Americans continue to hold on to their cars and trucks longer
than ever before. Nearly six years (71 months) among new vehicle
owners is the latest trend. New Polk consumer research shows the opportunities for
professionals managing OEM aftersales and the automotive
aftermarket operations should have a lot to look forward to given
this trend. It's about parts and service business, folks.
Two years ago, I posted a blog on the same behavior and when we started
to see a real incline in the average...
Read More »
New premium vehicle registrations tend to be skewed to the
Northeast, but after about three years of ownership, some of these
vehicles start to migrate to other areas of the U.S., including the
Midwest, South and West. As the value of these high-end vehicles
decline over time, they become affordable to households with lower
(relative) incomes. The Northeast’s share of new luxury
registrations is in the 27-28% range, but by the time these same
vehicles have been on the road for four years, only...
Read More »
If you're a local business and/or have rarely advertised online
because of the complexity and time involved, then "man have I got
the solution for you." Just a couple of days ago, our good friends
at Google launched a new service that is very helpful to new
digital marketing practitioners looking to target local
prospects.
Google
Adwords now has a service called
Express. It's a quick and easy
process for getting a locally targeted ad placed online with
relative ease. But wait, there's more! They...
Read More »
Since the proliferation of smartphones, people have gone
application crazy. Digital marketing in the mobile space has thus
become more fragmented than a candy cane shattered inside of its'
cellophane wrapper. Advertisers are faced with the decision of
whether or not they should take a risk and only write code for
Apple's iOS application based platform, or extend it to CSS3,
JavaScript, C++ and HTML5 code for multitudinous device
access.
It's no secret I'm not a huge fan of Apple, Steve Jobs,...
Read More »
As
I'm sure you're aware, Toyota found themselves the ire of Congress,
their customers and general car enthusiasts alike earlier this
year. You only have to go to the
Toyota Press Room to see why. Their recall obligations are
substantial. So, it is no surprise that they jumped on a set of
good news, like The Fresh Prince and his cousin Carlton when
"Apache" by the
Sugar Hill Gang is played. Toyota is giving everyone the "I told
you so" face ever since a NHTSA report came out, citing...
Read More »
I think there's some good news based on our annual
analysis of the U.S. vehicle population. "For whom and
why?", you ask? Read on.
- The U.S. light vehicle forecast is expected to be 11.5 million
units for 2010. That's up from 2009's 10.4 million... we'll take
any gains possible. Good news for dealers and automakers.
- The average age of light vehicles on the road has been creeping
up as well. It's just north of 10 years as of September 2009. A
decade ago it was 8.8 years. This means vehicle repairs...
Read More »
After the EuroCar Seminar on 20 January 2010, we posted the
top ten questions asked by OEM and OES delegates in attendance.
Today I will be answering the last few questions. I hope you have
found all of our answers helpful. If you missed the answers to the
previous questions, don’t forget to read the answers posted by
Norm Marks regarding marketing and
Thomas Mawick regarding hybrids.
Can you share with us where or from whom dealer network planning
can be most improved?All manufacturers in...
Read More »
After the EuroCar Seminar on 20 January 2010, we posted the
top ten questions asked by OEM and OES
delegates in attendance. Today I will answer the three marketing
questions. The remaining questions will be answered by Tanja Linken
and Thomas Mawick.
1. If you could only do one thing with respect to marketing
in this environment, what would it be or in what area would you
focus?We must optimize automotive marketing both for new vehicle sales
and aftersales. That said, aftersales marketing has...
Read More »
There has been much recent news and comment with respect to
Europe and the sales environment looking ahead. We know from our
own experience that the introduction of scrappage incentives can
have positive influence whilst in effect, but can also have
negative impacts on future vehicle sales. Further, our own analysis
has identified unforeseen side effects relative to these programmes
with reductions in loyalty rates. Once these programmes ended the
loyalty rates returned to normal – demonstrating...
Read More »
Powered by Compendium