Summary
Jaguar Land Rover is a global automotive manufacturer, the sale of genuine accessories are an important part of their overall revenue.
The Great Race is a web-based incentive programme designed to increase accessory sales by encouraging the sales team to sell at every opportunity, but also to position accessories as a viable revenue stream. The dealers are very good at sales but not necessarily training, marketing or strategy.
The programme is managed centrally and requires very little administration from the dealer network. The programme has been implemented in the Middle East, Russia, Australia and Japan with a European importers’ version in development. The results to date include the Middle East and Russia.
This programme also strategically raises the profile of accessories and provides a holistic approach to sales, marketing and training.
The Client
Jaguar Land Rover is one of the world’s premier automotive manufacturers, with a strong portfolio of luxury vehicles – from sports saloons and cars through to 4×4’s and utility vehicles. Although owned by India’s largest automotive company, Tata Motors, the Jaguar Land Rover vehicles are designed, engineered and manufactured primarily in the UK.
The Jaguar Land Rover organisation is split in to two areas – new vehicle sales and after sales.
Palmer Hargreaves is the global after sales agency, and provide marketing communications and strategic support to the after sales central team. We are responsible for delivering integrated campaigns that can be used across the world. In some instances we are also working with markets at a local level, providing strategic support and marketing insight.
The after sales team is responsible for managing all aspects of the business post vehicle purchase. This includes vehicle servicing requirements, warranties, recalls, MOTs, collision, parts pricing and parts distribution through the channel to the national sales companies and then down to the dealer network.
Strategy
Like many businesses, Jaguar Land Rover has had to focus on areas of their business that can generate quick but sustained returns in the challenging economic climate.
Using sales data collated, analysed and cross referenced with the customer journey, we established a potential opportunity – the chance to sell more accessories at point of purchase by improving product knowledge, training and their approach to marketing activity in a dealership.
Objectives
The Great Race incentive programme aims to tactically deliver short term financial results by incentivising individuals to sell more accessories at point of purchase, but also takes a longer term view by including bonus activities incentivising the completion of training, internal point-of-sale activity and the implementation of specified marketing campaigns. The race can only be won by completing all activities, providing the information for dealers to push product and the materials to encourage them to develop pull from customers.
The target audience
The programme is specifically designed for two audiences:
– The national sales companies (NSC) who support the dealer network.
– The customer-facing staff within the dealer network (new vehicle sales and service desk personnel) who will take part in the day to day activities.
The new vehicle sales teams are familiar with incentive/bonus rewards and respond well to this approach – they concentrate on making the sale and often ask questions about the customer’s lifestyle, but don’t always think to add value by suggesting suitable accessories. To maximise other opportunities, for the first time the incentive approach was extended to the service desk personnel, who were encouraged to talk to customers about accessories when bringing their vehicles into the dealership for routine maintenance. This audience are generally admin, not sales-focussed, so it was a complete step change for them to broach this subject.
Media channels/techniques
Jaguar Land Rover regularly communicates to the NSCs and dealers via email bulletins. As we wanted to engage the audience in the programme and encourage maximum participation the decision was taken to launch the programme in some instances face-to-face or via online web meetings. The incentive programme is web-based as the target audience have access to the Internet in the workplace, and it allowed for changes or result uploads to be viewed in real time. Critically when league tables are published on a monthly basis a surge of activity is reflected in the sales figures. A little healthy competition between each of the dealer/ importer businesses is actively encouraged.
Timescales of campaign
The campaign runs for one quarter. The process is as follows:
Phase one:
Kick off meeting. Agree detail maps, landmarks, bonus activities and incentive/prizes, participant contact information, sales targets by region/dealer/individual.
Support with timing plans, launch, ‘how to’ guides and personalised log-ins.
Phase two:
Launch site, and support participants by phone. Update league tables on a monthly basis, based on sales, and load onto site.
Phase three:
Complete analysis at the end of the quarter, including ROI.
Client testimonial
“For a relatively small investment this programme has generated outstanding results both tactically and strategically. It is simple to implement and run, and is now an established part of our marketing plan.”
