Written by Chris Dowse, as featured in The Drum.
Back in 2010, Susan Orlean wrote in her article ‘Wheels’ for The New Yorker “You can find out anything you want about a car now, and especially every bit of information about the price, without relying on the dealers.”. Over a decade later, there are now many more potential touch points an automotive brand will have with a consumer during their purchase, and brands are now far beyond just a physical dealership and salesperson experience. When we look at Direct to Consumer (DTC) brands like Tesla and Polestar, the consumer might never cross the threshold of a shiny floored showroom at all.
It isn’t just the slick battery-powered new-age brands who have embraced this shift in consumer behaviour. The leading marques who have dominated the roads for decades have also realised the car purchasing journey now has a lot more steps on it. Naturally, the evolution of technology and devices has brought about several experiences that mean Orlean’s words from 2010 still ring true. As digital and physical showrooms are more integrated, this now means that a potential customer can be greeted by a salesperson who already knows exactly what the customer wants when it comes to the model, features, potential extras and even colour.
The capture of this data is valuable for both the brand and consumer. The brand can spot trends, gathering and analysing the popularity of the different models. They can also follow which specs the customer is interested in initially vs what they ultimately end up purchasing. The customer is met with a showroom experience which feels more tailored and geared towards them, which feels less frustrating and more valuable to them than the standard showroom patter.
However, there is still the issue of getting the customer to the showroom in the first place, so how can the evolution of the advertising landscape at large offer the automotive industry?
There will always be a place for the emotive hero TV and cinema ads for telling those stirring brand stories of adventure, excitement, safety and durability. Beyond that though, we can now offer more tailored ads that match cars to people, as at the model level, we have more consumer targeting data than ever. This is where all that showroom and sales data comes into its own and becomes a valuable asset in knowing which consumer buttons to press. Combined with the capability of digital channels to allow multi-variant messaging at scale, those attention-grabbing emotionally compelling TV spots are bolstered and supported with a compelling mix of reasons to believe that feel more personal and relevant to how different customers want to drive.
All this enhanced data capture also leads to marketing efficiency and continued refinement of the marketing mix. Tracking the interaction and engagement with different ads in different channels over time allows us to understand how each pound of our marketing spend is nudging the customer closer to that final purchase. As automotives are such a high-consideration purchase, having a good understanding of where people might reconsider means brands can balance their advertising investment in the right places and know the perfect time to send a well-placed email.
Furthermore, AR and VR have arguably moved beyond gimmicks, and are now a useful tool that allows customers to fully engage with a car before they’ve even gripped the steering wheel or smelt the new leather. Audi has created fully immersive VR experiences that allow customers to walk around their cars and even take virtual test drives. Mercedes has used augmented reality to allow its customers to see different models in real-world settings like their driveway, giving prospective buyers a digital taste of that potential neighbour envy. Technology inevitably continues to march on through, and as we’re already seeing innovation and sophistication with AI models such as chatbots. These can offer encyclopedic knowledge of every make and model, and answer customer queries in real-time to rival even the best sales person. Ford's chatbots not only offer this detailed product expertise but can also schedule test drives and capture all of that data for future analysis and improvements.
So does all this make the car buying journey less painful for consumers? That probably depends on how they feel about parting ways with a significant sum of money. What it has done, however, like many sectors, is provide the potential for a far more informed, relevant and effective journey.