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Innovations in Digital Consumerism for Automotive Industry Integrated Digital Marketing & Services - Ashutosh Agrawal, Stephen Arockiadoss
Abstract Potential car buyers are taking decisions online. Their online activity generates a vast amount of digital footprint, critical information that drives brand perceptions and influences buying decisions. Recent studies show that the Automotive industry is the largest producer of online conversations. Besides this, with vehicle telematics and vehicle internet connectivity hitting mainstream, the car itself is quickly becoming the “Fourth� screen (Your Computer, TV and Mobile being the three screens), opening the doors of innovation for cloud based service solutions. Are the Auto OEMs and dealerships doing enough to embrace this new digital driver avatar? Do these efforts integrate well into the traditional marketing and services efforts? Are they achieving the targeted ROI? This document details out how the industry is catering to the needs of a digital buyer, where are the opportunities to make a difference? And how OEMs and dealerships can gain decisive competitive advantage by adoption of Infosys automotive digital solutions.
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Forced by latest technology trends and growing environmental concerns, the Automotive industry is at an inflexion point. Almost every Auto OEM is realigning their value chain to remain relevant:
Changing Automotive Buying Behaviour in Digital Age
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Electric component suppliers are quickly gaining significance in the new scheme of things. Hybrid vehicles, fuel cells and electric powered vehicles are on the rise.
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Advancements in Vehicle-bound internet connectivity and built-in technologies have raised the likelihood of convergence between automotive and telecommunication, IT and media & entertainment sectors.
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Proactive customer service is catching up with service hubs being integrated to vehicle telematics.
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OEMs are already designing app exchange platforms for developers to effectively use the car data to build innovative applications.
On the other hand, the new socially wired & empowered customer today has enough online information to decide on his purchase. •
A leading Internet Service Provider‟s research survey shows that 62% of future car buyers will use internet as their primary source of information. Nearly 52% of those online researchers also look for information on accessories.
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Mobile handsets and tablets are powering the adoption of online information like never before. Dealership and OEM websites have witnessed spurt in traffic from mobiles.
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The buying activity is not just restricted to OEM and dealer websites. According to an online survey, nearly 64.9% of potential buyers look for information on 3rd party sites.
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Comments and reviews from friends are becoming influencers in the decision making process.
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According to a leading consulting firm, consumers show strong interest in mobile/ smartphone car applications. 68% for remote locking/unlocking of vehicle doors, 67% for service reminders and same amount for roadside assistance.
Response from the Automotive Industry So how is the Industry responding to these new changes in customer expectations? Automobile OEMs and Dealers are a bit slow in adapting to this outburst of digital activity. However there is a definitive trend of change in marketing spending patterns. •
According to a leading analyst firm, Digital Marketing spend in Automotive industry will grow at 21% CAGR from 2009 to 2014. Spend to almost double to $4 B in 2014 from $2.1 B in 2011.
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A Dealers association in USA reports that Dealers increased Internet advertisement spends from 4.6% in 2000 to 23.7% in 2010. Total Dealer Internet Advertising Expenses (2010) = $1.5 B.
OEMs and dealerships are embracing technology and reaching out to other players in the ecosystem in search of combined value and market differentiation. •
A leading US based automotive firm unveiled a technologically advanced car in mobile world congress 2012 which features a host of technologies which reduces fuel consumption and CO2 emissions These include Auto-Start-Stop, the Ford Eco Mode driver information system, Gear Shift Indicator and Smart Regenerative Charging.
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A large dealer company in US has teamed up with EA Mobile for in-game advertising push.
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A European luxury car maker promoted its new model on smartphones and allowed customers to book test drives on it.
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A world leading automotive company is adopting interactive bar codes across all its marketing.
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Infosys Approach to Innovation in Automotive Digital Consumerism Infosys provides an integrated solution for digital marketing and services throughout the sales cycle. The key differentiation lies in generating customer intelligence and building customer intimacy.
Figure 1: Infosys Integrated Digital Marketing & Services Approach
Know your customer better! •
Integrate both digital and traditional touch points Existing solutions in market mines the digital content on the web. However, the enterprise systems (like Dealer and CRM systems) also need to be integrated to provide true all-round 360⁰ customer profiles.
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Build customer intimacy with targeted marketing & services •
Customers can be „geo-fenced based on GPS data‟ or „on-car health with telematics data from on-board diagnostics‟ or „time fenced‟. Several combinations can fence customers with specific needs. For instance, cars within 50 miles radius that have not been to the service center for last 4 months may need oil change and wheel rotation.
Integrate Car telematics and Geo-spatial data Digital touch points are further expanding with advent of „Connected Car‟. Geo-spatial data and Car telematics can provide us real-time intelligence and connect to both customer and car.
