What automotive brands can learn from retail about customer experience

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Ryan Kovalak and Randall Stone
Lippincott

Over the last 100 years, car manufacturers have relied on product innovation to give them market differentiation and competitive advantage. In the past, more efficient engines, better brakes or improved safety features have all helped to create standout. But more recently, the lower cost of increasingly sophisticated automotive technology has levelled the playing field, narrowing the quantifiable differences between vehicles in the same class. This means that automotive brands now have to find new ways of staying ahead of the competition.

Innovate the customer experience

The answer to achieving sustainable differentiation and competitive advantage is to innovate the customer experience. Looking across the entire range of customer touch points, both inside and outside automotive dealerships, there are clear opportunities to generate deeper customer engagement, increased purchase consideration, greater customer satisfaction, increased brand loyalty and new revenue streams.

'Experience thinking' – a fusion of left-brain and right-brain thinking – can help create a vision for the future, reimagining what the customer experience can become and capitalising on opportunities to innovate. Lippincott's 2013 study of more than 500 consumer-facing brands found that market-leading customer experience correlates with market-leading financial returns, with the stock price of experience leaders appreciating an average of 8% more than others between 2007 and 2012.

Innovating the brand experience means looking beyond the dealership, learning from experiences delivered in non-automotive consumer and retail categories and having the courage to develop a vision for the customer experience of the future. Best-in-class global retail such as Apple, McDonalds, Starbucks, Tesco, Uniqlo, Louis Vuitton, and Breitling, are raising the bar with the experiences they offer and, in turn, consumer expectations across all retail categories – including automotive.

Start with the showroom

Unlike other retail environments, the typical automotive showroom has changed little in the past 50 years. Most showroom layouts look much the same today as they did in the 1950s, with nothing but the cars to distinguish a BMW showroom from a Hyundai showroom. Compared to companies like Uniqlo, the mass-market clothing retailer, it's an experience that falls far short today's consumer expectations. From vibrant displays, colour-shifting LED lighting and 'magic mirrors' that allow customers to see the clothes they're trying on in a different colour, to the smiling, eager-to-please store assistants, Uniqlo has successfully differentiated across every customer touch point.

Automotive businesses can learn from the customer experience offered by retailers like Uniqlo to transform the dealership showroom into a rich and stimulating environment that engages all the senses, builds an emotional connection with their brand and drives sales.

Extend the experience across multiple channels

Today's car buyers are better informed and more demanding than ever before. According to a 2012 survey by J.D. Power and Associates, nearly 80% of new vehicle purchasers research on the internet before they buy – one-third use review and comparison sites and many consult social-networking sites to gauge the experience of other shoppers.

Consumers increasingly expect the retail experience to be seamless across channels and devices – mobile, online and in-store. Retailers must therefore give customers control over how they shop, providing access to products and information whenever they need it. Apple, for example, offers one of the widest ranges of options for shopping, enabling customers to buy online and pick up at the store, or use a mobile app to purchase on the move. Tesco is also leading the way in experience innovation, having recently created a virtual shopping aisle in a busy Seoul subway station where commuters can scan and purchase products with their phones for same-day delivery.

This kind of technology-based retail experience is easy to use and fits perfectly into consumers' daily lives. Although automotive companies face structural challenges to operating in a multi-channel environment, they need to focus on increasing customer engagement by embracing new technology and better integrating the experience they offer across all digital and physical platforms.

Create meaningful consistency

Automotive dealers have always recognised the value and importance of brand identity and have typically invested heavily in signage and point-of-purchase materials designed to ensure a consistent look across their network. In other categories, however, some global retailers have recently made surprising design changes that challenge established practices. McDonald's restaurants in Europe, for example, now look completely different to those in North America – where urban and suburban outlets are also designed to have to have their own individual style. Starbucks has adapted a similar strategy, where each café is, in part, custom designed.

McDonald's and Starbucks are able to successfully adopt flexible design strategies because of the strength and consistency of the experience they offer across stores globally. Even though the design of the store may change by location, the behaviour of the staff, the defining moments in the purchasing process and the quality of the overall experience remains constant around the world.

For automotive brands, the focus on design consistency across the dealership network needs careful consideration, especially as they expand into new markets where cultural differences and preferences demand a more 'local' approach. While consistency matters, it's how it is embedded in the entire customer experience that's really important, not just the expression of brand identity through the design of the retail environment.

