From 4P to 5A, how to promote automobile marketing?

Nowadays, no matter what industry you are in, you need some marketing strategies, and the automotive industry is no exception. With the continuous development of the Internet, the way of automotive marketing has also changed. But no matter what, you must think about how to do marketing from the user's perspective;

I often ask my classmates a question: Why do car brands advertise?

Students spoke one after another, "For brand awareness", "For customer loyalty", "For new car launch promotion", "For sales"... The answers were varied, which shows that the marketing chain of automobile advertising is very long and must exert influence on consumers at every stage.

In recent years, although automobile marketing has begun to migrate from traditional media to the Internet, its basic marketing logic has not changed, and the traffic funnel model is still used. In other words, by gaining the attention of the general public through exposure in the mass media, it is then further transformed into interest, intention, and finally transaction, with traffic screening being carried out layer by layer.

But this model is failing for two reasons:

First, the funnel model itself is too result-oriented. People know the results but not the reasons behind them. The funnel is a typical traffic thinking, which aims to improve the conversion efficiency of traffic and make slice-style statistics, reflecting the bottom-up recursion. This thinking mode can only reflect the traffic path, not the user path.

Second, today’s consumers are not the same as they were ten years ago when they could only passively accept information. The relationship between users and brands is not just about attention, interest, and car buying. The media threshold has been lowered, and many users themselves have become the source of information dissemination. If you want to impress them, you have to “face users directly” and “operate users”.

Marketing is about solving the relationship between brands and users, not the relationship between brands and traffic, so many companies are beginning to look for new marketing management tools to replace funnels.

Philip Kotler, the "father of modern marketing", once proposed four eras of marketing: 1.0 - the product era, 2.0 - the consumer era, 3.0 - the value era, and 4.0 - the era that emphasizes communication and interaction with consumers.

Now, we have reached the 5.0 era.

The core of Marketing 5.0 is to create, disseminate, deliver and enhance customer value throughout the “complete customer journey” by using “people-centric” technologies. The Chinese automobile market has also gone through a similar process: from selling products, to providing services, to establishing brand image, marketing in the automotive field now pays more attention to communication with consumers and refined operations.

On April 16, DoCar.com, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, Kotler Consulting Group, and Deloitte Management Consulting jointly released the White Paper on New Metrics for Automotive Digital Marketing (hereinafter referred to as the "White Paper"). The White Paper proposed a new 5A metrics model for automotive marketing (hereinafter referred to as the 5A model), namely: Aware, Appeal, Ask, Action, and Advocate.

5A: A new “yardstick” for automotive marketing

We already know that the funnel is not easy to use, so what are the advantages of the 5A model compared to the funnel? You can understand it at a glance by looking at the picture below.

Of course, I also refined several key points of the 5A model:

01 User Operation Thinking & Folding Path

The funnel model is like a vertical mold. No matter what kind of user you are, as long as you pass through the funnel, you will become a linear "attention-interest-intention" type consumer.

Real consumers will naturally not have such a thin funnel model. Therefore, the 5A model takes user operation as its goal, changing from a single path to depicting the flow and folds of users based on actual conditions, and tracing back each user's flow path and the final stage reached, quantifying this process and improving user conversion efficiency.

02 Pay attention to word of mouth

The traditional funnel model does not have a word-of-mouth recommendation link, so it is impossible to measure the impact of word-of-mouth. However, in real marketing, it is increasingly necessary to pay attention to users' word-of-mouth sharing. The continuous fermentation of positive word-of-mouth not only improves brand awareness and reputation; it also attracts more opportunities for users to connect with the brand, cultivates user interest, achieves purchases, and finally becomes a loyal fan of the brand.

In the "advocacy" phase of the 5A model, the impact of all brand-certified car owners, regardless of how long they have owned their cars, on the brand reputation can be measured, and the "sedimentation" of reputation can last for one, two years, or even longer.

03 Effective strategies

The fundamental reason for unsatisfactory marketing results is that you fail to find the right person, say the right words in the right way at the right time. 5A can help you make a triple diagnosis of your brand, users, and marketing efficiency. For example, you can understand whether your user structure is "lighthouse type" or "candy type"; find out the transition factors of your consumers that repeatedly advance, retreat, leap, and return between 5A to improve circulation efficiency; discover whether your consumers are moved because of emotional factors or rational factors, etc.

After completing the brand diagnosis, you can specify the correct user operation strategy, create a carefully planned encounter in the place where you are most likely to meet them (communication channel), during the time when they are available (delivery timing), say just the right words (brand mental communication content), send gifts that suit their taste (brand benefit points), and make the relationship between the two parties continue to sublimate and last (customer life cycle value management).

04 Value Measurement

Traditional marketing effectiveness uses the number of leads as the main measurement indicator. Such a single measurement method is undoubtedly unable to fully and comprehensively reflect the value of marketing. However, it can also be measured by multiple models such as funnel indicators plus other brand-side indicators.

The 5A model from the perspective of user operation mainly focuses on three core levels: brand benefits, user benefits, and conversion benefits.

How to use 5A?

Taking the launch of new cars as an example, the traditional traffic-driven new car launch is an experience-driven and blind expansion, lacking scientific analysis models and data support. The funnel model, as an evaluation indicator, cannot accurately trace the path.

The launch of new cars based on the 5A model and user relationship orientation is a revolution in marketing thinking. The main changes are reflected in: dynamic optimization of resources on demand, 5A as an evaluation indicator, and sustainable tracking to guide changes in user relationships.

