Social Leaderboard_Indian Luxury Car Brands_20 July 2012

SOCIAL LEADERBOARD
LUXURY CAR BRANDS: 1st– 20th July 2012

1:
SUMMARY
Under Leveraged Communities:

Shack evaluated India's three top-selling luxury car brands – BMW, Audi

and Mercedes-Benz – to derive a comparative benchmark of their standing

on social platforms.

What we found was a consistent story of under-leveraged and under-

engaged communities; one that was primarily attracted by contests

and online syndication of events to the brands' presence on the

platforms. The brands were particularly found wanting for better

content and cultural connect during periods when there were no

contests, product launches or drive event.

©Shack Companis. All Rights Reserved. Social Leaderboard: Luxury Car Brands

2:
While such initiatives are key components of most brand activity on social

platforms, they only form the periphery than the core of an actively

leveraged and engaged community for the brand. This missed opportunity

presents a significant problem for the brands, as building and nurturing

communities that represent the values of the brand is the key to achieving

sustained growth through the use of social platforms.

Healthy growth accrued through social platforms, according to Shack, is a

function of greater engagement with the existing audience while also

reaching out to newer audiences. This requires brands to identify, connect

and nurture audiences with relevant content. Our research shows that

majority of the current initiatives by the three brands do not adhere to this

basic tenet.

For the period of 1st July 2012 to 20th July 2012, the benchmark finds

Audi has ranked the best, BMW has ranked second and Mercedes-Benz

has ranked third.

Through the rest of the year, Shack will publish updates to this leaderboard

on a fortnightly basis, with an analysis of our findings and our observations.


3:
INDEX:
 INTRODUCTION

 WHY COMMUNITIES?

 CURRENT STATUS:
tangible incentives attracting disinterested members…

 SOCIAL LEADERBOARD:
week-on-week performance of top 3 luxury car brands…

 BMW:
new 3-series launch…

 AUDI:
R8 drive experience…

 MERCEDES:
promoting the new B-class…

 METHODOLOGY:
the research Process…

 ABOUT SHACK


4:
Introduction
The leaderboard updates the results derived from our internal tools and

methodologies on a bi-monthly basis, based on which we will bring out our

conclusions. Shack uses a proprietary grading mechanism

ShackMatrix™ to derive the Authority, Activity and Reconnect Grades,

which are key determinants of a brand’s social presence. Read more

about the Matrix and Grades.

Why Communities?
Create, Connect, Curate — The Shack Manifesto for Building

Communities

With the social online world becoming an important cog in a customer’s

relationship with a brand, there is a need for a common language that can

give meaning to the seemingly unstructured social data scattered across

platforms that represents a brand’s interaction with its core community.

As has happened with the introduction of any new communication medium,

practitioners are making the mistake of using the measuring stick (such as

views and reach) of traditional advertising media to gauge success in the

social web. For over a half a century, we have been thinking about


5:
marketing in terms of campaigns with a very clear beginning, middle and an

end. But the online digital world is currently in the process of being rebuilt

around people and what we know as the social web, in a few years, would

simply be the web.

Therefore, long term success for brands depends on leveraging these

human relationships to create a strong sense of community around

products, concepts and values that are dearest to the brands.

How we measure effectiveness in Online Communities?

The ShackMatrix™ is a proprietary framework that enables assessment of a

brand’s digital footprint in a holistic way. It is a common language designed to

understand the value of a brand’s online efforts expressed through 5 grades that

combine the understanding of traditional branding with the dynamics of a social

online world.

 Presence Grade: Measures how well is the brand represented on digital

platforms.

 Authority Grade: Measures how authoritative is a brand’s owned-

channels for information on the brand and its products.

 TG Grade: Measures the percentage of the desired target group mix

active on the brand’s owned platforms.

 Activity Grade: Measures the level of activity on existing channels.

 Re-Connect Grade: Measures the extent to which community members

connect and identify the brand with the attributes desired by it.


