Automobile product marketing and promotion strategy!

Cars are high-priced commodities with a long decision-making cycle, and they focus on offline services and have demands for offline service resources. Customers do not buy cars on impulse, but need multiple experiences and comparisons before making a decision.

In this series of actions, various marketing activities contribute greatly, and event operations are particularly important.

However, in the actual implementation process, sometimes too much attention is paid to form, content and results, and the process is not controlled finely enough, so the effect of the activity cannot be guaranteed, that is, the digitalization of activity operations.

We need to conduct a comprehensive analysis of event operations.

1. The value of activity operation: conversion, customer acquisition, channel expansion, and increasing the number of active customers

A good event will provide customers with high-quality services, good participation and experience, which is conducive to the development of brand trust, professional services and sales conversion. The specific business values ​​are:

From the customer's perspective:

• There are gains and benefits: rewards, gifts, etc. are part of the activity rights, and there will be gains when completing a certain action.
• Experience value-added services: During the waiting period for maintenance, customers can receive image design services. This service provided by the 4S store makes customers feel that the price of maintenance is equal to the benefits experienced. Or you can participate in a charity event and realize your small wish of doing charity work.
• Integrate into social circles: Integrate into small circles such as self-driving and modified cars through activities to enrich the customer's social circle.

From the perspective of car companies:

• Promote conversion: Test drive gift activities, black technology experience activities, order gift activities, etc. can effectively promote conversion.
• Effective customer acquisition: Activities such as old customers bringing in new customers and gifts for visiting stores can help car companies acquire customers.
• Channel expansion: Through cross-scenario gift activities, more merchants can be introduced into the ecosystem to better serve customers.
• Increase the number of active customers: Different types of activities can maintain and improve fan stickiness and continuously increase the number of active customers.

2. New car launch event operation

In recent years, car manufacturers that have launched many new cars and modified models quickly have had good sales, but the operations staff have suffered.

If there are many car series and cover many market segments, marketing operations personnel from OEMs to dealers will have to devote a lot of energy to promote the launch of new cars, because the launch of new cars is a continuous process consisting of multiple activities.

Moreover, there are more and more new products on the market, the time from launch to delivery is getting shorter and shorter, and the business preparation cycle is also getting shorter and shorter. If you sort out the activities for new car launches, form routines and standard strategies, operations will not be difficult with the support of the platform. You can have activities every week and make your voice heard through all channels (volume of voice is very important, it is related to market strategy, brand market share, and leadership position, I will share more in the future).

Let’s first look at the launch process of Lynk & Co 01 (Lynk & Co 01 is Lynk & Co’s first car, and all business lines are in the process of running-in, including platform construction).

Let’s take a look at the launch of Lynk & Co 05 (non-executive plan).

For vehicle sales, a large amount of customer behavior data and conversion cycles can be used to set the activity types and purposes of key nodes, accurately inducing customers to steadily convert according to the car company's ideas.

For example, if the conversion cycle is 28 days, the 28 days after the first contact can be divided into how long to invite the customer to the store, how long to test drive the customer after arriving at the store, how long to negotiate the price, and how long to place an order. Appropriate marketing activities can be carried out to promote the customer to the next step of conversion.

3. Digital platform support: integration of planning, initiation, execution and effect

Among new car launch activities, some are led and implemented by the OEMs, some are led by the OEMs and implemented by dealers, and some are led and implemented by dealers.

Monitoring all activities related to the launch of a new car requires comprehensive management of activity planning, activity execution, process monitoring, activity effects, activity costs and ROI. As shown below:

The above only illustrates activities centered on vehicle sales leads and related to fan operations, and can also support service marketing activities.

1) Marketing Budget

Divide marketing budget by car series to match sales targets.

2) Theme activities

Under the same theme event, there will be multiple marketing activities with different initiators, types and purposes.

3) By event initiator

There are four initiators: OEMs, manufacturer alliances, dealers, and fans.

Among them, fan-initiated activities are the trend of the future. For example, the spaces of various brands (upgraded version of 4S stores) can be opened up to allow fans to play on their own. This truly reflects the participation of fans and the co-construction of a brand ecosystem with manufacturers. Car companies that achieve this will also be excellent and open companies.

4) Manufacturer Alliance

Activities led by OEMs and implemented by dealers.

