The automotive industry is facing a major period of transformation, including automation and electrification. The digitalization of customer purchasing behaviors and the entry of foreign companies are intensifying competition. Inside this environment, Subaru is increasing its sales numbers by integrating various data scattered across departments and dealerships within the company and utilizing them for marketing and advertising. By introducing Treasure Data Customer Data Platform (CDP), Subaru has realized a data-driven marketing strategy across the whole company. We asked Mr. Atsushi Yasumuro, Chief of the Marketing Promotion Department, Advertising Division, at Subaru’s Domestic Sales Headquarters, about their initiatives.

Key points of this case study

• Utilized Treasure Data CDP for company-wide data integration, analyzing customer purchasing behavior, and realizing sales expansion.
• Achieved a 14.5x increase in advertising efficiency through the use of CDP for hypothesis testing and verification.
• Improved ROI with 1:1 marketing by utilizing scenario features

Challenge: How to make customers want to buy?

Since its founding, Subaru has prioritized safety. This philosophy is carried over into its car manufacturing, including the world’s first driver assistance system using stereo cameras, “EyeSight,” and other technology focused on safety and security, which has been highly praised worldwide.

On the other hand, Mr. Atsushi Yasumuro says, “Marketing in the automotive industry has become quite difficult these days, and marketing strategies cannot be realized without understanding the customers.”

“Recent cars are less likely to break down, resulting in a much longer replacement frequency of around once every ten years. Additionally, in a mature market where the population is declining, and the price of vehicles is increasing, competition is fierce not only domestically but also with foreign companies.”

“Manufacturers are fiercely competing.”

With the spread of the internet and the progression of digitalization, the touchpoints with customers have changed significantly.

“There are hardly any customers who consider purchasing without doing preliminary research on the internet. The number of visits to dealers has drastically decreased to two times or less. I call it ‘the invisible tournament’. By the time customers visit the dealership, the outcome is almost decided. Subaru has to be among the brands in the evoked set that customers consider buying, and furthermore, it has to survive the competition. To do this, understanding our customers becomes extremely important, and we thought of creating a data foundation that could respond to this.”

What kind of data sources were integrated?

“The data sources range across online, offline, and various areas. Data owned not only by several departments within the company but also by external dealers was integrated.”

Specifically, this includes behavioral logs from various websites, online shops, subscriptions, online negotiations, as well as information from core systems such as customer information entered by dealers, Wi-Fi logs at stores, test drive event logs, campaign logs, etc. Other data acquisitions include catalog requests, survey responses, data from a smartphone app for owners named “My Subaru,” and activity logs from the driving app “SUBAROAD.” Many types of data are being acquired.

“By linking these various data to a single ID named ‘SUBARU ID,’ we keep in touch with our customers,” says Mr. Yasumuro. Even if the car replacement cycle is once every ten years, maintaining touchpoints during that period allows for understanding the customer journey and aims to increase LTV (Lifetime Value).

To make group-wide data integration possible, Subaru chose Treasure Data.

Treasure Data CDP was selected primarily for its ease of data integration. Even though data integration is straightforward to say, there exists a wide variety of data in many places, including external dealers and advertising agencies. At the time, each piece of data was stored separately, and even just integrating it into “SUBARU ID” was challenging. However, with Treasure Data CDP, it is possible to collect and integrate data seamlessly without impacting the dealer’s core systems or other tools.

Mr. Yasumuro also speaks highly of Treasure Data’s support system. “Back then, Treasure Data was a young venture company established by three Japanese people in Silicon Valley. Its headquarters is in the United States, but the support of the Japanese corporation was thoughtful, and they supported us as one team. Their passion for understanding what we wanted to do and responding quickly was very reassuring.”

Analyzing customer purchasing behavior to achieve a 14.5X advertising improvement

What results have been achieved through company-wide data integration utilizing the Treasure Data CDP?

“It has been nearly 10 years since the implementation, and many departments are seeing results. Among them, the effects are most quantitatively understandable with TV commercials. Generally, the price of commercial slots is determined by the viewership, but by using Treasure Data CDP, it has been clarified which slot and what kind of creative work will generate what kind of response. In other words, there are slots and creative works that get a good response even with low ratings, and conversely, there are slots and creative works that don’t get good responses even with high ratings. As a result, it has become possible to judge which slot and what kind of creative works will yield a high ROI (return on investment). As a result, with the same amount of money, the effect has become 14.5 times higher,” says Mr. Amuro.

