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How do you successfully “lock” on to customers?

Since the cancellation of the Geneva Show last week, there has been a lot of speculation about whether this will signify the end of motor shows.  Although the Paris Mondial is still almost seven months away, the organisers would presumably want to avoid the embarrassment of cancelling their show when the stands are already built and the cars were there under wraps, so will need to make a decision in four months or so.  Given how the coronavirus situation is developing, it’s therefore possible that we will lose the two European shows of international stature in 2020.  (Though we must recognize the continuing success of the Brussels motor show, held annually and attracting over 500,000 people).

The suggestion is that the various online launches that have substituted for the big reveals in the Palexpo might prove so successful that at a time of budgetary pressure, manufacturers will decide to drop motor shows from their plans for 2021.  Participation was already declining, with significant absentees (and not always the same ones), from the last couple Geneva Shows, but also the 2019 IAA (which also turned out to be the last one to be held in Frankfurt due to disappointing attendance) and the 2018 Mondial.  Coronavirus will not be the reason why motor shows drop off the calendar, but it could be the tipping point.

The problem is that motor shows have not proven themselves to be any more successful at creating customer engagement and driving sales than many other forms of marketing and promotion, many of which carry a much lower price tag.  Lord Leverhulme, the founder of what is now the Unilever consumer products giant is credited with saying that “half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”  There is a growing feeling that in the case of motor shows, industry management do know which half that expenditure falls in.  Motor show attendance numbers are no more useful that TV viewing figures are in assessing how many people paid attention to your product and may follow through with a view to purchase.

On the other hand, with online spend, the science to measure effectiveness has developed hand in hand with the medium itself.  Cookies, page views, dwell time, click throughs, A/B testing and a host of other tools and KPIs give much more insight into what works and what doesn’t in the online world.  We are able to understand when a prospect has found something interesting, and often something of their background and what they chose to do next.  Armed with that information, we are able to customize the next steps so that the customer is provided with a path that is aligned with their interests and stage in the process.  We then also need to provide them with the opportunities to enter into a two-way exchange online – providing more information and getting unique responses, either still online or through a transition to live chat or phone conversations.

Only at that point would we consider there was true engagement with the prospective customer – that you have “locked on” to their needs, and they are able to understand the offer that you have, and how it will work for them.  This has to happen whilst the customer is still flexible in their brand choice – which ICDP consumer research shows for the most part is before they start visiting dealers in person.  The “sheep dip” mass experience of a traditional motor show does not meet that need.  If they are to remain relevant, they need to do more than provide OEMs with the opportunity to show off their latest cars under the bright lights and give attendees a fun day out.  Shows will also need to profile their attendees individually, provide them with personalized experiences, enable better engagement between the attendee and relevant exhibitors, and prove their effectiveness in driving sales by comparison with other marketing channels.  In other words, motor shows themselves need to become omni-channel, not just the glitzy end of physical marketing.

Steve Young