6:
Tangible Incentives Attracting
Disinterested Members


7:
Social Leaderboard:
1st – 20th July 2012

Brand Community Size Share (%) Activity Grade
Current 1w ago Current 1w ago Current 1w ago
Audi 8,27,459 8,23,678 37.5% 37.5% 4.9% 17.3%
BMW 7,82,915 7,77,256 35.5% 35.4% 9.3% 0.5%
Merc 5,96,817 5,95,300 27.0% 27.1% 5.9% 1.9%


8:
Audi:
 With the opening of the Buddh International Circuit, track days have

become a highlight event for all luxury and sports car makers to drive

offline engagement. Audi was no different as shown by its recent R8

Drive experience. While the exclusive few who got to drive the car

felt involved, Audi failed to capture and translate this experience to

the digital platform in a manner that leveraged and engaged its

desired target audience.

20.0%
Reconnect Grade

15.0%
10.0%
5.0%
-
Audi (W1) Audi (W2)
efficiency 4.0% -
contest - 0.3%
technology 0.9% 0.2%
experience 0.0% 0.2%
progressive 0.2% 0.2%
luxury car 8.4% 1.4%
R8 0.3% 1.1%

 Audi's Activity Grade fell by more than 50% compared to the

Week 1 (7 Jul – 13 Jul) which saw higher activity due to contest-

related interaction and the celebration of its 103rd anniversary. Focus

initiatives, once over, always bring about a falloff in Activity Grades,


9:
but it is unhealthy for any brand to experience such a drastic falloff

especially when the baseline to which it draws back is on the

considerably lower side.

 Ironically, in Week 1 (7th Jul – 13th Jul), Audi fared better on the

Reconnect Grade for ‘efficiency’ (4.1% vs. 0.4%) even though it is

BMW that focuses on Efficient Dynamics in its cars and it is considered

a key essence of BMW’s brand.

 GAP/Opportunity Analysis:

The contest by Audi generated the least amount of buzz among all the

3 brands. Audi did not leverage its (re)connect with ‘efficiency’ in

Week 2 which it should do going forward if it wants to maintain and

extend its position at the top of the pack.


10:
OBSERVATIONS
 To further improve its grades, Audi should cater in a better

manner to a community having the following profile 1)

young urban professionals 2) motorsport enthusiasts 3)

technology buffs 4) car enthusiasts who appreciate the

technology, design and performance of an Audi.

 While the association with motorsports fits well with the Audi

story, the engagement doesn’t go beyond track days. The

community also needs a place to stay connected and interested

even in the absence of any on-ground events. Such engagement

would also translate into increased buzz during events and

product launches.


11:

BMW:
 BMW saw a big jump in its Activity Grade as compared to the Week 1

(7 Jul – 13 Jul) driven by contest-related activity around the launch

of the new 3-Series.

 Relative to the community size, the contest failed to generate any

significant buzz with a mere 3000 users active during the month on

its platforms. This has significant implications for the RoI on such

initiatives for the brand.

20.0%
Reconnect Grade

15.0%
10.0%
5.0%
-
BMW (W1) BMW (W2)
progressive - 1.8%
contest - 2.0%
efficiency 0.4% 1.2%
exclusive 0.0% 2.0%
launch event - 2.0%
ultimat3 - 3.0%
3-series - 7.3%


12:

 Similar spikes were observed during the launch of the X1 in Aug

2011 and the Mission Impossible contest in Nov-Dec 2011. We

believe that such activities only provide an engagement channel for

users who are incentivised mainly through tangible rewards.

 Majority of these ‘flash mobs’ do not represent the brand’s desired

target audience and they often don’t identify closely enough with the

essence of the brand.

 BMW scores low on the Reconnect and Authority Grades, due to the

asynchronous overall communication. This contributed to a disjointed

overall experience for the user trying to connect with the brand on

its various digital platforms. It is critical for brands to be able to

(re)associate themselves with a consistent set of values and concepts

and also have those values represented consistently across all

platforms they choose to be on.

 GAP/Opportunity Analysis: Our projections show that an uptick in

BMW’s Activity Score by 1.3x from the current level would have

helped BMW be on top the leaderboard.


13:
OBSERVATIONS
 To improve its score we believe that BMW, given its positioning and

brand attributes, can cater to the community comprising 1) Brand

enthusiasts: young professionals in the fields of architecture,

fashion design, film making and other such creative pursuits 2)

Owners: Corporate professionals and self-employed businessmen

who have an interest in design, art, fashion, theatre and the finer

things in life. This requires both initiatives and content to be tailored to

meet the needs of the two groups.

