Sophus3 Quarterly Insights Event Q4: What automotive can learn from other sectors

In this edition we talk with Marketing Strategist DeLu Jackson who spent many years in the US car industry with brands including Subaru, Audi and Nissan.

DeLu has subsequently moved across different consumer verticals, performing senior digital roles for McDonald’s, Kellogg, and Conagra Brands. In September he became CMO for security specialist ADT.

This wide experience has given him a clear insight into what those businesses do differently and enables him to reflect on what car brands must address to strengthen their digital transformation and to improve their reactivity to would-be buyers.

Click the image to play video of interview with DeLu Jackson

Some of the key insights DeLu shares include:

  • The car buyer is not a separate category – their expectations are shaped by the experience of shopping for countless other products.
  • The car industry has designed processes for its benefit rather than the consumer’s. The focus is on driving the customer to offline engagement rather than providing the experience that the customer wants on their terms.
  • The industry sets itself unrealistic conversion rates, completely losing sight of how many people can be in the market for a car at any one time.
  • Car brands need to address waiting times for their products when the digital world provides almost instant gratification in so many other areas.
  • Digital feedback allows very targeted activity so automotive marketers can simplify communications and waste less resources in the process.
  • Enabling digital transformation is about people and culture rather than technology.

Scott Gairns, Sophus3’ s Managing Director, introduces the interview with some insights into the online car buyer’s journey and explains why we think ‘Click to Drive’ will become an established route to car usership in the next few years.

The pandemic has been an accelerant to the industry’s digital transformation, and many brands are now considering moving to an agency model for their dealer networks. This would allow them to set consistent pricing across all sales channels which many see as the key precondition to making online purchase attractive.

Click the image or this link to watch the interview in full (running time 22 minutes).

 

Thoughts, comments, observations? Contact @patrick.fuller@sophus3.com.