Sheryl Connelly, Ford Motor Co.'s manager of global trends and futuring, has been holding forth recently at bi-coastal panel discussions about what the next generation of car-buyers wants. Millennials' lifestyles, culture, economic circumstances and passions certainly present a challenge to automakers: not only are they driving less, with fewer of them even getting a driver's license, their idea of vehicular performance is more likely to involve fuel economy and digital technology that lets them stay connected than muscle and style. Connelly expands on this, as well as her position at Ford, with Marketing Daily. Q: So, why are driver's license registrations among Millennials falling? A: In some states, it is harder to get your license once you turn 16. But, also, lots of kids just don't have the time nowadays. It's something people are postponing because it's just not convenient. And the cost of getting a driver's license is now high. I'm part of Gen X, and when I was a teen, a free [driver's ed] course was part of the high school curriculum offered during the summer almost as part of a coming-of-age ritual. That's not the case as much any more. It can run up to $800 to get trained and adding a teenage driver to a parent's policy is also very expensive now. Q: What cultural shifts are turning younger consumers away from buying a car? A: There are a lot of things competing for your dollar if you're 16, 17, 18. If you are a Baby Boomer, your first big purchase was a car. Today, it's cell phones, plasma TVs, computers. And the pace of innovation moves much more quickly now, so these products become obsolete more rapidly. Q: When I was a kid, it was all about getting that first car. For better or worse, your car was part of what defined you. A: Right. Now it's about who has the latest iPhone or tablet. Among Millennials, those devices are more important. But it's really also important to talk about economic uncertainty as a backdrop for Millennials. They were raised with a strong sense of entitlement. It was reinforced that they are special and collectively vital. Then they find that the college experience has become cost prohibitive. While it remains to be seen how all this will play out, they are being clever, adopting this access-over-ownership style. Q: What does that mean? A: They don't need to buy it if they can rent it, for instance, whether it's cars, bikes handbags, or jewelry. All are categories we are seeing new access to in unconventional ways. We are seeing new paradigms. Q: Has the age of the auto enthusiast ended? A: I would qualify that it a bit. The age of the enthusiast is not gone. Look at events like Pebble Beach (Concours d'Elegance). But the universal appeal of the car as a status symbol has a lot more things competing against it now. The car can be a status symbol for some segments, but if you're a teenager it's more about utility and functionality. Q: So when did you take on the "futurist" role at Ford, and are you the only one doing this at the company? A: I have been with Ford 15 years and started doing this over seven years ago. When I started, I was one of a team. Then the realities of the industry downsized the group, and I'm sort of the last remaining person. But to say I work alone wouldn't be accurate, either, since with a lot of the things I do I get an extraordinary amount of help through things like collective workshops, and through bringing in people with global responsibility or cross-functional expertise. Q: Would you say your job is about how to market what exists in new ways or how to create new products based on what hasn't happened yet? A: Here's the fundamental premise: it can take 36 months to get a vehicle on the road. Sometimes longer. So when you sit down to plan a vehicle from a design-and-engineering standpoint, the problem is, how can you anticipate what will be relevant, because what has great consumer appeal today may not have the same resonance later. I also need to put up a disclaimer here about the futurist part of it: the irony of a title like futurist is that I spend most of my time reminding people that no one can predict the future. Q: How does your interaction with Ford's designers and planners play out? A: I facilitate discussions to make sure we are challenging our assumptions. That we are not making the wrong ones -- that consumers will always want SUVs, for instance. I look outside the auto industry at the STEEP (social, technology, environment, economy and politics) areas. It's about humility: we might have some really interesting number-crunching forecasting that gives us the illusion of great precision about what we think something will look like in the future, but my job is to say history never repeats itself exactly so what if that's wrong? How well prepared are we? What would we need to shift? Those five STEEP categories are interrelated because if you pull on one, the other four change. Q: How do you look at those possibilities? A: We do scenario planning. To over-simplify you might ask yourself what does a middle-class consumer want during a period of economic prosperity and then ask the same question during period of economic collapse. You start to get to values, attitudes, behavior. In an economic collapse there's apathy, fear, a current of anger. Q: So it's broader than market research? A: I don't do market research. What I do is very qualitative and admittedly subjective. It lives in this abstract space. I spend lots of time in a public affairs role explaining why Ford does what it does, and not from a product standpoint but from trends and how we respond to them. Take "information addiction," which is based on the idea, the observation, that when consumers have information at their fingertips in a just-in-time fashion, they are better able to control their environment, have more opportunities, choices, and more influence. And sometimes that can translate into greater power, control and success. For some, this need for information becomes insatiable. So, when the company starts talking about whether there's a business case for doing, say, Sync [Ford's mobile platform] technology, I can argue that this trend shows it makes sense to invest in Sync. I can say we need this technology because consumers want to be seamlessly integrated at home, at the office, and everywhere in between. And, considering we spend more and more time in cars, that just makes sense. The marketing component comes in when, instead of saying, "Ford came out with a new technology for phones," we start by showing the big picture, the trend, and explain why this product is relevant within that context. Q: Is this kind of technology the way to keep the car from becoming a commodity? A: Well, our response to that danger of the car becoming nothing more than an appliance is to make it more than transportation. That's why this technology is important to the vehicle experience: instead of a person saying they love the roar of the engine and horsepower, today people are saying give me the most fuel-efficient engine that does the job, but what else can it do for me than just transport me from A to B?
