involved with
investing much money into a car the first time. The financial incentive of Flinkster for users
already owning a car is the free registration for Bahncard-holders. Since they are able to use
the offer in places where their own car is not available they might rethink the next time they
are about to buy a new car also at their place of living
5
. Insofar, we think that the
psychological switching costs are accounted for quite well.
Nevertheless, the perceived financial risk is addressed only poorly. Despite offering some
of the lowest tariffs in German car-sharing offers, the uncertainty remains if the exclusive
use of car-sharing for a user is in fact less costly for them or not. Although a cost calculator
is offered it merely applies to calculating the cost of one drive with Flinkster. This certainly
does not address the actual concern of the user what the total (financial) cost of usage is and
a more elaborate calculator would change this actual experience quality to being more of a
search quality. Because of the lack of such an explicit comparison with car-owning, we
developed a cost-calculator tool, which is able to calculate approximate monthly cost of
car-owning versus car-sharing with Flinkster, based on several premises (see Attachments)
(Deutsches KFZ-Gewerbe, 2010; Zukunft Mobilitt, 2011; AXA Verkehrsicherheit, 2009).
It is possible to derive interesting insights with this tool, when the two main tariffs are
evaluated according to their sensitivity to the kilometer driven per year by the customer.
The calculation is based on driving a Volkswagen Golf and on the specific pricing of
Figure x. Interestingly, the local tariff seems to be consistently cheaper than the Germany-
wide. When choosing the tariffs one has to consider that one can use the Germany-wide
pricing scheme everywhere, whereas the local is only available in the city that is booked, so
there are qualitative advantages involved. The relative advantage of the local tariff becomes
obvious when changing the assumptions for average speed and trip length to a scheme that
would match someone, who is doing his errands with Flinkster (see Figure x).

5
Consider the dual aspect of both measures, the Campus-program and free registration. On one hand it
accounts for gaining some experiences with Flinskter on the other it addresses financial issues.

27

Figure 11 Comparison of own car costs and Flinkster cost based on usage pattern for germany-wide tariff

Figure 12 Comparison of own car costs and Flinkster cost based on usage pattern for local tariff
6.3 Post-Use Costs
For customers there are no post-use costs involved for the case of Flinkster, since Flinkster
sells its car after being used 60.000km or 2 years. With this Flinkster offers the oldest car-
sharing fleet in Germany, however it is still avoiding the discussion whether this policy can
be made more sustainable. By keeping the cars longer more ecological production cost
could be avoided.
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
8000 10000 12000 14000 16000
M
o
t
n
h
l
y

c
o
s
t

i
n

km p.a.
OWN CAR AND FLINKSTER
Own car Germany-wide tariff Local tariff
200
250
300
350
400
450
500
8000 10000 12000 14000 16000
M
o
t
n
h
l
y

c
o
s
t

i
n

km p.a.
OWN CAR AND FLINKSTER
Own car Germany-wide tariff Local tariff
Assumptions:
Gas price 1,60
Gas consump. 7,0l/100km
Av. Speed 50km/h
Av. standing time 0,5h
Av. Trip length 50km
Assumptions:
Gas price 1,60
Gas consump. 7,0l/100km
Av. Speed 25km/h
Av. standing time 0,5h
Av. Trip length 30km


28
7 Conclusion and Outlook
7.1 Conclusion
To conclude for this paper Flinkster it is worthwhile looking back at the communication
section and one of the central messages of Flinkster that in our eyes does indeed
differentiate Flinkster quite strongly from other car-sharing offers:
Flinkster is for everyone
In the convenience chapter we pointed out some doubt about this message. Nevertheless
this critique most probably applies to a minority of potential customers. In fact, Flinkster
offers an unusual variety that matches the individual situation in many aspects. The car
fleet is adapted to every purpose from transporting furniture to simply moving oneself from
A to B (and back unfortunately). Also different tariffs try to match different usage patterns
or living situations financially and with regard to convenience. Longer journeys are also
possible by the daily or weekly tariffs. The ubiquity of the offer is another aspect that sets
Flinskter apart from its competitors.
The other side of the medal shows the major drawbacks of Flinkster, to large parts located
in the convenience and customer cost part. The station-based approach necessitates a much
longer way of approaching the car. Prior planning and lacking spontaneity require
tremendous behavioral changes if not factual than at least psychological. In the end the
necessity of one-way drives adds to the inflexibility of the service. All those aspects in fact
neglect some parts of the central message of Flinkster to be for everyone.
As we learned in the communication chapter the communication of sustainability by
Flinkster is rather cautious. In fact there are more viable alternatives with regard to
sustainability.
For this reasons we developed future ideas for Flinkster to first improve some of the
lacking convenience aspects, so that the current central message holds more substance and
seoncly to improve the sustainability of the service to perhaps be finally able to
communicate some sustainability.

