Can Rentals Help Your Car Sales?
People are more likely to buy what they know and the fastest way to get to know a car is to drive one. Based on this idea, the auto rental company Avis did a study to find out the impact of automobile rentals on future car purchases.
Turns out if they rent the car, they’re more likely to buy the car.
The UK operations of Avis sent a survey to over 2,500 auto renters in the UK and Europe to find out what kind of an impact the rental experience and rental car had on future purchases. They found that 105 of the survey responders had already gone out and purchased the model of vehicle they’d rented at some point in the past. 44 percent of the UK drivers who participated in the survey were “slightly or much more likely” to add the model they’d rented to their short list of cars to consider.
When you consider that 48 percent of the respondents were set to buy a new vehicle in the next year, those are very big numbers.
What does this mean to auto manufacturers?
Well, despite the fact that the rental sector is deemed to be unprofitable in the short term, car manufacturers might be better off considering the lucrative “long tail” market. If you can create an enjoyable rental experience and potentially long term consumer loyalty, the cost of entering the rental market could be offset many times over.
The director of the Avis fleet says that the results of the survey were very positive. “We understand manufacturers have to control rental volumes more carefully, but this proves they could lose out on future sales, many to drivers who have never experienced their brand, if they do not keep up a presence in the rental arena.”
Extending Brand Loyalty
“When it comes to pushing a brand, dealers can make all the difference on the front lines. Good dealers can increase brand loyalty, while those who struggle generally don’t drive return customers.”
Dealer-customer rapport, according to research from Carlson Marketing and the Peppers & Rogers Group, plays a vital role.
OEM’s do an extraordinary job with creating brand loyalty on the commodity, the automobile. They do this by creating an image that appeals to their targeted markets. They can even extend the brand commodity to a variety of market segments. But still the automobile must be acquired at the dealer level which means some sort of exchange must occur between dealer and customer.
What roles and responsibilities do dealers have in this process to live up to the name and reputation of the brand they represent? How can dealers extend the brand commodity they represent to create a unique brand experience for auto shoppers?
For dealers, emphasis is placed on two primary things:
- Price
- Service
If every dealer is offering the same 2 things to every customer, how then can the dealer treat “different customers differently” as the article suggests.
One way to reach out to customers in a personal undivided fashion is with your blog, or in a discussion forum or on a social site. In these places you can introduce topics, programs, incentives, and personnel. You can be part of conversations at the group level, micro group levels, and one-on-one.
The problem with automation is that you can’t treat different customers differently and so someone at the dealer level, if the dealer is going to differentiate itself from the competition, must come out and meet the customer one-on-one at some point. This can be accomplished physically, electronically, or through some sort of telecommunication. Direct mail campaigns do not accomplish this. Nor do electronic emails and automated email responses. Social media does.
But to accomplish this you need a presence in those social mediums. If you want to engage with Vox, Facebook, or Digg users then you need to have a presence on each of those sites. If you want to engage in a blog format you need a good blog with readership. These things takes vision, time, attention, technical skill, and more. So when you venture into this form of online brand marketing, do your research and consult those you trust. Most importantly, get to know the communities a bit and plan on applying this methodology for the indefinite future. The medium of exchange might be new, but the need to engage has and always will exist.
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