Long term rental in the automotive industry: digital tools and strategies to create a lead generation campaign. Varius Project case study

Abstract

From its inception until today, the automotive industry has always been in constant evolution: economic recession and recovery, conflict and peace, energy crisis and demographic shifts, the space race and start-up culture. All have had a role in the way this industry thinks about and has approached to design, production, distribution, partnerships, and customer interaction. Today, the industry is facing a powerful new shaping force that is moving nearly every aspect of modern business from analog to digital. The starting point of this work is the car industry: the industrial sector par excellence. The analysis begins with an in-depth look at the context, which examines: the evolution, the organizational structure, the main players and the trends of the industry. My work will focus on long-term rental service: vehicles owned by a rental company that are maintained, serviced and insured by them; and underlines the differences with the property, the benefits and trends. The long-term rental is a very powerful sector that has developed in recent years both in companies where managers entrust the fleet to specialized companies, as well as private individuals who still represent an unexplored target. The Automotive sector, consumers and the digital world represent the leitmotif that guides this exploration. The thesis deepens the dynamics of traditional marketing spread in the industry and shows how the marketing levers have changed over time in relation to the crises of the sector that have led to a marked change in the consumer's buying behaviour: today increasingly careful and informed. The work emphasises the potentialities of the online world and of the social media, by introducing the lead generation technique: a way to acquire potential customers through the use of the web. Starting from this assumption and thanks to the Case study: Varius project srl, the thesis will seek to understand how the lead generation campaign on social network works, and in particular, gives me the opportunity to understand how to organize an online lead generation campaign on Facebook with the strategic goal of finding new and peculiar mode of growth in the sector over the web. The collected data has allowed understanding: the impact on the consumer buying decision and how the role of the dealer changed, from needful for buying a vehicle in the past, to borderline. In fact, today, cars can be purchased through several channels and it is estimated that over 50% of potential buyers will consult a dealer only after collecting information about models, possible configurations and prices online. Finally, it will be explained how the leads have been organized into a Customer Relationship Management (CRM): key element for set-up the leads: the process of data collection, selection, contact and management in order to improve the back office.