Lexus Dealer iPad Application - Lexus Australia
Retail & Shopping
|
|
Project Website |
|
Project Commissioner
Lexus Australia
Julie Hutchinson
Project Creator
Ingrid Prowse
Senior Account Director
The White Agency
Project Team
Jess Madden - Executive Producer Ingrid Prowse - Senior Account Director Mauli Ryan - Associate Producer Heather Charnock - Senior Account Manager Erin Beer - Account Executive Peter Feltham - Tech Lead Paris Lawrence - Senior Art Director Mike Barry - Creative Director Tony Wall - UX Architect James Keeler - Associate Strategy Director
Project Overview
How can Lexus dealers show their customers every vehicle combination available without having those vehicles present in their showroom?
The Lexus iPad app revolutionises the sales process, equipping Lexus dealers with a handy tool that can help clinch that all-important sale. This app allows the dealer to easily display vehicle combinations to their customers right there in the showroom.
This serves to optimise and streamline the Lexus experience, improving prospect engagement and ultimately increasing sales.
Project Brief
There are hundreds of colour combinations and optional additions with every Lexus model. No Lexus dealership could possibly fit every vehicle available. But thanks to TWA, the entire range could fit in one hand.
TWA identified a hurdle in Lexus dealers’ sales process where they weren’t always able to show customers the vehicles they were interested in, with the preferred exterior colour and interior trim colours, as these weren’t always present in the showroom.
Additionally, dealers were using printed out spec sheets to show customers the difference between vehicle grades. This was not a great tool when those differences can involve $10k+. Also, using a calculator to add extra options and accessories to the drive away price isn’t a luxury experience in keeping with the brand values. Plus, walking customers into an office off the sales floor to write down their details made for a really disjointed sales process.
The objective of this campaign was to provide dealers with a sales tool that would optimise and streamline the sales process, improving prospect engagement and ultimately increasing sales.
The primary target market was Lexus dealers. The tool would be used in dealerships by sales staff. Lexus sales staff range in age from mid-20s to late-50s. There is a heavy male skew (80-90% males).
Project Innovation / Need
The Lexus iPad app introduces a series of innovations to meet the needs of the dealers and provide them with a tool to help them sell vehicles.
This enables the dealers to:
- Show the customer exactly what they will get
- Quickly communicate key model information and owner benefits
- Display the spec difference between entry level grades and top end grades
- Easily sell accessories at the time of purchase, as the customer can see what impact each addition has on their monthly repayments
- Tell the customer their likely monthly repayments on a loan without having to take the customer away from the car
- Gain assistance selling Lexus as a brand
- Explain how Lexus hybrids work and their benefits
The app displays the entire Lexus range on the iPad, where the customer or dealer can select a model to build and price without leaving the showroom floor.
Then the user can view:
- The different grades available
- Exterior 360 views and all exterior colours available on the vehicle
- Interior views and the interior trim options
- All option packs available for the vehicle selected
- Full pricing based on their location
- Detailed specifications illustrating the difference between the grades available for that vehicle
The customer can even send the configured vehicle and pricing information to themselves. This information can easily integrate into the dealer CRM database with their permission.
User Experience
At once useful and usable, the Lexus dealer iPad app also provides a delightful user experience. Dealers can access vehicle prices through an intuitive interface all while talking to customers on the showroom floor. It also uses large glossy imagery, smooth transitions and animations so that dealers want to show it to their customers.
To engage users at the outset, there is a full screen vehicle carousel that encourages the dealers to browse playfully through the full Lexus range of vehicles. The bottom tabs are included to give users a broad view of the types of vehicles Lexus provides and a quick link to the vehicle they desire. Once selected, the vehicle is loaded onto the build and price platform. From here the dealer can view the vehicle from different angles using the now established swipe interaction.
If they don’t immediately swipe, a gentle hint fades up at the bottom of the screen. To customise their vehicle, the user navigates easily through tabs in the bottom panel. The selected item is clearly defined by a green tick. A simple touch of a coloured icon will paint the exterior or customise the interior. Each tab follows the same form of interaction. As they build the vehicle, the price also dynamically updates in the right hand column. Once they’ve designed their Lexus, they can view a full summary and email this to themselves.
Project Marketing
This marketing campaign had a very niche target market of 24 dealerships nationwide. We announced the news of the revolutionary iPad app via the Lexus Weekly Dealer Bulletin email. Here TWA and Lexus outlined the benefits of the app and provided a clickable link to download it for free to their iPads.
The app was hosted in the App store, so updates could be made to the app at any point in time. These updates were automatically distributed, allowing dealers to pick them up immediately.
Dealer training was also undertaken. 5% of the overall digital budget was allocated to this project.