29
7.2 Future ideas to remedy Flinksters problems
Some obvious measures to improve convenience would be to increase the amount of the
most demanded car models and ask the current customers which models they would like to
drive. Placing more cars in the most demanded areas, would have similar effects.
Also the possibility of parking the car wherever you want within some beforehand
established city limits, would help in improving convenience. However all those measures
would lead to higher cost and in the end most probably to higher prices. Since the low
prices are one of the major competitive advantages of Flinkster (Atlas, 2011), we
concentrated on solutions that do not require too much financial effort.
For instance to remedy the lack of spontaneity of the current service a solution to this may
be to attach QR-Codes to each car and make it possible to scan this with a smartphone.
Therefore, booking this exact car right away if it is free, may add a lot to the convenience
of the service, since some of the need of prior booking would be reduced. Also a shorter
compulsory booking time of 15 minutes would make the service viable for more short-term
drives as for instance a drive to pick up packages at a Post-station.
An addition to the current Flinkster-App that would integrate Call-a-Bike, Flinkster and the
trains would make several applications possible, which would add to sustainability. For
instance it would be possible to calculate the most sustainable way to reach a destination
and to promote combined offers of train, Flinkster and Call-a-Bike, depending on distance
and personal mobility needs, thus not only adding to sustainability but also to convenience.
Antoehr emans to improve sustainbility would be an even older age of car fleet. Offering at
least some older cars that due to their age offer better total lifetime emissions, would reduce
primarily production emissions of car. A free choice for customers to select the car that is
more sustainable or take newer cars, may also be a means to not reduce the lifestyle aspect
of Flinkster with this measure.
Figure 13 QR-Code


i
List of references
ATLAS (2011): Atlas Studie Car Sharing Anbieter 2011. Online at:
http://www.flinkster.de/fileadmin/www.flinkster.%20de/redaktion/pdf/_5171399.pdf (as of
01.06.2012).
AXA VERKEHRSSICHERHEIT (2009): Statistics about driving behavior in Germany. Online at:
http://www.axa.de/servlet/PB/show/1188882/AXA_VerkehrssicherheitsReport_2009_Studi
energebnisse.pdf (as of 01.06.2012).
BELZ, F.-M./ PEATTIE, K. (2009): Sustainability Marketing: A global Perspective,
Chichester: Wiley.
BLAUER ENGEL (2012): Third party label for Flinkster. Online at: http://www.blauer-
engel.de/de/produkte_marken/vergabegrundlage.php?id=208 (as of 01.06.2012).
CAR-SHARING PROJECT (2011): Video on Convenience of car sharing. Sustainability
Marketing and Innovation Project. TU Mnchen. Online at: https://vimeo.com/34048660
(as of 01.06.2012).
DEUTSCHE BAHN (2012): Deutsche Bahn Press Release on 13.05.2012. Online at:
http://www.deutschebahn.com/de/presse/
presseinformationen/pi_it/2567680/ubd20120530.html (as of 01.06.2012).
DEUTSCHE BAHN STRATEGIE (2012): Deutsche Bahn sustainability strategy claim. Online
at: http://www.deutschebahn.com/de/nachhaltigkeit/strategie.html (as of 01.06.2012).
DEUTSCHES KFZ GEWERBE (2010): General Statistics of German Car Industry. Online at:
http://www.kfzgewerbe.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Presse/Zahlen_Fakten/Zahlen%20und%2
0Fakten%202010.pdf (as of 01.06.2012).
DRIVENOW CAR SHARING (2012): So funktionierts. Online at: http://www.drive-
now.com/so-funktionierts/ (as of 01.06.2012).
FAZ (2012): Elektroautos mit kostrom am Bahnhof, 14.06.2011. Online at:
http://www.faz.net/frankfurter-allgemeine-zeitung/elektroautos-mit-oekostrom-am-
bahnhof-11141938.html (as of 01.06.2012).

