Strengthening the position in the Dutch automotive market
As an importer of the Volkswagen Group brands, Pon is constantly looking for sustainable growth in the Netherlands. The ambition of SEAT is to strengthen their position as a distinctive player in the Dutch automotive market. The question to flowresulting: support the development of a growth strategy that results in a profitable and sustainable market position for dealers, importers and OEM.
Our approach
Formulating hypothetical strategic priorities
Together with the management team of SEAT three objectives have been defined.
Improving on the following domains:
- Brand
- Sales power
- Market position in maintenance and repair (after sales)
Subsequently, hypotheses were formulated for the strategic priorities, such as pricing and discount policy.
Conducting fact-based analyses
The hypothetical priorities have been validated and prioritized based on fact-based analyses.
Leading question: Does a strategic priority contribute sufficiently to achieving the objective?
SEAT’s CRM system and available market data were used to answer this question. For example, the relationship between price elasticity and average discount per model was examined. In this way, insights have been obtained to evaluate the effectiveness of SEAT’s discount policy and to enable it to be optimized.
Performance differences in the sales and after sales market have been identified and explained by performing fact-based analyses. Benchmarking SEAT with other (VW-Group) brands provided insight into the relative performance of the brand.
Figure 1: Example of analysis techniques for optimizing discount policy (numbers are illustrative)
Result
Specific strategy and quantified improvement potential
The result of these analyses are 9 validated strategic priorities. These priorities include the domains of pricing, product discount-management, optimization of the retail network, omni-channel strategy and a specific financing proposition.
The priorities have been worked out to the level of specific measures that SEAT must take to improve its market position, including KPIs and phasing. In addition, the expected effect on market share and sales volume has been made transparent (see example figure 2).
Figure 2: Impact calculation for all 9 strategic priorities
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