Jupiter said that 70 percent of the online auto sites do not allow consumers
to check the inventory of a particular dealer.
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Automakers hoping to leverage the power of the Internet to generate new
car sales need to concentrate less on online selling and more on building
brand awareness, according to a report released Thursday by
Jupiter Media Metrix.
"Given that most consumers will ultimately purchase an automobile
offline, automotive advertisers will see little benefit in attempting
to drive sales directly through online advertising," Jupiter said.
"Instead, automotive advertisers should emphasize awareness and
positioning of their brand or particular features of their cars,
in order to provide information that can then influence consumers'
offline car purchases," the research firm added.
Jupiter found that online advertising strategies in the
automotive industry, particularly
at automakers' sites, are already focused on building
brand awareness. Seventy-seven
percent of advertising impressions by automakers
focus on building brand awareness and
positioning, with 7 percent targeted toward producing sales.
Web of Confusion
Jupiter also concluded that automotive sites are not
making it easy for consumers to find the information
they need to research their offline car purchases.
"While automotive original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), dealers,
and online buying and information services all strive to connect
consumers to cars, consumers are confounded by an abundance of
online offerings, often providing confusing information due to
incomplete integration between online and offline channels," the report said.
Jupiter noted that 70 percent of the online auto sites
do not allow consumers to check the inventory of a particular dealer.
Work With Me
New York City-based Jupiter acknowledged that there
has been some progress in automotive sites working together.
Ford (NYSE: F) refers customers to Yahoo! Autos for independent
reviews, while GM BuyPower, operated by General Motors (NYSE: GM),
partners with Kelley Blue Book's KBB.com to link
information seekers to local dealers.
In order to drive offline sales, Jupiter said that
automotive sites need to "coordinate efforts to promote
a connection between sites specializing in reviews and
vehicle information and sites specializing in providing
price quotes, dealer inventories and transaction initiation capabilities."
Driving Traffic
Jupiter said that automotive research sites, such as
Edmunds.com
and KBB.com, accounted for 77 percent of the
time spent at online automotive sites in March.
On average, consumers spend more time at automotive research
sites than at the automaker sites themselves, the report said.
Jupiter also found that the average visit to an automotive
research site was 19 minutes per month, compared to 11
minutes per month for automaker sites.
Portal to the Medal
The report also found that automotive research services
drive only 18 percent of their traffic to automaker sites
or third-party buying services. Instead, research sites drive most
of their traffic back to major portals, such as Yahoo!
(Nasdaq: YHOO), America Online (NYSE: AOL) and MSN.
Portals are the single largest source of traffic for
automaker and third-party sites. Automaker sites
receive 36 percent of their traffic from portals
and third-party sites garner 47 percent of their traffic from them.
Chaotic Marketing
Jupiter is not the first research firm to question the
auto industry's online methods. A report issued in
February by Forrester Research criticized
automakers for using chaotic marketing techniques online.
The Forrester study said that online auto shoppers who go
directly to manufacturers are met with "vast, confusing and
unpersuasive sites." Forrester urged carmakers to unify online
and offline marketing efforts, as television and the Web
begin to overlap more often.
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