By applying the 5A user-oriented new car launch strategy, the launch period is divided into three stages: preheating, detonation, and deepening of cognition, thus achieving platform-level user perception construction and deepening.

The launch of traffic-oriented new cars is particularly like farming and sowing in the past, which relies on years of experience and judgment; in the 5A measurement system, dynamic optimization of resources on demand avoids unnecessary waste of blind traffic, more clearly displays the changing process of user relationships, completes marketing strategy guidance with data, and based on data results, scientifically measures the entire marketing content revenue, traffic revenue and the most difficult to measure mental benefits.

For example, a key model of a domestic brand will be launched in the second half of 2020. It hopes to achieve the following demands through the Dongchedi platform: quickly establish user perception of the new model, and cultivate user minds based on its core selling points; based on the user relationship structure, use the "attract new users + cultivate + promote conversion" combination strategy to connect users, and at the same time establish a new pattern of market competition at this level.

Based on 5A, we conducted target breakdown during the preheating, listing and continuation periods and implemented a new car launch strategy. After the launch of the new car, the brand's user benefits increased by 98%+ in the user penetration rate of connected users in the level market, and the volume of connected users increased by 200% before the launch. In terms of mental benefits, the heat index entered the top 5 in the level market within three days of the launch, and the average daily content exposure after the investment increased by 200%+.

In the life cycle of automobile products, there are different stages such as the launch stage, growth stage, maturity stage, and decline stage. It is particularly important for the healthy growth of automobile products to use the 5A model to finely measure the performance of each stage, understand user demands, and optimize marketing strategies.

The 5A model is also applicable to key node marketing and automotive e-commerce in the automotive industry. The white paper released this time presents detailed strategies and corresponding cases, which will not be repeated here.

In the long run, 5A will be an inevitable trend for three reasons:

Reason 1: User behavior determines trends

At present, the relationship between brands and users is no longer a simple supply and demand relationship of products and services. In the era of traditional media, when people lacked channels, tools and platforms for expression, the relationship was simple and direct. However, nowadays, when people choose a brand and buy a product, even from demand to consumer experience, and then to influencing new users to join, users have gone from passively receiving information to actively speaking out, and the same is true in the automotive industry.

White paper data shows that from December 2019 to December 2020, content reading volume increased by 56%, content sharing volume increased by 75%, and content comments volume increased by 170%. Increasingly mature users are making more diversified, higher-quality, and more stringent demands on auto brands; auto brands need to have insight into user needs, make refined operational strategies and differentiated product competitiveness to win user favor.

Reason 2: New forces enter the market and determine the trend

In 2021, technology companies such as Xiaomi and Huawei have entered the automotive industry. Active new car-making forces such as NIO, Xpeng, and Ideal have continued to be favored by the capital market and have also attracted more and more attention from young consumers (the proportion of new forces' car purchasing intention increased by 67% year-on-year in February 2021).

The entry of new forces has added new variables to the passenger car market. The front of competition has expanded from products, brands, and services to data and user operations. Most of the new car brands have backgrounds in Internet and technology companies. When new energy electric vehicles use cutting-edge technologies such as vehicle networking and autonomous driving as their core narrative, compared with traditional car brands, new force brands have no channel baggage and have a natural latecomer advantage in digitalization and direct connection with users.

In terms of refined user operations, these brands have user operations in their genes, such as NIO, which has almost taken user operations to the extreme, and Xiaomi, which has just entered the market and is well-known for its user operations in the mobile phone and digital field. At the beginning, no brand in the mobile phone field was "so good to users", but Xiaomi did it, and users naturally liked Xiaomi.

These brands have integrated user operations into their products, services, and brands. The entry of new forces has brought new directions to the automotive industry; and marketing has also become more intense. Faced with competition for existing market share, entry of new players, and changes in user habits, digital transformation of traditional automakers has become a top priority, and "facing users directly" and "operating users" are the key points to achieving transformation.

Reason 3: “Technology + Content” determines the trend

The transformation of marketing is inseparable from the transformation of "technology + content". In other words, "technology + content" has driven the transformation of marketing. When we recognize this law, it is imperative for companies to seize the opportunities of the times, otherwise they will be eliminated (communication efficiency will be reduced and the effect will also decline).

From printing technology to newspapers and magazines, from radio technology to broadcasting, from image and video transmission technology to television, from computers and network transmission technology to the Internet and mobile Internet, the prosperity of content forms such as short videos and live broadcasts is now related to the promotion of technology and the continuous improvement of advertising technology. Under the guidance of this trend, automobile marketing is also changing.

The world is moving forward amidst change and constancy. From a brand perspective, what remains unchanged for car brands is creating value for users, building good cars and providing good services. However, within this seemingly unchanging law, what is also changing is the product itself, such as the move toward new energy electric vehicles.

From a marketing perspective, what has changed in automobile marketing is the process of finding users, operating users, and creating value for users. The funnel model is like squeezing orange juice, with five oranges making a cup of orange juice. In essence, it is the retention of traffic resources. The 5A model is like planting oranges, from planting, cultivating to harvesting, which is essentially the user management logic. It can be seen that the user relationship-oriented 5A model is a scientific method for effectively operating users and measuring the effectiveness of digital marketing in the current and future automotive industry.

The emergence of 5A has a transformative significance for automobile marketing, which is not only an upgrade of the underlying marketing logic and operating methods, but also a change in the marketing cognition of the automobile industry.

Today's brand marketing is shifting from a simple traffic funnel mindset to a user operation mindset. Thinking about how to do marketing from a user's perspective is the correct approach!

Author: Wei Jiadong

Source: Wei Jiadong