Crazy thought? I think not. Let’s look at what’s happened in the U.S. automotive industry over the last few years. In the pre-recession days of 2007, U.S. car sales totaled 16.1 million vehicles. In 2008 that number dropped to 13.2 million, then in 2009 to 10.4 million. A 35% drop in two years. That’s enough to create a recession on its own.
Between the corporate bail outs, tightening of credit, pay cuts and job losses, Americans had many excuses not to buy new cars. But surveys showed the number one reason they stopped buying was out of fear. This fear, combined with the new realization that buying a new car every three to four years was a luxury, not a necessity. R.L. Polk statistics indicate over the few short years, the average age of “vehicles in operation” went from 8.4 years to 11 years.
So where are we today, at the beginning of 2013? Analysts presume Americans will buy or lease around 15.3 million vehicles by December 31st, 2013 — up even more than the 14.5 million rebound in 2012. Certainly we’re seeing the results of pent up demand, but there’s something even more important occurring. We’re experiencing a market adjustment to reasonable car sales.
In the past, consumers have been enticed to trade in t
heir current vehicle for a new vehicle regardless of equity. Financial institutions made it easy to take the unpaid balance due from a current vehicle and carry it over to the new vehicle loan. The term in the industry is that the consumer was “buried” in their trade (owing more than it was worth) so the balance would be carried over to the next loan. This became a car buyer’s “drug fix” in that it provided the opportunity to buy a new car before the typical lender would say it made sense. This carryover from one vehicle to the next was becoming an easy way to drive a brand new car every few years, regardless of what was owed.
What is being “righted” in this market adjustment is a reasonably healthy turnover of cars that most likely should be exchanged for newer ones. Ones that get much better gas mileage (even non-hybrids). Ones much safer to drive. Ones that require less maintenance. Ones that have great financing plans, allowing many people to drive newer, safer, more fuel friendly cars than what they have been driving for the same monthly costs. Simply stated, new car purchases that make sense for them.
And yet, consumers will only make this move if they have confidence in the economy. At least enough to replace car payments that could be finished in the next year with newer car payments that commit them to another 5 years. Confidence in the economy is the number one factor in car purchases. Period.
What’s the best way to win advocates for your brand? TRUST. What’s the best way to win trust? Be helpful. What’s the best way to be helpful? Give consumers useful information they wouldn’t expect to get free. Information that will save them time, save them money, make them smarter, make them happier, make them feel better about themselves – and you.
Since its inception, the Nordstrom brand has centered around being helpful, right? Like a phone call telling you they remembered you were looking for shoes to go with the suit you bought last month, and they just got the perfect pair in. Or how about the American Express openforum.com, a free website with tons of information that claims huge success in helping business owners succeed. Oh, and its content contributors are donating their brains and talent at no charge to American Express.
It’s easy to talk about big brands like these, but how about the success some smaller brands are enjoying due to their helpfulness? Like Kellogg Garden Products, with a website full of gardening tips from soil calculators to fun kid gardening activities. Their website Analytics show a huge percentage of visitors time being spent on the pages they’ve built simply to be helpful, and their brand recognition confirms this.
Big or small, these brands understand they must give in order to receive. Paying it forward may end up being the most successful marketing mantra for the 21st Century. The question is, is your brand ready?
We knew informat
ion overload would become a deterrent to the online world, just maybe not so fast. After all, the concept of being able to talk to (and hear from) almost everybody in our universe has been so exciting the past few years that the number of friends, followers, likes, retweets, blog comments, etc. created a lot of egomaniacs trying to win popularity contests. No more. Statistics show many people are now spending more time unfriending others on Facebook than they are sending friend requests. Another report says there is as much unfollowing as following going on in the Twittersphere. Not to mention emails, RSS feeds and blog posts that are being ignored more than ever. Let’s face it. It only took a few years for us to be over the excitement of this new technology that connects everyone, everywhere, 24 hours a day.
That’s why the new buzz terms are desired relevance and quality engagement. Larry Page always said his dream was to develop the “perfect search”, meaning someone would type in a couple of keywords and only one Google search result would appear because it was exactly what that person was looking for. That’s a great example of relevance and quality engagement, isn’t it? Hopefully that’s what they’re trying to accomplish with Google+, the 10,000 pound gorilla’s latest attempt to overpower Facebook. Watch a demo and see how one of Google+’s core benefits is focusing in on quality over quantity engagement. Google understands how quickly we have become fed up with TMI (too much information), and it appears they’re trying to offer an alternative that at least moves information overload into smaller buckets. We say good luck with that Google, but hey, at least they’re trying.
Yet the biggest challenge with achieving quality over quantity experiences is how the powers of the online world will most likely get there. We want relevance, so they need to know more about us. This is why search engines and websites are developing even creepier Big Brother tools to watch and respond to our every move. The more apparent this becomes, the more we complain. The powers that be say we’re spoiled; that we want to have our cake and eat it to. We say there’s got to be a better way. While that battle will take some time before it’s resolved, the average individual’s impatience with information overload is ready to explode. Which is why we at Brandtailers foresee the next group of genius geeks will be those who can take a person’s way-too-big to be useful anymore world, and hone it back down into something meaningful, useful and, most of all, enjoyable.