New initiatives have also begun. It is the calculation of the probability of closing using AI (artificial intelligence) and lead information.

“This mechanism explores the so-called ‘hotness’ level (prospect and certainty of a case) to judge with AI which customers among the many potential customers have a high probability of purchase. Customers who download catalogs or participate in events are asked to register and are assigned a SUBARU ID. Comparing with the data accumulated thus far, members who have performed actions most similar to those of customers who have made purchases are classified as A, those who have performed the second most similar actions as B, and the third as C, and they are sent to the dealers. This also makes it possible to proactively address customers’ interests and concerns in advance.”

The actual results are evident as well. “As data accumulates, the precision of our assessments has improved. Customers with a prospect rating of ‘A’ end up placing orders about 50% of the time. We’ve also received feedback from dealerships that negotiations are proceeding more smoothly,” Mr. Amuro says. Not only has this enhanced the efficiency of negotiations, but it has also led to an improvement in customer satisfaction.

What’s important is to continuously hypothesize and verify

By leveraging Treasure Data CDP, insights into how commercials and events affect subsequent customer actions and why are also becoming clear. For example, the effectiveness of TV commercials can be quantitatively measured, which might sometimes negate the value of traditional creative endeavors.

“By everyone pointing in the direction of the customer and dialoguing in a common language based on the data, improvements can be made. It’s important to hypothesize, implement, check, and adjust,” Mr. Amuro says. The company has recently produced many successful TV commercials targeting women that emphasize safety, but that success came from continuously hypothesizing and validating.

Despite Subaru’s prominence in customer-oriented, data-driven marketing, Mr. Amuro suggests, “Any company can undertake this. It doesn’t have to be something grand; starting small and cycling through our process is crucial. Why not take the first step?”

Utilize scenario features to realize 1:1 marketing

Treasure Data Customer Journey Orchestration integrates marketing activities from the customer’s perspective and is a powerful function to provide consistent customer experiences across multiple channels. Marketers can use this to connect touchpoints and design and manage customer journeys based on customer behavior and needs. For example, it’s possible to comprehensively analyze interactions with customers across multiple channels such as email, social media, and websites, and deliver the right message at the optimal time. This goes beyond mere campaign measures to realize personalized experiences tailored to customers’ purchasing behaviors and interests.

Previously, Subaru had implemented a scenario feature of another marketing automation tool. However, the operation required a high level of expertise, making it difficult to manage internally, and it did not achieve the expected results initially. As a result, that tool did not lead to an expansion in the number of policy measures implemented. Afterwards, by introducing Treasure Data Customer Journey Orchestration, Subaru is now able to build and operate scenarios in-house, making it possible to execute new strategies using scenarios that had not been tackled before.

As a concrete measure, Subaru implemented scenarios individually optimized for both Subaru car owners and owners of other companies’ cars. This initiative confirmed improvements in campaign application rates. Furthermore, content that encourages store visits and in-store quotes has also been provided according to the customer’s situation, leading to guided actions. Content targeted at negotiators whose orders have not yet been confirmed has also been delivered, backing up the ordering process. This greatly improved ROI.

Before, the integration and analysis of complex customer data were necessary, but with the use of Journey Orchestration, it is now possible to quickly build personalized scenarios based on customer behavior. Going forward, Subaru plans to accelerate further initiatives using cross-channel usability and enhance communication with customers.

The evolution of Subaru’s marketing continues to be an exciting watch.

The post Subaru Data-Driven Marketing Case Study first appeared on Treasure Data.

The post Honda India Unifies Customer Data Across Six Business Lines first appeared on Treasure Data.

The post Leveraging Data and Digital to Transform Automotive Marketing first appeared on Treasure Data.

Harnessing Data to Personalize the Automotive Customer Experience

Automotive companies often find themselves drowning in data, often from multiple data sources, each with different formats. CDPs allow automotive companies to take advantage of their vast sea of data. By connecting disparate information into unified and actional data sets, automotive companies can better understand each and every customer, creating customer-centricity at scale.

Download your own copy of the whitepaper today.

Download Now

Trusted by Enterprises Around the World

The post OEMs need CDP for customer centricity at scale first appeared on Treasure Data.

Rev Up Your Sales Pipeline with the Power of Customer Data

Discover how leading automotive brands and dealerships are paving new roads to revenue and efficiency with Treasure Data Customer Data Cloud.

