The automotive industry has changed, dealerships are no longer essential to the consumer. The marketing director at Jaguar Land Rover, Laura Schwab agreed by saying “By the time they get to the door all they really want to do is test drive. All the research, everything, happens online.”
The first thing a consumer does when thinking about buying a new car is to visit the website. Websites such as Mercedes-Benz and BMW enable the consumer to view all the models as well as supplying all the relevant specifications. In addition to that, they have a tool that lets the user to design their ideal car to extreme detail, from the colour of the brake calipers to the style of the dashboard.
This gives the consumer a close up experience of the look and feel of the product. After that consumers usually read or watch reviews of the cars they are interested in, this is where the feedback by car journalists is critical in affecting consumer choices.
However, Audi have introduced a new concept of brining consumers to dealerships via modern technology. Audi City is an interactive experience where it puts the consumer in control, displays are used, roughly 40 inches diagonally and each one is linked to a multi-panel display wall.
Connected to a touch screen display, you can configure any current Audi and have access to the full range of options. That makes for millions of final configurations Audi states that the number of possible configurations are no fewer than 120 million due to the range and diversity of materials, colours and technologies accessible in today’s age. Once the customer has their ideal configuration, it can be printed out, along with it comes a code that’s compatible with the online configurator at www.audi.co.uk.
Here is a video that demonstrates this technology:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDdPN6mVLPM
Audi definitely has a march on the competition here, sales figures apparently prove that. Within the first six months of launch (Summer 2012) their sales went up 60 per cent over the same period the previous year.
For more information on Audi City visit the link below:
https://www.audi.co.uk/locate-a-centre/search-centres/partner-uk/sytner-group/audi-city-london.html
BMW is another manufacturer that is trying to radically change the customer experience for those visiting one of their dealerships. Dr Ian Robertson who oversees global sales and marketing for BMW says that “The dealership experience is as old as the car industry, roughly one hundred years old. While cars have changed, the retail experience is much the same as it was one hundred years ago.”
BMW decided to introduce product geniuses, similar to what Apple incorporate in their stores. A product genius is there to educate consumers about the product range, help the customer understand specifics and to inform them of significant details. The geniuses operate on a non-commission basis and are not in place to influence sales, but purely to satisfy customer demands.
For more information on BMW’s strategy visit the link below:
Car makers are always trying new techniques in order to stand out from the competition, they want to be the first to try something new in order to attract more customers and gain brand loyalty through that. The biggest challenge is bringing consumers to the point of service, ideally the dealership nevertheless online purchasing is a bug market. Once a customer is at the point of service persuading them is the other piece of the puzzle and this is where each manufacturer has to be unique in their service in order to be rewarded.