The global automotive industry faces converging challenges. KPMG (2012) singled out VW, BMW and Hyundai as well-placed to weather the storm. This presentation examines Hyundai in particular, for in this new mobile landscape it represents the importance of an 'asymmetric' leadership culture (Shim-Steer, 2012) and second-generation competencies (Reeves- Deimler, 2011). This closing presentation will review the implications for auto firms and their globally-integrated, locally-attuned, and technically-savvy research partners.
Encouraging more responsible and sustainable consumption is fast becoming an important public policy goal. Global automotive marketing has traditionally encouraged purchase and consumption choices that are optimal for particular individuals. Many of these choices, however, have social and environmental externalities which extend beyond the individual consumer.This paper studies a generalisable question: what leads people to make a purchase decision that may be individually fulfilling, but could be construed by others as harmful in economic, social, environmental, ethical, and/or personal safety terms? It also explores the converse, exploring what leads some people to make a purchase decision that may be construed as beneficial in social, environmental, and/or ethical terms, but not necessarily sensible in individual economic terms?The automotive context offers a useful case study with two very different by successful product classes: the SUV (often criticised as an irresponsible choice) and the small hybrid cars such as the Prius (which many praise as a responsible choice).
What belter way to explore new marketing and market research issues such as these than to be given the opportunity to examine recent ESOMAR papers on the subject? I trust I have managed to select a number that you will find both informative and helpful.
In recent years the traditional approach to marketing has been challenged by the new paradigm of Relationship Marketing. The meaning of Relationship Marketing is still being developed, in theory and in practice. The purposes of this paper are: 1. to determine whether Relational Marketing approaches (Database Marketing, Interaction Marketing and Network Marketing) are replacing the traditional Transactional Marketing approach, or supplementing it; 2. to consider changes occurring in the processes of automotive marketing, as automobile firms try to develop a sharper customer focus, and in order to illustrate the characteristics and implications of this new marketing approach.
When purchasing high involvement consumer durables such as new cars, consumers are assumed to progress through the following stages: Problem or Need Recognition; External Search; Alternative Evaluation; Purchase or Choice; Outcomes or Postpurchase Evaluation (see, for example Bettman 1979; Engel, Blackwell and Miniard 1993; Howard 1989). Much car buying research effort is directed at the latter stages of this process: buyers' uses of various information sources, choice-making strategies, post-purchase satisfactions, etc. However, the main proposition of this paper is that the initial phases of the consumer decision process have a major effect on the subsequent stages. In particular, it is proposed that the problem recognition "event" and the consequent retrieval of product related decision constraints from memory, substantially influences the ensuing processes of external information search, evaluation of alternatives and consideration set formation. The results from a national sample of new car buyers suggest that the type (rather than the amount) of prior decision constraints, identified as either marketer-related or household-related, that are activated as a consequence of the problem recognition event, significantly affect the "path" customers might follow through the remainder of the purchase process. The findings have important implications for modifying the traditional view of the consumer decision process as an orderly sequence, and for marketers to develop appropriate intervention strategies based on how prior decision constraints affect new car buyers.
In today's high-tech, high-speed markets, as organizations seek more effective ways to reach and hold increasingly unreachable and untenable customers, the application of information technologies (IT) to the processes of marketing has become an important source of competitive advantage. This new marketing involves relationships, networks and continuous interactions. Information technology is not new. What is new is the digital revolution and the convergence of three IT streams: computers, consumer electronics and telecommunications. What is also new is IT's growing pervasiveness into virtually every aspect to do with running a business. In effect, IT has moved from the back end of the business system to the front end - from the accounting department to the process of research and development and thence to the production floor, to the marketing and selling functions, and finally to customer servicing. For some firms, IT has become the aspect of the relationship that customers value most, as the lines between the firm and its dealers and customers get blurred into a smooth, "seamless" network of relationships that are the result not just of fundamental changes in the processes of marketing, but the processes of doing business itself. The objectives of this paper are to: 1. Examine some of the ways in which information technologies are fundamentally changing the processes of marketing; 2. Present a "model" of how tomorrow's information intensive automobile manufacturer is likely to undertake its "relationship marketing" activities; 3. Suggest some important implications for various organizational functions, including marketing, market research, advertising, selling and servicing. One might ask: "Why will we need these as separate functions?"
This paper attempts to answer these two questions, with special reference to the automobile market. The paper is divided into three parts. The first part examines the nature of the satisfaction construct from a theoretical perspective, and then proposes the compex building blocks of customer satisfaction that might characterise the motor vehicle purchase and consumption experience. The second part describes the research design and the results from a syndicated study of new car buyers which show that while new car build quality has steadily improved over the past several years, customer satisfaction with this quality has not increased at the same pace. The third part of this paper examines the characteristics of those key 33% of buyers who have the highest satisfaction levels, on the grounds that they are likely to form an important target group in their own right. The evidence from the syndicated studies show them to be similar to other new car buyers in terms of demographics and buying processes. However, with respect to their attitudinal characteristics they appear to be different, particularly in terms of their greater certainty as to what make and model they are likely to buy, and their higher emotional involvement with their car and driving. While this paper concentrates on new car buyers, the fourth section will conclude with a brief discussion not just of the implications for automobile manufacturers, but for other product and service industries as well, and the marketing implications for firms seeking new ways to meet the expectations of their buyers.
In today's high-speed markets companies are having to learn new ways of handling the process of innovation. This paper examines the reasons for this change, and the ways that some automobile companies are introducing their own forms of high-speed innovation. The paper is divided into three parts. The first part discusses why the process of innovation in some automobile companies may now resemble the processes in other consumer "temp-tech" durable goods firms. Many car firms operate in ways that are quite different from those suggested by proponents of the "classical" approach to marketing. At issue is the question: "Should companies be market-led or technology-driven?" Today, companies have no choice but to balance both these approaches and, as a result, they are working to a different set of "rules" from the "classical" ones. The second part examines what some of these possible new "rules" are, whilst acknowledging that many of them are in a state of constant change: -1 Set impossible targets; -2 Start from a position of strength - the firms core competencies; -3 Think new Products quickly, and again and again; -4 Think "experimental marketing - even in the marketplace; -5 "Fuse" technologies; -6 "Manage" the process of innovation; -7 Leverage global R&D facilities and expertise - but market locally; -8 When stuck, collaborate; -9 Harness the potential of lean and flexible manufacturing; -10 Connect information technologies to form the "wired" corporation and a "seamless" R&D process; and -11 "Manage" shorter model life cycles in order to complement the shorter R&D cycle times. Since these approaches are likely to challenge the conventional wisdom about how marketing is currently practiced, the third part raises some strategic and structural implications for automobile companies.
The following paper is a live transcript of the panel discussion which concluded the New Products session. Although the discussion touches on some important areas of theory, the main emphasis is on the practical issues faced by designers, marketers and market researchers. It tackles, head on, some of the raw issues affecting the development of new car designs and this should make it especially valuable to everyone involved in this process.