The automotive industry is no different from any other sector when it comes to the rapid changes in digital marketing trends. It might even be faster. Vehicle manufacturers are continuously producing new models, and car retailers must keep up with demand.
The largest changes in trends, though, are in how people discover you. Nowadays, people conduct research online at every stage of the purchasing process. To learn what marketing strategies are effective in the automotive sector, watch out the conversation between the Women Entrepreneurs team and CharuKishnani below.
As a long-time employee of CarDekho, how would you describe your journey from Product & SEO Head to Senior Vice President Marketing?
My roles as a Product & SEO Head and later as SVP Marketing helped me gain tremendous industry knowledge. Having the expertise in the Car Industry and how it functions allowed me to transition smoothly into a marketing role. I also had a natural inclination toward marketing.
I am grateful to our co-founders Mr. Amit Jain and Mr. Anurag Jain for having the faith in me and allowing me to spearhead the marketing department. Marketing is where I feel I have had the most significant impact. I am intrigued by the constantly evolving world of marketing. Having prior experience in other roles helped me to a great extent for succeeding in marketing.
Overall, my time here at CarDekho has been surreal. I still wake up each day with the same zeal and desire, looking forward to the challenges at work as I did on Day 1. This is what I absolutely love about my role as a marketer - the constant change and innovation required.
The pandemic compelled a digital shift, breaking the old dealership marketing model. As a Senior Vice President of Marketing for CarDekho, what marketing strategy did you employ to keep the business on track?
The pandemic posed a huge challenge for us, as I am sure it did for most businesses.
We had to rethink our marketing strategy. The initial few months were quite difficult, but as things started opening, business revived. The focus naturally shifted more towards digital than the traditional forms of marketing.
We witnessed a behavioural change - more and more people wanted personal mobility for increased safety. During peak Covid waves, a major chunk of the transactions was happening right from people's homes. We offered home inspections and home test drives, driving up the sales.
Lately, our communication has been around trust. It can be seen in our #BharosaKarKeDekho Campaign for CarDekho and InsuranceDekho. CarDekho's 'Sapna Re' Ad featuring Akshay Kumar and InsuranceDekho's 'SukoonKe Pal' Ad featuring Farhan Akhtar - both have garnered fantastic response from our audience.
CarDekho as a brand is built around complete transparency and trust. This has only been made possible with the combined efforts of all the teams together. The level of service and support offered to customers is simply unmatched.
How do automobile companies market their products and services? What are the most contemporary marketing strategies used in the automobile industry? Please include some of the most current and successful marketing tools accessible.
Automobile companies follow a balanced approach with a good mix of both ATL and BTL activities. The reason being the vast audience that the industry caters to. Automobile companies target customers across demographics and geographies.
Buying a vehicle is also an extremely emotional decision in India. Most people spend anywhere between 30-45 days in doing their research before purchasing a vehicle. Due to this factor, there is also a lot of psychographic segmentation that OEMs do. An effort is made to give an identity and personality to each vehicle.
How will a particular car/bike make the final customer feel? That is one of the most important questions to be answered. If any automotive company can convey this aspect clearly in their marketing communications, then it is bound for success (provided they have a genuinely good product).
Contemporary Marketing Strategies are centered around enabling a customer to experience the vehicle as much as they can in a digital environment before purchasing it.
What are the Marketing Trends and Strategies to adopt in the coming decades?
Conversational Marketing has started getting a big push thanks to AI and ML. I feel it will be the biggest trend in the upcoming decade. Other trends include a highly personalized content experience. Short-form video content will also see an exponential rise in consumption and subsequently help companies with conversions.
I see Influencer Marketing continuing to play a key role for contemporary companies and brands. It will transition from being a trend to a common marketing tactic. Marketers also must embrace data with infographics.
Why is Digital Marketing essential for the automotive industry? How can Automotive Industry Benefit from Digital Marketing?
Automotive market is an extremely competitive landscape and today's savvy consumers do a thorough research before taking any decision. It therefore becomes important to reach the right consumer with the right message at the right time. Digital helps us create awareness, build 'Bharosa' and move the consumer down the funnel in a cost effective way.
Tell us about the initiatives you spearheaded that benefited the businesses.
We’ve done several campaigns this year the biggest one being our brand film for buying and selling used cars. In the campaign titled ‘Sapna re’, CarDekho has highlighted its promise of realising every middle-class Indian’s dream of owning a car. The campaign with its new tagline ‘BharosaKarkeDekho’ is based on the thought that you need to honour the trust of your loved ones to make their dreams come true. Along with the brand film, we had also launched a 360-degree campaign across outdoor, digital and radio mediums to drive home the message of ‘BharosaKarKeDekho’.
We have also carried out a lot of digital activities across different mediums like Youtube, Facebook, Googleand seen a significant growth in our numbers. Most of our campaigns have been contextual and regional and all about getting the right messaging across.
