When trying to decide where you will center your marketing and advertising campaigns do not ignore your most valuable target, this is your current customer list contained in your DMS. If you study this list carefully you will begin to see critical areas in defining new markets. Below are some key market segments to consider:
1. Customer’s gender – It is no secret today that women have become a major purchasing force within the automotive sector. You don’t have to look too far to see how much and how often auto manufacturers are targeting women in their television advertising. In today’s new recessionary world, vehicle manufacturers consider women to be 50 percent of the new car market, and they also consider woman to be more involved with family vehicle purchases and repairs, meaning that woman make up more than 50 percent of the decisions pertaining to purchases and decisions affecting fixed operations.
2. Customer’s age - Why would you want to target a specific age group for purchases or servicing? Many excellent reasons include but are not limited to: their ability to pay. Your older customers tend to perform more preventive maintenance and repairs associated with keeping the vehicle running in top shape. Younger drivers are more apt to install accessories and in certain instances cannot afford to maintain the vehicle. Therefore younger customers tend to perform the most basic of servicing, like oil changes only! Don’t judge a book by its cover when it comes to age. A study done in 1998 by the aftermarket segment concluded that older drivers with stable incomes spend more money on maintenance and repairs then their younger counterparts.
3. Customer’s income level - This should be one of your highest priority target market segments. Drivers earning higher incomes drive high end types of vehicles, they perform more regular services and repairs. As a general rule of thumb this class of customers don't mind paying for value and quality. One cautionary note, this group is much more selective and they normally demand an exceptional servicing experience coupled with value, ease of service and quality. Middle and lower income drivers are far more likely to own vehicles out of warranty and need to keep the family car in road-worthy condition longer, this provides you with a large segment that you must market VALUE ADDED servicing to keep them within your sphere of servicing influence.
4. Customer’s family circumstances – Your customer’s marital status, the size of their family and the ages of their children play an important role in their vehicle purchases and their servicing ability. In today’s fast paced world, larger families ussually have more vehicles within any given household. Parents and teenagers each need repairs and servicing, many families remain loyal to one repair or servicing dealership. Market to these families as VIP families, offering benefits to this segment.
5. Demographic and geographic location – When studying purchasing and servicing trends, historically the dealership location has been the first mark of walk-in business success. Today the tech savvy mobile diverse customer has evolved to the point where location is not as important as price, added value, dealer repair quality and dealership reputation. You no longer have to restrict your markets to within a one- or two-mile radius of the dealership. Today’s consumers will go the extra mile to find truly unique value added purchasing and service experience.
6. Deciding where to concentrate on marketing – Track your current customers, break down your results into categories that you can quantify. Multiple vehicle households, woman, high income earners and middle class families, target each with different campaigns to increase your floor traffic. Offer incentives to each different category to draw them in the door. The object of your marketing is to keep your name in front of your customers all year long, offering them a reason to continue to do business with you.
If you keep your name front and center, you give your customers no reason to go anywhere else, providing you are giving them an exceptional customer experience. When you continuously offer your complete customer base an exceptional experience, these customers you currently service will ultimately begin to market for you by telling friends, co-workers and family members how great you are. What better way to market your business then to receive continuous FREE 24/7 marketing?
David
