Automotive Manufacturer Turns “Dream Buyers” Into Real Customers with Tealium

Challenge

As one of the world’s most historic luxury car brands, this car manufacturer has a cult following within the driving community. Since the launch of its online car configurator tool, the manufacturer has seen millions of driving enthusiasts jump onto the website and build their own custom, dream car. However, while the manufacturer is a historic, iconic brand, it’s still a business that demands sales and conversion. The car configurator tool was the perfect way to drive visitors to the site and start their customer journey – but there was no clear pathway to sales conversion. The challenge was understanding visitor intent. There was no way to know if a visitor is simply building their dream car, or if they are in a real position to make a purchase – before putting the right car in front of them.

Solution

They decided to bring in Tealium and AWS to change this, leveraging the data collected from the car configurator to separate the “dreamers” from prospects looking to purchase. By deploying Tealium CDP – integrated with an AWS data lake – they were able to build unique customer profiles for each visitor. The CDP collects and unifies all the first-party data that website visitors share – starting from the initial information they provide during the car configuration tool, and constantly updating the profile with future interactions and engagement with the manufacturer. These engagements can range from surveys, challenges, and even eBooks filled with information that is tailored to the individual customer.

The Problem

The manufacturer had disparate customer data in many sources which created inconsistent views of prospective buyers and poor customer experiences. Data sources included Customer Resource Management (CRM) system and websites. They experienced difficulty in combining these data sources due to slow, batched processes that required manual intervention. Concerns about privacy and consent and whether they were handling this data correctly. They could not use the best prospect and customer data to enhance marketing and communications across channels and customer touchpoints.

The Solution

Once Tealium’s CDP was deployed, they could collect data in real-time and enforce applicable privacy and consent laws. The auto manufacturer was able to bring together existing omnichannel data from its CRM and website, unifying this with the first-party data collected within the car configurator tool (name, location, age). These profiles, enhanced with a single view of customers, are then used to create multi-personalized newsletters and make segmenting customers easier.

Having a single view of customers also means that they can segment different audiences and tailor the messages they share. For example, the seventeen-year-old who is creating their dream car is highly unlikely to be in a position to purchase, whereas a repeat customer or someone who is later in life is more likely to make a serious purchasing decision. Additionally, Tealium CDP helps it track its customers’ evolving needs and desires. For example, that seventeen-year-old, further down the line, may eventually have a successful career and find themselves in a position to buy.

Once a customer is identified as showing both the ability and intent to purchase, luxury parameters are often removed from the offering. So, when someone shows behavior indicating they’re able to buy, they may tailor messages that demonstrate the practicality of one of their other offerings, rather than the fast-paced racing heritage of their top-of-the-line sports car. Ultimately, these customers will begin to see base models suitable for them, as opposed to fully personalized models. They may even be directed to second-hand models similar to their desired specifications from licensed dealerships close to their location.

Delivering Value

As a result of these changes, with the manufacturer unifying data from the omnichannel experience, it saw a rise in returning customers upgrading their models to suit new needs. Similar results were seen following the introduction of Tealium’s CDP being used in conjunction with the car configuration tool, where there was a 20% increase in the number of customers submitting their information as a lead.

The organization leverages several AWS services, including: CloudFront CDN, Kinesis, EC2, S3, Route 53, DynamoDB, Kafka, Load Balancers, ElastiCache Redis, CloudWatch.