Mmmmm….smell that? It’s fresh breakfast baking and bubbling away…
There’s four different kinds of coffee at the bar, including hot chocolate and tea, just steps away from a cozy lounge. The fireplace is on, there’s mood music, and even some shopping you can do.
Where are you?
In addition to consumer-friendly perks and wicked cool design, it’s comfortable; the seating area has plush leather couches, and of course there’s a flat screen television.
No, this is not an airport lounge.
You are at the service centre for a well-known automobile maker — your car is having a “health check” in a pristine white bricked reception centre.
Instead of selling cars for driving, this service centre is selling concierge service. Impeccable customer service and an attentive, relationship-based experience.
That’s how cars are being sold — on comfort and service, not the actual product.
With car sharing, electric vehicles and automation on the horizon, will customer service be enough to keep clients bound to the old model of motordom?
It clearly shows that public transit or car sharing is NOT for everyone. We will see more of it, absolutely, but just like buying a home vs renting one, there will always be folks that want their own vehicle, and swap it out every 2-6 years. I’d peg that number at 50% of car owners today, at least.
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Reblogged this on Sandy James Planner.
“That’s how cars are being sold — on comfort and service, not the actual product.”
That also applies to:
… groceries at Whole Foods, Urban Fare or Meinhardts
… clothing at Hot Renfrew or Nordstrom
… prepared foods at high end restaurants
… and the big one… CONDOS
People seem to gravitate to “luxury” (even if they can’t afford it)
The kind of people that lease BMWs, yes 🙂
Well, the obvious answer is that when Tesla is biting at your heels for the Sports Sedan Market, a Toyota comes with more features, and a Hyundai can legitimately claim to build a luxurious car, most people buy a BMW for a badge that says they paid extra.
They certainly need to do everything they can to bolster the image of that badge to the people vain enough to buy one.
I don’t know if any other brand could get away with naming their bar after a failed supermini though.
You need to study human psychology better. No one is forced to buy a $50,000 or $125,000 car. Yet 100,000s do it. Annually. Why is that?
Btw: over 80M cars are sold worldwide PER YEAR. https://www.statista.com/statistics/200002/international-car-sales-since-1990/ Around 1B are in operation today and estimated to be 2B by 2040. Why is that?
Wobbly buses .. not quite the answer for many …
I know that Thomas, that’s why I have 3 cars.
But don’t worry buddy, I don’t work for the government 🙂