Marketing Planning Transformation in the Auto Industry
Car buying is now a hybrid experience, with online marketing playing a decisive role in guiding potential buyers to their preferred choice. By the time they step into a dealership, most people already know what vehicle they want to buy. For marketing planners in the car industry, this means far more attention must be paid to the customer’s online journey.
In this shared virtual/physical world, the function of marketing changes from building brand awareness via big ad campaigns to becoming a key enabler of sales. This will require marketing departments to embrace new planning models that are goal-oriented, data-driven and integrated across several client-facing departments in order to keep prospective buyers engaged at every step of their decision-making journey.
Berylls has identified six key elements for the successful transformation of marketing planning in the automotive industry:
All will increase the effectiveness of marketing planning by placing the customer and business goals at the center of marketing efforts, and by adopting data and agile working methods to measure and optimize the performance of marketing decisions and lay firm foundations for further success.?
Breaking old habits
Restructuring marketing departments in an industry that is more than a century old requires breaking a lot of old habits. Every year, carmakers lose billions of dollars in forgone revenues because marketing planning is conducted in functional silos. There is little coordination, and therefore few common goals, across client-facing departments including sales teams, car finance departments and after-sales service, for example. The same problems occur in the industry’s three-tier distribution system of original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), national sales companies (NSCs) and dealership networks.?
Although leading carmakers are beginning to adopt a digital-first customer journey and experience, and are leveraging data to put the customer – rather than the car – at the center of sales efforts (with the right offer, for the right person at the right time and place), marketing planning has not kept pace. It is still too focused on allocating budgets and planning big-ticket items such as Superbowl ads, when it should be focused on achieving goals, and measuring and optimizing performance.
The main problems with the old marketing model are:
Learning from other industries
Leading companies in other industries, including consumer packaged goods, tech companies and e-commerce giants, have elevated marketing into a core competency. At its heart is a focus on the customer, an ability to track that customer along multiple marketing touchpoints and holistic marketing strategies to keep them engaged.
It is an operating model that integrates strategy and objectives; organization, people and processes; governance and partnerships; and technology and data to underpin it all.
How to transform marketing planning in the automotive industry
Berylls Mad Media has identified six essential elements for the successful transformation of automotive marketing departments.?
The goal of these six Berylls Hexagons is to:
Modern marketing planning must achieve the following:
1. Become goal and business driven. Marketing planning must move beyond allocating budgets. It must be able to align marketing actions with business objectives by breaking down business goals into component parts and matching these with the most effective marketing actions needed to achieve each one. Relevant actions include:
2.?Reverse calculate the entire, complex customer journey to leverage marketing efficiency and customer experience at scale.
3.?Adopt agile methods for real-time transparency and steering, so workflows, campaigns and content are optimized and potential sales opportunities can be seized upon in real time. This will include the use of:
4.?Create cross-functional standards and collaboration between departments, regions and partners to coordinate marketing actions, ensure alignment with business goals and eliminate inefficiencies. This will require:
5.?Introduce a central collaboration platform to avoid the duplication of efforts and make information accessible to all interested parties. This should include:
6.?Be data-driven and fact based to best predict customer needs and their future behaviors which helps creating personalized marketing for the highest possible return on investment. This requires:
Berylls Mad Media accompanies clients as they transform themselves into data-driven marketing organizations with a consistent focus on the customer journey. In doing so, we optimize the entire marketing process – from sales and marketing planning to creative content, marketing asset distribution and continuous KPI measurement and improvement. We are a team of marketing specialists from different industries who have successfully guided many clients in this challenging endeavor.
Read the full article on berylls.com
Partner / Managing Director Berylls by AlixPartners
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