REVVING up automotive digital marketing ROI

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The attention span of consumers shrinks each day while their expectations continue to rise. This technology driven change has led consumers to expect targeted messages and content. They are no longer willing to spend time searching for information on the products and services they want. This is becoming increasingly evident in the automotive industry and a great opportunity has emerged to meet these demands. However, the vast potential of this paradigm change remains under-utilized within the industry.

The key differentiator driving successful digital marketing is the capacity to customize the online experience for a meaningful connection to the brand. Accenture is working with a number of the Global Fortune 500 companies, including several auto manufacturers, to provide such customization. In our experience, we found that when content is more closely aligned with the consumer’s lifestyle and specific concerns, the consumer is more responsive to the message. The role of digital marketing is to establish and maintain that meaningful connection to the brand---from first contact to the closed sale.

Today, leading-edge digital marketers are becoming much more adept in utilizing algorithms to predict what online visitors want to know. Specific measures are being used to shape user-centric content. Sites armed with the insight from this data and analytics present a more personalized experience that is more likely to deliver results. Indeed, a fundamental aspect of their strategy is to seek to predict consumer interest in advance and serve up content calculated to catch their interest.

The great promise of digital marketing is its capability to deliver individualized content at scale and cost effectively. Successful marketers able to do this will reap rewards. Those who continue to provide generic ‘one size fits all’ material, risk driving users away long before their messages can have impact.

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Delivering a Digital Strategy at Scale for a Leading Auto Manufacturer

Accenture worked with a major auto manufacturer whose challenge was to increase penetration in mature markets while gaining marketing share in others. In order to grow their brand and increase sales, they recognized they needed to become a leader in digital marketing. To be able to speak to both markets without sacrificing effectiveness in either, Accenture Interactive developed a consistent digital marketing strategy to help deliver relevant customer experiences across all channels, segments and geographies in a cost effective manner.

The Result: A mere four weeks after the recommended enhancements went live, our client observed improvements in key performance areas and began realizing significant results. This included:

More than 30 percent increase in the click-through progression to deeper elements of product content.

250 percent improvement in progression between offers and product details which led to a smoother customer journey.

More than 150 percent increase in viewing accessories content, a key value driver.

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Claudia is a successful young professional, married, passionate about vacationing by the sea, and soon to have a baby. Claudia’s approach to digital media typifies her generation. She has a very high level of expectation when she searches and expects targeted results.

She is accustomed to sites ‘pushing’ out to her content that address her interests. When information isn’t relevant, she quickly becomes impatient and moves on while she is doing her car research online, visiting the websites of different manufacturers.

To illustrate the potential of this cross-channel approach, let’s look at a hypothetical customer in the market for a new car.

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Upon arriving at the landing page there would be a menu tailored to her. As a first-time visitor she would see different ‘introductory’ content than on subsequent repeat visits when she would be immediately routed to material more germane to her previous tracking history. Marketing materials would be presented in the context of her interests, such as information pertinent to her career, sidebars about wonderful beaches, and tips for mothers-to-be.

While learning about the product, she would also be engaged on personal and professional levels. As she stayed on the site, there would be more material aimed toward closing the sale. Special incentives aimed directly at her would reside on the site (“Great Leasing Deals Make It Easy to Drive a Safer Car for You and Your New Baby”). There might be promotional tie-ins with incentives attractive to her (e.g. discounts at a legendary beach resort). Testimonials from others who fit her profile would appear (e.g. recent mothers, upwardly mobile professionals balancing career and family). There would be 360 degree views of the configuration of the model with the color and features needed and comparisons to competitors’ products. It would be simple and intuitive for her to interface with a dealer, set an appointment and examine the inventory and even negotiate a purchase, arrange financing, facilitate doing the paperwork and even arrange to have the car delivered to her home.

Imagine what her experience might be like at a ‘state of the art’ automobile manufacturer’s digital site:

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High performance businesses have increased ROI of digital marketing by using web analytics to segment customers, understand their behaviors, predict wants and needs and offer responsive products and promotions. We understand that the key to efficient digital marketing is delivering consumer relevance at scale across all channels, segments, and geographies.

