AUTUMN 2012

overview:whAT isfroNTliNeMArkeTiNg?

experT Advice: how To leverAge NATioNAl MArkeTiNg AT A locAl level

frANchise focUs: kwik-fiT. iN Need of A kwik-fix?

FRONTLINE THINKING / AUTUMN 2012

OVERVIEW / 3

deAler focUs:iNTerview wiTh clAire cArdosi

iNNovATioNs iN froNTliNe MArkeTiNg:The Uk’s firsT iNTerAcTive direcT MAiler

froNTliNe docTor:YoUr Q&A

overview:

With most big brands there’s still a real disconnect between national and local marketing. The former looks for ways to establish brand equity, whereas the latter is far more concerned with hitting targets – and getting the bonuses.

We use ‘frontline’ to describe your franchise network or sales outlets – inevitably parts of your business with their own unique set of challenges. They’re also areas that, more often than not, are focused on ways to increase sales and customer retention.

is froNTliNeMArkeTiNg?

FRONTLINE THINKING / AUTUMN 2012

WHAT IS FRONTLINE MARKETING? / 5

experT Advice:

1. Be consistent If the global or national marketing has worked, people should know about your brand, like the look of it, and now have the motivation and desire to find out more.

So, here I am: the consumer. I’ve seen the ad, downloaded the app, ‘liked’ it on Facebook and been suitably ‘fluffed.’ I also have a shortlist, funding’s in place and there’s the kind of eagerness retailers love. Now it’s time to check out the landscape.

Now, what you might not realise about today’s landscape is it’s still quite local. Even in an online world, there’s something reassuring about making big-ticket purchases locally. Not only is it handy if something goes wrong afterwards, there’s also the feeling you’re doing business with someone ‘like you’ who probably knows the same people and places.

Words of wisdomThis quarter’s expert is Tony Searle, managing director of Acuity.

In fact, according to The Newspaper Society, the average distances travelled by people buying ‘big’ items might surprise you.

White goods: 6.9 milesBrown goods: 6.7 milesComputer hardware: 8.1 milesClothes: 8.9 milesFurniture: 11.3 miles

But what does all this mean to big brands, especially the huge global giants? In short, everything.

So how can a global brand engage at this very micro level? How can it manage all the little details? How can it make sales outlets work on its behalf? And how can it triple the value of its advertising spend?

A number of key tactics can be used. Our preferred one is consistency – and all the big brands agree.

Look at Volkswagen. It has the creative genius Helmut Krone to thank for an advertising style that’s been going strong for over 60 years. His minimalist layouts and obscure headlines still remain at the heart of the company’s global strategy. Six decades (and counting) is some testimonial. And some marketing weapon: just pick up any magazine across the world and the local VW dealer will have an ad that prospects can spot a mile off. Imagine the countless millions of column inches that represents every single day, and all paid by local outlets.

During 2011 one of our clients, Citroën UK, spent £5.5m in national newspapers. In transforming their brand, they created some truly memorable messages and images – making the reasons to choose them more about emotion, and less about price.

During the same period, Citroën’s 200 franchised dealers spent an aggregated total of £11m in local press. That’s twice as much as Citroën itself, with countless more insertions – and each one hammering home the same powerful set of ideas and messages, with a ‘local twist.’ In so doing, Citroën effectively tripled its media footprint, with no extra cost to itself.

Next quarter: qualifying your prospects.

FRONTLINE THINKING / AUTUMN 2012

EXPERT ADVICE / 7

In each edition we put our heads together and think about how a large UK franchise could be doing things better with some blue sky thinking.

This quarter, it’s Kwik Fit.

frANchise focUs:kwik fiT

The other day, we were thinking about our marketing toolkit, and some of the large companies or franchises that could use it to better localise their global marketing materials. One of the names that came up was Kwik Fit. But we actually concluded there were perhaps other ways it could move forward. Here’s why…

Kwik Fit started life in the early 70s and is now the UK’s leading supplier of fast-fit tyres. It currently runs over 600 outlets in this country, with a similar amount across France and Holland. There have been a number of owners over the years (including Ford) – but currently it’s the Japanese corporate, Itochu.