For joint activities with the same manufacturer, dealers will launch multiple marketing activities to implement them. There will be expense reimbursement and sharing for such activities.

5) Activities and content

Activities are divided into execution channels and communication channels. In terms of communication channels, different delivery plans can be matched with different delivery content.

Think about this: What information should be included in the source on the original clue? How to analyze channel contribution and content contribution? How to identify the contribution of advertising optimizers?

6) Event Scheduling

There will be multiple marketing activities under one theme event, and there may be thousands of activities for the launch of a new car. For the initiators of theme activities, it is necessary to schedule reasonably and monitor all activities dynamically.

Think about this: What is the business value of event scheduling? What are the demands of operations/management personnel at OEMs and dealers? What are the functional requirements? Let’s think about it together and relate it to volume.

Among the four major types of activities, media placement + mall activities + marketing activities are centered on leads and aim to attract, cultivate and convert customers; media placement + fan activities aim to operate fans.

4. How can the activity center quickly respond to various marketing activities?

The construction of the business middle platform will take a long time and it will not be able to respond immediately to various businesses. The same is true for the activity center. We need to consider how to respond from the perspective of platform construction.

1. Modularization/Componentization Strategy

We adopt a modular and componentized strategy to disassemble the entire activity center. The goal is to quickly implement basic functions and launch MVP when business needs are urgent and resources are insufficient. According to the previous overall framework, the activity center can be split down.

1) From the perspective of the main line of activity

Theme activities, manufacturer collaboration, marketing activities, registration and check-in, and effect funnel.

2) From the perspective of operations management

Activity rights configuration, activity approval, activity scheduling, registration approval, registration payment, activity tools, activity evaluation, expense verification, process monitoring, rights issuance and statistics, and activity ROI.

3) Associated business centers

User center (organization/user/authority), content center, lead center, customer center (CDP), membership center, rights center, evaluation center, payment center, and message center.

Note: Activity tools refer to tools that create an atmosphere for the activity, such as shake and big turntable, which can be used as part of the activity execution whether online or offline.

If you are setting up an activity center for the first time, start by linking the three ends.

Core service objects: event operators (PC side), sales consultants (APP side), customers (C-side mini program/APP), to achieve a closed loop from event listing, customer registration, consultant invitation to event participation, and event effect reporting, and promote customer active participation on the C-side, such as reminding customers before the event starts through the mini program's service messages.

Sales consultants can share activities with customers on the B-side APP (calling the mini program) or register on behalf of customers.

Such a basic MVP involves marketing activities, registration and check-in, effect funnel and process monitoring required for operations in the main line of the activity. The related business centers include user center, lead center, customer center and message center.

Other activity components can be enriched one by one according to the activity operation requirements.

2. Middle platform capability output: open interface

The value of the middle-platform strategy is that in addition to the independent existence and application of each business center, it is also open and connected.

When resources are insufficient, or there are more requirements for interaction, or there are independent activity mini programs/H5 in operations, access can be made through the API interface.

After the three-terminal linkage is realized, the interface can be opened. Here is an example:

After opening up the middle platform capabilities, the core value lies in:

1) Rapidly support the activities of frontline businesses

Modular/component-based reuse can make development more efficient. For example, the customer OneID service can be used as a public service component, and this service can be called as long as there are scenarios involving customer innovation and updates. In this way, good event operation methods and products on the market can be copied and launched online within 3-5 days.

2) Overall control of activity operations

Key activity data and customer behavior information are stored on the middle platform, and process monitoring and effect reports can be issued at any time. Instead of paying money and entrusting another party to develop activity tools, you still cannot have full control over them.

3) Protect digital assets

Customer data, customer behavior data, activity data, etc. are all deposited in the middle platform.

In 2019, a certain car company set a goal of holding 200 theme activities a year, and each dealership held activities every week. Based on 200 dealers, 40,000 activities a year, 20 marketing and sales service personnel for each dealer, plus the dissemination through customers and cooperation channels, the dissemination, exposure and brand voice of this activity are much more cost-effective than brand advertising.

But if there is no mature platform support, both operators and consultants will be exhausted. The activity process is uncontrollable, the results cannot be presented, the value of the money spent cannot be clearly explained, key data cannot be retrieved and deposited, and the activity volume and results will not meet expectations. This is the value of the platform: cost reduction, efficiency, management, and assets.

Author: Wang Jianru

Source: Wang Jianru