Vancouver car co-op rebrands as Modo
March 14, 2011 | Eve Lazarus | Comments
Vancouver’s original car sharing company got a tune up on Friday with a new name and brand personality.
Now called Modo, the co-op launched in 1997 as The Car Co-op. Bernice Paul, marketing director, said it now has 230 cars and has grown to more than 7,000 members, mainly through word of mouth.
Vancouver brand agency Cause + Affect are behind the new branding and website at Modo.Coop.
“We wanted a name that was short, memorable and easy to say,” said Paul. “The name refers to modality and mobility and sustainable transportation and that’s really how we think of ourselves.”
As part of the brand launch, the agency designed a series of postcards it sent to members. One postcard has pictures of a teen band in the family garage. The tag line is “take back your garage.” Paul said the intention is that it will be passed along to families and friends. There is also a strong social media component to the launch, she said.
Research by Toronto-based Environics found that the typical Modo user is a young, urban professional who walks, bikes or takes public transit to work. Most have at least a post secondary degree and almost half say they have sold their cars as a result of joining the co-op, said Paul.
Dwight_js
Modo…
It’s good for all the reasons that any car sharing setup is good. But as for the organization itself?
Prepare yourself for unprofessional and sometimes downright rude and insulting employees. Ridiculous zero-tolerance rules, the kind where even if the mistake is at Modo’s end, they still say it’s your fault. Example: I booked a car on the phone, told the rep I needed the car for Saturday and Sunday, and would bring it back at midnight on Sunday. She set up the booking to end at the end of Saturday (because, as they explained afterward, midnight to them is the first hour of the day). So when I got back and we discovered the misscommunication and the mistake that their rep made (that the rep had discounted what I said about needing the car all day Sunday, and just focused on “midnight Sunday” – they even said this was a common mixup for them), they still blamed me and charged me for it. I’ve had four other similar bad experiences that involve mistakes on their part that have ruined trips (one of them a company trip), or just plain insulting behaviour by their reps.
If anyone decides to start up another car sharing co-op in Vancouver, I’ll switch in a flash, and Modo will be toast.
Tuesday, August 16 @ 5:36 pm |