Engaging with up to 600,000 consumers per year across some of the UK’s biggest publishers, TLA is uniquely positioned to monitor consumer behavioural trends.
Antony Neill, Head of Data Insight at TLA, talks through some of the key consumer trends we have observed through our interaction with consumers in the past week.
With the UK now officially in lockdown, we have seen dealer groups shut up shop across the country, closing off the bricks-and-mortar sales channel that automotive consumers have become so familiar with. There is consensus across the market that consumer demand is set to soften significantly, and brands have set about assessing their marketing spend in an effort to optimise and cut costs.
Brands must, however, ensure that they continue to invest in consumer acquisition during these challenging periods, even where there is no immediate mechanism to sell those consumers a vehicle, at least through the dealer channel.
China – as the only nation to begin its emergence from its COVID-19 epidemic – offers reason for hope. Jim Holder’s recent article suggested that online demand for cars “boomed” during the lockdown period in China, with e-commerce channels growing significantly during the period to fulfil that demand. Tesla has shown that that the direct-to-consumer approach can work in automotive – albeit for an offering that is arguably more consumer technology product than vehicle – and most brands in the UK do have an ecommerce presence, but TLA’s consumer research tells a different story: the majority of consumers remain on the fence about the prospect of making such a significant financial commitment completely through non-contact channels.
We must also remember that not all demand is set to disappear. Consumers approaching the end of PCP deals, for example, may find themselves in-market for a new vehicle by necessity, rather than desire. TLA is seeing this first-hand where, regardless of market conditions, there is a baseline of consumers that continue to request guidance and assistance from our in-house contact centre in buying their next vehicle, with a short purchase timeframe of 1-2 months, the result of their existing deal coming to an end.
Acquisition and engagement are key. There is plentiful research that shows how brand loyalty significantly falls during times of economic hardship, and TLA’s first-party data concurs, with more than 50% of consumers suggesting that they would seek out another brand should their first-choice brand not be able to fulfil their sale. There is value in developing a healthy, engaged pipeline of consumers that can be nurtured to a sale-ready position, and eventually released to the dealer channel when normal service resumes. Engaging early means that brands can develop a relationship with these consumers before the brand-switching tendencies that the current economic environment encourages manifest.
China’s gradual emergence offers a positive story on this front too. Automotive News Europe suggested earlier this week that 93% of new car dealerships in China have re-opened, two months after the imposition of lockdown conditions in Hubei province, after extraordinary, and ultimately successful, efforts to contain the virus. While early reports suggest that footfall remains low, the point stands: dealerships could be back sooner than it currently seems, at which point brands must be ready to capitalise on pent-up demand. This has been referred to elsewhere as “revenge spending” – the point where isolated consumers, starved of the opportunity to consume, suddenly embrace the opportunity to spend again, and do so at a greater volume and ferocity than pre-isolation.
In times of economic hardship, marketing costs are often the first to be cut, with brands viewing them as expendable and correlated with times of success. But that’s just it: marketing is not just correlated with success – it has a causal relationship.
“Marketing helps drive commerce. Marketers have an opportunity to give consumers a reason to spend deals, products, services even when we are bunkered up and hunkered down” writes Bradley Johnson of AdAge.
For all the reasons above, there must be a psychological shift to view marketing as a “good cost” in times of economic downturn. Spending, even when times are tough, is essential for both serving consumers with necessity-led demand, and for preparing brands to make a strong recovery when the time eventually comes.
In Late 2019 our team was challenged to rebrand The Lead Agency (TLA), to coincide with its 18th birthday, in February 2020. After years of growth and increasing work on the product base, TLA needed a brand that represented the evolution of our ecosystem and a fresh visual language. The goal was to reflect the team and the TLA spirit within a modern brand identity.
“We spent a lot of time talking to team members who had seen the brand evolve from a small business to a large corporation. It was important that we understood the journey of the brand, so we could put forward concepts that were reflective of a proud past, but strategies that looked towards a brighter future.”
Jonny Kimber, Lead UX/UI Designer of TLA
The design team ran a double diamond process to deliver the overall brief. This four-step process (discover, define, design, deliver) is a problem-solving framework used by teams across the world to reach a desired solution. The team kicked off with a discovery phase — crucial to allow the team time to process the brief and provide purpose and direction. The intensive research period included staff surveys, stakeholder interviews and workshops to understand existing assets.
In the second stage of the double diamond process – the definition phase – consisted of filtering through the information received from the discovery phase and elaborating on this, pulling data apart and synthesising information. This crystallised direction for the team and gave intent to deliver the brief whilst finalising mission, vision, values and more.
The third phase of the project – the design phase – started with hand-drawn concepts informed by the entire journey so far. The designs were kept simple until strong ideas started to emerge, which is when the team starting delivering computer concepts in colour and detail. The only rule at this stage was ‘No idea is a bad idea’. The final deliverable at this stage was a presentation to senior stakeholders to choose the new brand identity.
The final stage was the delivery phase and with a brand identity chosen, the team started to roll out the new visual language to print and digital touch-points, along with communicating the new vision to the rest of the business. This is where the fun really starts, as care needs to be taken to ensure the team launches the best possible version of the concept and in a timely manner. Elements covered are touchpoints – website, email signatures and customer-facing collateral.
“The team are thrilled with the new brand and the past 4 months has been such a journey for us. We’ve had many late nights, lots of coffee-runs and a lot of hard decisions to make but they’ve been offset by those amazing ‘a-ha moments’ that designers live for… It has all been worth it! We now have a modern brand that does justice to our 18 years in the automotive space. This truly is the start of a new chapter for TLA.”