Bring together the true and the new

Lippincott's brand study shows that although consumers see many automotive brands as having a recognisable and authentic brand image, fewer are seen as having the vitality to stay fresh and relevant over time. Automotive companies need to find ways of leveraging their heritage and reputation, at the same time as communicating a dynamic, forward-thinking image that appeals to a new generation of customers.

It's an approach perfectly illustrated by luxury goods retailer, Louis Vuitton. Recognised around the world for their iconic LV monogram and check canvas patterns on luggage and handbags, they recently decided to breathe new life into these signature brand elements and worked with leading contemporary artists to reinvent their patterns. They created a series of bold designs that were applied across scarves, handbags, window displays, pop-up shops and storefronts to leverage the Louis Vuitton brand heritage while presenting the brand in a new and unexpected way.

Industry-leading retailers continuously look to tell their story in new and compelling ways. For automotive companies, this means identifying what makes them special and unique and communicating these messages in fresh and creative ways, combining both the true and the new to stay relevant for consumers.

Recognise that your people embody the brand

Automotive dealers understand the importance of establishing strong personal relationships with customers and their value in attracting and retaining business. In contrast to other retail environments where the store experience is an extension of the brand, the customer experience within an automotive dealership usually reflects the individual dealer's management style and internal culture.

At corporations like Apple, their people truly embody the brand. They're informal, knowledgeable, and friendly – they don't just provide great customer service, they are as distinctive and recognisable as any other dimension of the Apple experience. So, while dealers clearly recognise the importance of people in delivering the customer experience, they don't always acknowledge their role in reinforcing the brand personality. Dealers need educating on the benefits of adopting a common culture across the network where the behaviour of personnel and the way they interact with customers is brand-aligned.

Connect and stay relevant throughout the ownership experience

At key periods throughout the year, many automotive dealers attract prospective customers into the dealership with special offers and events. These promotional activities invariably increase footfall and help to feed the sales pipeline – but once the purchase is made, little is done to retain the customer's interest. Dealers are therefore missing opportunities to stay connected with owners and engaging them throughout the ownership experience.

Swiss watchmaker, Breitling, has addressed this issue by establishing company-owned boutiques in key global cities to anchor the brand experience and provide services that surpass those offered through their normal sales channels and provide a truly immersive brand experience for Breitling watch owners as well as prospective customers. Featuring a lounge area for customers to socialise and relax with a glass of Champagne, the boutiques host exclusive, invitation-only events to keep registered customers up-to-date with the latest developments.

Today's consumers expect to have on-going relationships with the brands they buy, and for automotive businesses this represents an untapped opportunity for creating unique experiences targeted specifically at owners. These experiences should reinforce a brand's values by encouraging engagement at every level.

Make a lasting impression

The leading automotive brands of the future will be those who draw inspiration from best-in-class retailers outside the category and, in turn, innovate their own shopping experience to meet and exceed customer expectations. The world's best retailers have all found ways to innovate the experience for today's demanding and well-informed consumers, creating highly immersive environments designed to connect with all the senses. The commercial potential is significant for the automotive pioneers prepared to follow their lead.

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Digital Drives Auto Shopping

In-market auto shoppers are doing their digital homework. Auto video research is on the rise and mobile usage has increased 35% year over year. The good news for auto brands? These shoppers are open to influence, with nearly three in four shopping across brands. 

Check out the Research conducted by Google Insights

SXSW14: Neuromarketing is the next step in engagement

by Pete Trainor, 12.03.2014

Successful brands today are manipulating consumers' minds to better their sales in new and developed ways, claims Pete Trainor, associate director, UX, part of SapientNitro. Here he walks us through his SXSW talk, "Is there a neurological recipe for success?"

Even before the age of Mad Men, marketers were trying to tap into the human subconscious to influence consumers to buy their products. You could argue that we, in the marketing industry, are in the habit-forming business - we build products meant to persuade people to do what we want them to do.

Since advertising began, the mass public has been influenced by the images they walk past, see in the press and have beamed into their eyes through their TVs. Smirnoff as an example used a technique called ZMET – Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique – in their advertising throughout the 2000s. Images were manipulated in the shape of the Smirnoff bottle to make the passer-by stop and study the shot.

The essence of ZMET reduces to exploring the human unconscious with specially selected sets of images that cause a positive emotional response and activate hidden images, metaphors stimulating the purchase.

