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NEWS
Citroen to sell DS via iPad app
Radical new Aussie strategy designed to hand more personalisation to customersCitroen’s up-market DS range will be relaunched in Australia in July accompanied by a radical new application-based personalisation service for buyers.
Developed by Citroen Automobiles Australia, the new distributor of the French brand in Australia, the ordering and logistics strategy, dubbed DS Line Bespoke Concept, will mean dealers will only stock demonstrator examples of the DS3, DS4 and DS5 models in their showrooms.
Buyers will build their vehicles from an extensive options list on a big screen at the dealer synced to an iPad app and then press the button to place the order on the spot.
It will take between two weeks and three months for buyers to receive their cars based on the level of personalisation they choose.
The personalisation strategy is a first for Citroen globally and rarely used by automotive brands.
It requires significant up-front investment in infrastructure including software and dealer training as well as the approval of Citroen’s global HQ in Paris.
It will be trialled in Citroen’s expanding dealer network in the second half of 2013 before rolling out fully to all 30 retail outlets from January 1 2014.
The fundamental aim of the personalisation strategy is to boost DS sales to about 40 per cent of Citroen’s Australian total, and play a key role in pushing overall sales of both DS and the C range vehicles to record levels here.
“It’s a halo effect across the brand and that is why we are doing it,” explained CAA general-manager/director John Startari. “We need to stand for something different. We have the product but in the market today it’s not being capitalised on for what it is – something different.
“We want Citroen to be known for that DS product and the sales experience.”
Mr Startari headed the team that developed the bespoke concept while reviewing the brand for CAA’s parent Sime Darby, which assumed responsibility for distributing Citroen in Australia last February from Ateco Automotive.
“We are trying to streamline the supply chain process which allows us to then give the full customisation,” he added. “Once the buyer agrees to the specification, they push the button and it comes straight through, so that bypasses the need for double handling and the time delay for the dealer receiving the order and then relaying it back to the distributor.
“So we are building full integration back to us which then can be integrated back to the factory.”
Mr Startari acknowledged the risk and expense of the bespoke concept, but he said it provided an opportunity for Citroen to gain market attention through innovation.
“It is very easy to introduce a normal distribution model; spend money there is an immediate result. But once the investment in advertising stops, so do the sales.
“This is something that can be a self-fulfilling proposition. The up-front investment will be returned over many years.”
Along with the bespoke concept, Citroen will also launch the DS3 Cabrio in Australia on July 1, as well as a turbo-diesel automatic DS5 priced at $51,990. It will also introduce its new marketing campaign for the brand, covering off both DS and the C range.
“The brand message will be more around the DS and the retail message around the C range,” Mr Startari said.
CAA also plans to launch the updated C3 small car in September and add an entry-level Grand Picasso people-mover. It chopped most prices across the range when it took over distribution from Ateco in February.
It also declared a plan to grow sales 35 per cent in the 2013-14 financial year and then 20 per cent in each of the following years. Citroen sales in Australia tumbled to just 1702 in 2012 as the Ateco era ended. Sales are down a further 25 per cent in 2013 due to a lack of stock. Citroen’s all-time annual sales record in Australia was 3803 in 2007.
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Written byBruce Newton
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