STATE OF DIGITAL
Only 1 in 10 Australians think car brands have good digital experiences, but new market entrants are shaking things up and ushering in a new digital era. Want to get ready for it? Read on.
Here's what you can expect from the full report available to premium members.
Being average in digital has been good enough, up until now. We dig into how that’s changing rapidly.
16 of the 47 brands we assessed had started to make significant strides towards the digital future, with traditional brands VW and Hyundai making the top 3, alongside Tesla in first place. But simply having features and functions wasn't always a plus. More than a few brands offer cautionary tales for moving too fast on shaky foundations.
The good news? The new normal is easy to predict and based on well-worn e-commerce conventions.
A new era has begun, and it's demands are highly predictable. We break down where to focus to excel.
Technical fundamentals should be the first place all brands level up, with the category scoring unexpectedly poorly here. Product communication that balances details with immersiveness emerged as a challenge for all. Digital lead generation is ready for a rethink and customer support needs a revamp.
But if everyone nails the new functional aspects of the path to purchase online, what then?
Many brands are racing to innovate with focus on function over feeling. We explore how the erosion of brand, and it's implications for auto.
Novel digital experiences are in short supply in auto and even among top performers for novelty, brand distinctiveness is waning. Tone of Voice is the most diluted brand attribute, with only 20% of brands marked as 'very distinct' in their copy online. As more and more brands position around innovation, a category once fuelled by emotion is becoming increasingly technical, functional and generic.
As the bulk of the category shifts focus to on function, the brands that win on feeling stand to earn outsized upside.