+ All Categories
Home > Documents > What makes car club marketing successful? Car clubs and the ...

What makes car club marketing successful? Car clubs and the ...

Date post: 12-Feb-2017
Category:
Upload: phungtruc
View: 218 times
Download: 1 times
Share this document with a friend
8
Marketing What makes car club marketing successful? One of the themes in the Developing Car Clubs England Programme is evaluating what makes marketing a car club successful. In this context marketing is much more than advertising. It’s the complete marketing mix and how different elements in the car club context interact to ensure that car clubs can sustain their business model. Car clubs and the marketing mix The marketing mix applies to car clubs as it does to practically everything. However it is probably useful to think of the different elements with respect to the target market. For the programme, we looked at the following issues: Product The car club model is (to some extent) standard, but are there tweaks that clubs are using to help make it more attractive? Price Pricing has to cover costs, but how keen is the price sensitivity of the market? Does the price need to be very stable or flexible with demand? Is price used to control consumption? What is the impact of promotional offers? Place What is the proximity to the target market? It's a fair assumption that the easier car club cars are to access, the more attractive they are - but they need to be situated near the target demographic. Does the density of cars on the ground make a difference? Does the visibility of the cars make a difference? Promotion What types of media work to promote car clubs? From adverts (on street furniture) to leaflets and social media. People Who are the people involved in signing up new members to the club, booking and trouble shooting? How does that affect take up for the target market? Process How easy is it to sign up and use the club? Physical evidence What is the role of personal experiences, stories, feedback and engagement in the club?
Transcript
Page 1: What makes car club marketing successful? Car clubs and the ...

Marketing

What makes car club marketing successful? One of the themes in the Developing Car Clubs England Programme is evaluating what makes marketing a car club successful. In this context marketing is much more than advertising. It’s the complete marketing mix and how different elements in the car club context interact to ensure that car clubs can sustain their business model.

Car clubs and the marketing mix The marketing mix applies to car clubs as it does to practically everything. However it is probably useful to think of the different elements with respect to the target market. For the programme, we looked at the following issues: Product The car club model is (to some extent) standard, but are there tweaks that clubs are using to help make it more attractive?

Price Pricing has to cover costs, but how keen is the price sensitivity of the market? Does the price need to be very stable or flexible with demand? Is price used to control consumption? What is the impact of promotional offers?

Place What is the proximity to the target market? It's a fair assumption that the easier car club cars are to access, the more attractive they are - but they need to be situated near the target demographic. Does the density of cars on the ground make a difference? Does the visibility of the cars make a difference?

Promotion What types of media work to promote car clubs? From adverts (on street furniture) to leaflets and social media.

People Who are the people involved in signing up new members to the club, booking and trouble shooting? How does that affect take up for the target market?

Process How easy is it to sign up and use the club?

Physical evidence What is the role of personal experiences, stories, feedback and engagement in the club?

Page 2: What makes car club marketing successful? Car clubs and the ...

Norfolk car club has:

• grown by 36% in 8 months

• added 25 members per month in 2015

Knowing the car club demographic Whilst the car club model should have a wide group of users, sustainability depends on achieving good take up in a core group.

Successfully targeting people who are likely to become members in the first instance can give the club sufficient momentum to be sustainable – which then allows the target market to be broadened.

Mosaic profiling for the Carplus Annual Survey 2014-15 and the experience of car clubs in the Programme indicates that the biggest uptake of membership is among urban, well-educated and generally younger professionals enjoying city life, with a smaller but consistent group of older home owners with good access to amenities.

It’s possible to target marketing once you have a known demographic. Knowing your members (and potential members) also means that clubs can tailor the product, placing, price and processes to suit them.

Examples from experience The first projects in the DCCE programme launched early in 2015 with others launching throughout the year. The body of experience is growing but the main examples are drawn from Norfolk Car Club. Norfolk is taken as an example because the club has a good track record of exemplary marketing and excellent monitoring to quantify its impact.

The club was established six years ago, and built an initial membership base before its successful bid for expansion funding under the DCCE programme.

Over the first eight months of the programme, between January and August 2015, Norfolk car club has grown by 36% and growth is accelerating as the network of cars and associated marketing activity is growing.

Having steady, predictable growth enables the club to make good projections and maintain a sustainable business model. Key elements of the business model include:

• costing and pricing to achieve sustainability for each vehicle at 4 hours of bookings per day • tailoring other elements of marketing to achieve at least this level of bookings • maintaining a daily watch on the website analytics and evaluating all marketing impacts in relation to

traffic on the site • correlating website traffic with membership take up so that good projections can be made

The bottom line is that average spend per membership is £600 per year and the average length of a membership is 5 years, so it's easy to project turnover and assess the value of marketing activities and whether they are cost effective.

