17. Digital Technologies are Rewriting the Old Rules of Marketing

Advances in new computing technologies to gather and process large quantities of information, increased further in the second part of the 2000s. Nowadays, car clients make great use of digital media. Given that potential clients find a huge amount of content online, they make many decisions concerning the purchasing process before visiting a dealership. The marketing content they can find online has a significant impact on these decisions. The development of digital technologies marked the need to extend the “4Ps” of marketing to 7, to include people, process and physical evidence. The impact on the traditional marketing was profound. New technologies made it possible to change the core product and extend it. From the early 2000s, car companies moved towards “selling personal transportation solutions” rather than “just selling cars.” Customers participated in creating products through the web. In the pricing field, transparency increased, downward pressure on prices grew, and dynamic pricing challenged vendor-fixed pricing, especially for the low-cost segments. Regarding place, the relationship between customers and dealers is difficult to replace. Almost everywhere, franchisees have obtained state legislation to protect their positions. However, given that many car buyers make their purchasing decisions before they even consider visiting a dealership, manufacturers often turn to augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to present their products. In terms of promotions, the digital age opened up new channels of communication: some people speak of “the end of an era.” In the digital age, customers have access to a large amount of information about products, and power shifts towards them.