Marketing
Lessons from the Developing Car Clubs in England Programme
One of the themes in the Developing Car Clubs England Programme is evaluating what makes marketing a
car club successful. In this context marketing is much more than advertising. It’s the complete marketing mix
and how different elements in the car club context interact to ensure that car clubs can sustain their
business model.
Car clubs and the marketing mix
Car clubs in the programme have had to consider the standard marketing mix and used some of them to
optimise their offer:
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Product The extent to which the model is tweaked to suit the core demographic
Price Using pricing to deliver the service as well as to cover costs
Place The proximity to the target market, the density and visibility of cars
Promotion Combining public relations, localised direct leafletting and social media
People Signing up new members to the club, booking and trouble shooting
Process Ensuring the process of signing up and using the club is appropriate for the core users
Physical evidence Involving personal experiences and member engagement in the club
Knowing the car club demographic
Whilst the car club model should have a wide group of users, sustainability depends on achieving good take
up in a core group.
Successfully targeting people who are likely to become members in
the first instance can give the club sufficient momentum to be
sustainable – which then allows the target market to be broadened.
The examples in this study are taken from Norfolk Car Club which has
successfully grown its membership by 36% in the last 6 months.
In the first instance the club is targeting urban, well-educated
professionals in central Norwich. The success of the club is founded
on getting a good take up in this group. The second target group for
marketing is based on business users (in Norwich) and people
travelling into Norwich from the wider geographical area. Targeting
this group is part of the next project stage.
Promotion (as well as other elements of the marketing mix) have
been tailored to meet this demographic.
Tailoring the product, place and price to suit the target demographic
Norfolk Car Club has found that the majority of members could afford to run a car but they prefer not to –
they save money and avoid the hassles of car ownership: parking, maintenance, insurance and MOTs by
joining the car club.
The 'product'
The club offers a mix of vehicles that are modern, clean and attractive – replaced at least every 3 years.
Place
Norwich Car Club has targeted city centre residential areas with these demographics to ensure that the
car club bays are sited where these people live.
“We had a flurry of interest when our cars arrived in the Golden Triangle in
central Norwich”
Price
In Norfolk, many new members are giving up a car, so the car club has prioritised stable costs and a price
structure to maximise the availability of cars. The cost per mile is slightly higher than comparable clubs
but it means cars are only used for as long as they’re needed and their availability is good.
Process
For car clubs this means the website, booking system and key. This group of people tends to have a high
use of smartphones – so mobile friendly websites and apps are essential for providing booking facilities.
Since redesigning the Norfolk Car Club website to be more user (and mobile) friendly the traffic
has increased from 10-15 visits per day to, on average, around a hundred.
Key messages
These are the core messages tailored to attract the target demographic. For Norfolk the most important
messages for Norwich city centre professionals struggling with parking, congestion and a busy lifestyle are:
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Save money
Easy parking
Convenient: Available 24/7 365 days per year
Residential users were the first target group for Norfolk Car Club. To increase the amount of time these cars
are in use, the second group target group consists of city centre businesses which will hire cars during
working hours.
The key messages and marketing activities are slightly different for businesses and include:
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Free driving (promotional offer of up to £250 driving credit for each business - £25 per user)
Save money
Convenience - all cars have a parking space and an all zones parking permit
Ensuring health and safety / fulfilling employers' duty of care to employees
Some general awareness raising messages around air quality and nitrogen dioxide emissions
The third target group will be people travelling into Norwich using the Holdall card and recipients of the
‘Passport to Norwich’ mailing.
Promotion
Promotion is the most visible component of marketing. The most successful elements of car club promotion
combines broader awareness raising components and targeted initiatives aimed closely at the people who
match the car club demographic.
Broad information
General information about the concept, benefits and provision of car clubs can be provided using public
relations (using the media to get the message out), widespread leafleting and events.
"Our profile in the local press, radio
and television is really a result of the
drip drip drip effect.
We've been building up a
relationship over the past six years
by contacting the press about
everything we do.
We press release every funding
success, new vehicle, event and
initiative. It helps that we have had a
lot of good news.
Now we regularly feature in the local
press and now make the BBC and
ITV news slots once or twice a year
when we have important
developments"
Targeted promotion
Leaflets
A series of very local mail drops in the streets
surrounding each new car installation .
These have a really direct impact on sign ups. The key is
that they're tailored - with a picture of the actual car in
situ just after it is delivered - and on good quality paper
so they survive being posted through letterboxes and
look good!
The leaflet drop is repeated after two week and then
again if the new car is in a completely new area.
Facebook
There are two elements to this.
