Marketing for Automakers How To Interrupt The Consumer Decision Process In The Digital Age By Natascha Jung

It’s more than a feeling. In 2014, the global automotive business was estimated at more than $800 billion U.S. dollars per year (Automotiveworld.com, 2014), and it didn’t get to be the massive industry it is today without a few clever insights and marketing campaigns along the way. In the last 100 years, automakers have literally explored every sales and marketing technique out there with varying degrees of success. Let’s face it, almost since the day Henry Ford released the first car for the everyman in 1908 (Eyewitnesstohistory.com, 2016) automotive companies have been trying to get consumers to buy vehicles by featuring everything from fast cars with fast women to sensible, practical, family sedans. Obviously car dealers aren’t strangers to the economic, social and psychological theories that shape consumer-purchasing behaviour. This brief paper will explore the role of consumers in automobile marketing by investigating innovative campaigns that successfully interrupt the Consumer Decision Process. We all know it takes more than a feeling to get your campaign at the top of consumers’ minds. Keep reading to discover key insights on how to get your brand number one in the buyer’s eyes using the best marketing method, the consumer-centric Engle- Kollat – Blackwell (EKB) Model.

The Consumer Decision Process Since 1968, the EKB Model of the Consumer Decision Process has been very popular amongst marketers (Yarnold, 2014). It’s easy to see why this easy to understand, easy to apply theory has effectively shaped marketing as we know it today. The model is simple, and its flexibility facilitates application in any industry, framing purchasing from the consumer perspective (B, 2013) and giving brands a glimpse into the human psyche on which to build their campaigns. Now that marketers have access to consumers 24 hours a day thanks to the Internet, the EKB Model is more relevant than ever. Like any good theory, the EKB Model has been scrutinised and modified since its inception, undergoing several revisions and updates over the years (Prasad & Jha, 2014). In its current form, it states there are five steps consumers go through when purchasing a product – need/problem recognition, information search, alternative evaluation, purchase decision and post-purchase behaviour. Good automakers are intercepting consumers at each step, converting potential consumers into buyers – let’s explore how.

Need Recognition: Pull The Trigger Every expert can agree on one thing when it comes to the EKB Model, it’s step 1, problem recognition, is the most critical. Known as the ‘trigger’ step, problem recognition is exactly as it sounds. Consumers decide they have a problem, thereby starting the whole Consumer Decision Process (Puni, 1992). So, how do consumers know when it is time to look at making a big purchase like a vehicle? Problem recognition starts with a feeling of discomfort. This feeling can arise from almost anything (Yarnold, 2014) – perhaps your neighbour telling you about their new vehicle, or having to do a series of expensive repairs on an old vehicle, or even a sort of coming of age feeling (like a mid-life crisis). Therefore, a successful campaign that intercepts this step in the Consumer Decision Process would align with a common problem that instigates a need for a new car (Yarnold, 2014). In 2002, the Mini Cooper latched their “Let’s Motor” campaign (Automotiveworld.com, 2014) onto the popular consumer need to save money on fuel. Focused on U.S. distribution, where a longstanding history of larger, less fuel efficient vehicles have dominated since the dawn of time, this campaign smartly accentuated the difference between the Mini Cooper and more popular alternatives – size and fuel consumption (Kagan, 2013).

Figure 2 (Instagram, 2016)

Figure 1 (Kagan, 2013)

Additionally, instead of focusing on the traditional marketing mix, “Let’s Motor” featured a modern guerrilla-centric approach. The Mini was placed in select locations where only a car of its size and incredible mileage could go. Then marketing tactics were reinforced with billboard advertising (figure 1). The Mini only had 2% of the market in the U.S. upon launch, but by 2012 the U.S. became the companies largest market in the world, surpassing even its home country, the U.K. (Kagan, 2013) making this campaign a massive success.

Information Search: Knowledge Is Power Once consumers recognize the need for a new vehicle, they start looking for ways to ease the discomfort. Does this sedan beat Ted’s new one next door? Have a good warranty? Will this sports car make my hair appear thicker and fuller? Have good mileage? Whatever the identified need is, consumers are looking to satisfy it and fast, but on a high-involvement decision like a vehicle purchase consumers also want to make sure they make the correct choice. Consumers begin to conduct extensive research. As high-involvement purchases carry hefty financial implications and long-term consequences, buyers do their homework (2012books.lardbucket.org, 2016) and automakers shouldn’t underestimate their diligence. According to Jeff Kershner’s article Buying A Car An Infographic and Some Important Stats on DealerRefresh, ‘48% of buyers are spending 1-3 months shopping before making a purchase’. After all, this isn’t just a tube of toothpaste – it’s a huge commitment! According to the EKB Model, consumer’s research will be two-fold. Subconsciously, they’ll be accessing their internal memory. Have they had any interactions with brands before? Did they like the experience? Consumers will also be actively hunting for external information. Do they know anyone who has this brand? What are people saying about it? What image does it project and what is the company telling them about it? It’s important to note that during this process, information that is internal or from a trusted source (like a friend or family member) will be valued more highly (Perreau, 2013). So what does this mean for automakers? Get your information out there, and get people talking about your brand so corporate messaging appears to be a personal referral. Impossible you say? Almost, but it can be done. Just check out the “Build A GLA” campaign from BMW here (or see figure 2 for a quick peek). This campaign allows consumers to construct their own ideal BMW and then easily share it with friends and family via the social network Instagram (Adweek, 2015). As “38% of consumers report they’ll consult social media the next time they purchase a car” (Hendricks, 2015), this hands-on approach to brand messaging could be taken as a genuine friend or family referral. BMW also did an ad for the campaign on Facebook. Smart move considering “between October 2012 and April 2013, clicks on Facebook auto ads increased from 16 percent to 39 percent” (Hendricks, 2015). Like it

Figure 3 (Aziz, 2012)

Figure 3 (Aziz, 2012)

or not, social media is here to stay and the impact is growing daily. With social networking use through the roof, staying at the top of mind means staying active this this sphere.