Currently Norfolk Club is adding 25 members a month by targeting its key demographic through publicity and promotions which drive traffic to its website. Many of the new vehicles are sustainable within days of launch.

Page 3: What makes car club marketing successful? Car clubs and the ...

Tailoring the product, place and price to suit the target demographic Norfolk Car Club has found that - like the overall car club demographic - its core market is urban so much of its activity is focussed on central Norwich. In addition, they are well-educated and generally professional people. The bulk of members fall between 27 and 57 (although proportion of 19 - 27 year olds is increasing after a recent change in the price structure). The majority of members could afford to run a car but they prefer not to – they save money and avoid the hassles of car ownership: parking, maintenance, insurance and MOTs by joining the car club. To meet the needs of these people the club has tailored its offer in various ways.

The 'product' The club offers a mix of vehicles that are modern, clean and attractive – replaced at least every 3 years.

Surveying preferences on cars and sizes in Norfolk showed that small cars are well liked by members. However the new vans are among the most booked vehicles in the club.

Place Norwich Car Club has targeted city centre residential areas with these demographics for car club bays to ensure that the car club bays are sited where these people live.

“We had a flurry of interest when our cars arrived in the Golden Triangle in central Norwich”

Price This involves setting the price to provide the right kind of service. In Norfolk, many new members are giving up a car, so the car club has prioritised stable costs and a price structure to maximise the availability of cars.

The car club prices have remained stable and are the same for all members.

The cost per mile is slightly higher than comparable clubs but it means cars are only used for as long as they’re needed and their availability is good.

The club has changed its pricing structure so that new members do not need to pay a £250 deposit. Since this change, the number of younger people joining has increased.

Process For car clubs this means the website, booking system and key. Car club members tend to have a high use of smartphones – so mobile friendly websites and apps are essential for providing booking facilities.

Since redesigning the Norfolk Car Club website to be more user (and mobile) friendly the traffic has increased from 10-15 visits per day to, on average, around a hundred.

Page 4: What makes car club marketing successful? Car clubs and the ...

Key messages These are the core messages that will attract your target demographic. For Norfolk the most important messages for Norwich city centre professionals struggling with parking, congestion and a busy lifestyle are:

• Save money • Easy parking • Convenient: Available 24/7 365 days per year

Residential users were the first target group for Norfolk Car Club, particularly young, well educated urban professionals living in central Norwich.

To increase the amount of time these cars are in use, the second target group consists of city centre businesses which will hire cars during working hours. The key messages and marketing activities are slightly different for this group and include:

• Free driving (promotional offer of up to £250 driving credit for each business - £25 per user) • Save money • Convenience - all cars have a parking space and an all zones parking permit • Ensuring health and safety / fulfilling employers' duty of care to employees • Some general awareness raising messages around air quality and nitrogen dioxide emissions

The third target group will be people living in outlying areas. travelling into Norwich using the Holdall card and recipients of the ‘Passport to Norwich’ mailing.

Promotion Promotion is the most visible component of marketing. The most successful elements of car club promotion combines broader awareness raising components and targeted initiatives aimed closely at the people who match the car club demographic.

Broad information General information about the concept, benefits and provision of car clubs can be provided using public relations (using the media to get the message out), widespread leafleting and events.

"Our profile in the local press, radio and television is really a result of the drip drip drip effect.

We've been building up a relationship over the past six years by contacting the press about everything we do.

We press release every funding success, new vehicle, event and initiative. It helps that we have had a lot of good news.

Now we regularly feature in the local press and now make the BBC and ITV news slots once or twice a year when we have important developments"

Page 5: What makes car club marketing successful? Car clubs and the ...

Targeted promotion

Leaflets A series of very local mail drops in the streets surrounding each new car installation .

These have a really direct impact on sign ups. The key is that they're tailored - with a picture of the actual car in situ just after it is delivered - and on good quality paper so they survive being posted through letterboxes and look good!

The leaflet drop is repeated after two week and then again if the new car is in a completely new area.

Facebook There are two elements to this.

Firstly it's important to have a Facebook page which is kept up to date and linked to the club website. This includes adding posts and activity regularly - for instance linking to all press mentions and announcing all new cars or events - so that the page has good quality content and pictures.

Secondly, use Facebook advertising.

Facebook is an easy and cheap way of promoting the car club. It’s now a very popular medium, and popular with the target demographic.

