Automotive Execs: 3 tips for hybrid cars marketing

Hybrid cars are absolutely the future of the automobile markets. Luxury cars such as Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Audi from the high-end market have entered the hybrid market with certain cars in their product line. How will they seize the trend and make full use of the social marketing for their hybrid cars market is one of the keys to standing out from this competition.

From the perspective of a student from Medill IMC, I have found two articles to give the solutions for this problems and give you the ideas on how to deal with this problem.

The first article is written by Alex Davies in the Wired magazine named The Real Winner in the VW Diesel Scandal? Hybrid Cars, here is the link:

http://www.wired.com/2015/09/volkswagen-diesel-cheating-scandal-is-good-for-hybrid-cars/

You can tell what this article is talking about through the title. Automakers love diesels because they help them meet increasingly stringent fuel economy standards. They offer lots of torque for great off the line acceleration, don’t suffer from the cost or range anxiety associated with electrics, and finding a place to refuel is generally easy. A slow increase in the sales of hybrids, plug-in hybrids, and fully electric cars—which now account for about three percent of US car sales—over the next 10 years. Charging will get easier as infrastructure spreads. Customers will get used to plugging in instead of pumping. Most importantly, the costs will drop.

The second article is written by Stephen Edelstein in the Green Car Reports website named Easier Electric-Car Charging: BMW ChargeNow, Nissan EZ Charge. The link:

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1091616_easier-electric-car-charging-bmw-chargenow-nissan-ez-charge

One inconvenient aspect of electric-car ownership at present is the need to set up multiple accounts, cards, and fobs to access different public-charging networks. However, two carmakers are working to simplify public charging for the owners of their battery-electric cars. BMW is set to roll out its ChargeNow program with the launch of the 2014 i3.

After reviewing the two articles and my marketing knowledge in IMC, I have developed three tips that Luxury car CMOs should consider:

·      Maintaining the regular cars sale

As Alex says in the first article, Electric cars will expect a slow increase in sales over the next 10 years, so to maintain regular car sales in the market is still the key for traditional car makers.

·      Promoting the sustainability concept

From the support of the US government, the federal government has poured billions into helping automakers build electric cars. These luxury car makers use their influence in the market to promote the sustainability concept.

·      Improving the supporting infrastructures for EV

Stephen said in the second article that Car makers like BMW has already started to improve its charge stations by launching ChargeNow program.

In conclusion, CMOs from these luxury car brands should use their profound company culture to lead the hybrid car market, not only to increase its sales on hybrid cars, but also to manifest company’s profound insight on making the changes and being the precursors in the industry.

My name is Chendi Wang, a M.S. candidate in Project Management at Northwestern University, specializing Real Estate Development and graduating in December 2015. My past internships in Mercedes-Benz and BMW motivates her goal to help Luxury car brands engage with customers in a more meaningful way regarding to hybrid car sales.

Contact via Twitter @wang_chendi or LinkedIn.