Welcome to AI-ONLINE.COM - Automotive Industries' new Web site - Column

Automotive Industries, March, 1998 by John McElroy

It's hard to believe all the hype and hoopla surrounding the World Wide Web only started in mid-1993. That's when a group of college kids wrote Mosaic, the world's first Internet browser. Since then the Web has become an integral part of the landscape, with "fillintheblank.com" popping up on everything from beer commercials to business cards.

Last year the Web became an integral part of the automotive business. Yahoo!, the Web's most trafficked search engine, says Automotive is one of its most trafficked categories. On the retail side, Auto-By-Tel, an Internet car-buying service recorded its one-millionth purchase request. The company claims it now controls nearly 2% of all automotive retail sales. Some analysts forecast that online car buying will account for 9% of retail sales in 2000. And this will force all automotive retailers to respond to the lowest prices consumers can find on the Web.

Auto-By-Tel isn't the only one grabbing for all the gusto it can get. Microsoft jumped into the game with Carpoint, its own on-line car buying service. You watch, as Microsoft rolls out Auto PC later this year -- its in-car personal computer -- it will use Carpoint as a major marketing tool to push it. Think of the synergies! You go to Microsoft's Carpoint to buy a car that comes with Microsoft's Auto PC that allows you to log on in your car, where you use Microsoft Explorer so you can browse Microsoft's Carpoint.

Automakers are finding that customers will flock to their Web sites and give them all kinds of information about themselves for free. Ford's site, for example, gets up to 750,000 hits per day. About 70% of these people are non-Ford owners, they have a median annual income of $65,000, and 100,000 of them have registered in "Customer Link" survey research.

BMW has a similar stow to tell. It gets 120,000 hits per day. About 60% of those people are car shoppers, over 40% earn over $100,000 a year. And 44% of the 34,000 who signed its "guest book" agreed to be contacted for research.

Last year, when BMW was getting ready to introduce its Electronic Stability Control (a yaw control system) in the U.S., it knew that customers would glaze over if tried to explain the technical merits in television commercials. So it decided to conduct some research to figure out how it could explain ESC to them in a way that was easy to understand. Instead of using traditional research methods, BMW decided to contact people who signed its Web site "guest book."

Anyone doing mailings knows that if you get a 1.5% response rate, that's pretty good. If you get a 5% to 10% response rate, you've struck a responsive chord. BMW got a 45% response rate within 48 hours. The total cost of its on-line research came to less than $2,000. It quickly devised a cute TV ad in time for the winter selling season.

Now Automotive Industries is going on line. Actually, we've had a Web site for a couple of years, but we've been rather quiet about it as we tried to learn what people really want. Now we believe we're ready. Our new site is rich in reference material. And it's designed to download now. No silly sounds. No glitzy graphics. No repetitive animation. Just straightforward industry information that's easy for you to find.

I invite you to browse our Web site and see what you think. Better still, let us know what you think. We're at www.ai-online.com We're open to ideas and welcome your feedback.

John McElroy is the editorial director for Automotive Industries. You can reach him via e-mail at: jmcelroy@chilton.net.