Car Sales in the Throes of Change: Aims for Total Customer Experience in the Digital Era

This chapter identifies the automotive industry’s failure to adapt to the digital transformation, drawing on Silicon Valley software producers’ efforts to enter the automotive industry. The author states that the structure of automotive industry sales and communication strategies has not actively changed over the past 30 years, particularly in the light of the digital transformation. This is especially relevant in respect of changing customer behaviour and demands, including declining loyalty towards brands and individualised buying decisions, as the digital platform Hyundai Rockar demonstrates. While customer experience should be used as a starting point for automotive sales by using new data availability, the author further describes how old sales structures are holding back change. The chapter gives four recommendations for a future-oriented communication action plan for automotive industries. They are monitoring, collecting and central registration of content, audience-oriented analysis and the development and implementation of automated content distribution mechanisms.