With a 20% UK share, Kwik Fit is easily the market leader in fast-fit tyres. But its MoT testing and servicing have only 5% of the market – illustrating the hugely fragmented nature of car servicing here. What can it do to improve customer loyalty and up-selling?

easy wins There’s good money to be made in servicing cars. In fact, according to Castrol’s Business Services Car Repair Trend Tracker Report it accounts for over 30% of all profits for main car dealerships. But main dealer servicing is considered to be too expensive – with most customers never seen again once the warranty period ends. To be precise, that’s around 40% of customers, or some 800,000 people every year. Talk about a lost opportunity…

That means there are millions of disenfranchised drivers in the UK. And around one in five of them will have visited a Kwik Fit at least once while they were ‘tied’ to their original main dealership for servicing.

What was that experience like for them? Were Kwik Fit staff trained to be sales people as well as fitters and managers? Were customers asked when their MoT was due, or when their warranty ended? Was each customer given literature about servicing and MoT testing services? Was anyone ever invited back for a free winter or summer check?

All these simple tactics should improve sales in retail servicing for the company. It’s hard to imagine how they couldn’t.

Maybe there’s a need for greater investment at branch level in bringing on board high-quality managers with sound retail experience. But there might be an even more obvious strategy.

According to 2011 data from Bosch Car Service, 70% of women would happily let their husband, boyfriend, dad or brother take their vehicle to the garage, rather than do it themselves. Having witnessed the process close-up, I don’t blame them.

“It is clear that there is still a feeling of discomfort amongst women drivers towards taking their cars in for a service, which could be why they are leaving it up to men.” Bosch Car Service Concept Manager, Howard Price.

Women feel more confident when it comes to simpler things like tyre replacement though. For them, this buy-and-go process is less fraught and just easier all around.

So back to Kwik Fit. With its 20% market share, it has hundreds of thousands of opportunities each year to connect with female customers and get them coming back for vehicle servicing and MoTs. After all, the need is there – but they just need someone to trust.

Perhaps Kwik Fit could use a retail expert to make branches more ‘female friendly’ and less macho. For example, a smart and welcoming reception area? Free Wi-Fi? Cleaner toilets? For such simpler fixes, the benefits would be immediate and probably quite significant.

FRONTLINE THINKING / AUTUMN 2012

FRANCHISE FOCUS / 9

deAler focUs:

how many dealers do you have in the Uk? Within the Citroën network we have nearly 200 dealers that hold a full sales contract, more if you include the sales outlets and authorised repairers.

what is dealer marketing? Dealer marketing is producing material that promotes the brand and product, whilst being tailored for the local market. This tailoring could be amending the creative or choosing activities/medias that are relevant to the local area.

how does dealer marketing differ from national marketing? The aim of national marketing is to raise UK wide awareness of the brand and products. These activities are aimed at the early stages of the purchase journey to get the Citroën brand onto a consumers ‘shopping list’.

wiThclAire cArdosiCITROëN UK MARKETING

Once the consumer is aware of our brand and products, the role of dealer marketing is played at a local level. This involves being more targeted with the main aim of getting the customer to visit the dealership. At this stage they are closer to purchase and the relationship can be built up with the dealer, with the aim of leading to a sale.

what are some of the biggest challenges citroën face with dealers? With any nationwide Franchise there are variations between the location and size of the outlets. Our dealers vary in terms of size, location and whether they are independents or part of a group. Producing material that meets all of their desires and requirements can be challenging.

what systems do you have in place to address those challenges? To ensure that we create marketing material that is relevant for all our dealers we produce a large variety of items, allow dealer personalisation through our online toolkit and gain continuous feedback.

how do you work with Acuity? We work with Acuity on a day-to-day basis as they produce all of our dealer marketing material including overseeing the technological development of our online marketing toolkit. We have a team of staff within Acuity who work solely on the Citroën dealer marketing account and are dealer facing.

Acuity also produce all of our showroom point of sale, direct mail pieces for the network and model launch material.

what differentiates Acuity from other agencies? Acuity are an extension of our marketing department as they carry out a wide range of activities for us, above and beyond those outlined above. They have a strong understanding of our market and business and so continuously propose relevant new ideas to us.

what are some of the biggest trends in dealer marketing right now?There is a higher expectation than ever for marketing material to be localised and relevant to the customer. Technological developments are aiding this but it also means that there are so many marketing channels to consider. Choosing how to use each channel and ensuring that each is correctly managed can be very time consuming for an independent business. Within dealer marketing it’s important to choose the channels that are relevant to the target market in that local area and to carry them out effectively, rather than trying to be in all places at all times.

