1to1 Magazine - November/December 2008 - (Page 11) best practices In Social Overdrive Automakers are taking a new community-based, customer-first approach to selling cars. t “Sales is important, of Designed in part to appeal course, but how we sell to the 150 nationwide Scion cars and the experience owners’ clubs “that we’re that we deliver to our aware of,” the “United” owners is also important.” campaign has now expanded to print ads and billboards that list a given owner’s first name and last initial, “placed in relative proximity to where the owner resides,” Ahmed says. As for ROI, she says, “sales is important, of course, but how we sell cars and the experience that we deliver to our owners is also important. We could have done a campaign that just featured the customized cars, but we wanted to involve the customers as well.” Meanwhile, Ford is making a new commitment to social media by naming Scott Monty as its first-ever global digital and multimedia communications manager (or “head of social media,” as he prefers). While Ford has experimented with social media in the past, Monty says the creation of his five-person team by CMO Jim Farley indicates the company’s commitment to “being a leader in digital communities within the next five years.” Ford recognizes that social media is a force to be reckoned with. “I’m looking to find the best ways to communicate with people in both a push and a pull manner,” Monty says. Monty explains that his team’s outreach “will be much more than just churning out content. It’s about listening to what customers and potential customers are saying around the brand. The digital space gives us another way to share our story with them, and to see what they’re interested in, and to try and make them into brand ambassadors on our behalf.” Dachis’ Kim says the analogy to these new social media czars is the chief digital officer at the ad agencies. “Three to four years ago they realized that digital is real and they needed to get their chops in order,” Kim says. Kim also emphasizes that automakers must realize that the new reality is to construct a dialogue, not a one-way message. “There are now so many choices, brands, makes, and models,” he says. “You can hire a social media director and do social outreach, but unless your product is more connected to the customers’ needs and wants, aren’t we just going back to Henry Ford and the Model T?” > Kevin Zimmerman he automobile industry in the United States—beleaguered by years of declining sales—is increasingly turning to a previously underexploited strategy: customer friendliness. “When you think about the auto industry in the past, you think of the Model T and Henry Ford and the idea of ‘You build it and they will come,’” says Peter Kim, senior partner at analysis firm Dachis Corp. “You know: ‘Do you want it in black, or in black?’ It was about products, not necessarily marketing. They’re cost-driven businesses, and they look at things like whether they achieve more efficiency by using the same engine for different product lines.” Automakers can no longer take that approach, however, and are increasingly turning to customer outreach initiatives as a means of better communicating with—instead of at—existing and potential buyers. General Motors, for example, features seven corporate blogs on one website, GMblogs.com, and recently launched another, GMnext.com, designed to promote the company’s future as it celebrates its 100th anniversary. Ford, Chrysler, and Toyota are also using community-oriented tools to better understand consumer sentiment and position their products more effectively. One of the more successful recent ventures has been that of Toyota’s Scion division. The Scion line, founded in 2003 to appeal to Generation Y consumers, has had great success with its “United by Individuality” brand campaign, according to corporate brand manager Dawn Ahmed. The campaign began with a handful of television commercials focused on a few actual owners to help personalize Toyota Scion’s the Scion brand. “Now we “United by Individuality” have over 600,000 units in brand campaign is trying to operation,” Ahmed says. “Scion has become such a appeal to Generation Y. community-based brand that we wanted the opportunity to showcase how strong our community has become.” Showing off how owners have customized their Scions is the key. “Personalization has been a foundation of the brand since it launched,” Ahmed says. “We wanted to show our owners a little love by celebrating them at the local level and helping to bring them together as people who are passionate about the brand.” www.1to1media.com November/December 2008 11 http://www.GMblogs.com http://www.GMnext.com http://www.1to1media.com/view.aspx?ItemID=29293 http://www.1to1media.com
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