One of the best features of Facebook advertising is that it possible to target very closely.

This includes being able to ensure that your page is promoted to people locally.

So for example for Norfolk Car Club the following group has been a good target:

• aged 21-65+ • male and female • graduate upward • living in Norwich

Total: 89,000

Sample demographic targeting (Carplus page)

Page 6: What makes car club marketing successful? Car clubs and the ...

Boosting a post to people falling within those demographics means that 20-30,000 relevant people will see the Club’s post (depending on

spend).

This is best done at weekends - Friday to Sunday evening with Sunday

morning the busiest.

The results depend on what the ‘call to action’ is – people are

usually given a link to get information about how to join or to click on the website.

More often than not, people prefer to go to the website first.

Making it all work together The Norfolk Car Club was featured in an ITV news item. A link to the piece was shared on the Norfolk Car Club Facebook page and the post 'boosted' – including a ‘join’ icon on video and at end. This post had 202,000 views and 13 shares which successfully spread the word very widely. There was also a peak in website views with over 1,200 people looking at the website the day the club featured.

Signposting all vehicle bays with information All car club bays are marked with white lines, and each bay has a signpost with joining information and a promotional offer (free membership). The Carplus Annual Survey found that

38% of new car club members discovered their car club after seeing a

car club vehicle on the street

Promotions The Club offers either free drive time or free membership (value £25) as a promotional incentive. There's not much difference in take up with a third of new members joining with free drive time, a third with free membership and a third with no promotion.

It seems that some promotional incentive helps but the most important factor is getting the right publicity and marketing.

Page 7: What makes car club marketing successful? Car clubs and the ...

The Carplus Annual survey indicates that

19% of members

found out about their car club via

the internet

Evaluating The most direct way to evaluate marketing is to monitor traffic on the website and simply watch whether hits on the website go up when a marketing strategy is deployed.

It's easy to see the source of certain visits - for instance direct from Facebook.

Google analytics Google analytics are free (for simple reports). They are very simple to use. Start by going to https://www.google.co.uk/analytics/standard/.

A standard report for your website will look like this:

You can also see where traffic has come from by looking at ‘Acquisition’.

For the Norfolk Car Club, general marketing - including regular Facebook advertising - averages 100 visits per day. Of 100 visitors a third are returning and two thirds are new – so 60 or so new visitors.

For each 60 or so new visitors the club would expect one new member.

There is a consistent conversion rate from the number of people using the website - no matter where they come from and predictable bookings that correlate with that as well.

This spikes with specific activities eg:

• from door to door leaflet delivery (biggest spike 800) and • TV news (biggest spike 1,200), • newspaper article (biggest spike 400) • Modest spike for radio ads

"We're at a point where for every hundred visits to the website we get a new sign up. It's become so consistent that I see the job of marketing as driving up

these visits, whether by using Facebook advertising and activity, leaflets, events or through press coverage."

Page 8: What makes car club marketing successful? Car clubs and the ...

Stories, representatives and other 'physical evidence' Norfolk Car Club maintains a small database of people who are prepared to speak to the media, have their photos taken or volunteer at events. They were invited to join this list by email. They weren't offered an incentive but the Club does thank people when they help out with some free driving time. Their help gives the club authority and helps people identify with it.

Member get member or refer a friend Every new member of the Norfolk Car Club gets a wallet of 'member get member' promotional cards.

But the club has found is that where there are only one or two cars in an area, people are reluctant to recruit others who might then ‘book my car’. Cars in more rural locations are particularly prone to this!

Once there are 3-4 cars in an area, however, there is a lot more activity through member get member referrals.

The marketing mix As the programme progresses, more case studies and examples will be added. Not all will be applicable to all clubs or situations, however, whatever the circumstances, it's important to look at the target market, the key messages and all the elements of the marketing mix.

Three key things to remember

Tracking It's essential to be able to track the impact of activities - looking at website traffic, membership sign ups and bookings in relation to each event, leaflet drop or press article.

Trialling Trialling different activities is essential. Some initiatives will be successful and others will, inevitably, fail. Norfolk, for instance, had no success with paid advertising in the local press and will not repeat this.

Repeating Keep repeating the successful activities. The general marketing rule of thumb is that people have six points of contact with a product before they buy into it. If one person joins as a result of a marketing activity, there will probably be more people almost ready to join that have seen it. Repeat it!

October 2015

www.carplus.org.uk

For more information on the Developing Car Clubs in England Programme: http://www.carplus.org.uk/projects/car-club-programme-england/


Recommended