The automotive industry is the largest contributor to digital conversations. The document discusses how the industry is catering to the needs of the digital buyer

1. View Point
Innovations in Digital Consumerism for
Automotive Industry
Integrated Digital Marketing & Services
- Ashutosh Agrawal, Stephen Arockiadoss
Abstract
Potential car buyers are taking decisions online. Their online activity generates a vast amount of digital footprint, critical
information that drives brand perceptions and influences buying decisions. Recent studies show that the Automotive
industry is the largest producer of online conversations. Besides this, with vehicle telematics and vehicle internet
connectivity hitting mainstream, the car itself is quickly becoming the “Fourth” screen (Your Computer, TV and Mobile
being the three screens), opening the doors of innovation for cloud based service solutions.
Are the Auto OEMs and dealerships doing enough to embrace this new digital driver avatar? Do these efforts integrate well
into the traditional marketing and services efforts? Are they achieving the targeted ROI?
This document details out how the industry is catering to the needs of a digital buyer, where are the opportunities to make
a difference? And how OEMs and dealerships can gain decisive competitive advantage by adoption of Infosys automotive
digital solutions.
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2. Forced by latest technology trends and growing environmental concerns, the Automotive
industry is at an inflexion point. Almost every Auto OEM is realigning their value chain to
remain relevant:
• Electric component suppliers are quickly gaining significance in the new scheme of
Changing things. Hybrid vehicles, fuel cells and electric powered vehicles are on the rise.
Automotive • Advancements in Vehicle-bound internet connectivity and built-in technologies have
Buying raised the likelihood of convergence between automotive and telecommunication, IT
Behaviour in and media & entertainment sectors.
Digital Age • Proactive customer service is catching up with service hubs being integrated to vehicle
telematics.
• OEMs are already designing app exchange platforms for developers to effectively use
the car data to build innovative applications.
On the other hand, the new socially wired & empowered customer today has enough online
information to decide on his purchase.
• A leading Internet Service Provider’s research survey shows that 62% of future car buyers
will use internet as their primary source of information. Nearly 52% of those online
researchers also look for information on accessories.
• Mobile handsets and tablets are powering the adoption of online information like never
before. Dealership and OEM websites have witnessed spurt in traffic from mobiles.
• The buying activity is not just restricted to OEM and dealer websites. According to an
online survey, nearly 64.9% of potential buyers look for information on 3rd party sites.
• Comments and reviews from friends are becoming influencers in the decision making
process.
• According to a leading consulting firm, consumers show strong interest in mobile/
smartphone car applications. 68% for remote locking/unlocking of vehicle doors, 67%
for service reminders and same amount for roadside assistance.
Response from the Automotive Industry
So how is the Industry responding to these new changes in customer expectations? Automobile OEMs and Dealers are a bit slow in adapting
to this outburst of digital activity. However there is a definitive trend of change in marketing spending patterns.
• According to a leading analyst firm, Digital Marketing spend in Automotive industry will grow at 21% CAGR from 2009 to 2014. Spend to
almost double to $4 B in 2014 from $2.1 B in 2011.
• A Dealers association in USA reports that Dealers increased Internet advertisement spends from 4.6% in 2000 to 23.7% in 2010. Total
Dealer Internet Advertising Expenses (2010) = $1.5 B.
OEMs and dealerships are embracing technology and reaching out to other players in the ecosystem in search of combined value and market
differentiation.
• A leading US based automotive firm unveiled a technologically advanced car in mobile world congress 2012 which features a host of
technologies which reduces fuel consumption and CO2 emissions These include Auto-Start-Stop, the Ford Eco Mode driver information
system, Gear Shift Indicator and Smart Regenerative Charging.
• A large dealer company in US has teamed up with EA Mobile for in-game advertising push.
• A European luxury car maker promoted its new model on smartphones and allowed customers to book test drives on it.
• A world leading automotive company is adopting interactive bar codes across all its marketing.
2 | Infosys – View Point