Alternative Evaluation: Dare To Compare Now that auto owners-to-be have scoured the Internet, interrogated their friends and family and perhaps even visited a few stores, they’re ready to compare viable options in the alternative evaluation stage. It’s often easy for consumers to assess and compare the cold hard facts like features and functionality, but what about those pesky feelings they have? Humans are complex creatures, and at this stage in the purchasing process their opinions on your brand and your reputation are just as important as the product itself (Perreau, 2013).

Consumers will divide their research into three sets of data – evoked (to be considered), inept (negative) and inert (indifferent) (Perreau, 2013). There is no way to know what the ideal vehicle is for each consumer, so the trick is to somehow get your brand in the evoked set every time. In her article Consumer Marketing for the 5 Step Model, Rachel Yarnold from Marketo suggests that automakers best shot at this is to keep their marketing timely by building buyer personas, direct marketing to identified segments and targets, and personalizing websites in response to consumer characteristics. As it turns out, “83% [of consumers] do research online before buying a car” (Kershner, 2013) so taking a good hard look at your website probably is solid advice (thanks Rachel!). Besides, it’s working for Lexus, so why shouldn’t it work for you? Lexus’ position in the European market was dropping, but with Google’s help they discovered that the closer consumers get to making a purchasing decision, the more wild their research becomes. Consumers explore a variety of seemingly unviable options last minute just to make sure they’ve covered all the bases (Think with Google, 2016). Armed with the power of data, Lexus created a mobile site (figure 3) that allowed consumers to “order brochures, book test drives, interface with dealerships, and view content” (Aziz, 2012). Because of their consumer-centric approach, Lexus became more feasible at the last minute. Dialogue increased with shoppers, people spent more time on their website and Lexus started to lock down buyers by coming in as the best option late in the game (Aziz, 2012).

Purchase Decision: This Is It! The time has come, and the consumer has chosen your brand! Ready to celebrate? Not so fast… there’s still a lot that can go amok (Perreau, 2013). Did you know that ‘81% [of consumers] are less likely to buy if the salesperson is aggressive’? (Kershner, 2013). Your campaign could be spot on, your product top notch, but at the last minute the sale can turn sour. It’s not just sales tactics that can turn your consumer off. Picture it – you’re going to buy your first vehicle. You’ve looked at all the options, picked out a make and model with your dad and laboured over the most important part – the colour – for days. You like that new shade of purple featured on their YouTube ad – and you want it! But when you step into the dealer, they’re not really sure what you’re talking about. What a turn off.

Figure 4 (Owen, 2016)

Volvo has always been considered a practical brand, and their digital solution to improving the consumer experience is delightfully innovative, yet sensible like the brand itself. Instead of spending tons of cash on flashy ads, they dropped it into creating The V40 Launch Event Toolkit (figure 4) for their 5,000 dealers. This app aggregates information from customers (including brand stories), the automotive industry and technical information into one handy location, allowing dealers to know instantly how to get you the features you want (Owen, 2013), which is important when 76% of American shoppers view customer service as a ‘true test’ of how much a brand values them” (Carter, 2016).

Post-Purchase Behaviour: So It Begins… Congratulations – you’ve done finally it. You captivated consumers attention before they even knew they had a need for a new vehicle, you laid out all the product features in an accessible, easy to understand way on your website and in your store, and it paid off. The consumer purchased your brand! Your work here is done! Or is it…? As you may recall from the information search stage, consumers’ value internal information more highly than external information, and “61% of consumers would tell friends and family about their experiences” (Carter, 2016). So, just because you closed the deal, doesn’t mean your customer’s journey is over (Perrau, 2013). “Engaged consumers buy 90% more frequently” (Carter, 2016), so post-purchase care requires just as much attention as the other stages in the EKB Model. The best part about this stage is that it can be the most fun a marketer can have! People already love your brand, so now you just have to keep the infatuation going. There’s no better example of a great post-purchase campaign than BMW’s “The Hire”. Based on a bold move in the early 2000’s it’s easy to see why in 2011, BMW held the second largest brand retention in the luxury car category with a 31.7% repurchase rate (Gorzelany, 2011). In 2001 and 2002, BMW sunk 17 million dollars into what was then deemed a crazy idea – a series of short films meant to be viewed on the company’s website (Adage.com, 2016). These films were action packed, with BMWs getting shot up, run into and run off the road. You can check out one of the videos, Ambush, here and see how incredibly cool it is! This campaign took place four years prior to the launch of YouTube, back in the day where a 7-minute video could take days to download. Although it sounds irrational to embark on a campaign of this nature then, BMW was actually was taking a calculated risk knowing 75% of consumers were visiting BMW’s website (Adage, 2016). Boy, did it pay off! This campaign has been sited as “the first big media event of 21st Century Marketing”, and had people talking for years about BMW and its impact on digital branding (Adage, 2016).

There’s No Better Time Than Now In 2015, global sales of passenger cars were predicted to hit 73 million vehicles (Facts, 2016). Are a majority of consumers going to choose your brand? You are now armed with the knowledge of how to execute the best marketing plan to convert potential buyers into believers, and the most modern, innovative examples of successful campaigns that employ it. So, what are you waiting for? Get out there and get marketing!

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