DELTA, B.C. This is just another pleasant way for Les and Elizabeth Faure to spend a Saturday afternoon off-roading in Land Rovers, racing around a small track in 400-horsepower Jaguars, sampling gourmet pasta and relaxing over cold drinks while cocooned in stuffed leather couches.
"I love cars, so when I got the invitation it was a natural," says Les Faure, who drives a Porsche 911 Carrera S but is here today at a Jaguar/Land Rover marketing event. Why? His name appeared on a list of potential buyers with the right shopping habits and income.
The Faures, along with about 300 others over the course of three days, are attending what the auto industry calls a "relationship-marketing event." In this case, Jaguar Land Rover Canada mined contacts obtained from high-end retail outlets and financial services companies. The Faures may not own a Jag or a Land Rover, but they can afford to.
"For a small brand like us," says Jaguar Land Rover president Gary Moyer, "this is a good way to go. I don't think someone buying a $100,000 car looks at magazine ads. But this kind of thing makes the hair stand up on the back of their neck."
Moyer is referring to the hot-shoe experience happening at a makeshift race track on an abandoned air strip, not 100 metres away from the massive marquee tent, which today is event marketing headquarters.
Elizabeth and Les Faure attend a Jaguar Land Rover test drive event in Delta, B.C. (JEREMY CATO FOR THE GLOBE AND MAIL)
Professional driving instructors have laid out a course for guests to tests the limits of, say, Jaguar's 400-horsepower XKR sports car, and other models in Jag's lineup.
In addition, just a five-minute drive down the road at the Willow Bay Farms, a breeding and training ranch for thoroughbred horses, a small platoon of off-road experts have set up a course to test the considerable limits of Land Rover's four models, the LR3, Range Rover, Range Rover Sport and the all-new LR2. The Land Rovers are of some interest to the Faures; they are considering one for Elizabeth's daily driver.
"It was really something to drive them over there on that track, and find their potential," says Les Faure, laughing along with Elizabeth over the experience of getting wheels airborne on a slippery, dusty, steep and deep layout carved in the soft dirt beside the horse stables.
Jaguar/Land Rover is by no means the only manufacturer turning more and more to one-on-one events to tap into potential buyers. But Moyer says this is his company's first foray into large-scale event marketing and so far he likes what he sees right down to the work of chef Rob Feenie of Vancouver's famed Lumiθre restaurant. Feenie is here in the tent cooking up some exquisite pasta creation for guests to sample.
"We're here for that, too," says Elizabeth, eyeing Feenie and his saucepan.
Despite the fancy food and the luxurious accommodations, this is really just one of a growing number of consumer test-drive events.
This sort of approach to selling cars is moving centre stage in automotive marketing. And not because they are necessarily less expensive than traditional media, though they can be especially if they are carefully targeted at qualified and interested prospects such as the Faures.
In truth, ride-and-drive programs often are more costly than traditional media advertising. The extra cost is offset by an important consideration: Shoppers who test drive a vehicle are more likely to consider its brand, industry analysts say.
Driving events also are a powerful way for car companies to connect with current owners, the analysts add.
"These events are a very good way to reach our customers," Moyer says. Some studies suggest potential buyers who test drive a car or truck are three times more likely than other consumers to consider purchasing it.
Which explains Camp Jeep, perhaps the granddaddy of all ride-and-drive events. Lou Bitonti, who left Chrysler last year after 22 years with the company, created Camp Jeep a dozen years ago. This three-day event for Jeep owners is held at different venues all over North America and attracts both Jeep loyalists and potential customers.
"You've got to keep that human connection and passion point," Bitonti says. "At Camp Jeep, owners were taken aback because they were able to meet the people behind the brand, such as the designers.
"We gave them an opportunity to see the vehicles in real-life situations and had product specialists there to answer questions," says Bitonti, who now heads LD3 Event Management LLC in suburban Detroit. "We saw the results."
Bitonti is the author of The Cosmic Spiderweb: How to Capture Any Customer Through Event Marketing. He says that actual test drives have helped to correct false impressions of Jeep vehicles and also cement new, positive ones. And they build relationships between not just manufacturers and customers, but also shape networking relationships between customers themselves.
The downside is that consumer ride-and-drives can be "hideously expensive," says Jeremy Anwyl, president of industry researcher Edmunds.com. In the United States, "they can easily get to $10-, $20-, $30-million with a track and competitive vehicles [going to] five or 10 cities," Anwyl says. "On a cost-per-impression basis, it is very expensive."
In Canada, marketing experts says a multi-city tour should be budgeted to cost between $30,000 and $50,000 per vehicle on site. The tab will rise if luxurious extras are added. On the other hand, co-sponsorships with like-minded, non-automotive brands, can help defray costs.
But the cost isn't stopping auto makers from expanding their ride-and-drive programs and other relationship activities. Take Toyota Canada. To launch its new Tundra pickup, Toyota has been an active participant in farm, fishing and outdoor shows, bringing the new truck right to potential customers.
Toyota Canada also recently conducted a multi-city tour with its fleet of gasoline-electric hybrid vehicles, setting up booths in shopping malls and inviting the public to take them for a test drive.
General Motors, Chrysler and others have done or are planning similar ride-and-drive events.
In the United States, these relationship events are already well established. But each manufacturer seems to be taking a slightly different approach.
Last year, for example, Volkswagen of America invested heavily in targeted test drives, finding mass-market ride-and-drives cost-prohibitive. VW in the U.S. favours ride-and-drives at events such as Water Fest, which drew 20,000 owners of VW vehicles and classic cars to Englishtown, N.J., last year. Those owners tend to influence other consumers, the company says.
Automotive marketers favour consumer test drive programs for three key reasons:
The personal connection with customers;
A greater likelihood that testers will consider a brand; and
The ability to convey a vehicle's character.
Events are also a way to break through a cluttered media landscape and tap hard-to-reach customers, especially young trendsetting consumers.
Today's media landscape has changed drastically, with huge shifts in newspaper and magazine readership and in TV viewership. The new player in all this, the 300-kilogram gorilla in the room, is the Internet and all its capabilities.
At an event, the auto maker has the complete attention of a potential buyer, who can actually touch and feel the cars they can interact with the brand in their own space and at their own pace. Events allow consumers to discover what an auto maker is about in a very personal way, by driving the vehicle, experiencing the brand's values and attributes, and its heritage.
At an event, it's possible to create an emotional connection. That's not going to happen on television or through the newspaper at least not to the same degree, marketing experts say.
Peter Renz, a marketing veteran with Venture Communications in Toronto and the former marketing director at both Toyota and Hyundai Canada, says customers today just don't have as much time to spend with brands as they used to.
Marketing today is about reaching customers everywhere they live: websites, blogs and cellphones, television, print, radio but in a different way. It's not about spots; it's about integrating everything into the program.
"Auto makers' media buying and planning reflect the changes," Renz says. "The trend is away from pure TV, pure mass marketing and into more personalized, relationship marketing, reaching customers in the absolute most relevant way.
"Those traditional models the push that we all grew up with are no longer so relevant today as they were yesterday. The old way was that we were really good sellers," he adds. "We are trying to be really good marketers now. There's a big difference."
The Faures and others are learning that first hand. And that's the whole idea.
