Marketing small cars - is 40 the new 20?
By: Jesse Crosse, Friday, February 13, 2009, AutomotiveWorld.com
The recent launch of Alfa Romeo's new MiTo was held against the backdrop of dire market conditions, but despite this, an air of optimism was palpable. That optimism grew still further at the beginning of February when CAP Motor Research Ltd., predicted the MiTo would outstrip the Mini when it comes to residual values in the first year or 10,000 miles.
But despite the wonderful looks and sound technology underpinning the MiTo, there still remains the thorny problem of tempting buyers away from the competition. The question is, which buyers, or more to the point, of what age? Manufacturers have always been unduly concerned about the age of their buyers. But who is most likely to have the private money to spend, a 20-something or a 40-something? And are there really that many fleet customers in their early 20s out there – especially now?
Alfa thinks so and is going full tilt for the youth market with the Mito. As MiTo marketing operations manager, Damien Dally says, the brand objective is to "get them young and keep them." Dally also explains his target consumer group is one that wants to be recognised for the purchases they make, people who want to stand out from the crowd.
For the MiTo, there will be both conventional and electronic direct mail, communication by text messaging, some serious internet advertising, still some TV (with price tagging at the end lest you confuse this with an expensive car) and radio for dealer advertising. Apparently, most people are using the web between 12:00 and 16:00 on a Friday (planning for the weekend) so that's when most of the Mito web campaign will happen. It's clear that Alfa is more than paying lip service to the idea of targeting a youth market, indeed it's going for it exclusively.
It's a creative, engaging and clever approach even if its single mindedness seems mighty brave. Ford took a similar approach with the launch of the new Fiesta last year, designer Martin Smith having gone so far as to model the entertainment system controls on the look of a mobile phone. "It's based on a fast young group who use their mobile phones all the time," he explained. Querying this apparent youth-group obsession with former Ford GB chairman and managing director, Roelant De Waard, he admitted that "almost all manufacturers think their customer group is too old. But the average B-segment age is 46."
Another Ford executive made the observation that in reality the age group is likely to remain at the more mature end of the scale, but thought older people prefer a youthful product image anyway. The new Ka has just been launched in the UK and Ford GB small car specialist, David Cross, has made the point that most young professionals could easily afford a Ka or Fiesta using Ford Options. This may be a point well made, but it still seems likely that if Ford expects 70% of Fiestas to go to private retail customers, those with the fatter wallets are likely to be the young professionals' parents.
Published on Friday, February 13, 2009
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