Digital transformation is disrupting the automotive industry, and it’s a race to win and retain customers amid economic uncertainty and changing consumer preferences.

How can automotive brands and dealerships take the lead, and keep operations moving effectively?

Treasure Data’s Customer Data Cloud platform isn’t just for standard MarTech use cases. We’ve developed robust capabilities that let you get more mileage and value from your customer data across the entire enterprise.

In our comprehensive guide, you’ll discover:

• More than 20 unique ways automotive companies can elevate marketing, sales and customer service with Treasure Data
• How Treasure Data Customer Data Cloud enables operational efficiency and connected customer experiences to drive business value
• Real-life examples of how our customers have innovated and expanded their capabilities, with real results

Fill out the form to get your guide now!

Download Now

Trusted by Enterprises Around the World

The post Treasure Data CDP Use Cases for Automotive first appeared on Treasure Data.

As one of the world’s largest automakers, this company has millions of customers engaged with its iconic brand portfolio across multiple global markets. The automaker wanted more insights into customer behavior to shape important moments in the customer journey and enhance the customer experience.

Using Treasure Data Customer Data Platform to create unified customer profiles, segment audiences, and build predictive models, the automaker has uncovered a $125M annualized margin and achieved a 1,000% conversion rate improvement across various campaigns while also enhancing customer satisfaction and service and strengthening customer retention.

Challenges

With multiple automotive brands across its global portfolio, the company needed full visibility into vast quantities of distributed data to improve customer engagement and drive revenue. But measuring the customer experience across numerous brands – and millions of customers – was proving challenging, especially in light of privacy concerns and compliance requirements.

Solution

In the automaker’s search for a customer data platform, Treasure Data Customer Data Platform stood out for its robust data governance and customer analytics capabilities, as well as its ability to deliver value across the entire customer lifecycle. Since deploying Treasure Data Customer Data Platform, the automaker has seen an estimated $68.8M increase in annual value due to boosted sales, greater conversions, and more efficient lead scoring.

Results

The automaker is now using data-driven customer insights enterprise-wide to improve customer service across the board. With Treasure Data Customer Data Platform, the automaker has been able to unify information across all touchpoints for more accurate and personalized customer experiences, including private offers and targeted campaigns. It is using the data to figure out what kind of rewards or discounts will be most effective in driving customer engagement and loyalty and adjusting its incentive offers accordingly.

In addition, the automaker is using data segmentation and A/B testing to turbocharge marketing efficiency by identifying which audiences respond best to which campaigns. The results have been phenomenal, with as much as 1,000% conversion rate improvement across various campaigns and a 57% decrease in campaign execution time.

The post Automotive Case Study first appeared on Treasure Data.

Driving Growth Efficiently With a Customer Data Platform

Many companies use customer data platforms (CDPs) to help their marketing campaigns. But if you’re not activating customer data across every brand, on every channel, throughout the entire business, you’ve just created another data silo—and a lost opportunity.By maximizing the value of customer data across your entire organization—from customer-facing teams, to back-end operations—you can drive greater efficiency, profitability, and growth. But perhaps most important of all, activating data across your entire organization enables you to deliver truly connected customer experiences.Identifying and prioritizing the right CDP use cases helps you understand what capabilities you’ll need, and the best path to implementation to achieve your goals. As you think about your needs, it’s important to realize that not all CDPs, or CDP vendors, are the same. Some CDPs were purpose-built for enterprise-grade use cases and omnichannel campaigns, and some have more limited functionality.

Discover the Right CDP Use Cases for Your Automotive Brand

Treasure Data’s robust Customer Data Cloud, an integrated suite of customer data platform (CDP) solutions, allows automakers to better understand every customer and create a connected customer experience at scale.With Customer Data Cloud, you can go further, faster by fueling customer-centric decisions that make a tremendous impact on your business and your customers along their entire journey. And, you can do it securely and at scale while turbocharging marketing efficiency.It’s time to get more mileage from your customer data in revenue growth, improved customer experience, and internal efficiencies. We’ve put together a comprehensive guide that breaks down more than 20 unique ways automotive leaders are using Treasure Data to drive business value, improve their operational efficiency, increase productivity for their sales, marketing, and customer service teams, and provide better experiences for their customers.Click on the banner below to explore what’s possible.

The post Embrace the Possible: Top CDP Use Cases for Auto Brands, Dealers, and OEMs first appeared on Treasure Data.