While Best Buy, Sears and Target came up tops in a recent survey on successful cross-channel selling, retailers are surprisingly behind the curve in what works and what doesn't, according to a new survey. The study looked at the capabilities of some of the largest cross-channel retailers (excluding Walmart), and found that just 12%, for example, had the capability to access a customer's pending web order in store. "And two years ago, when we did this study, only a small percentage of retailers allowed customers to purchase an item online and return it instore," Mark Fodor, CEO of CrossView, which provides cross-channel solutions and which conducted the survey, tells Marketing Daily, "and while it was 100% of companies this time, it illustrates how slow retailers can be in moving to deal with crosschannel capabilities." Another area where retailers lag is using collaborative filtering, which provides tailored recommendations to customers, with only 52% taking advantage of it. "These are things that should be no-brainers, and they're not. You hear the words 'multichannel' and 'crosschannel' often, but very few retailers can deliver it." Target, which ranked third in its survey, bears close watching, he says. The Minneapolis-based retailer just switched from Amazon's e-commerce platform to its own last week, "so it will be interesting to see what it does now that it is controlling that technology." And while Target has made industry-leading progress with its adaptation of mobile technology, that channel is still a big question mark. "Mobile is the true glue between customer and retailer, and links stores to the individual, if they allow it, enabling them to understand their behavior in and out of stores." But things like GPA awareness aren't yet being used effectively. "The most important thing for a retailer on its mobile site, for example, is the store locator. But once shoppers are in the store, that's the least important. So mobile can really help stores understand, contextually, where shoppers are. That's the great differentiator and no one has really done that yet," he says. With economic concerns weighing more heavily on shoppers as they move into the fourth quarter, Fodor expects to see an exceptionally promotion-oriented holiday season, he says: "People want to shop online, especially with gas prices where they are."
Remember when anti-drug advocates would warn against the drug dealers who would give the first hit for free in order to reel in new users? SiriusXM is taking that approach with an offer to lure back former subscribers. In a mailing that went out late last week, the New York-based satellite radio company is offering two free weeks (Aug. 30 - Sept. 12) of access to 60 channels. The promotion, with the theme: "Bringing Your Radio Back To Life," includes a laminated card featuring the free stations. After the two weeks is up, former subscribers are offered the change to re-sign for five months of programming for $25, which is more than a 60% savings off the regular subscription price. The deal includes the waiving of the activation fee and ends Sept. 30. A dedicated website is also promoting the offer. SiriusXM did not respond by post time to several requests for details on the promotion, including how many former subscribers were receiving the mailings. The timing on the deal appears to be aimed at football fans, as the letter begins: "Just in time for the fall season kickoff, we are turning your XM radio back on." Included in the free channels are College Sports Nation, SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio and SiriusXM NFL Radio. On college football's opening week, Sep. 1 - 5, SiriusXM will air 59 college football games, featuring every team in the current Associated Press Top 25 poll. In other SiriusXM news, the broadcaster claims it will offer more live college play-by-play than any other broadcaster due to a multi-year broadcasting agreement with IMG College and Learfield Sports. It will give listeners college football, basketball, baseball and hockey from 11 conferences. SiriusXM programming also is available on more than 800 devices, including pre-installed and after-market radios in cars, trucks, boats and aircraft, smartphones and mobile devices, and consumer electronics products for homes and offices. SiriusXM programming is also available at siriusxm.com, and on Apple, BlackBerry and Android-powered mobile devices.
