MillsJoe Mills is the business development manager at Element Three, a marketing consultancy that works with some of the nation’s top RV brands.
With the RV industry continuing to undergo massive upheaval due to supply chain constraints, talent acquisition challenges, and an influx of new players in the space, it is important to provide perspective on where the industry is headed.
To that end, I talked to two fellow colleagues from Element Three, a marketing consultancy that works with some of the world’s leading RV brands, about what is coming next in marketing for RV industry professionals. Cade Jones leads digital marketing efforts for Newmar and has been with them for multiple years, and Brett Schwab has worked with organizations of all sizes in the RV industry, including Thor, Airstream and KZ Recreational Vehicles. While both provided unique perspectives, there were common themes throughout the conversation about what comes next for marketers in the RV industry.
Data, data, and more data.
One key point both Brett and Cade mentioned right away is the increasing importance of first- and zero-party data. With the coming disappearance of cookies, Apple’s iOS15 update, and the overall consumer desire for less sharing of information, marketers have to be prepared for the loss of third party data. To quote Cade directly, “third party data is going out the window.”
How you prepare for this and enable your team to act without third party data will be crucial for the effectiveness of your marketing in the future. Giving consumers an experience which encourages them to interact directly with your brand will allow you to gather first party data and utilize it in an impactful and thoughtful way for your customers. The shift is putting power back into customers’ hands to determine which brands they interact with on a daily basis.
Over the past decade, the leading RV manufacturers have been expanding their databases through multi-channel efforts to collect first party data, and will now be looking to deploy that data in a meaningful way in their marketing efforts. These efforts will certainly include dealers – and the best dealers will be able to contribute to those efforts and provide a seamless experience for customers from their interactions with the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) all the way through the purchase point.
Leveraging technology to use that data well.
Brett talked extensively about the proliferation of technology throughout the RV manufacturing industry, and how those technologies will be used in the future.
“The leading OEM now has a customer relationship management (CRM), a marketing automation platform, an enterprise resource planning (ERP), a warranty system, maybe even an application which links directly to the unit – so they’ve collected an incredible amount of first party data and the question is now how to use it. Enter the Customer Data Platform (CDP).”
CDPs effectively allow an organization to unify the activities of a specific customer to better identify, measure, and grow the customer lifetime value. In the future, when Jane Doe buys a unit, puts in a warranty claim, and uses a specific piece of connected equipment, all of those interactions will be immediately viewable to a marketer who has effectively deployed a CDP. The foundation has been built, and the next level is going to be the expansion of the customer experience that technology enables.
Bringing dealers into the brand ecosystem.
The last decade has been marked by RV manufacturers investing heavily in their digital ecosystem. From lead management systems to user-first websites, OEMs have been creating increasingly first-class digital experiences for the end user. The next phase will be bringing dealers more into the mix.
Many dealers engage with manufacturers in sales training on the units; this sort of training will expand to include marketers, as well. OEMs are focused on creating a seamless experience for their customers from the first brand interaction through purchase and beyond. In order to do that effectively, they will need dealers to provide continuity in the brand experience.
Cade brought up the point that consumers have been trained in a world with Amazon, and while Amazon’s model could not be farther from the business model RV marketers work inside of, the consumer has come to expect a certain level of experience when making a purchase. They want to know as much about the status of their order as possible, and they want to be able to make the purchase as seamlessly as possible. Cade recommends keeping the customer as looped into the process as possible. The more you are able to make them part of the process and give them an inside view, the more likely that consumer is to be a brand promoter for you in the long run.
More where that came from
These themes are by no means the only trends in RV marketing – there are many themes which could come up in the future as technology like virtual reality and other consumer-experienced focused assets are created. One thing appears clear: using data to create a more individualized customer experience is going to be paramount and those that do it well will be ahead. If you haven’t started down the data and technology road yet, it’s like planting a tree: the best time was 20 years ago, and the second-best time is tomorrow.
