Marketing Report: Consumer Behavior in the Automobile Market

This report delves into the crucial aspects of marketing within the automotive industry. It examines the information search behavior of car buyers, highlighting the importance of understanding consumer needs and demands throughout the buying process, including the role of information search, automobile markets, and external search efforts. The report also discusses the effectiveness of landing pages in generating leads, emphasizing their role in converting website visitors into potential customers and the key elements of effective landing page design. Furthermore, the report explores innovative marketing ideas for car dealerships, focusing on customer satisfaction, building brand value, and leveraging strategies like virtual showrooms and handwritten reviews to enhance customer engagement and trust. The references include various research papers and patents related to consumer behavior, marketing communications, and automotive industry trends.

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Answer 1
The keywords that are important for the car buyers and those servicing a car are;
information search, automobile market, search behavior and cluster analysis. The information
search behavior follows the particular stage of recognizing the needs and demands of the
customers. This is considered to be one of the most important stages of the customers’ buying
procedures. The importance of this particular stage is being highlighted by scholars Kopp,
Gerike & Axhausen (2015), who believe that the information search is represented as the
primary stage. In this specific stage, the marketing techniques can influence the decisions of
the consumers and provide them with adequate information. The customers are adopting
several search categories and therefore, identifying their information search behavioral
patterns is immensely important.
At times, the practicing managers may face certain challenges while identifying the
consumers buying patterns. The resource allocation all across different information sources
totally depends upon the understanding of information search behavioral patterns and that is
highly crucial for the organizational managers. Moreover, a particular research stream on the
search behavior completely deals with the identification of patters of the external information
search behavior. This is done after considering the amount of decision time, automobile
markets, information sources, external search effort as well as involvement of individuals in
the information search. In addition to this, the results clearly indicate that there are certain
patterns of the information search and the customers with certain segments or clusters have
different search behaviors (Boyce et al., 2015).
The pre-purchase information search was being initially considered to be relatively
limited activity. However, it plays an important role in analyzing the purchasing behavior of
the customers, especially at the time of buying luxury items like cars. Bahles & Cook (2017)

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mentioned that the pre-purchasing behavior of the customers determine their purchasing
patterns. In order to generate the clusters, they should consider certain factors like number of
available informational sources, the total number of customer visits to the stores and the
amount of time taken for the deliberation. The results are basically identified through three
distinct groups, which are store intense, balanced as well as non-through groups.
Moreover, Amineh & Kosach (2016) utilized three specific dimensions for seeking
information regarding the consumers’ behavioral patterns and the keywords that are
important for the car buyers. Particularly, the three dimensions are; source, brand and time,
which helps in developing the taxonomy of the customers’ external search behavior of
vehicles. In addition to this, personality of the consumers, their behaviors and attitudes can be
defined as an organized and dynamic set of characteristics that a person possesses. This helps
in influencing the cognitions, behaviors, motivations and other factors, in a unique manner
and at different situations.
Answer 2
Landing pages are regarded as one of the most crucial elements for generating a lead.
However, there are several companies who do not use them in an effective manner, or at all.
In the words of Pritchard et al. (2018), landing page is the most common method of gaining
consumer attention. It enables the organizational leaders to emphasize upon the official
website’s homepage of the company. It is considered to be the first room of a company’s
virtual storefront, as the customers walk through the door of the digital world. Businesses rely
heavily upon the creation of the company’s homepage in order to cater to the most number of
consumer attentions.
A landing page can be referred to the lead capture page, which is very important and a
must have for any websites. It helps in providing a targeted platform in order to convert the

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higher percentages of the visitors into the leads. Landing pages are immensely important for
the businesses as it has a five to fifteen percent rate of conversion on an average. However,
they are often being overshadowed by the homepages or any other pages related to the
product. For years, the marketing department has only focused over driving other people to
the website of the company without having a clear idea of how the visitors got there.
Moreover, they did not have any idea of where to take them next (Seth, Rao & Prabhakar,
2016).
The landing page created by the company comprises certain features for catering to
the number of visitors. In modern days, companies often rely on email marketing, pay per
click advertisements, social media and other channels, which empower the marketers. These
pages contain the correct message for each and every audience. The basic job of the landing
page is to tell the visitors exactly what the company wants them to do and why the visitors
should do it as per the marketers’ assistance (Jiang, 2018).
The landing pages of the company consist of certain elements. These elements are;
 A headline as well as a sub-headline.
 Brief description of the company and what is being offered.
 One supporting video or image.
 Supporting elements for proofs like customer logos, testimonials, security badges and
others.
 The most important element is authentic information on the landing page. It should
also include a large button of call to action for the visitors.