ii
FLINKSTER (2012): Flinkster Partners, 15.06.2012:
http://www.flinkster.de/index.php?id=606&f=3 (as of 15.06.2012).
FLINKSTER CAMPUS (2012): Flinkster Campus program. Online at: http://www.flinkster-
campus.de/ (as of 01.06.2012).
FLINKSTER FACEBOOK PAGE (2012): User opinions on social media sources. Online at:
https://www.facebook.com/flinkster.de (as of 01.06.2012).
GOURVILLE, J.-t./ (2006): Eager Seller & Stony Buyers: Understanding the psychology of
product adoption, Harvard Business Review.
INTERVIEW 2012: Own Interview with Oscar Perez, Marketing Manager Flinkster,
28.06.2012.
NCAP (2012): Testergebnisse nach Marken. Online at : http://www. de.euroncap.com (as of
01.06.2012).
STATTAUTO (2012): Stattauto Partners. Online at: http://stattauto-muenchen.de/#flinkster
(as of 01.06.2012). ANDROIDZOOM (2011): Forum: Opinions about App. Online at:
http://es.androidzoom.com /android _applications/transportation/flinkster_backd.html (as of
01.06.2012).
TESTBERICHTE.DE (2010): Opinions and reviews of Flinkster an. Online at:
http://www.testberichte.de /r/produkt-meinung/deutsche-bahn-flinkster-202171-1.html (as
of 01.06.2012).
TOYTOWN (2012): Forum: Opinions and reviews of Flinkster an. Online at:
http://www.toytown germany.com/lofi/index.php/t4143.html (as of 01.06.2012).
VERKEHRSMITTELVERGLEICH (2012): Verkehrsmittelvergleich 2012, Online at:
http://www.verkehrsmittelvergleich.de (as of 01.06.2012).
ZUKUNFT MOBILITT (2011): Examplary calculation of the real cost of driving. Online at:
http://www.zukunft-mobilitaet.net/2487/strassenverkehr/die-wahren-kosten-eines-
kilometers-autofahrt/ (as of 01.06.2012).



iii
Additional references
http://carshare-d.blogspot.de/2009/03/flinkster-in-der-realitat-angekommen.html
Comparative of Flinkster and other car sharing services in Stuttgart and Kln. 2009
http://mrknister.bplaced.net/wordpress/2012/02/ohne-eigenes-auto-mobil/ Radio Interview
about Car Sharing. February 2012
http://www.bahn.de/bahnbonus Bahn.Bonus points. 2012
http://www.bahn.de/p/view/bahncard/bahnbonus/bahnbonus_praemien_uebersicht.shtml
Bahn.Bonus prizes. 2012
http://www.ciao.de/flinkster_de__8115963 Flinkster in Stuttgart. Opinion. April 2009
http://www.ciao.de/Car_Sharing_74530_3 Car sharing. Opinions. Different years.
http://www.dradio.de/dlf/sendungen/marktplatz/1650689/ Comparative of Flinkster and
Cambio. January 2012
http://www.flinkster.de/fileadmin/www.flinkster.de/redaktion/images/PDF/Flyer_Englisch.
pdf Flinksters official brochure. 2012
http://www.flinkster.de/fileadmin/www.flinkster.de/redaktion/images/PDF/Kundeninfo_Fli
nkster.pdf Flinkster services brochure. October 2010
http://www.sparbote.de/23391/flinkster-carsharing-der-db-im-test/ Flinkster review.
October 2010
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exmhxTapJCY&feature=related Flinkster. How to use
it. July 2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQSSQomJUxY Testbote.de. DB Flinkster Carsharing
im Test. October 2010


iv
Eidesstattliche Erklrung

Wir versichern hiermit an Eides statt, dass wir die von uns eingereichte Arbeit bzw. die von
uns namentlich gekennzeichneten Teile selbstndig verfasst und ausschlielich die
angegebenen Hilfsmittel benutzt habe. Die Arbeit wurde bisher keiner Prfungsbehrde
vorgelegt und auch noch nicht verffentlicht.


Mnchen, den 12. Juni 2014


_______________________
Alejandro Aznar Argelich


_______________________
Stephanie Leopold


_______________________
Mark-Felix Schtz