The major thinking part of human activity (over 90%), including emotion, takes place in the subconscious area that is below the levels of controlled awareness. In today’s new technological landscape, it’s now even easier to reward that part of the subconscious brain and influence behaviour towards engagement.

Turning brands into habit

Turning brands into daily or weekly habits is the key in the next stage of consumer engagement. It’s what I call "Neuro CX" or Neuro Customer Experience. An experience with a brand that is immersive and can quickly become a habit.

A lot of the branded utilities that we’re creating are also something that we want to use to make the public’s life better, by facilitating a healthful habit. Nike Fuel, for example, is a habit-building product that, at its core, aims to create loyalty whilst reminding us every time we hit the button that Nike is still a brand that's relevant.

Nir Eyal, who wrote the book ‘Hooked’, says "If manipulation is a designed experience crafted to change behaviour, then Weight Watchers, one of the most successful mass-behaviour change products in history, fits the definition". Manipulation and influence can’t be all bad.

Personalisation is starting to get really prescriptive because of big data in digital experiences. The data is there now to create highly relevant experiences which in turn can enrich a consumer experience. Amazon targets products at you that they think you’d like based on your spending patterns for example.

Old retargeting methods are out

Instead of using old retargeting methods, such as showing someone an ad for a car that person just viewed online, brands are using new technologies to help them decide, often in advance, whether a consumer should be shown an ad for, say, a luxury car or an inexpensive car, or any car at all.

Social media companies work with advertisers to help segment users based on their Facebook data. Facebook can tell an advertiser that a group of mothers using the site are talking about sending their children to a festival, and a big manufacturer of say, sun cream, could create an ad campaign that focuses on children using their product at a festival.

Facebook can also help the manufacturer categorise consumers as heavy or light buyers of sun cream and determine the number of ads each group will see. Those who buy less may see fewer ads than those who buy more.

Online retail is one part of the economy that is really doing well in this space. Indeed, the statistics show it is a substantial success story bringing in record business for firms like John Lewis.

The psychological approach 

Retailers often talk about offerings, design and functions. But that focuses on the website and its mechanics. The companies that are doing well online lay their focus at the other end of the relationship; they focus on their visitors and customers, relegating the website itself to the lesser part of the equation. In other words, the successful retailers focus on online customer behaviour, taking a psychological approach, rather than a technical one.

This is evident in online retailers such as ASOS who changed their strategy a few years ago. Their website has several psychological triggers which show their visitors they need to stay. The same is true for Next or John Lewis. These firms provide psychological signals that the visitor can interpret within seconds. Brain scanning research shows that website visitors make the decision as to whether to stay or to click away within 600 milliseconds.

Traditional retailers are used to having several minutes in which to engage their customers. Plus they can manipulate things like lighting, temperature and sound, to make the shopping experience more enticing. But online retailers have only seconds and they cannot manipulate those environmental factors that increase the likelihood of buying.

Neuromarketers: exploiters?

Other examples of the manipulation of the mind to better advance product sales are; Microsoft mining EEG data to understand users' interactions with computers including their feelings of "surprise, satisfaction and frustration".

Google made some waves when it partnered with MediaVest on a "biometrics" study to measure the effectiveness of YouTube overlays versus pre-rolls. Result: Overlays were much more effective with subjects. Daimler employed fMRI research to inform a campaign featuring car headlights to suggest human faces which tied to the reward centre of the brain.

All the successful brands are doing it. But the practice is not without its critics and issues. First, consumer advocates and other groups have claimed neuromarketers are exploiting people to "sell us stuff we don't need" and creating unhealthy and irresponsible addictions and cravings.

Ian Bogost, the famed game creator and professor, calls the wave of habit-forming technologies the "cigarette of this century" and warns of equally addictive and potentially destructive side-effects. However, I believe the customer is smart enough to make up their own mind and we’re simply helping them make better, more relevant decisions. 

Facebook's Goodfellas Moment Social net shouldn't be mistaken for an ally By Sam Slaughter

• March 27, 2014, 5:03 PM EDT
• Advertising & Branding

So brands, it turns out, are not people after all—at least on Facebook.

The social media giant moved last week (and actually has been moving for some time) toward restricting the organic reach of pages associated with brands. What does that mean? Well if you’re a brand, it means you're soon going to have to pay for Facebook advertising if you want to reach Facebook’s users.