3. Infosys Approach to Innovation in Automotive Digital Consumerism
Infosys provides an integrated solution for digital marketing and services throughout the sales cycle. The key differentiation lies in generating
customer intelligence and building customer intimacy.
Figure 1: Infosys Integrated Digital Marketing & Services Approach
Know your customer better! Build customer intimacy with targeted
• Integrate both digital and traditional touch points marketing & services
Existing solutions in market mines the digital content on the • Customer fencing & targeting
web. However, the enterprise systems (like Dealer and CRM Customers can be ‘geo-fenced based on GPS data’ or ‘on-car
systems) also need to be integrated to provide true all-round health with telematics data from on-board diagnostics’ or
360⁰ customer profiles. ‘time fenced’. Several combinations can fence customers with
• Integrate Car telematics and Geo-spatial data specific needs. For instance, cars within 50 miles radius that
have not been to the service center for last 4 months may need
Digital touch points are further expanding with advent of oil change and wheel rotation.
‘Connected Car’. Geo-spatial data and Car telematics can
provide us real-time intelligence and connect to both customer • One-to-One connect throughout the customer lifecycle
and car. The connected-car and digital media is always ‘on’ and same
can be used by companies to remain plugged-in to their
consumers.
- Auto Co. Services: Prognostic services can alert an automotive
company of possible failure and the automotive company can
proactively guide the customer with DIY service or road service
or nearby service center.
- 3rd Party Services: Taxi & Car rental agencies can provide
enhanced services like smart navigation, infotainment and in-
car billing & payment.
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4. Infosys Automotive Digital solution framework
Infosys solution is an integrated Digital solution which provides enhanced capabilities in both marketing & services (as discussed in previous
section). It integrates both structured and unstructured data coming from various digital and enterprise touch points. The data is then massaged
and analyzed to derive intelligence and insights. The functional capabilities layer leverages the intelligence and insights to deliver contextual
and personalized services through the Service Hub and App Exchange.
A Service Hub provides cloud based services like personalized marketing, lead generation,
eCommerce, prognostic services etc. The services can be delivered to a HMI (Human Machine
Interface) in the car or a smartphone or other digital channels which would provide an immersive
Service Hub
experience to consumer. The Service Hub will have a dedicated service help desk to enable various
scenarios like emergency help, vehicle tracking, vehicle loss including vehicle-to-enterprise
scenarios like cold storage fleet management and others.
The AppExchange is the online marketplace for cloud computing applications using the car’s data.
Developers can develop innovative applications to improve customer experience. Customers
AppExchange
can browse, test and install these apps. AppExchange would enable crowd-sourcing and open
innovation to further enhance the consumer experience.
The solution is designed to serve throughout the entire automotive customer lifecycle and disseminate content and services through multiple
digital channels to multiple stakeholders.
Figure 2: Infosys Automotive Digital Solution Framework
4 | Infosys – View Point

5. Infosys solution facilitates effective management with its • Integrated Multi-channel Dissemination: Infosys provides a
performance monitoring capabilities and is geared towards single digital marketing platform to disseminate digital content
reducing overall marketing costs. on various channels like Mobile sites, Online sites, Social Sites,
Emails etc.
Measure marketing performance and RoI • Pay-As-You-Go model: Using Infosys platform avoids the CapEx
investment and enables SaaS (Software as a Service) pricing
• The impression made on the digital medium may result in a models.
sale over the counter at showroom. Infosys solution tracks from
‘prospect’ to ‘sale’ and relates the digital marketing metrics like • Reduce Total Marketing Expenses per Sale: With Infosys
Page views, Click Through rate, Recommendation rate etc. with solution, Digital Marketing will cost less than Traditional
business metrics like leads to customer ratio, repeat buyer Marketing for the same given impact.
percentage, wallet share etc.
Illustrative Scenarios for Integrated Digital
Reduce marketing costs Marketing & Service
• Manage, Share and Re-use digital assets: Infosys solution • As depicted below, by analyzing preferences of customers
manages all the digital assets like email templates, online and fencing them provides a target group of customers with
banners, SMS text, games, apps and facilitates its reuse. Also specific needs.
OEMs can share their digital assets with Dealers to avoid cost • The existing digital assets can be reused for the targeted
duplication and ensure consistency in messaging. campaign and disseminated to target customers through
multiple channels.
• The performance of the targeted marketing campaign can be
measured on-the-fly and its financial impact can be measured.
Figure 3: Infosys Integrated Digital Marketing & Services Approach
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6. Conclusion
Digital Technologies are transforming automotive customer’s behavior and
experience. Companies, having realized its disruptive impact, now maintain
a digital marketing portfolio and are giving the digital edge to their service
offerings. But, digital technologies themselves are dynamic and evolving.
Connected Car is all set to become mainstream in the near future. Digital Media
analytics have been evolving with support for both audio and video search.
Infosys solution leverages latest developments in digital technologies to deliver
a lasting customer connect and more-bang out of the marketing buck.
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7. About the Authors
Ashutosh Agrawal
Lead Consultant, Infosys Limited
He has rich industry and consultancy experience and has worked across industry verticals
like Aerospace, Automotive, Agribusiness and clean-tech. He has been involved in various
projects relating to business strategy and excellence for manufacturing companies and has
developed ecosystem focused solutions in Supply Chain, Marketing and Customer service.
Stephen Arockiadoss
Principal Architect, Infosys Limited
He has developed key solutions in areas of LOB Business work places, Enterprise Innovation,
Sales effectiveness, Next Gen Customer Care, and Customer intelligence. He has also been
involved in Product incubation & development, IT strategy consulting, Enterprise Architecture
& Web transformation projects. He closely works with Manufacturing enterprises and helps
strategize many technology focused business initiatives.
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8. About Infosys
Many of the world's most successful organizations rely on Infosys to
deliver measurable business value. Infosys provides business consulting,
technology, engineering and outsourcing services to help clients in over
30 countries build tomorrow's enterprise.
For more information, contact askus@infosys.com www.infosys.com
© 2012 Infosys Limited, Bangalore, India. Infosys believes the information in this publication is accurate as of its publication date; such information is subject to change without notice. Infosys acknowledges
the proprietary rights of the trademarks and product names of other companies mentioned in this document.