What consumers want

It has been a breathless start to the year at motors.co.uk as we prepare for a burst of TV advertising.  The campaign will be conducted in a single region (Yorkshire) to allow us to test various concepts from creative through to sales and account management.

We are very excited by the creative we are set to roll-out and believe that it will have the dual impact of immediately increasing traffic and response, as well as increasing brand awareness of motors.co.uk.  As the UK’s second largest used car advertising network, recognition of the brand is too low despite it’s significant audience.  This creates a huge opportunity to build from our significant inventory and traffic levels to provide consumers with a fresh, trusted brand.

What has fascinated me most has been the insight from interrogating the consumer’s behaviour and emotions in used car search.  In addition to analysing our own search data and performing online surveys, we got to hear from a number of individuals in focus groups.

These groups revealed how imperfect the process is and the underlying nervousness in making a purchase.  Buying a car should be an exciting experience, and consumers do tend to feel an air of anticipation.  However, most of us aren’t petrol heads and so naturally suspect that we’re going to be “done over” in any deal.  The perceived information asymmetry between a dealer and a regular consumer is enormous.

Most consumers don’t understand how thin the margin is on a used car and suspect that they are paying hundreds or thousands of pounds more than the car is worth.  I believe the market could go further in increasing transparency in the process to provide people with confidence.  Personally, I enjoyed my purchase from Car Giant because I knew that I wouldn’t have to suffer the ignominy of a failed negotiation in front of my wife (flexing my muscles slightly as I buffed off a paint protector upsell).

Throughout the research, we discovered that consumers are underserved by the internet.  By that, I mean that the lack of confidence translates into a propensity to visit multiple sites (portal, review and dealer own) to arm themselves with as much information as possible.  (But even then, consumers don’t fully understand what they are being presented -  AutoTrader was frequently perceived as only having private ads, one person even expressed surprise that the price on AutoTrader was the same as the dealer’s (even though they were the same car))

Consequently, we found that although the first place people tend to look for a used car is online, 80% of people visit more than one website in the process (see the chart below).  As a dealer, this means that media spend across a network of sites is fundamental to capture response. 

Our target market tends to be consumers who are looking for more confidence in the car buying process, trying to form an opinion of their own without being rail-roaded by a friend or relative who is a petrol head (though this person tends to be taken along to help inspect the car and complete the purchase).  Therefore, we have a job to do to empower the consumer to allow them to find the selection of cars relevant to the search, regardless of whether they know exactly what make or model to start with. 

The TV campaign has been a shot of adrenaline for me in my capacity as a (wannabe) marketeer.  Brand is so easily taken for granted (and ignored), but I have realised through this process that as motors.co.uk we have the chance to show everyone that buying a used car really isn’t that scary and certainly not the domain of petrol heads only.