If you listen carefully, you can hear the collective updating of résumés across the land by marketing strategists who have encouraged brands to invest time and resources in amassing a huge audience on Facebook. They managed to build an audience all right (Starbucks has over 36 million fans and Nike has nearly 17 million) but that audience belongs to Facebook. And Facebook, which is a public company with aggressive revenue goals, will do what it wants with that audience—including charging boatloads of cash to reach those eyeballs.

As John Battelle noted last week, becoming a brand publisher is an existential choice—it’s not “should I publish content”, it’s “where should I publish content.” Until now, Facebook (and to a lesser extent, Twitter and Tumblr) has been an easy choice—it’s free, there’s a built-in audience, and the content that does well is relatively easy to produce. But at the end of the day, it’s the equivalent of building a house on land you don’t own. You may have paid for the materials and done all the work—and maybe even put up some nice drapes and a granite countertop—but once the landlord comes around, you’re out of luck.

On the other hand, brands that have put the time and effort into building their own content properties, like American Express and Red Bull, are feeling pretty good about themselves. And brands that are still in the process of deciding what kind of publisher they want to be suddenly have a much easier choice. Building on the backs of other publishers is simpler, but what you gain in ease you lose in control.

And this is all in all a good thing. After all, what does a Facebook like really mean to a brand? Is it a captive audience? Is it really an indication of brand affinity? Are people who like a brand page really more likely to purchase that brand’s products? Maybe. But I would submit to the jury that what those people are really “fans” of is Facebook itself.

Publishers who depend on Facebook for traffic should take heed as well. Some, like Upworthy, have been burned already. Others are in the clear—for now. But Facebook shouldn’t be mistaken for an ally. It’s most likely just biding its time before it drops the hammer on those publishers as well.

One metaphor I like is working with Facebook is like the famous f**k you, pay me scene in the movie Goodfellas. Publishers are all getting fat off the benefits of free Facebook traffic for now, but when Facebook decides it wants to start charging (and it will), they'd better be ready to pay up.

Business bad? F*ck you, pay me. Traffic down? F*ck you, pay me. CPMs falling? F*CK you pay me.

Sure, Facebook depends on publishers for the content that populates News Feeds … but in reality, who depends more on whom?

In an era where everyone is a publisher, owning your own audience is more valuable than ever—and there are no shortcuts. It’s time consuming, and it’s not cheap. But it’s the only answer to a new media world that’s changing as fast as brands can keep up.

Chevy CMO: Media Partners Help Reach Consumers Faster Than Creative Directors

GM Exec Said Art-School Grads Not as Good at Finding Innovative Tactics

By Maureen Morrison. Published on March 18, 2014

General Motors global Chevrolet marketing chief Tim Mahoney didn't give "proper homage to the creative side of the house."

That was a quip McCann Worldgroup CEO Harris Diamond said in jest during his interview with Mr. Mahoney onstage at the 4As Transformation conference. It was a reaction to how marketers like GM are increasingly turning to media partners and seeing more value in what they offer, sometimes even at the expense of creative agencies.

When asked what he is looking for from media partners -- much of Tuesday's agenda at the conference was focused on media -- Mr. Mahoney said that media partners these days increasingly help the marketer reach its target. As technology advances, he said, media partners can help the company "find innovative ways to reach consumers faster than creative directors who came from art school."

Mr. Diamond -- whose agency is part of the Commonwealth unit that handles Chevrolet -- then asked Mr. Mahoney how important creative is to GM. Mr. Mahoney, who joined GM in March 2013 after it launched Chevy's "Find new roads" campaign, said that creative is still critical to marketing, as he views marketers as "storytellers," and GM board members still spend hours pouring over a commercial.

The creative-versus-media partners discussion wasn't the focus of the interview, but it's exemplary of the industry as media partners and agencies are increasingly shaping creative and strategy, especially in digital and social, and gaining influence with CMOs.

But General Motors has a more immediate PR issue it's addressing with the ignition-switch recall, and as of this morning, another recall of 300,000 vans due to an airbag risk. An audience member asked Mr. Mahoney how the company's marketing and communications departments are working together during the recall to ensure the company moves forward, but Mr. Mahoney largely deflected the question and instead said that he works with other senior executives, and that the company is working out years in advance what the communications and marketing plans will be for a car's rollout.

Mr. Diamond even noted the deflection, joking that Mr. Mahoney is an expert in how not to answer questions about the recall.