Our unique strength in this space is our proven ability to address the entire digital value chain from lead creation to purchase and continuing through to ongoing customer relationship building and retention. Doing this in a cost effective manner requires ongoing monitoring in real time to respond rapidly to ever-changing consumer interests and expectations. We call this ability to deliver consumer relevance at scale the ‘R Factor’.

Various new media have followed this approach in building web-based business models with a singular focus on content relevance. eBay automatically sends out alerts to customers for newly listed items that align with previous purchases or searches. Google’s Quality Score algorithm measures relevance and is directly related to how much advertisers pay for an ad.

For many automotive companies, however, such intent marketing remains largely under-utilized. Digital data about their customers is disparate and not readily accessible, hindering efforts to develop deeper customer understanding. The industry’s digital approach tends to capture overly general customer demographics where analytic tools produce only static indicators rather than predictive information.

Given that prospects are buying cars differently than they used to, this static approach will increasingly prove a liability. The abundance of readily available information has effectively shortened the car-buying cycle. The window of sales opportunity has narrowed and with it the margin of error for less-than-optimal marketing.

State-of-the-art digital marketing is about delivering the most pertinent content to the most promising customers at the moment of greatest influence across multiple channels. Automotive companies with the R Factor can be confident that when a potential customer like Claudia comes ‘digitally calling,’ she will find content targeted to her attention. Accenture’s experience can significantly help digital marketers close Claudia from a shopper to a buyer.

The R Factor Engine

Source: Webchutrey Automotive Survey, 2010; JD Power New AutoShopper.com Study

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The need to understand the potential interests of retirees

Baby boomers as they retire, constitute an important market because of their numbers and affluence. Adept digital marketing requires parsing the different strata of ‘retired,’ age and geo certainly don’t tell enough of a story. They embody a broad, diverse range of lifestyles. Marketing to them through digital media entails messages tailored to such factors like the sports or recreation they participate in, their interests as museum-goers, or whether they stay close to home or enjoy exotic travel.

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Driving up Relevance in Digital Marketing Three Keys to Success

Effective ‘intent marketing’---pairing the digital message with the customer’s reasons for buying---requires identifying the individual’s motivation and context in real time. This is done by collecting data about such things as the customer’s search route to the site, responsive touch points and familiarity with the brand.

The process begins with data collection, which is then organized into predictive profiles. Content aligned with respective profiles is produced to reside on the site and be primed to appear when triggered by appropriate responses.

With global campaigns, different cultural expectations become another key customer differentiator. In the United States, for example, the length of vehicle

ownership is steadily rising thus the information about durability can be particularly relevant. In China the majority of customers are first-time buyers who pay with cash rather than debt. In Europe, government incentives encourage demand for smaller, fuel-efficient cars. To be relevant, sites oriented toward different geographical markets must feature content consistent with cultural factors.

Principle 1: Know in advance what REVS up your customer

To drive the greatest results, each visitor profile is technically referred to as ‘component-centric, data-first’ in contrast to the original model of ‘page-centric, creative-first’ websites. At a dynamic site, page content is not static; instead, content is variable to provide different visitors with different experiences.

Consider, for example, two visitors to an automotive site. One is arriving for the first time by way of a keyword search; the other is returning for the third time and is close to making a purchase. A dynamic site presents a different homepage for each visitor, with targeted messaging specific to his or her

respective profiles as registered in previous visits.

Dynamic websites are updated and revised continually, based on the ongoing input of analytics and feedback loops measuring the effectiveness of content. Content is assembled with flexible ‘building blocks’ or modules (imagery, copy, features, promotions, links to other sites) that align with customer profiles and histories.

The rapid adoption of search-and-click-stream technology and third-party data providers is making intent data readily available. Additionally, visitors can also

be asked questions about their needs for their next vehicle, guidance which can be used to push individualized content to them. This dynamic approach filters the site by ‘de-averaging’ content and enabling the fine-tuning of messages. This online experience extends to the full spectrum of customer engagement as email addresses and contact information are captured for further communications including telemarketing. Furthermore, customer’s responses are automatically fed back into the system to refine his/her user profile and enrich subsequent experiences.

Principle 2: Customize the experience, dynamically

The more tightly social and online content focuses on narrow bands of specific interest, the more effectively it builds audience and influence.