Customer fencing & targeting
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One-to-One connect throughout the customer lifecycle The connected-car and digital media is always „on‟ and same can be used by companies to remain plugged-in to their consumers. - Auto Co. Services: Prognostic services can alert an automotive company of possible failure and the automotive company can proactively guide the customer with DIY service or road service or nearby service center. -
3rd Party Services: Taxi & Car rental agencies can provide enhanced services like smart navigation, infotainment and incar billing & payment.
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Infosys Automotive Digital solution framework Infosys solution is an integrated Digital solution which provides enhanced capabilities in both marketing & services (as discussed in previous section). It integrates both structured and unstructured data coming from various digital and enterprise touch points. The data is then massaged and analyzed to derive intelligence and insights. The functional capabilities layer leverages the intelligence and insights to deliver contextual and personalized services through the Service Hub and App Exchange.
A Service Hub provides cloud based services like personalized marketing, lead generation, eCommerce, prognostic services etc. The services can be delivered to a HMI (Human Machine
Service Hub
AppExchange
Interface) in the car or a smartphone or other digital channels which would provide an immersive experience to consumer. The Service Hub will have a dedicated service help desk to enable various scenarios like emergency help, vehicle tracking, vehicle loss including vehicle-to-enterprise scenarios like cold storage fleet management and others.
The AppExchange is the online marketplace for cloud computing applications using the carâ€&#x;s data. Developers can develop innovative applications to improve customer experience. Customers can browse, test and install these apps. AppExchange would enable crowd-sourcing and open innovation to further enhance the consumer experience.
The solution is designed to serve throughout the entire automotive customer lifecycle and disseminate content and services through multiple digital channels to multiple stakeholders.
Figure 2: Infosys Automotive Digital Solution Framework
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Infosys solution facilitates effective management with its performance monitoring capabilities and is geared towards reducing overall marketing costs.
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Integrated Multi-channel Dissemination: Infosys provides a single digital marketing platform to disseminate digital content on various channels like Mobile sites, Online sites, Social Sites, Emails etc.
Measure marketing performance and RoI
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Pay-As-You-Go model: Using Infosys platform avoids the CapEx investment and enables SaaS (Software as a Service) pricing models.
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Reduce Total Marketing Expenses per Sale: With Infosys solution, Digital Marketing will cost less than Traditional Marketing for the same given impact.
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The impression made on the digital medium may result in a sale over the counter at showroom. Infosys solution tracks from „prospect‟ to „sale‟ and relates the digital marketing metrics like Page views, Click Through rate, Recommendation rate etc. with business metrics like leads to customer ratio, repeat buyer percentage, wallet share etc.
Reduce marketing costs
Illustrative Scenarios for Integrated Digital Marketing & Service
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As depicted below, by analyzing preferences of customers and fencing them provides a target group of customers with specific needs.
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The existing digital assets can be reused for the targeted campaign and disseminated to target customers through multiple channels.
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The performance of the targeted marketing campaign can be measured on-the-fly and its financial impact can be measured.
Manage, Share and Re-use digital assets: Infosys solution manages all the digital assets like email templates, online banners, SMS text, games, apps and facilitates its reuse. Also OEMs can share their digital assets with Dealers to avoid cost duplication and ensure consistency in messaging.
Figure 3: Infosys Integrated Digital Marketing & Services Approach
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Conclusion Digital Technologies are transforming automotive customerâ€&#x;s behavior and experience. Companies, having realized its disruptive impact, now maintain a digital marketing portfolio and are giving the digital edge to their service offerings. But, digital technologies themselves are dynamic and evolving. Connected Car is all set to become mainstream in the near future. Digital Media analytics have been evolving with support for both audio and video search. Infosys solution leverages latest developments in digital technologies to deliver a lasting customer connect and more-bang out of the marketing buck.
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About the Authors Ashutosh Agrawal Lead Consultant, Infosys Limited He has rich industry and consultancy experience and has worked across industry verticals like Aerospace, Automotive, Agribusiness and clean-tech. He has been involved in various projects relating to business strategy and excellence for manufacturing companies and has developed ecosystem focused solutions in Supply Chain, Marketing and Customer service.
Stephen Arockiadoss Principal Architect, Infosys Limited He has developed key solutions in areas of LOB Business work places, Enterprise Innovation, Sales effectiveness, Next Gen Customer Care, and Customer intelligence. He has also been involved in Product incubation & development, IT strategy consulting, Enterprise Architecture & Web transformation projects. He closely works with Manufacturing enterprises and helps strategize many technology focused business initiatives.
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