Mr. Mahoney and Mr. Diamond also talked about diversity in marketing, a topic that American Express marketer John Hayes covered on Monday at the 4As conference. Mr. Diamond asked Mr. Mahoney whether advertising is changing at the same pace as consumers when it comes to social issues. Mr. Mahoney said that he actually thinks that consumers are ahead of marketers when it comes to diversity, and that marketers need to be willing to take a risk, even if they worry that including a nontraditional family in an ad might upset some consumers. "We have to come at it from a perspective of inclusion," he said.

Advertising's Untapped Market: Single Women

By Paula Froelich / February 26, 2014 1:08 PM EST

For those who keep score of such things, Super Bowl Sunday was considered a modest victory for women, as far as the commercials were concerned anyway. Props were given to ads "designed around big ideas and not sexist stereotypes," as the 3 Percent Conference, a group of female creative directors from West and East Coast ad agencies, put it.

That may be true. But it's also a fact that not one ad so much as nodded at Single Indies: Women over 35, unmarried, with no children and - most important from an advertising point of view - successful. With apologies to Helen Reddy, they should be too big to ignore. Single Indies spend around $1 trillion each year...and there are 28 million of them. Yet, in both advertising and media, this pocketbook powerhouse is, for all intents and purposes, nonexistent.

"Women are either absent from advertising, and the man is the protagonist and women are sidekicks - or women are portrayed in a mom role," says Kat Gordon, the founder of the 3 Percent Conference and the founder and creative director of the Maternal Instinct ad agency. "No one is seeing that [single] women are going on incredibly exotic, adventurous excursions, making their own money, amassing wealth, getting higher education and having all this influence. With advertising, we're still in the 1950s."

And it isn't just the advertising industry. A cursory glance at television programming - especially on women's channels - finds almost no TV shows with single women over the age of 35. (Those you can find are whining about being single or sad spinsters.) The majority of programming geared toward women is like The Bachelor - in which women vie for the hand of a single, solvent man and vow that if he chooses them, they will give up their family, friends and jobs to move across country to be with their prince. Or it's like theBridezilla and Real Housewives series (and their knock-offs) - women who are either married, about to be married or want to be married, behaving very badly.

"It's just bullsh*t," says Jennifer L. Pozner, the executive director of Women in Media & News and the author of Reality Bites Back: The Troubling Truth About Guilty Pleasure TV. "Media companies serve advertisers, advertisers serve media, and none of them are serving women."

"Women are doing the majority of buying across every consumer category, and women are adopting technology and driving social media usage and amassing wealth in unprecedented ways," adds Gordon. "I live in Silicon Valley and work with start-ups and companies, all trying to eke out tiny benefits - and no one is seeing this huge opportunity."

It reminds some of the late 1990s, when it dawned on advertisers that gay men were desirable customers. They didn't marry (they couldn't), weren't having children and as a demographic, they amassed a lot of money as they grew older. Even more important, they liked luxury goods and services. Initial attempts to engage the Pink Dollar were comical. Viacom created Logo, a "gay" channel that for a year seemed to consist of Priscilla Queen of the Deserton a loop.

Almost two decades later, homosexuals are (slowly) getting the right to marry and many are adopting children; their discretionary income is being sidelined. And now it is the Single Indie advertisers should be growing aware of - but they have no clue how to reach her. The Single Indie is not a niche market.

"People don't realize what a large group of people were talking about," says Jamie Dunham, president of the branding and marketing company Brandwise and a self-described "reformed advertising executive." "This is not a small group. The Single Indie is almost a third of all adult women. And she has disposable income: She's traveling, she's buying things for her home, she's getting a nice car because she doesn't have the expense of a family household."

Still the majority of ads are geared towards a nuclear family, which according to the U.S. Census Bureau, represents only 22 percent of households today, as opposed to 44 percent in the 1960s.

"There's a seed wisdom that male audiences are the difficult ones to get and that's outdated," says Cindy Gallup, the former chairman of BBH New York and founder of MakeLoveNotPorn and IfWeRanTheWorld.com. "Women buy, influence culture, and women share. Whatever brand you are - even if you think you're a male brand - you ought to be targeting women; they're the primary influencers in every sector."

Last year, NBCUniversal's Integrated Media group found that Single Indies were not just successful (accounting for 59 percent of master degree holders), they spent $22 billion on vehicles (five times more than independent men), $20 billion on entertainment, and $50 billion on food.

Perhaps the biggest cause of change is social media - and the Single Indie's mastery of it. According to comScore, women are the majority of users of social networking sites and spend 30 percent more time on these sites than men. And women are more engaged online both as info seekers and as advocates.

