Mobile Mania Article

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2 Dealer Marketing Magazine June 2011 Alex Rodrigues Mobile mania is officially here. It is not the future, it is now. And it’s going to dominate how dealerships interact and market to their customers. Already, 93 percent of the U.S. population has a mobile device, and 40 percent have smart phones or mobile web devices. At some point in 2013, more people will access the Internet using a mobile device than they will with a PC. In 2010, mobile web browsing jumped 32 percent while there was a 90 percent increase in mobile app users. Mobile Commerce The kicker is that people are using their mobile devices to conduct business – researching and shopping for products – including buying and selling products. Clearly, people are becoming more comfortable using their smart phones for various activities. People spend what amounts to 125 years daily playing the popular game Angry Birds. On eBay, a mobile transaction occurs every second; and recently, 72,000 burgers were sold in 72 hours via a Groupon coupon. According to a recent study conducted by Ipsos OTX on behalf of Google, 78 percent of smart phone owners use their phones for shopping. “It’s happening faster than all of our internal projections,” Google Chairman Eric Schmidt told attendees at the Interactive Advertisers Bureau Leadership Conference in April of this year. There are more than 200 million YouTube videos played on mobile devices daily, he notes. Investment firm Morgan Stanley estimates more than $119 billion in commerce will be conducted over mobile devices by 2015. Automotive Mobile Opportunity Numerous studies indicate much of that commerce will happen in automotive. A recent study by mobile ad platform GreyStripe shows that 78 percent of the people planning to buy a vehicle in the next 12 months will use some sort of touch smart web device (iPhone, iPod Touch, Android) during the purchase process. “Industry studies show approximately 17 percent of the U.S. mobile audience are ‘auto-intenders’ – people who will buy a new car over the next six months,” said Sean Wolfington, owner of www.Tier10Marketing.com. “With 20 million autointenders in the mobile universe and one of three of them using a mobile device at some point during their vehicle search process, car dealers need to capture this market.” Cars.com, which developed a mobile application four years ago, gets 18 percent of its traffic today from mobile devices. AutoTrader.com, meanwhile, is getting nearly a million hits a month with its mobile application. Traffic patterns indicate
3 Dealer Marketing Magazine June 2011 mobile users were most interested in finding vehicles for sale and locating a dealer, versus some of the more in-depth auto reviews and “research and compare” functionality. Like Cars.com, much of the traffic occurs on the weekends. According to the GreyStripe study, 48 percent of the people who say they will use a mobile webenabled device in their vehicle search will conduct initial research into vehicles; 44 percent will compare prices of different dealerships while on the lot; 32 percent will find a dealership using their mobile device; and 23 percent will actually use their mobile device to contact a dealership. Importance of Apps It’s not going to be enough for a dealer to have the mobile website or texting capabilities. Much of the interaction is going to come in the form of apps – compact software downloaded to the smart phone that performs specific tasks and is easy to use. There was 90 percent increase in app usage in 2010 and that number is only going higher. As of the fourth quarter 2010, 68 percent of smart phone owners used apps. The question for car dealers is how will they leverage mobile technology to market to and maintain relationships with their customers? At this early stage there are a few automotive mobile solutions providers who help manufacturers and retailers use mobile to attract, sell and retain more customers for less cost Content is copyrighted material of Tier10 Marketing. © Tier10 Marketing All rights reserved. infograph created by than traditional or internet marketing. The leading mobile solution providers in the industry today are CarFactor.com, GroupAutos.com, IntellaCar.com and DealerAppVantage.com. Using Mobile Solutions to Attract Consumers Some mobile apps help customers shop and are used by dealers to attract more leads and sales. Two popular apps that help customers in the car shopping process are Car Factor (www.Car-Factor.com) and GroupAutos.com (www.GroupAutos.com). As of April, Car Factor was the No. 1 most downloaded automotive app in the world. It has a four-star user rating, the highest consumer rating of any automotive app in the App Store. Using Car Factor, consumers can build and compare vehicles, view vehicle reviews and obtain pricing. Another app -- newly patented – GroupAutos.com, gives consumers the ability to scan the bar code on a vehicle’s MSRP sticker and get an instant guaranteed low price on every vehicle in the dealer’s inventory. “Dealers can advertise that they can provide Instant Guaranteed Low Price quotes in 60 seconds or less,” said Chad Collier, CEO of GroupAutos. com. GroupAutos.com has partnered with Affinity Development Group, Inc. (www.aagautogroup. com) which operates auto buying programs for 50+ million Costco, AAA and Navy Federal Credit Union members who bought more than 300,000 vehicles from 2,300 participating franchise dealers last year, more than any retailer in the world. Our auto buying programs offer attractive, pre-arranged pricing and deliver in-market purchasers with a 45% closing rate within 72 hours of first meeting with our exclusive, local participating dealer. We believe that GroupAutos. com’s patented mobile pricing app can significantly shorten the time it takes our members to drive off with their new car,” said Jeff Skeen, Affinity’s CEO. “We are working with Affinity to build an exclusive national dealer network of 3,500+ participating franchise dealers for GroupAutos.com’s customers to be able to instantly see GroupAutos.com’s Guaranteed Low Price while standing in front of the exact car they want to buy”, stated Chad Collier.
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