The car is the ultimate mobile device
December 19, 2017
Six recommendations for turning cars into mobile marketing channels
Networked cars offer automotive manufacturers the unique opportunity to get to know their customer base better than ever before. Fact is, the IoT, or Internet of Things, is becoming part of the automobile at a staggering speed. In a new joint white paper, Valtech and Adobe show how mobility providers can transform the vehicle, as the ultimate digital device, into a successful marketing channel.
And for OEMs this means rethinking things. To retain customers in the long run, it not only takes excellent product engineering but very special customer engineering as well. This new approach is in lockstep with new and innovative services. Here, customers are mostly interested in data-based functions that make their mobility more secure, convenient and time-saving as well as more affordable. The McKinsey report: Monetizing Car Data, shows that the car has the potential to become a permanent touch point. According to the paper, the total turnover resulting from monetizing car data could rise globally to 750 billion US dollars by 2030.
But that doesn't just happen by itself. The car industry has already realized that Big Data alone is not the way to become a market leader in car communications – the solution is Smart Data. That’s why OEMs are already investing substantially in cloud computing, in software locations and developers and are cooperating with powerful IT and software service providers such as Nvidia, Uber, Alibaba, Google, Adobe, Apple or Intel. In today's competition for customers, a strong eco-system is needed.
When it comes to intelligent connections with the backend, innovative service designs and services on demand, a digital agency, such as Valtech, with its profound technological expertise, is an interesting partner. Marketing platforms, such as Adobe Experience Cloud, can combine the opportunities new car generations offer, e.g. storing profiles safely or adding new information to them. In this way, relevant services can be delivered to the customers, such as maintenance appointments, travel-relevant information or external offers, such as price discounts at nearby restaurants.
"To achieve an emotional bond with their customers, manufacturers have to the use the vehicle to address them directly. Depending on the individual situation, the car must become the extension of your living room or office", says Markus Degen, Director Marketing Cloud Solutions Valtech.
If the carmakers succeed in offering the right product in the right way with the right billing model at the right time, they will become recognized and popular partners to customers in the in-car communication sector.
Their competitive edge will be the exclusivity of the platform. Only the OEMs can offer services and added value directly into the vehicle– and to make this happen they can use all the data available from the vehicle's sensors. But these opportunities have also been recognized by other big companies that would also like to tap into the car’s potential. This is particularly true with respect to autonomous driving, which offers brands a lot of new possibilities in the car interior.
The following recommendations could bring OEMs new sales opportunities and better customer retention:
- No real added value for the customer? Forget about it!
- Derive relevance from data. (position, time, etc.)
- No transaction in the car but information on where transaction could take place and guide your customer there.
- Obtain data privacy protection approvals (depending on customer requirements)
- Keep your brand clean, in particular where data from third parties are used.
- Utilize User Feedback (A/B testing and adding data via special service providers)
The joint white paper from Valtech and Adobe shows how to make customer dialogue via the automobile as the ultimate digital device successful. Here’s the German version: https://adobe.ly/2fKt8xk An English version will be available soon.