"In the past, if you made an offensive ad I might think, Oh I'm not going to buy that product. And I might say something to the person next to me on the couch," Gordon says. "But now brands are aware we have a mechanism to share our thoughts and broadcast to everyone in our social tribe, and it's really shameful to be a brand who's taken down by consumers who've seen how dismissive you've been of them. It's been a wake-up call - advertisers see how much traction hashtags like #notbuyingit are getting. And finally there's checks and balances - you can't hide, consumers are going to call you out."

But the questions remain, in what Gary Vaynerchuck calls the Thank You Economy -in which businesses thrive by using social media to acknowledge, reward and, yes, thank their customers - who is thanking the Single Indie? And who will score some of those trillion dollars they're willing to spend?

Brands Need to Know Their Purpose and What They Aspire to Be This is the new era of kinship By Abbie Walker

• February 24, 2014, 10:17 PM EST
• Advertising & Branding

Kinship is everywhere. It’s empathy in action: a hug, a comforting word, the backbone of a friendship. Kinship is fundamentally selfless, intrinsically rewarding, a vital and extremely human part of being, well, a human being. 

Illustration: Vahram Muradyan

Kinship requires work, and while people inherently are driven by it, brands are not individuals and often do a poor job evoking similar feelings. Consumers have been skeptical of today’s brands’ intentions for some time now, and so is it any wonder they have such a hard time earning trust?

Martin Weigel, planning director at Wieden + Kennedy Amsterdam, rightly said we have become prisoners of a metaphor, and as we’ve suspended reality for our metaphors, our brands ask consumers for what a person expects from his or her friends—loyalty, trust, attention, love, time—without putting in the reciprocally requisite work. In other words, brands need to reconsider their motivations and behaviors because no one is buying the be-our-friend act any longer.

One problem is the mistaken notion that advertising shapes culture. Rather, advertising has always been a mirror that reflects changes in culture, politics and industry. In the Era of Logic—the ’50s and ’60s—there was a scarcity of information, so products earned markets based on clearly stated attributes. Winning brands made whites whiter, fed families more easily and vacuumed hard-to-reach places.

Market saturation and mass media shifted us to the Era of Emotion. Prompted by booms of products and prosperity, conspicuous consumption kicked into high gear, and logic wasn’t enough. Your product had to make a prospective buyer feel something. A car was freedom on four wheels, jeans made you rebellious. This ego-driven style persists today, but it’s worn thin—its promises turned to platitudes, its emotion drowned in a sea of indistinguishable metaphors.

Let’s consider the world in front of us: massive amounts of products and information a mere finger’s touch away. This could be a truly exhilarating landscape for brands and marketers. The bad news, however, is that brands are still working with the dated tools from the Era of Emotion.

Most brands are looking at behavior but don’t question whether people’s internal motivations have changed. Spoiler: They have. Fragmentation of media and the power to the public collective, for example, are behavioral outcomes of deeper truths. Find those truths, and you transcend the “like us on Facebook” noise.

So what’s motivating people? What thoughts are keeping people up at night? Our access to endless information and socialization has given new life to age-old questions. Why am I here? What impact do I want to have on the people around me?”

Our success doesn’t lie in becoming more interesting or disruptive. What we need is purpose and to help people realize their purpose. To know your purpose as a brand is to know who you, as the brand, aspire to be. This defines your subsequent behavior inside the company, in your products, and ultimately how you impact the world. It’s the “why” your brand exists. Consider a few well-known, proven examples. Pampers helps parents care for their babies and helps toddlers’ development. Amazon enables freedom of choice, exploration and discovery. Red Bull energizes the world. Notice the commonality: Purpose transcends business and product (the what) and delivers on human principles (the why).

The “why” gives businesses and brands focus, a valued role to play in modern life and a depth that resonates with people. If you commit to a purpose that will truly benefit the world in some way, you are on your way to defining your brand’s role in people’s lives, and the way you communicate with them. It is within this dialogue between brand and consumer that we can find solutions, innovate and challenge the status quo. Ultimately, we can inspire others—our kin—to find their purpose.

Let’s shed the chains of our metaphors in this new Era of Kinship. It’s not people who need to do the heavy lifting—it’s our brands and us. Like a good friend, we have to help others find purpose and to give selflessly, empathetically and meaningfully.