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Answer 3
Every car company is reaching towards the next car marketing ideas, that are great in
nature and at times, the companies are too busy to brainstorm the ideas up. The marketers
need to spend some time in putting things together and bring out the most innovative ideas
for catering to the most number of audiences. There are several ways which the marketers can
utilize in order to influence the target customers. The company needs to find out different
ways for making its target customers happy (Hair Jr et al., 2015). In addition to this, the
company needs to market their dealership with the virtual showroom tips.
Moreover, the company can utilize handwritten reviews in order to boost their
dealership reputation. It should realize that getting the customers happy can help them in
enhancing their brand value. The company can give provide the customers with an iPad and
ask them to share about their experiences about their services, by writing on it (Kopp, Gerike
& Axhausen, 2015). In addition to this, the dealers should take their picture in order to make
them feel special. The handwritten materials speak to prospect and feel more trustworthy,
convincing and real. It helps in boosting the reputation of the dealership and therefore, the
marketers can utilize these measures in order to gain the trust of the target audience (Strauss
& Frost, 2016).
The most successful dealerships are the ones who know their customers as well as
communities. The companies need to gain a clear understanding of their target audiences and
their purchasing behaviors. Having a clear understanding will assist the marketers in
generating more creative as well as innovative ideas. These strategies of dealership marketing
help the company in gaining multiple benefits. Firstly, the customers get huge incentives and
benefits and secondly, the company is also able to keep their brand value intact (Gerike &
Axhausen, 2015). Customer satisfaction leads to great brand value recognition of the
company.

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According to Andrews & Shimp (2017), inspiration comes in various forms, but
tested and tried proven instances are the most powerful muses. The total amount of the
possibilities in these car marketing and dealership ideas is a bit intoxicating. The marketers
should not be afraid to apply innovative ideas and shape them in accordance with their
creativity, for fitting into the dealership. Furthermore, the company should have the basics
and the inspiration and thus, they should make it work for the organization.

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References
Amineh, H., & Kosach, N. (2016). Assessment of Consumers' Satisfaction with the
Automotive Product Quality. International Journal of Environmental and Science
Education, 11(16), 8726-8739.
Andrews, J. C., & Shimp, T. A. (2017). Advertising, promotion, and other aspects of
integrated marketing communications. Nelson Education.
Bahles, M., & Cook, G. (2017). Car Motivations in the Young Target Group: An
International Perspective. Central European Business Review, 6(3), 3-15.
Boyce, A. S., Nieminen, L. R., Gillespie, M. A., Ryan, A. M., & Denison, D. R. (2015).
Which comes first, organizational culture or performance? A longitudinal study of
causal priority with automobile dealerships. Journal of Organizational
Behavior, 36(3), 339-359.
Hair Jr, J. F., Wolfinbarger, M., Money, A. H., Samouel, P., & Page, M. J. (2015). Essentials
of business research methods. Routledge.
Jiang, S. (2018). U.S. Patent No. 9,959,362. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office.
Kopp, J., Gerike, R., & Axhausen, K. W. (2015). Do sharing people behave differently? An
empirical evaluation of the distinctive mobility patterns of free-floating car-sharing
members. Transportation, 42(3), 449-469.
Pritchard, A. R., Daya, R. M., Seok, J., Cintron-Rosario, Y. J., Napier, M. J., Woodruff, I.
W., ... & Reid, J. A. (2018). U.S. Patent Application No. 15/283,432.

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Seth, S., Rao, S. K. R., & Prabhakar, B. S. (2016). U.S. Patent No. 9,268,873. Washington,
DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Strauss, J., & Frost, R. D. (2016). E-marketing: Instructor's Review Copy. Routledge.