Take the example of Honda. It ranks highest among the five largest U.S. automakers in Twitter followers. Why? Almost all of its re-tweets are auto-related. The lower ranking four other auto companies, on the other hand, tweet more on general subjects like sports, technology and entertainment.3

Other auto digital success stories are similarly tight-focused. Fiat invited consumers to submit design ideas for its new model 500. Toyota allows users to access third party metrics to compare its vehicles against competitors. Renault has a dedicated Formula 1 site where its team drivers participate in live chat.

This is true in online forums and all means which the consumers can engage directly. The lesson is clear: merely participating in social and online media

doesn’t automatically enhance marketing effectiveness. Rather, content needs to be directed to the right audience in the right format at the right time to have impact. The more that content can be customized, the greater the resulting return on investment. This can be accomplished through various tactics such as Web videos, pop-ups and advertisements, and billboards and posters that redirect smart phones to the nameplate website.

Principle 3: ‘Get socially smart’

Three principles drive digital marketing success.

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Figure 1: How does relevancy make an impact – An SEO example

Source: © 2011 Accenture. All rights reserved.

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World-Class Players

Result

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…millions of relevant paths for millions of different users

• Business/Leisure • Geography/Zip • Price segment • In market • Purchase propensity • Day of week • Time of day • Placement • Advertising channel • Gender • Age

What does the relevance mean in searchEveryone claims they engage in search marketing, but most are not very effective.

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Accenture Interactive, together with technology alliance partner Adchemy developed a ground-breaking solution that helps translate volumes of consumer data into precise marketing messages for relevant market segments. The team helped the auto manufacturer create integrated intent marketing programs that significantly increase conversion efficiency and decrease the cost of customer acquisition.

The Results:

Dramatically lowered cost of customer acquisition.

Client doubled its volume of search marketing leads, decreased cost per lead by more than 60 percent and increased conversion efficiency by over 35 percent.

Provided a more defined, relevant brand experience for consumers. This is delivered by the highly scalable, flexible, and optimized solution which makes possible managing thousands of unique consumer experiences (in contrast to the ability to manage only six prior to the program).

Auto Manufacturer Realizes Significant ROI Improvement from Search Media

New Road Ahead

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Digital marketing is entering its next phase; dynamic sites integrating web analytics with content flexibility are enabling ‘best in class’ digital marketers to fine tune messages, increase the probability of closing sales and enhance returns on investment.

Auto manufacturers have actively embraced digital marketing. When it comes to using web analytics to customize web and social media content, however, the sector is still continuing to gear up.

To move up to pole position, companies should seek to bring all the various digital marketing initiatives that work best under one function reporting to a single executive office (Chief Customer Experience Officer) which brings together marketing, IT and business functions.

Digital marketing technologies will continue to evolve, driven by examples of higher ROI realized by providing customized content, enhanced brand experiences, and higher retention of customers.

For more information contact:Anant Kamat anant.kamat@accenture.com +1 313 887 2294

Jason Coffman jason.p.coffman@accenture.com +1 313 887 2522

Marc Mechai marc.mechai@accenture.com +33 1 53236443

Ali Soualah ali.soualah@accenture.com +33 1 53236100

Ben H. Wang ben.h.wang@accenture.com +862123053823

Reference1 For more on Accenture survey research showing the extent of consumer switching from brands and providers, see “The New Realities of ‘Dating’ in the Digital Age,” Accenture, 2012

2 For more on achieving relevance at scale, see Got the R Factor? http://www.accenture.com/us-en/Pages/insight-got-the-r-factor-summary.aspx Accenture, 2012.

3 http://visibli.com/reports/automakers

Accenture InteractiveAccenture Interactive’s 1,500 professionals help the world’s leading brands drive superior marketing performance across the full multi-channel customer experience. Leveraging the full scale of more than 249,000 Accenture employees serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture Interactive offers integrated, industrialized and industry-driven marketing solutions and services across consulting, technologyand outsourcing powered by analytics. Follow @AccentureSocial or visit accenture.com/interactive.

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About AccentureAccenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with more than 249,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$25.5 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2011. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

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