Auto Aftermarket and Today's Digital Driver

The needs of aftermarket shoppers haven’t changed. There are two types of behaviors when it comes to vehicle parts and accessories purchases: Proactive drivers buy for the season, enhancement and regular maintenance, while reactive ones purchase for repairs. But what has changed? In a new study, we found that regardless of the reason for purchase, drivers have gone digital. Seven in 10 drivers start their purchase process online. Learn what tools have an impact on their decisions and how you can win today’s digital drivers.

Check out the Research conducted by Google Insights

New Automotive Research Show Online Apps for Automotive Finance Grow by 32%

Technology trends are beginning to disrupt and reshape the retail financial services industry in a significant way. A new suite of digital tools and services are changing the way we interact with financial services institutions. While the option of applying online for automotive finance has been around for some time, we look to investigate if consumers are engaging with the online channel and what the barriers to future uptake are.

The Automotive Finance Insight report, recently published by ACA Research, shows how car buyers use online resources across the different stages of the customer journey. There are many different journeys, but typically the journey begins online and then transfers to face to face. Compared with 2011, online channels are playing an increasingly important role in the early stages of the customer journey.

This increased activity in online channels when searching for finance is supported by an analysis of the search term “car loan” in Google Trends. The chart below shows that the peak activity over the time period from 2004 to 2013 was in 2013.

Google Trends: Occurence of Search Term "Car Loan" 2004-2013


How is this increased digital activity in the search for information about lenders and products impacting on the way consumers apply for finance?
Online applications for automotive finance have increased by 32% from 2011 to 2013. While that is a significant increase, this still only accounts for a quarter of car buyers who used finance to purchase their vehicle. The majority of car buyers are still using more traditional channels.



What is holding consumers back and what would encourage more car buyers to apply for finance online?
The main reasons for not applying online are a sense that better deals can be obtained by talking in person with a sales representative, privacy concerns, and being able to check details with someone. More car buyers would apply online if they were confident the best deal was available online, if someone was available to answer any questions, and if all the relevant documents could be sent electronically. Fundamentally this boils down to price, convenience, and reassurance.

Lenders are constantly evolving their online tools and mobile products to help car buyers navigate the online application process, including apps that can scan vehicle identification numbers, compare the average retail cost of a vehicle, and complete an online application. Combine this with tools to compare lending products and find the best deals, the next generation of technology is likely to lead to further growth in the use of online channels.

http://www.acaresearch.com.au/australian-market-research-blog/bid/337524/New-Automotive-Research-Shows-Online-Applications-For-Automotive-Finance-Grow-by-32?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_content=4171097

Mobile innovation is headed for consumer engagement

By a Luxury Daily columnist

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March 5, 2014

By Rodney Williams

Curved glass. Phones that measure physical activity. Wearable tech. Connected cars. I am all for the innovations that are making mobile technology a more integrated part of consumers’ lives.

The Consumer Electronics Show this January was actually deserving of all the hype. Because if there is one thing that we should have learned about mobile technology over the past few years it is that innovation only counts if it amplifies the consumer experience. That is why mobile marketing will see a huge jump in spending and new technology uptake from top-tier brands this year.

Facing the music
Innovation and consumer experience have finally met in the middle.

Innovation, however, is an ongoing process. It is not done because there is still plenty of room to improve the customer experience.

I see innovation continuing with mobile music. There is more to mobile music delivery right now than better headphone technology. There are opportunities for consumers to experience more individualized music choices.

I would also argue that consumers can use music to unlock more content choices across all media.

In fact, the marketing opportunities that are most exciting right now lie in mobile music. That is the innovation hot spot.

As I said, I am all in favor of tracking the amount of walking I did today. But I am not so sure it can be relevantly tied to a marketing message.

Let us check some stats.

According to eMarketer, 99 percent of all smartphone owners stream music. That is more than 80 million consumers. Spotify alone streamed 4.5 billion hours of music last year.

Now here is the problem and the opportunity. Only 6 percent of those surveyed found mobile ads to be useful. That does not mean mobile music advertising does not work. It means the ads lack relevance and engagement. Watch the industry work on that.

Pandora has announced car-specific audio ads as more music is integrated into autos, which will also be an area of increasing innovation and more opportunity for marketers.

Hip ticket
Many analysts have called this the age of context for mobile music. Agreed.

Inaudible signals, beacons and sonic frequency signals are only on the cusp of amplifiying – not hijacking – the consumer experience. Mobile devices will become more personal via music. The technology amplifies the experience.