Firstly it's important to have a Facebook page which is kept up to date and linked to the club website. This
includes adding posts and activity regularly. Posts can include:
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Announcing all events
Announcing all new vehicles
Linking to all press mentions
Sharing relevant information (local information or general interest transport /environmental
information)
This means that the page will have good quality content and pictures.
Secondly, use Facebook advertising.
Facebook is an easy and cheap way of promoting the car club. It’s now a very popular medium, and popular
with the target demographic.
Facebook has an easy to use
‘promotion
interface’.
It offers the option
to boost posts –
this means that
more of the people who
already like your page will
see your posts, and also
other people.
You can also promote your
website, your event or your
page to get more likes.
Boosting a post (and indeed other forms of advertising
on Facebook) allows you to set your budget, so you
can spend as little as a couple of
pounds a day on raising your profile.
One of the best features of
Facebook advertising is that it is
possible to target your key
demographic very closely so that
you’re not wasting money promoting outside your
geographic area or to people unlikely to be interested.
This includes being able to ensure that your page is
promoted to people locally.
This sample demographic targeting
(Carplus page) shows you can use
towns or cities to define your area, or
even drop a pin into a map and specify
how far from this central location you
would like included.
It’s also possible to restrict your advertising to
different age groups, and to different educational
achievements and to people with certain interests
or behaviours.
In the first instance it’s a good idea to go for a
broad (but relevant) demographic.
So for example for Norfolk Car Club the following group has been a good target:
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aged 21-65+
male and female
graduate upward
living in Norwich
Total: 89,000
Boosting a post to people falling
within those demographics means
that 20-30,000 relevant people will
see the Club’s post (depending on
spend).
This is best done at
weekends - Friday to Sunday
evening with Sunday
morning the busiest.
The results depend on what the
‘call to action’ is – people are
usually given a link to get
information about how to join or to
click on the website.
More often than not, people prefer
to go to the website first.
Making it all work together
The Norfolk Car Club was featured in an ITV news item. A link to the piece was shared on the Norfolk Car
Club Facebook page and the post 'boosted' – including a ‘join’ icon on video and at end. This post had
202,000 views and 13 shares which successfully spread the word very widely. There was also a peak in
website views with over 1,200 people looking at the website the day the club featured.
Signposting all vehicle bays with information
All car club bays are marked with white lines, and each bay has a
signpost with joining information and a promotional offer (free
membership).
The Carplus Annual Survey found that 38% of new
car club members discovered their car club after
seeing a car club vehicle on the street
Promotions
The Club offers either free drive time or free membership (value £25) as
a promotional incentive. There's not much difference in take up with a
third of new members joining with free drive time, a third with free
membership and a third with no promotion.
It seems that some promotional incentive helps but the most important
factor is getting the right publicity and marketing.
Evaluating
The most direct way to evaluate marketing is to monitor traffic on the website and simply watch whether
hits on the website go up when a marketing strategy is deployed.
It's easy to see the source of certain visits - for instance direct from Facebook.
Google analytics
Google analytics are free (for simple reports). They are very simple to use. Start by going to
https://www.google.co.uk/analytics/standard/.
A standard report for your website will look like this:
You can also see where traffic has come from by looking at ‘Acquisition’.
For the Norfolk Car Club, general marketing - including regular Facebook
advertising - averages 100 hits per day. Of 100 hits a third are returning and
two thirds are new.
For each 60 or so new visitors the club would expect one new member. There
is a consistent conversion rate from the number of people using the website no matter where they come from and predictable bookings that correlate
with that as well.
This spikes with specific activities eg:
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The Carplus Annual
survey indicates that
19% of
members
found out about
their car club via
the internet
from door to door leaflet delivery (biggest spike 800) and
TV news (biggest spike 1,200),
newspaper article (biggest spike 400)
Modest spike for radio ads
"We're at a point where for every hundred visits to the website we get a new
sign up. It's become so consistent that I see the job of marketing as driving up
these visits, whether by using Facebook advertising and activity, leaflets, events
or through press coverage."
Stories, representatives and other 'physical evidence'
Norfolk Car Club maintains a small database of people who are prepared to speak to the media, have their
photos taken or volunteer at events. They were invited to join this list by email. They weren't offered an
incentive but the Club does thank people when they help out with some free driving time.
Their help gives the club authority and helps people identify with it.
Member get member or refer a friend
Every new member of the Norfolk Car Club gets a
wallet of 'member get member' promotional
cards.
But the club has found is that where there are
only one or two cars in an area, people are
reluctant to recruit others who might then ‘book
my car’. Cars in more rural locations are
particularly prone to this!
Once there are 3-4 cars in an area, however, there
is a lot more activity through member get
member referrals.
October 2015
www.carplus.org.uk
For more information on the Developing Car Clubs in England Programme:
http://www.carplus.org.uk/projects/car-club-programme-england/