Jonny Kimber, Lead UX/UI Designer of TLA
Working from home often means making some compromises, but data security is not one of them.
Kathy Fleming, Head of Compliance at TLA, explains how TLA’s ISO:27001-accredited policies and procedures will continue to guarantee data security, regardless of where are colleagues are working from.
In response to the UK’s Government’s advice, TLA has spent the last week making our entire business remote-ready, undertaking a comprehensive review process to ensure our technology is fit-for-purpose, our systems are prepared and that we have policies and procedures in place to guarantee compliance, security and operational efficiency.
There has been a particularly strong focus on making our contact centre able to operate completely remotely, given its importance to providing qualified consumers for our clients.
The business dress rehearsed a full work-from-home day on Tuesday 17th March, with all digital and contact centre colleagues working remotely, and all standard daily meetings, stand-ups and workshops continuing to take place via messaging and video conferencing tools. We are pleased to report that the results were wildly successful, from both a productivity and efficiency perspective.
This success has led the business to immediately roll out work-from-home instructions for all employees, meaning TLA will be a fully remote operation for the foreseeable future.
We recognise that working from home is new for a lot of our colleagues, and have implemented a number of initiatives to help our colleagues acclimatise and be productive.
We have assigned a dedicated Project Manager – Emily – to the work-from-home initiative to ensure that every base is covered, whether it be professional or personal.
“Working from home can be a brilliant opportunity, but we know it also comes with many challenges and some unknowns,” Emily says. “We wanted to make sure all of our team members feel they have a go-to person to offer support during this tricky time.”
“Alongside a dedicated technical support team, we’ve also helped employees with advice on claiming back travel costs, on creating productive working environments, and effective use of social media.”
“We’re also aware of the mental health impact on individuals as a result of both the current national mood and the very sudden requirement to work from home, so have also arranged for employee use of mental health advisory lines should they feel they need professional support.”
“As the situation unfolds, we will continue to support all team members with whatever challenges come next.”
We’ve also made it abundantly clear that just because colleagues are no longer sharing an office doesn’t mean that we can’t continue to enjoy each other’s company, and the business will continue to run social and cultural initiatives wherever possible, including personal training sessions by video, best WFH selfie competitions and an 80-person Friday conference call to share success stories from around the business.
“Culture is one of the core reasons why our colleagues and clients enjoy working with us”, says Neil Cosgrove, Head of Studio. “We want to preserve and protect it, and we don’t think that working remotely will have a large impact on who we are as a collective.”
Our CEO, Anton Hanley, explains through the steps that TLA has taken to ensure business continuity and employee wellbeing in these unprecedented times, and how first-party data suggests that consumers continue to research their next automotive purchase.
From management to recent graduates, we firmly believe in equality of opportunity.
We also respect that there are different forms and ways that leadership can make a difference in life and work.
That is why the future leadership programme has been introduced, to support our colleagues that will benefit from expert training and mentorship to help their growth into leadership roles.
Say hello to our first cohort!
Richard Royes – Sales Team Leader
Duration at TLA: 4 Years
Initially I wasn’t going to do the course as I wasn’t sure if I would enjoy the reading side or if it was going to be to academic but Steve straight made it clear that it’s a programme that will help you learn you put in as much effort as you want to get as much as you want out of it.
Having not really given it my all school/college etc I wanted to prove to myself that if I put my mind to something, I can do it.
Danielle Smith – Systems Developer
Duration at TLA: 5 Years
when you come into work you are mainly focused on your own role and the team you are part of. By taking part in the FLP it allows me to gain a wider understanding of business as a whole and all of the other parts that make up the business instead of being just in the Dev bubble. The FLP provides this through many different modules in the course from project management, finance, entrepreneurial leadership and what it takes to become a leader. The course requires lots of research, presentations, coursework and group discussions to feedback findings to the group. I thought it would be a great challenge as you can gain out of this course as much as you want so it’s all about pushing yourself.
Amy Smith – Campaign Manager
Duration at TLA: 9 Years
I am excited to learn more about myself and how I can become better in my role. It is a privilege to be accepted onto the course and I want to use what I learn on the future leaders course to improve all aspects of my job and hopefully progress further within TLA.
Joshua Duxbury – Senior Software Developer
Duration at TLA: 3 Years
I’ve only just started on the future leaders program, but already it has given me a big insight into a different way of thinking and approaching from an entrepreneurial point of view. There is a lot of self learning, I’ve enjoyed reading the challenges faced by Philip Knight (Shoe Dog) and Steve Jobs. I’ve received great feedback on how to improve on my presentation skills and i’m looking forward to the next module around “What differentiates a high performance team”. I feel the program will enhance my skills for presenting at Dot Net Liverpool and allow me to be a better leader within my team.
Jonny Kimber – Lead UX / UI Designer
Duration at TLA: 2 Years
I’m really excited for the high performing teams module of the course. As a relatively new team at TLA we want to ensure we’re having the biggest impact on the company and working on the most significant briefs. We’ve got a pretty good infrastructure already but it’s always good to learn ways to improve!
Graham Fyfe – Sales Manager
Duration at TLA: 8 Years
Looking forward to learning as much as I can during the FLP. Hopefully, the knowledge I gain can be a benefit not just to myself but to the TLA.
Kristian Brown – Email Marketing Manager
Duration at TLA: 5 Years
Looking forward to learning new skills that will help me become a better digital marketer and contribute even more to the future growth and success of TLA.
Mike Jones – Sales Team Manager
Duration at TLA: 10 Years
I love learning new things and applying them to everything I do so this course is perfect for me. I am finding myself changing the way I think and the way I look at new situations. I am most looking forward to the High Performing Teams Module as it applies most to me and my role within the TLA.