“What will it take for you to buy a car today?” is a question that the entire auto industry—particularly dealerships—wants to answer, every day, with every potential car buyer. The problem, as any salesperson will tell you, is that the answer varies dramatically by customer. But today, thanks to innovative use of customer data, auto dealerships can finally make a well-informed guess at the answers, often long before a customer ever visits the dealership.

Even better, the same technology that answers these questions also solves a variety of other dealer headaches. Successful auto businesses are starting to exploit customer data platforms (CDPs)—technology that aggregates data from many different sources and builds a unified profile of each customer. These profiles can then be used to inform better strategies and touchpoints across marketing, sales, and service to improve everything from initial prospect identification through owner retention, and everything in between.

How Do CDPs Work?

CDPs ingest data from many different sources, build detailed profiles of each customer called “single customer views” (SCVs), and use that data to understand customer behavior and shape those important moments when customers are most likely to embrace a particular brand that solves their problems. CDPs combine data from many otherwise unconnected sources—website browsing and search engine use, ad response, social media, buyer histories, and social media, for example.

National Brands Have Been Seeing Great Results for a Few Years & Are ‘Amazed’

It’s technology that many national automotive brands have been using for several years, to great effect.

“Our marketers originally started using IT technologies like the Treasure Data CDP to help make operational improvements,” says Omura Toshiyuki, manager of Digital Innovation for Subaru. “We continue to fine-tune for efficiency, but we’re much more focused on using data to create value and build lasting relationships with our customers.”

“We’re already, for example, using driver data in the design process,” says Toshiyuki. “We expect in the future to tightly integrate customer and mobility data with factory data for continual improvement in vehicle design and manufacture. Utilizing CDP for data management and analytics really does help us find more ways to make it fun to own a Subaru.”

What’s New? Dealerships Are Now Using CDPs, Too

But innovative dealer groups are also using CDPS and seeing impressive results in their early efforts, largely due to a CDP’s ability to unify data from many different platforms. CDPs integrate data from each dealership, from CRM systems, and from customer-facing sources of data such as websites, social media, and even location data—to understand customer behavior and needs.

“We did a CDP solution for a large multi-brand, multi-location automotive dealership with more than 40 websites, a complex environment of advertising and direct-to-consumer marketing channels, and a rich trove of first-party customer and vehicle data,” says Stephanie Meade, SVP of sales and marketing at Allant.

“We looked at the problems they had—such as needing a better understanding of which customers had a strong propensity to buy very soon, and which dealerships are the most convenient for each customer,” she says.

Allant was able to integrate location data to tell where people were at different times of day, which was a major win.

“Understanding which dealership is most likely to be convenient is often a lot more difficult than just knowing where they live,” says Meade.

“Location-based data can give us clues about where they work or typically pass by each day, and those dealerships can then market to these prospects with targeted, segmented campaigns to get them into the dealership,” she adds.

Another national dealership used a Treasure Data Enterprise CDP to improve such metrics as click-through rate, and achieved a CTR that’s 10X the previously used targeting strategy and tools.

CDPs such as Treasure Data and related technology also create connections between website browsing, other marketing and advertising channel activity, and known consumers, helping the dealership discover precisely when the customer is in-market for maintenance, repairs, or new vehicle leases.

5 CDP-driven Ways to Use Personalization in 45 Days or Less

Of course, there are many types of CDP-driven personalization that dealers can use to boost conversion, new-customer acquisition, and customer lifetime value. Five relatively simple ones that can often be implemented quickly—up and running in 45 days or less—include the following:

1. Service coupons: Rather than sending generic service coupons through a third-party vendor, send coupons personalized to each person. An important personalization is to customize the amount of the coupon based on the customer’s distance from the dealer, as well as on behavior or demographic factors.
2. Appointment reminders: Personalize this process to lower the rate of broken appointments. Target next-best channel (NBC) to drive greater success.
3. End-of-lease and end-of-loan campaigns: Send customers whose leases or loans are ending a sequence of personalized offers for a new car, personalizing the offers for customer characteristics, model, and timing.
4. Birthday and anniversary targeting: Send personalized communications celebrating these. A CDP can help suppress ads to people who are not likely to respond, making such advertising more efficient.
5. Targeted Facebook campaigns: Send ads to in-market owners of a particular brand, but not from their dealership. When a national dealership tested this against a “spray-and-pray” ad on Facebook, the CDP-enabled, targeted campaign garnered ten times (10x) the click-through rate (CTR) of the spray-and-pray ad, proving the value of using customer data in improving dealership results.

