Adelaide L!VE.
Marketing spend in the Australian automotive market is intensifying as the competitive landscape heats up.
Twelve automotive brands, including Chinese EV brands BYD, MG and GWM, have entered the Australian market in the last two years.
Many of these brands commit to making a new product every two to three years.
Speaking at AdNews Adelaide Live, Mitsubishi Motors general manager marketing and corporate affairs Sam Wight said competing options, price dynamics and technology have resulted in market flood.
“The Australian automotive market is the most competitive automotive market in the world,” Wight said.
“Australia has almost 70 brands competing for more than a million vehicles, about half in private, half in fleet, flat year on year.
“We have the strictest safety standards in the world with the steering wheel on the right-hand side.”
Wight said this has brought advertising spend up in terms of competing price dynamics and technology.
“When global automakers look to Australia, it's a difficult market to create vehicles for, and that was pre EVs and pre-Chinese automakers flooding the market.”
“Speed to market is interesting for us as well, because we look at the Chinese automotors committing to bringing a new vehicle every two to three years. Korean manufacturers are four to five, Japanese six to seven. So we're tackling a huge amount of competition.
Mitsubishi Motors has the second biggest network of dealers in Australia after Toyota.
Importance lies in balancing inquiry for dealers while maintaining a strong digital presence.
“We’re not dialing up spend, we're getting asked more questions and justifying it,” Wight said.
“We're remaining a good presence in video for branding while moving more digital.
“But we always have to balance that need to drive inquiry to dealers.
"We have to mix how we’re balancing flashy new entrants in the automotive industry but also drive that short term inquiry, because we've got dealers sitting there waiting for our acquirer to hit their inboxes and respond to people.”
Pre-covid, the industry would spend roughly half of its budget in branding, half in retail and price point advertising.
There were a lack of retail offers and pricing sales due to no market saturation at the time.
Wight said this has been a major change across the whole automotive sector. He said retail marketing is back and heavy in the innovative leasing and financing space.
“Most famously KIA have said for the last five years, they do not invest or promote. They sit entirely on the quality of their brand and product.
"That started to loosen at the end of last year, and they’ve entered into retail and promotions.
“So even amongst those that are quite bold and saying, ‘We don't promote, we trust our product’, there's some cracks starting to form.
“Australians are managing a lot of leasing, as well as moving to Chinese brands, which offer an amazing quality vehicle for the right price point.
“It’s a combination of financing and Chinese vehicles that are plugging that cost-of-living issue.”
Wight said the media spend is impacted by the introduction of a product and how well known it is in its sector.
“When we introduce new technology that isn't well known, like plug-in hybrid variations, and what that means versus a hybrid or an EV, it requires a lot of education and heavy lifting.
“Bi-directional charging will probably be the next one that the auto industry explains how that helps sustainability.
“There's a lot of similarities as well, When we look at who is buying EVs today, which predominately have been at a high price point, it's the more affluent people, the plus 50s in Australia, that have been buying them.
“From a media perspective, it's the traditional channels that we will use for selling a Triton or an Outlander.
“It's not a default that EVs will mean digital and young, It's actually more nuanced than that.”
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