British Motor Show - Brand Experience Opportunity Lost?

As the latest biannual Motor Show held at London's ExCeL drew to a close at the weekend, reviews and reaction from the public and within the industry have tried to evaluate the success of the show. Held for the second time at the docklands venue since it moved from the NEC in Birmingham the show was preceded by no small amount of controversy over location, hype and many manufacturers taking time to commit.

So what did we at NKD make of the show?

The show’s world stage credentials were enhanced by launches from Ford, Honda, Lotus, Nissan, Renault, Seat, Subaru and Vauxhall. With the addition of many brands having concept cars on show, two of the industry’s key ingredients for gravitas were met.
 
It was therefore disappointing that not all brands were represented – notable absentees included BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, Skoda, Fiat and Volvo. The combined total of customers and prospective customers of these brands represent a significant percentage of the car buying public. So, perhaps a bigger opportunity for those that were there!
 
It was great to see the interactive dimensions to the show offered by the brands who presented in the outside entertainment arenas, offering a combination of exhibition driving and in some cases to be driven in exhilarating circumstances. Brands that stood out here were Honda in particular but also Mazda, Land Rover, Peugeot and Vauxhall.
 
However, other than these welcome efforts by these brands to say more about themselves and offer more than static display, evidence of brand differentiation was scarce. From stand to stand - outside of Corporate Identity differences, variations in look and feel were minimal and no brand really communicated or demonstrated their core values, key messages or ownership experience propositions. Operationally, the vast majority of customer interaction was traditionally managed through outsourced trained teams who focus on courtesy, product knowledge and transactional data capture and far less if at all on any brand messages. The parallels are strong with the reality of customer interaction in dealerships everyday.
 
The challenge for car brands in today’s marketplace – at motor shows as it is in dealerships - is to drive distinctive ownership experiences and loyalty through characteristic employee behaviours that are rooted in employee engagement.  The big prizes to be won as a result are above average customer loyalty, employee loyalty and significantly higher levels of profitability.
 
At NKD we combine extensive automotive industry expertise with our insights to employee engagement and leadership development to provide bespoke communication and training solutions that deliver measurable improvements in customer loyalty and profitability.