It’s clear from the results of dealerships who are early CDP users that CDPs not only solve a variety of marketing and sales problems, but they help unify data from the many different sources and help dealers understand their customers better. Someday, these dealerships might not have to ask every customer what it would take to close the deal, because they’ll already know.

If you’d like to learn how you can quickly improve dealership performance, register for our upcoming fireside chat with auto industry experts: Leverage Data to Enhance Dealership Performance and the Retail Experience. Or if you’re intrigued about what you can do today to start seeing better results in 45 days, click here to request a demo.

The post Customer Data Answers National Auto Dealers’ Big Questions & Show Sales Gains first appeared on Treasure Data.

The automotive industry has found itself at a crossroads. Buying a car is no longer just about the car; it’s about the entire experience. It’s about what happens before the purchase, during the buying process, and long after. To provide that experience, OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers) and auto dealers need to become customer-centric. They need to focus on what customers want and need when they want and need it. To do that, automotive companies not only require data, but they must also rethink how they approach the customer experience as a whole.

This was the core focus of two events Treasure Data participated in recently, The Digital Shift: Exploring the Transformative Power of Customer Data and Reuters Automotive 2021.

Whether it’s a luxury SUV, an economy car, or something in between, the customer demands a high level of personalized experience and service.

It’s Not a Data Shortage; It’s About Being Data-Driven

The first step in customer centricity is to understand your customers. To do that, you need data, and the more, the better. Automotive companies do not have a data shortage problem, but they are challenged witha bringing it together.

Angela Zepeda, CMO with Hyundai Motor America, said there is no shortage of data during the session, “Building a Data-driven Organization: Insights from the Innovators,” at the Digital Shift event. Sometimes there is too much, she said, and it’s hard to distill it down to figure out what to do next. But becoming a data-driven organization is critical for automotive companies.

Zepeda said the most important thing a company needs to become data-driven is executive sponsorship. For a long time, Hyundai was focused on collecting leads to pass on to sales and the number of leads was a key performance metric for marketing. Although they were filling up a large part of the marketing funnel, many weren’t converting to high-quality leads. So they switched the measurement from leads to search (which is the first thing someone does when they are interested in buying a car) and built a dashboard of KPIs that shows how their search-based efforts were really driving sales. Zepeda said it took someone in a senior position to say they would use the dashboard and the new list of qualifiers to change how the company worked.

How do you measure the success of data effectiveness? It’s always about sales, Zepeda said, which was why moving to search as a leading indicator was key. They were having a hard time quantifying what the marketing spend was used for. They implemented new tools, platforms, and innovative technology to help them understand what to spend and not overspend.

The amount of data automotive companies collect, whether it’s an OEM like Subaru or Mercedes-Benz, a retailer like Pendragon PLC, or a digital automotive marketplace like TrueCar, is vast. Data from the vehicle, customer, ownership, service, contact center, social, and more is combined and analyzed to provide automotive companies with the insights they need to create more relevant personalized customer experiences.

Karen Donovan is the Senior Manager, Customer Data Platform Program at Stellantis. Stellantis is the merger of Fiat Chrysler organization (FCA) and Peugeot organization (PSA), owning fourteen automotive brands, including Fiat, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, RAM, Alfa Romeo, and Maserati. Donovan talked with Treasure Data CMO Tom Treanor about bringing data together to drive intelligence and improve the customer experience in the Digital Shift session, “How Unified Customer Data Fuels Customer Retention and Revenue Growth.”

Donovan’s team spends a lot of time thinking about the customer experience and how they can apply the data and intelligence they have to improve the experience. She said they work closely with IT on use cases for marketing, after-sales, and anywhere there is customer interaction to improve the journey.

Breaking Down Silos—Data and Teams

Hyundai wanted to establish an enterprise-wide global platform. The company had already leaned into data and platforms in the North American region for many years, but other regions were just getting started. Zepeda said it was a process of level setting and getting the best out of the tech platform. It was hard for the North American region to go backward and unravel some technology platforms to be on one enterprise platform. But the executive leadership pulled it together and built the roadmap to make it happen. Everyone may not get there at the same time, she said, but they will get there.

