We've wondered about this for a long, long time: who's going to own America's internet-savvy car customers? It's a three-way race between carmakers, dealers and independent websites, all vying to provide the best automotive information in the most attractive form, and then leverage their e-relationship for long-term customer loyalty. Not a lot has happened on the CRM (customer relations management) front; when was the last/first time you received a well-targeted email from any member of this troika? Meanwhile, Peter Krasilovsky says the various players are successful at different stages of the car buying (what about owning?) process. "It's not winner takes all," the program director for The Kelsey Group tells Marketing Daily. "I think there is a realization that OEMs [Original Equipment Manufacturers] are not going to dominate the market. There is a realization that some people will go to the manufacturers' sites, and then there's a person who wants to shop different vehicles, and there are people who want to be part of the car universe and not just when they are buying a car." To increase their e-appeal, dealers are adding appointment-making capabilities to their websites and "increasingly doing e-mail offers with coupons for services, even newsletters." Is that the sound of the "junk" button I'm hearing? The battle continues.
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The customer owns him or herself and will pick and choose which resources they like.
Forget the dealers, somebody like amazon.com should start offering cars for sale. In my perfect world I could go online and order a car exactly to my specs and it would arrive at my door a week or so later.
–chuck
http://chuck.goolsbee.org
I recently helped my Mom buy a new car after my Dad passed away. I internet shopped several makes and dealers, knew what options she wanted, had no trade, and was paying cash. The most interesting thing was that very few would give me a price up front, they all wanted to get me in to the dealership. I kindly replied to these dealers that I was not interested unless they would give me an up front, no haggle price. These are the dealers which I have had to place in my SPAM folder….they just don’t take no for an answer.
We ended up buying a 2008 Corolla from a local dealer. Their internet salesperson gave me a same day response with the exact options and an up front price that was under what I had researched to pay. I drove my Mom to the dealer(she made an appointment), she test drove the car (which was clean and ready when we arrived), signed the paperwork for title, etc, paid the cash, and drove away within 1/2 hour with her new car. There was no sales manager and no pressure for options, extended warranties, etc. This was by far the best dealership experience I have had.
I don’t know if this is typical for Toyota, but if it is, they have it right.
While the Internet can be useful for getting the best price, there will always be a need to test drive a short list of cars before buying. There are a bunch of factors no review or spec sheet can ever give you – like seat comfort, visibility and how it suits your own style of driving.
I bought a commuter car last weekend and was really leaning towards a Civic or an Impreza. After back to back test drives, it turns out that both have dreadful seats that gave my wife a back ache in about 3 minutes and the Civic had some visibility issues. The Mazda3 didn’t look nearly as good on paper but in the flesh it was no contest.
In the future dealers may simply become a point of presence for the manufacturer to allow customers to test drive their product (like the Dell stand at the mall) but they won’t go away any time soon.
carguy: While the Internet can be useful for getting the best price, there will always be a need to test drive a short list of cars before buying.
True.
Then you go home and fire up the PC. :-)
The consumer is more focused in his internet activities prior to a vehicle purchase. For new vehicles the manuafcturer/OEM site is the first visit for most consumers to gather information. The dealer site is the second visit to schedule a test drive. The lead generation/third party site is losing visitors.
The various blogs/forums are gaining visits compared to a few years ago.
Who owns the customer/prospect…nobody until this individual does business with an dealer, and a manufacturer.
I use the internet to get an idea of what I want. I then test all the ones I’m interested in only giving the salesperson my email address.
I then get teh invoice price minus any incentives and shout a number below that around to various dealers adn see who comes up with a good price. Just make sure youhave financing in hand and know what you want to do with your existing car (if youhave one). that ismy only issue with buying a new car you still have to haggle over the trade-in or hassle with selling it yourself.
I’d prefer to not have dealers at all. I want a non-commission mega car network where I can test 10 new models all at once (similar to Carmax). All cars are offered at invoice (plus incentives)and you just pick from what they have or order the one you want.
Damn the dealers and their special-interest-group-funded stranglehold on state franchise laws!!!!
I agree with above(s)….give me an Amazon.com for car buying or more carmax (carmax can’t sell new cars in my state).
I find it amazing that a modern production car seat can give somebody a backache in “about three minutes,” even allowing for hyperbola.