HOW MITSUBISHI MOTORS HAS ADAPTED TO NEW CONSUMER HABITS BY ANIMATING ITS NETWORK MULTILOCAL COMMUNICATION?
To combine the power of national communication with the need for proximity with its customers, Mitsubishi France has chosen to rely on the know-how and reputation of its dealer network. This strategy aims to respond to the new uses of consumers, who have become accustomed to mix online research and relationships of trust with their local dealers. In this context, Arago has proven to be the ideal tool to allow multi-local advertisers to easily activate campaigns managed by headquarters. Explanations with David Dumont, Marketing Manager at Mitsubishi Motors.
What are the challenges of local digital communication?
So, why is local marketing such an important challenge ? Because our first strength, as a car manufacturer, is our network of car dealers, our network of distributors. We need to support them and put them forward. The second challenge of local communication is the customer’s point of view. Today, when we personalized an ad, it could be either digital or print. What we want to communicate is not only an address but the name of a renowned local actor. Today when we are in Roanne, we go to Barge. Customers aren’t necessarily looking for Mitsubishi. When we are in Annecy, we go to Gonguet and the Mont-Blanc Automobile group. It is important to put their names forward because they are known locally. It goes beyond a simple custom-printed process.
How do local and national communication complement each other?
They are necessarily complementary. We need both of them. Local communication is clearly of major importance when we need to transform interest into an act of purchase. This is called the conversion phase. Today it happens on a local scale. We need to be as close as possible to the prospects. So the ability to customize and display our ads within the territory of our points of sale allows us to generate more conversions. But those who say local communication also say smaller inventories. The number of web pages on which we can display ads is smaller than what we can do on a national scale. As a brand, we also need to communicate on a national level to make a bigger impact, make communication more efficient during that period and improve our notoriety. We need our products to be known by the most people possible / general public. In a certain perimeter, local and national are obviously complementary. At a national level, we work our notoriety and at a local level, we have a better return on investment. It has less reach but a better precision.
How have consumer habits evolved?
They have changed and it would be a fault not to realize it. They evolved through two major factors : the digitalization and the electrification of cars. Electrification is the relationship we have with the maintenance of our cars and therefore the distributor. Today it is different. We rely on other networks and therefore automobile distribution works differently. The digitalization is the customer journey, the possibility to buy cars online. This is not what we are doing at Mitsubishi Motors. Like I said before we want to support and we are training our distributor network. We have talented specialists to advise on the act of purchase and also on car maintenance. So we want to drive people to the points of sale. But nevertheless, we know that people do their research. And this takes place online. So in the end, being able to buy cars directly online or give prospects information online in order to make them purchase at the distributor, are two very different strategies.
What does it change for the local car dealers?
It changes a lot of things. Our role as a manufacturer is to give them the right tools to do their job the best they can. Nowadays it is not part of a car distributor’s job to do communication. Of course, we all need it. Now it's good when it's easy for him, for the dealer. Doing a digital plan is something very technical, meaning it’s not everyone's job let alone a car distributor’s. The ability to go on the platform, and simply choose the creatives, the budget and making sure the campaign is automatically displayed, makes life so much easier. Their primary role is to advise customers. It is not to set up a digital campaign. So we need to support them with such technological tools.
What attracted you to the Arago solution?
Many things. First, I would say its great flexibility. It is a tool that allows us to manage campaigns at the national level, or multi-local I would rather say, because the tool allows us to customize digital campaigns for all of our dealers. It leaves the option for the distributors to complete actions we manage nationally and to manage their budget. We have a total cost management, creatives are pre-integrated into the platform. It is an ideal solution thanks to which we can measure the return on investment. For digital local marketing actions, it is perfect. We can go multichannel, from display campaigns to SEA campaigns on Google or even social media advertising campaigns. It’s a very good solution we wish to spread among all of our dealerships.
Programmatic Advertising: A Revolution for Trade Marketing
read
ARAGO the first programmatic platform connected to all DOOH inventories worldwide
read
Oui Pub, an opportunity for retail network communication
read
What future for advertising in a cookieless world?
read
Why use a SaaS platform for all local communication needs?
read
ARAGO Teams Up with @Broadsign
readARAGO Teams Up with Broadsign to Bridge DOOH & Digital Ad Transactions
read
ARAGO Teams Up with Broadsign to Bridge DOOH and Digital Ad Transactions
read