For Stellantis, the answer to breaking down data silos was a Customer Data Platform (CDP). About three years ago, the company wanted to reinvigorate its thinking around customer-centricity. Like most automotive companies, Stellantis has no shortage of data, but it was siloed. They needed to think about the entire value chain, including dealers and partners, and they needed a way to bring that data together.

In the last 18 months, Stellantis has developed nine classes of machine learning (ML) models in the Treasure Data CDP that helped them define things like who is in-market, who’s likely to buy (from the nameplate down to the VIN on a dealer’s inventory), and what services they want from dealers. These ML models currently support 25 different use cases across marketing, after-sales, and more.

But it wasn’t just about data silos; it was also about team silos. From the onset, Stellantis put together a cross-functional team from a leadership and working team standpoint, which helped everyone think more broadly than their individual silos.

Stellantis wasn’t the only automotive company rethinking the organizational structure.

Buying a Car Is a Cross-organization Affair

In the Digital Shift session, “Customer Centricity Goes Beyond Marketing,” Beth Mach, Chief Consumer Officer for TrueCar, shared how customer-centricity influences organizational changes. She said if you want a seamless and easy experience for your customers, you need to work and think in that capability. For TrueCar, that required changing not only the org structure but the organization’s mindset.

Mach said they put together enterprise teams that pulled people out of department silos, giving each team an enterprise perspective and responsibilities to ensure a consistent point of view. For example, they pulled research and insights, and the contact center out of marketing. In doing so, it changed the way people interacted, but also the product and the output, Mach said.

Donovan said that, like everyone else, Stellantis is also working on fostering the digital experience. But, at the same time, the dealers are still an essential part of the relationship with the customers. So they are working on how to bring the right experience forward and nurture the dealer experience.

To do that, Stellantis used the CDP to tie online and offline data together to help them understand the entire experience. With this unified view of the customer they were able to better understand why people were engaging and adjust how they interact with them.

Rethinking the Approach to Online Sales

In the Reuter’s panel discussion, “Push Marketing Boundaries,” Natanael Sijanta, Director Marketing Communications for Mercedes-Benz AG, said that old OEMs need to transform. He also said that some OEMs try to build experiences based on what worked in the past, and it’s not working. Instead, they need to focus on customers and their needs.

Dr. Gilbert Heise, Head of Brand Strategy at Volkswagen AG, made an important point: OEMs need to change from car producers to mobility companies. It’s not about the car anymore, it’s about the customer, and automotive companies need to rethink how they work.

Heise said OEMs are tech companies. Everything is now about software and data; you use data to improve the experience, which is especially true for new services like apps, activating features on demand, etc.

To help Mercedes-Benz AG align its messaging around the customer journey, Sijanta said they brought together press and marketing communications and started working with one global agency for all their needs. He also spoke about the need to store customer data securely.

TrueCar looks at the customer like the conductor in an orchestra. It’s critical to understand how they are navigating and not leave it to the consumer to guess what’s next. That, Mach said, requires a different dialog. She said they wanted the voice of the customer heard in surround sound through the organization. When working to create a frictionless experience for the customer, the dealer, and partners, this surround sound helped people ask questions before making assumptions on what to build.

Kim Costello, Chief Marketing Officer, Pendragon PLC, said in the Reuter’s Marketing Panel, retailers have great OEM relationships and both sides want the same things. But it can be challenging to align the messaging. The key, she said, is for everyone to work together to make it easy for the customer, whether they shop online, in-person, or using a hybrid approach.

Personalized messaging will be a necessity, and Costello said Pendragon is working to serve up specific messaging on their devices at exact times to drive better uptake. During the same Reuter’s Marketing Panel, Treasure Data CMO, Tom Treanor, talked about the need to share data. He described how Subaru’s marketing team was able to personalize messages and get a better response rate, while its sales team built ML models that determined propensity to buy, improving sales. Subaru was able to do these things because they built a data foundation powered by a smart CDP.

Redefining the Aftermarket Relationship

Costello said that the experience doesn’t end with the purchase. Her company, the second-largest motor retailer in the United Kingdom, engages the buyer and continues to help them throughout their ownership, including when they are ready to change vehicles.

Engagement after the sale was a common theme with all speakers and with the automotive industry overall. Stellantis developed use cases that focused on after-sales, including:

• Engaging with customers after the sale to establish the dealer relationship for service and maintenance requirements (e.g., what services are needed and when to maintain the vehicle).
• Designing go-to-market approaches to bring the customer back into the purchase process when they are ready to buy another vehicle.