With the proliferation of social media it’s easy for a small business to be distracted by new channels and to focus a large amount of effort on them without considering how they are relevant to the market, business and customer base. This is an area we’re trying to help our dealers with my giving them an awareness of all areas of marketing through training sessions, and helping them to choose the areas they should be focusing on.

FRONTLINE THINKING / AUTUMN 2012

DEALER FOCUS / 11

FINALIST – DADI AWARDS 2012FOR USE OF TECHNICAL INNOVATION

FINALIST – THE PRINT & DESIGN AWARDS 2012

FOR CROSS MEDIA & DIGITAL PRINT

Here at Acuity, we’ve created an entirely new way to promote the new Citroën DS5 model to new and existing customers. Our brief was to develop a solution that engaged customers with the product and dealer network in a way that brought to life the brand signature of ‘Créative Technologie.’

A lot of vehicle manufacturers still rely on conventional direct mail. But the problem is it’s all pretty generic with very little opportunity for personalisation. Time for something new.

We developed a direct mail piece that used digital watermarking – a technology that can be used in conjunction with a mobile app to serve up a rich and engaging experience between printed page and smart phone screen. We believe it to be the UK’s first interactive mailer.

It worked by recipients scanning the direct mail piece with their smart phones. They were then taken to the app. Here they were shown nine images and three videos of the three DS line models. They could also get their local dealer’s contact details and choose a number of different calls to action – including contacting their dealer, requesting a brochure or call-back, expressing an interest in a DS Discovery Day or even booking a test drive.

Critically, the app also allowed Citroën to precisely measure the campaign’s success, as all interactions were collated and passed to the relevant dealers. It showed that over 80% of dealers received a response, with around half leading to requests for further information.

FRONTLINE THINKING / AUTUMN 2012

INNOVATIONS IN FRONTLINE MARKETING / 13

iNNovATioNs iN froNTliNe MArkeTiNg:

Dear Frontline Doctor,

Q. We’ve recently learnt that many of our car dealers are creating local press advertising, with very little control or input from our Marketing HQ. The problem is it’s all completely at odds with the look and feel of the brand at national level. So consumers are completely confused as to what our products and pricing are about. Why is this happening? What can we do about it? A. Despite this kind of situation being hugely damaging to brands, it’s a problem many vehicle manufacturers face. It’s because there’s still a big disconnect between dealers or sales networks and their marketing departments who are trying – and failing – to engage them. Dealers are more interested in hitting sales targets and scooping bonuses, whereas marketing teams tend to be more interested in establishing brand equity. In a way, they’re both right.

docTor:

Q. But why spend time nourishing the brand when, ultimately, it’s sales that count?

A. Because, according to the TGI, 25% of the UK adult population intend to buy a new car in the next two years. And one fifth of them think it’s important the car reflects their personality. So it’s actually very important these people clearly ‘get’ your brand and what it says about them. In fact, it’s one of the main reasons your sector spends around £550 million a year on advertising.

And that’s why it’s so key you reflect your national marketing spend, engage your dealers or sales networks in local marketing and present a clear, compelling and consistent brand to potential customers at what we call the ‘frontline.’

You might think the solution lies in the manufacturer taking Draconian control over its dealerships or sales network. But you’d be wrong. For it to really work, you need to engage with them. The first reason for this is networks have a profound knowledge of their local area and market – and without their help, much of that will go to waste. The second is that, ultimately, people always eventually find their way around anything they regard as red tape or too controlling.

In actual fact, the solution is more around a combination of marketing automation coupled with a two-way dealer-marketing forum. If you’re unfamiliar with marketing automation, it normally takes three forms: Process Automation, Marketing Content Automation and finally Marketing Fulfilment Automation.

Each one is important for manufacturers (just ask us how) – but the one which can make the biggest change at a local level is Marketing Content Automation. With a flexible online marketing portal provided by the manufacturer, a sales network can create a range of materials that are on-brand and with the right tone of voice – not just for local press, but for multiple marketing channels too.

Of course, there are certain elements that impact its success, but that’s what our clients pay us for. If you’d like to know more about how we work with Citroën UK in the area of marketing automation, just get in touch.

FRONTLINE THINKING / AUTUMN 2012

FRONTLINE DOCTOR / 15

T 01923 244 241f 01923 232 751e info@we are acuity.com @we are acuitywe Are AcUiTY.coM

oak yardqueen’s roadwatfordhertfordshirewd17 2ql