Cars.com Insights: Brands that successfully align themselves with the way consumers are shopping, as opposed to the traditional funnel, stand well positioned to drive deeper consideration, floor traffic and sales.
Over the course of three months (research conducted March – May 2013), Conifer conducted an in-depth ethnographic study to detail
the car shopping journey from start to finish. Conifer employed a variety of methods, including:
Dealership Observation + Intercepts
Participant Self-Documentation
Ethnographic Interviews + Tag Alongs
Co-design Sessions With Participants
Explores: Market Environment; Auto sales will remain high, growth will require conquesting from others; The conquest battle will largely take place online as brand preferences are developed online; Third-party sites are central to the online shopping experience; Cox Automotive owns the dominant properties in the market, but there are competitors that can take additional share; While most are satisfied with their overall vehicle purchase experience, the dealership experience can be further improved; Contacting the dealership; It is vitally important to continue to improve the mobilie experience, particularly for millennials and GenX.
Conclusions:
Auto sales will remain high but growth will require conquesting from others OEMs and dealers will need to find ways to improve their conquest marketing efficiency and effectiveness
The conquest battle will largely take place online, as it is the place where consumers develop their brand preferences. 3rd party sites are central to the online shopping experience so it is important that:
* OEMs and dealers find creative ways to leverage them
* Third-party sites continue to: reach out to consumers across platforms increase the ease of use
provide content that meets consumers’ current and emergent needs
Cox Automotive owns the dominant properties in the market, with KBB being the strongest, but there remains significant competitors that can take additional share
Most customers are satisfied with their selling dealer, but dealers can improve satisfaction most by decreasing the negotiation and paperwork time
Takeaways for dealers: provide an experience that will drive future business to your dealership; be aware of how long buyers have been at the dealership; be transparent about pricing, particularly with young buyers; be aware of demographics when presenting F&I options
The KBB Car Sharing Study seeks to understand the impact of Ride-sharing and Vehicle-sharing on vehicle ownership, future purchase intent and current and future transportation habits. The study objectives were to assess the awareness and use of Ride/Car Sharing services, to identify need states and occasions where car sharing services may be used as well as the impact on traditional transit options.
The annual CPO Study measures shopper and owner attitudes about CPO vehicles. Consistent with industry projections, shopper consideration of CPO increased this year. CPO owners tend to be satisfied with their vehicles, and become loyal to the make and dealer.
AutoTrader.com conducted a quantitative online survey in August 2014.
A total of 450 interviews were completed, split evenly among new, used and CPO considerers.
To qualify, respondents must have been planning to purchase a vehicle in the next 6 months.