Volkswagen AG provides in-car features on-demand, allowing the customer to test new features and then do a one-time purchase or subscription. For example, a driver is in a traffic jam and is drumming on the steering wheel, getting nervous. Leveraging data about the car, the traffic situation, and the driver, a message appears to test the ACC (automatic cruise control) system.

Sijanta explained that Mercedes-Benz AG alerts customers when they need to do something, like fix the brakes. They also provide showroom signage messages that get customers to think about other services they might need while waiting during a service call.

Another use case Donovan shared involved changing the amount of dynamic content in some communications when a customer is returning to the market. The team at Stellantis built models that helped them understand who to target and with what messages. Their CDP generates audiences and different treatments (one program has 1,000 variations in the messaging alone) to do this at scale.

Building a Connected Experience

Buying a car for many is the second biggest purchase after buying a house. For some, it’s the biggest purchase. It’s no small decision, and it’s no longer just about the car itself.

Treanor said consumers are buying more on experience than on the car, so executing a great experience—during the sale and long after—is critical. That experience is very much digital, but it’s also often in-person. It involves many players that must work together—OEM, dealer, partners—to deliver that experience.

Customers demand relevance; they don’t want to feel like a number. Data is going to help build that connected experience, whether it’s digital or in-person. It enables OEMs, dealers, and other industry participants to flex their creativity muscles and create moments of connection that customers crave across the entire customer lifecycle.

For more on how OEMs and dealerships are predicting and personalizing the car buying experience, watch Build Customer Centricity with Your Connected Vehicle Data.

The post Redefining the Automotive Industry Through Customer Centricity first appeared on Treasure Data.

If you’re a marketing leader or dealership manager, you know that understanding customers and their buying behavior is 90% of achieving higher sales results. But how can you devise auto sales and marketing strategies that work for each and every customer, at a scale and cost that is profitable?

Check out the following infographic to understand how car companies such as Subaru and Maruti Suzuki are already using proven, advanced digital marketing technology (martech) to accelerate both near-term profits and long-term digital transformation—to become truly data-driven auto businesses.

In the automotive industry, many factors affect the supply chain for cars worldwide. But on the demand side, what’s really holding the industry back is even harder to see and more difficult to fix: a lack of understanding of what customers want and how they want to buy cars now. Consider this:

• The average customer visits more than 24 car research sites
• Car companies typically use data from more than 200 different sources to better understand customers and their buying cycles
• Customers on average spend more than four weeks on vehicle purchase research, much of it online
• Only 8% of auto OEMs can fully use digital data to understand their customers and increase sales

“The ones who interpret digital data correctly—who can get a sense of who’s really in-market for a vehicle, and deliver a smooth buying experience—are going to be the ones who win.” —Senior Executive, OEM

But there is technology that can help: Customer Data Platforms (CDPs).

CDPs take customer data from a maze of different data sources from platforms customers use and turn that data into intelligence that helps car dealers improve customer journeys to sell more cars.

Here’s how CDPs drive sales and customer loyalty for OEMs and auto dealerships

• A CDP clears the road to sales by unifying customer data into a single customer view
• This allows OEMs and dealerships to provide a seamless customer experience across multiple channels—social, email, web experiences
• A shared view of each customer allows OEMs and dealerships to coordinate campaigns and deliver highly relevant and targeted messages
• A personalized post-purchase relationship drives customer loyalty, regular vehicle service and maintenance, and repeat purchases

How Maruti Suzuki Unified Customer Data to Boost Results

Maruti Suzuki recently used data to transform its sales processes, unifying data from many different silos to cut advertising costs, as well as improve car sales and add-ons to achieve these impressive results:

1. More than 200 data sources unified
2. About 1,100 dealerships were helped so they could increase sales
3. Advertising costs plummeted 34%

“We need to manage the customer conversation with consistency across our businesses and omnichannel journey—purchase, loyalty, insurance, accessories, finance—all of it. Treasure Data is the backbone to our customer centricity. It also helps us drive performance. It is changing the culture here.”—Noritaka Wakuda, Advisor & Leader for Digital Transformation, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.

These results are common for companies adopting CDPs. Using data to understand customers and gain new insights into their customer journeys works. Want to achieve better results in the omnichannel era? See how, at Treasure Data.

The post [Infographic] Hey, Auto Makers and Dealerships, Are You Stuck in the Digital Slow Lane? first appeared on Treasure Data.