AUTOMOTIVE

"iPhones beats cars as status symbols – The car has outlived its role as a sign of personal wealth. A survey reveals that designer kitchens and iPhones are more important to people." Appearing in the online edition of Die Welt on October 28, 2011, this statement, while seeming almost outrageous – especially in Germany, the nation of cars – expresses nothing less than the irrefutable fact that the automotive industry, and its branding and marketing activities along with it, are facing a genuine sea change.

Until not so long ago, the industry could count on the fact that all it took was a polished logo, some flashy bodywork, or the rich sound of an engine to set customers' hearts racing. In future, however, automakers will have to accommodate both emotionality and responsibility, and their brand strategy needs to pull off the balancing act between design, comfort, and esthetics on the one hand and alternative drive technologies or green vehicle concepts on the other. Aspects like intelligence, modernity, and flexibility will take the place of the traditional status positions ("bigger, faster, stronger") on the future markets.

These profound changes in what customers expect from a vehicle brand will be accompanied by a serious transformation in the way automotive consumers buy and use cars. We can already see a predetermined path leading away from what people did in the past – simply buying a vehicle – to what they prefer today – the leasing model – and ending up with customers seeking out mobility concepts that suit their own individual needs.

More than just the engineers, it's an OEM's marketeers who also need to view these challenges as an opportunity to stand out from the crowd with innovative approaches and see them as a way of keeping customers excited by what they offer. So it is now all the more problematic that, while the industry did discover the value of customer focus many years ago, customer focus has not been consistently implemented throughout the entire value chain – from defining the product through taking end-of-life vehicles back – not by a long way.

KEYLENS has longstanding experience of helping companies in the automotive industry identify new market and customer trends at an early stage, determine growth potential, and ensure the correct alignment of brands, product programs, marketing, and sales activities. KEYLENS works with OEMs and automotive suppliers alike.

Some of the aspects our consultancy focuses on:

  • Trend analysis
  • Image building and growth strategies
  • Target group segmentation based on lifestyle milieus
  • Identity-based brand positioning
  • Realizing 360° brand experience
  • Sales strategies
  • Marketing and communication strategies
  • Efficiency reviews in marketing and sales

SELECTED KEYLENS PROJECT EXAMPLES

Automaker I

AUTOMAKER I

Issue:
Customer journey management

Objective:
Reinforcing the brand experience at the customer touchpoints along the entire customer journey in the interest of protecting sales and profits in the long term

Results:

  • We identified, evaluated, and prioritized the individual touchpoints along the entire customer journey from the internal perspective, and from the customer perspective that we ascertained in quantitative and qualitative surveys
  • Identified white spots
  • Mapped the customer contact chains of distinct target groups
  • Identified major churn and customer-retention points to configure the 'future touchmap' 
  • Made recommendations for the structure of ideal customer journeys 
  • Arranged pilot projects to realize strategic quick wins


KEYLENS success levers:
Combination of in-depth experience in customer management and in the automotive industry as a basis for formulating a new approach to mapping and managing customer journeys

Automaker II

AUTOMAKER II

Issue:
Developing the cornerstones of a social media strategy

Objective:
Benchmarking social media to identify best practices that can be used to derive ideas for developing a social media strategy

Results:

  • We determined an individual benchmarking approach
  • Analyzed more than 40 companies on the basis of 36 metrics
  • Identified patterns of action and strategies in the different industries and derived recommended actions
  • Formulated an implementation plan with responsibilities assigned


KEYLENS success levers:
Innovative method of benchmarking social media using business-relevant metrics that extend way beyond the traditional counting of fans

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