JOE caught up with SEAT Ireland Director Lorenzo Heller to talk about building a car brand, the wonderful world of online marketing – and the unique experience of doing business in Ireland.
When you’re from Rome, an office complex in Liffey Valley is a good distance from home. But for Lorenzo Heller, who took up his position as Director of SEAT Ireland in the summer of 2009, it has been an enriching experience.
SEAT has made significant inroads over the past two years – the company has doubled its market share to 2.1%, breaking into the top 15 car brands in Ireland. And with major new launches to come by 2013, not to mention the attractive finance offers SEAT is now rolling out for January 2012, the company has a place in the Top 10 in its sights.
A bit of networking
One of the next steps of SEAT in Ireland is to build its network. “You can have good products and good prices, but the image of the brand is given by the network,” Lorenzo told JOE recently.
“Our aim is to get 5% market share and break into the Top 10, and to do that we have to focus on our network. If your product has a decent frame, people will be pulled by the brand, rather than be pushed into the showroom by communications or discounts. So we’ve added to our network, which was functional in the past. We need fewer dealers, so that they can be more profitable.
“This strategy has to be put in place because in 2013 we’re going to have a completely new range, starting in October 2012 with the new Toledo. Next year we will also revamp the Ibiza, and in 2013 we will have the brand new Leon. So 60% of our range will be new, and we can’t afford to enter into the market with dealers which are not representative of the brand.”
Finance offers
Retail finance is also a significant element of what SEAT will be offering in the near future, with the new Ibiza and Leon available for €4.24 and €5.56 per day in the New Year.
“We can’t really compete with discounts so we decided to go down the road of retail finance,” says Lorenzo. “Our competitors might give a €3000 discount, but we’re focusing on affordability – we can give you a brand new car for €120 a month. Retail finance is also giving us customer retention. This is the key to our success, because of every 100 cars we sell, 30 are sold with finance.”
So which of the coming offerings from SEAT is the one that excites Lorenzo most?
“The Leon, without a doubt. Ibiza is our bread and butter, it’s a brand among the brand – sometimes Ibiza has a stronger awareness than SEAT. With the Leon, it’s entering into the A-class which is the most competitive in Ireland. The shape of it is edgy in terms of design, pure sportiness. So the Leon is exciting. We’re appealing to people who want sporty cars but at an affordable price.”
City chic
Through ad campaigns, both on television and online, as well as the newly-announced sponsorship of League of Ireland champions Shamrock Rovers, SEAT is positioning itself as a brand that appeals to the city-living population.
“We are strong on the outskirts of the cities so we’re focusing on the metropolitan areas now, mainly in Dublin and Cork,” says Lorenzo. “One of the key factors to being successful is just for people to see the car on the road. The more you see the car on the road, the more awareness there is in the mind of the customer.”
That younger, more metropolitan section of the population is one that increasingly consumes its media online rather than in traditional outlets, and that is another consideration for SEAT when it comes to its marketing requirements.
“We have to communicate at two levels,” says Lorenzo. “On one side there is television – that’s the product, these are the specs, this is the price. And on the flipside of that is the web, where you can be more edgy.
“So we’re going to try to get in touch with people who are keen on the visual arts, ask them to design something. We’ll try to find ten people, and we’ll put their videos on YouTube, and we’ll give them a prize of a new car for a year. The codes for YouTube are completely different than TV. So I would rely more on a guy in his 20s, on his smartphone, coming up with a nice idea and shooting some footage. We’d prefer to see a great idea shot on normal technology, than an average idea shot on very expensive technology.”
Sexiness
Another factor at play in focusing on younger people, Lorenzo notes, is that they’re more interested in the attractiveness of the driving experience than traditional selling points.
“A big part of our potential customer base, they’re not really interested in cornering, in how many millimetres between one door and another one, in what’s under the bonnet, or road handling, or fuel economy. What they are interested in is everything that is infotainment. Soft-touch technology. That’s a consideration we have to take into account. They want to see if the cockpit is sexy. Infotainment, Bluetooth, iPod, all that stuff, and we’ll be giving them that with the new designs from late 2012.”
The Ireland question
As an Italian who arrived in Ireland in the summer of 2009 – almost a year after the bank guarantee and the economic implosion that went with it – Lorenzo Heller has an intriguing perspective on this country.
“I came here when the crash was at its peak, so I haven’t noticed my crash in my daily life,” he says. “But if I had to look at the prices, at how people behave at the weekend, you wouldn’t from the exterior see a big crisis. Even in 2009 it was very hard to find a restaurant on a Saturday night. This country went from zero to 200 kilometres per hour. Now you’re down to 120, but when you’re down to 120 you must compare it to zero, not 200!”
Ireland, he says, is completely different than any other country he’s ever worked in. “What I’ve seen is that an Irish customer would forgive a lack of processes if this lack of processes would be compensated by a good one-to-one behaviour towards the customer.
“Let’s imagine you bring your car to the repair centre and it’s not fixed first time, you have to bring it back again, and that puts you in a bad mood. But if the receptionist or the salesman is very kind to you, you don’t want to be aggressive to him, because you don’t want to hurt him; and he will feel sorry because he hasn’t fixed the damage on your car; and everything will be fine. In other countries, especially Germany, they wouldn’t really care about your behaviour, they just want the car fixed!
“In some ways this is fantastic because if you have the human touch you have great possibilities. If something doesn’t work, but you have the human touch, you can compensate.”
There’s always the hurling
Another part of Irish life that was a new experience for Lorenzo was the thrill of All-Ireland hurling final day. “I’m a football supporter – I’m a fan of Roma, and here at SEAT we have concluded an agreement with Shamrock Rovers.
“But after I came to Ireland I was invited by a colleague of mine to go to the All-Ireland hurling final between Tipperary and Kilkenny. I was thinking, ‘Why should I go to see people running around with a hurl?’ But it was fantastic!
“The crowd was incredible, and I had never seen that kind of speed in a game. I had never seen so much fair play – in soccer, you are used to diving, to cheating, to a guy of 20 who’s paid millions. But these guys are heroes on the field, and the day after they’re going into work. I like soccer, but I don’t like the environment that soccer is providing, especially in countries that pay the players too much.”
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