You might think that if someone won the lottery, it would put an end to their onerous task of coupon-clipping forever. You'd be wrong -- at least according to Redplum, whose Fourth Annual Redplum Purse String Study reveals that most shoppers would continue to use coupons even if they got lucky because "it's not just about the money; it's a way of life." The company, which is the consumer brand of Valassis, is a provider of coupons. "Overwhelmingly, 96% of the more than 23,300 respondents said that they would still use coupons if they struck it big in the lottery," said Redplum in a release. "This reflects the value-oriented mindset that took root at the onset of the recession. This learned behavior was shared by shoppers whether their annual income was $20,000 or over $150,000." Among the findings:
Floyd Mayweather, Jr. is getting back in the ring this year to engage in a pay-per-view prize fight. Everyone wants to see Mayweather Jr. fight Manny Pacquaio. Even those who don't follow the sport probably know Mayweather is unbeaten and lionizes that "0" on his loss column like it's the Hope Diamond. Beyond boxing, Mayweather has gotten his name out there on "Dancing With the Stars," and dancing in and out of court. The interesting thing about the upcoming Mayweather vs. Victor Ortiz fight on Sept. 17 is that it happens on the same evening as another big bout, with Mexican superstar Saul "Canelo" Alvarez versus The Contender winner Alfonso Gomez. And viewers will see both. As Alvarez, Canelo, Gomez, and Eric "El Terrible" Morales (the future Hall of Famer who fights on the Mayweather/Ortiz undercard) are all directly or indirectly from Mexico, and since boxing is one of the two most popular sports among Hispanics (soccer is the other), it makes perfect sense that Heineken's Mexican cerveza brand Tecate will be involved as a sponsor. The good news for fans and for Tecate is that the sponsorship involves both fights under Golden Boy Promotion's' "Star Power" event on HBO Pay-Per-View, meaning that fans at the two arenas will see both fights, as will those who watch it on PPV and at movie theaters around the country. And they will also see Tecate branding. The way it works is that fans in attendance at the two fights (the Mayweather/Ortiz fight is at the MGM in Vegas, while Alvarez/Gomez is at the Staples Center in Los Angeles) will see a telecast of the other bout on a giant screen before the live fight in their arena. Both fights will also be broadcast on an in-cinema program in some 380 movie theaters around the country, including Clearview's Ziegfeld in New York. At Staples Center, Tecate will have a "Box & Roll" event, wherein following the boxing matches Tecate will have performances of two Mexican groups, Los Tucanes de Tijuana and El Gran Silencio. Tecate is offering adults $20 back by mail with the purchase of one ticket and one 12-pack or larger of Tecate or Tecate Light at retail. In Las Vegas, Tecate is dangling tickets to the fight or an upgrade to the VIP "Tecate Red Zone". The brand will also have its ambassadors, called "Chicas Tecate," at both locations. For the PPV crowd watching on HBO, Tecate will do a mail-in rebate for $25 off the price of the event with purchase of at least a Tecate or Tecate Light 12-pack.
NASCAR is going on campus to recruit a new generation of potentially up-market fans. The racing circuit will look to a pair of "brand ambassadors" on 12 college campuses to host events and use other tactics in an attempt to encourage attendance at nearby tracks. The "NASCAR U CREW" program is a joint effort with University Directories On Campus, which has on-campus marketing businesses. Each of the 12 schools is near a Sprint Cup race being held this fall, such as the University of New Hampshire and the Loudon race Sept. 25; University of Delaware and Dover on Oct. 2; and University of Miami and Florida International and Homestead on Nov. 20. NASCAR CMO Steve Phelps stated that the "U CREW" will give "our current fans the avenue to express their passion and our future fans the vehicle to experience the sport." In June, NASCAR said the 13 Sprint Cup races Fox carried this year led to a 20% increase in ratings for the 18-to-34 male demo to a 1.8, according to a report. That came after a discouraging 29% decline in 2010. The ambassador duos -- each a current student -- will hold 10 events on campus, perhaps setting up booths during orientation or handing out paraphernalia at football games as well as at viewing parties. They will work with local tracks on special ticket packages, plus hospitality and tailgating on race days. The push is to promote NASCAR as offering an on-campus football tradition. Social and digital media programs are also expected. NASCAR also operates an initiative at 20 schools that are encouraging careers in motor sports.