This technology push is going to enable and unlock triggered content.

Mobile music consumers produce data through their choices and behavior. That data creates premium marketing opportunities to reach consumers with the right content and marketing messages at the right moment of engagement.

Brands from sports teams, music artists to consumer packaged goods giants will embrace the ability to serve content based on behavioral signals that can be customized. It will go further than typing text codes.

Current technology allows the guy watching the Super Bowl to get a ticket offer for the NFL Draft. The Jay-Z fan listening to his latest jam will get an offer for exclusive video. The Jay-Z fan at a concert can get an exclusive after-show offer while the concert is in progress. And the baseball fan drinking a beer on a hot summer day will get access to an exclusive brand-sponsored interview with the team’s MVP.

MOBILE TECHNOLOGY innovations increase consumer engagement with devices. Wearable tech has proven that.

It is time for mobile music technology to increase engagement with products and brands. It is already happening.

The consumer wave to watch is not tracking how many steps your consumers took today. The wave to watch is how much of your content with which they have interacted. We are just getting started.

1 Scary Detail Lurks Behind Strong Auto Sales

By Rich Smith | More Articles 
September 7, 2013 | Comments (4)

Auto sales are booming in America. But ... for how long?

The New York Times reported earlier this week that automakers as a whole scored a 17% increase in sales for the month of August, moving 1.5 million pieces of metal for the month -- and suggesting sales for the year could hit a post-financial crisis high of 16.09 million.

In its most recent quarter, Ford (NYSE: F  ) beat nearly all comers, notching a 15% gain in sales versus the year-ago quarter, and grew its profits 19%.

Ford's F-150 -- the best-selling truck in America, Source: Ford.

At General Motors (NYSE: GM  ) , profits were down year over year -- but sales were still up by 4%. Balancing out GM's poor results, Chrysler-owner Fiat S.p.A. (NASDAQOTH:FIATY  ) likewise grew sales 4%, but grew its profits more than fourfold!

However,one troubling trend suggests that the good times may not keep rolling much longer.

According to the U.S. Federal Highway Administration , the average amount Americans drove in a month in the U.S. hit its peak in July 2004. Total vehicle use -- a figure inflated by rising population numbers -- continued chugging along until it, too, topped out in August 2007. It's been all downhill from there.

When the odometer stops turningTotal vehicle miles traveled in the U.S. dropped in the first half of 2013, relative to 2012 data, and the average American today drives just 820 miles per month -- 9% fewer than we did nine years ago. The number of young people applying for driving licenses, too, is down. Kids in their teens and 20s -- and even their 30s -- are all down "significantly" since before the most recent recession, according to the Associated Press.

What's to blame for all this? Some people blame the Great Recession, of course, and the toll it took on American wallets. Others point to high gas prices as making car ownership, and driving in general, less attractive than it once was. And then there are the other culprits -- taxes, insurance costs, and the high sticker prices.

To those factors, add traffic jams, government initiatives to promote walking and bicycling to work, and the simple fact that, in this day and age, we just don't need cars as much as we used to, what with Amazon.com offering to deliver almmost anything to your doorstep -- and promising to expand its grocery delivery service soon, as well.

Some commentators -- University of Michigan  transportation researcher Michael Sivak among them --  blame social networking for the fact that people are driving less frequently than they used to. Last quarter, Facebook's revenue was up 53% -- easily eclipsing the sales gains at any of Detroit's Big 3. Facebook's "daily active users" tally increased 27% year over year, to 699 million. That's an awful lot of folks who may be logging on, instead of buckling up, when they want to "hang out" with their friends.

So why is anyone buying cars at all?Despite all this, Ford still grew its sales 15% last quarter. How? Well, in large part, this is a factor of "pent-up demand." Spooked by the Financial Crisis, a lot of people took a "brake" from buying cars over the past few years. The average car on America's highways today is 11.4 years old, and in serious need of replacement.

For a time, this mini-trend of replacing worn-out vehicles will continue to bolster earnings at Ford, and at its competitors as well. It may even turn out that analysts are right about Ford being able to grow its earnings at close to 14% annually for the next several years. Maybe.

Foolish takeaway
Whatever the short-term trends may be, though, people just aren't driving as much as they used to. And as a result, they don't need to buy cars as much as they used to need to, Unless something happens to reverse this trend, it's going to be bad news for Ford in the long run. 

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/09/07/a-scary-detail-lurks-behind-strong-auto-sales.aspx