Car Product Placement

Shopping destinations helping to drive car retail

Car brands have started to experiment with alternatives to the traditional dealership. A new way of interacting with car retailers could soon be as much a fixture at your local shopping centre as John Lewis and Marks and Spencer.

Take your product to the people

Many car retailers are currently taking space at the local shopping centre, retail park, supermarket or garden centre. Either in the mall or car park, they are capturing the imagination and creating interaction with the shopping public.

In the last few years, SEAT, Hyundai and Jaguar Land Rover have launched car retail stores at major shopping centres. Ford’s five-car store dealership shares retail space with the Next store at Manchester’s Arndale Centre.

Our experience of working with both retail venues and car dealerships confirms that the trend has grown. And, taking space at a venue or prime retail site, will increase over the next few years.

Discover new promotional spaces

New ways of promoting are being driven by the changing retail landscape. And, retail venues are becoming more accessible than ever to automotive brands. It’s easy to see why these mutually beneficial partnerships are proving so successful. Automotive brands offer diversity to the venue by adding to the broad mix of tenants. In return car retailers capitalise on the guaranteed footfall.

Reaching new audiences

By bringing a whole new level of experiences that genuinely appeal to retail visitors, instead of adopting the hard sell approach, automotive brands are getting closer to potential customers in a relaxed environment. Retail venues benefit too from car product placement, as the visitor experience is enhanced with interactive activities and pop-up showrooms that can increase dwell time and help boost retail performance.

As far as car retailers are concerned, the benefits of being in a retail environment are huge. Shopping centre visitors offer a very different demographic from those who are likely to visit a car dealership. This allows dealers to engage directly with potential customers who may not have previously considered the brand.

8 in 10 car buying decisions are influenced by women, however, recent research reveals that the traditional car dealership doesn’t appeal to the female audience. Studies also show that younger car buyers are often intimidated by the experience of visiting a car showroom.

‘Drive a Porsche’ initiative

Porsche, for example, created a pop-up store at the Westgate shopping centre in Oxford to help launch its ‘Drive a Porsche’ initiative. A selection of models were on display to show shoppers how easily a Porsche could fit into their lifestyle. The store also offered a unique AR experience, a range of merchandise, as well as an opportunity to experience driving a Porsche for the weekend.

Creating brand experiences at retail venues which are already attracting the right target audience, can help car dealers to reach potential new customers as they go about their everyday shopping. The retail environment can be much more informal than a car dealership. Retail venues can also have longer trading hours, which helps makes car brands much more accessible to consumers.

Engagement Strategy

Innovative ways to attract customers

There is still a place for the traditional automotive retail model of driving consumers into a car dealership. However, it is encouraging to see the industry moving with the times and exploring new, and innovative ways to attract customers.

Many car dealerships have seen the value of getting closer to their customers by car product placement in parking spaces at the local retail park or Morrisons store, for instance, and see this as an important part of their engagement strategy. Some may now be taking those engagements a step further with a more permanent pop-up location.

As a business that works with both retail venues and car dealerships to facilitate marketing and promotional activities that are mutually beneficial, we predict that many more car brands will be sitting next to, or in, our favourite high street stores in the future. Previously customers shopping for shoes may have gone home with a new outfit. Next time they may end up buying the car to go with it as well.

Don’t just take our word for it, read one of our product placement case studies.