 The campaign for the new 3-Series was overloaded with product

information for a brand and a product which already has good recall

value. The brand should instead focus its efforts on creating

engagement channels for the cultural interests of their core

community.


14:

Mercedes-Benz
 When it comes to displaying growth in the grades, Mercedes-Benz

finds itself in the same boat as BMW and Audi.

 The recently announced 'Ultimate Trails' contest was the

primary factor responsible for the week-on-week growth in

Activity Grade for the brand.

20.0%
Reconnect Grade

15.0%
10.0%
5.0%
-
Merc (W1) Merc (W2)
exhilarating - 2.1%
contest 0.3% 0.2%
touring trail - 2.1%
adventure 0.6% 2.1%
Tourer - 2.1%
B-class - 2.1%
C-class 0.0% -


15:
 Through the on-going contest, Mercedes-Benz primarily wants their

community members to connect the theme of adventure with the new

B-class.

 However, the performance in this respect has been average as

evidenced by the Reconnect Grade for ‘adventure’ (2.1%) which is

below par compared to the Activity Grade (5.9%) for the week.

 GAP/Opportunity Analysis: Finishing last, Mercedes-Benz has the

most amount of work to do in the coming days. To top the current

leaderboard, the brand has to at least increase its Activity Score by

5x.

 Considering that Mercedes-Benz is already experiencing the peak of its

contest-driven growth in Activity Grade it is obvious that doing more

of the same won’t get them to top the leaderboard.


16:
OBSERVATIONS
 The existing Mercedes-Benz community in India includes

families with a long lineage of owning Mercedes-Benz cars,

urban professionals such as lawyers, CAs in the age group of 46-60

years and self-employed businessmen.

 Mercedes-Benz has always been known for being ‘The Luxury Car’

representing royalty, power and class. However, due to the slip in

their market share to the might of BMW and Audi over the last few

years, they are reorienting their strategy to cater to a younger

audience comprising emerging entrepreneurs in Tier II and Tier III

cities as well as middle-aged professionals in the metros. The

introduction of the B-class sports Tourer is a step in this direction.

 The community angle for Mercedes is more intricate given that they

have to connect with their existing audience while also having an

offering for the younger audience they are trying to cater to through

their new product lines.

 So an offering which combines lifestyle and luxurious living

with the new and avant-garde would serve as a relevant context

to drive engagement.


17:
Data Methodology
We take online performance as a holistic concept. While size of the brand’s

community and level of activity are important factors, the profile of the TG,

the authority of the brand’s platforms and its recall are also equally

important ingredients.

In calculating the ShackMatrix™, we assign weights to the different metrics

on individual platforms in order to combine them into a single comparable

grade that is relevant to the digital objectives of the brand.

The weights are decided based on the relative effectiveness of the platform

to a brand’s community as well as the brand’s own digital goals.

Data Validity and Integrity

We source the data from the brand’s official digital properties. Our scope is

restricted by the data made available through the APIs of the social

platforms we cover.

The coverage of data in this report is restricted to Facebook and Twitter.

More detailed and granular metric studies are done for clients on a project

basis.


18:
About Shack
Shack is a digital marketing company which brings together brands and their

customers in carefully crafted, wholesome communities, providing exceptional

experiences for all.

We leverage communities for brands:

In order to create and maintain buzz around your brand you need your target

audience to form lasting relationships with your brand.

We build platforms for the communities:

Being a one-stop solution for all your community building and web-based marketing

needs, we craft comprehensive campaigns, based on careful strategy, encompassing

an entire digital eco-system.

We develop content for the platforms:

Along with creating engagement tools both online and off-line we also encourage and

facilitate generation of remarkably effective and compelling content, in a methodical

manner by our own team, and in a random manner, by your community members.

We measure the impact on the brand:

You need to monitor the impact that the campaign has on your brand. This impact is

not something hypothetical, it is hard, tangible, three-dimensional data that not only

tells you where you presently stand, but also tells you where you need to go and

what path you need to follow with the help of Shack’s proprietary Digital Ecosystem

Management tool. Website || Blog || Twitter


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