Understanding and Finding Consumers who Want to Buy

Case Study

Automotive Manufacturer Uses Nielsen Segmentation

The CompanyAutomotive

The Business Issue

One of the worlds largest automotive manufacturers was launching a new vehicle and asked Nielsen for help in understanding and finding consumers who would be likely buyers of this new model. They wanted Nielsen to develop a view of this consumer that would be meaningful and actionable across their organization.

Since the manufacturer was launching a new vehicle, capturing opportunity in the marketplace was critical. They needed a way to understand and find consumers most likely to buy the expected buyer. In order for the launch to be successful, management felt the stakeholders needed to share a common view of the expected buyer. The CEO was concerned that product, marketing, advertising, CRM and dealer distribution were not on the same page.

Nielsen interviewed key stakeholders across the organization in product, marketing, advertising, CRM and dealer distribution to understand how they would take action and measure success. The interviews were designed to create a candid conversation with each stakeholderindividual opinions were anonymous, allowing stakeholders to speak candidly.

The views collected drove the research design and key data inputs. It was important to validate or refute stakeholder perceptions of the expected buyer. Historical customer data was collected to view who was buying across the category as a whole, and the vehicles within the competitive dataset. Primary research was conducted to in-market category buyers to understand their buying behaviors and attitudes (awareness, needs and perceptions). Syndicated data was pulled to reflect the lifestyles and psychographics of the expected buyer, defined by stakeholders (e.g. people who go to the ballet, enjoy sailing, and have a sense of style).

A variety of data metrics were examined against these known datasets. Starting with the least costly and easiest to implement, to completely customized views, the behaviors and attitudes important to the stakeholders were examined for discrimination. Lift charts were created to understand variance across the different building blocks.

Segmentation is sustainable when companies expand their thinking beyond one dimensional views of the consumer. The who, how, where and why must be examined across past behaviors, present actions and future needs and wants.

Summary

The Solution

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A view of the consumer was agreed upon by executive leadership and all stakeholders. This view was both meaningful and actionable. It was meaningful because it made sense to the stakeholders, it discriminated nicely across key behaviors and attitudes, and there was buy-in. It was actionable because it created a view of the consumer that marketing could work with to develop creative messaging and communications. It also enabled advertising to plan and buy media against, CRM could score customer and prospect files, and dealer distribution could measure demand potential in their markets and around their dealerships. The link to CRM and the dealers was critical, as the agency wanted to develop tailored direct marketing programs to drive the expected buyer into the dealerships.

Segmentation brought all the data inputs together, providing a single view of the expected buyer. Each consumer segment had a probability to buy measure and descriptions of the motivators and barriers that would need to be emphasized or overcome to make a sale. On-target groups were identified as those with the highest probability to buy, while other groups were considered developmental (likely to buy, but more so across the competitive dataset). Stakeholders were brought together under a common implementation plan. Every department had a role in the launch.

First quarter sales results were tracked. The actual customer was profiled and compared to the expected buyer. Success was measured by two factors: a high correlation between the actual and expected buyer and first quarter sales figures. Both measures showed success. The correlation between actual and expected was strong and first quarter sales results were well above plan.

Segmentation is essential in understanding and finding consumers who want to buy. It provides a single view the consumer: who they are, how they shop and why they buy to aid businesses in developing communication messages, plan media strategies, create prospect lists and measure demand in markets more effectively. Depending upon implementation goals, a view of the consumer may include past behaviors, present real-time actions and future needs.

To develop sustainable segmentation, a customized implementation plan should be built. The plan must include implementation tasks, milestones, timelines and owners. Stakeholders, architects and builders must work together on an ongoing basis to assure effective implementation. Success should be measured over time, using customer data if possible, and strategies should be modified and refined as needed.

Understanding and Finding Consumers who Want to Buy

To learn more about how Nielsen can help with your marketing strategies, contact us at 800-234-5973 or visit www.nielsen.com

The Solution cont.

A Win-winOutcome

The Conclusion

Case Study

Step 1Stakeholder

Interview

Step 5Develop an

Implementation Plan

Step 4Segmentation

Development &Personification

Step 2Understanding

Data Inputs

Step 3Segmentation

Exploratory

DiscoveryProcess