Peugeot to use social media to deal with ‘ambivalence’ towards brand
Peugeot is increasing its social media investment and strengthening its strategy as it looks to deal with UK consumers’ ‘ambivalence’ towards the brand by engaging with customers.
By Sarah Vizard
Peugeot admits it has fallen behind some other car marques on social media and that its approach has been ‘fragmented’. To date, it has done the majority of its social media marketing in house but internet marketing manager Andy Goodall told Marketing Week it hopes to have a “more solid” strategy moving forwards having appointed its first social media marketing agency in 33seconds.
Peugeot plans to use social media primarily as an engagement platform initially to boost perceptions of the brand. Goodall believes consumers have more of an affinity for rivals such as Volkswagon, as well as more premium brands such as Mercedes and Audi, and he wants to change that.
Peugeot sits at number 19 in a list of 33 car marques in the “Impression” category, a measure of people’s impression of the brand, on YouGov’s Brand Index. It is behind rivals such as Volkswagon and Ford, although its score is up over the past year to 11.6, a statistically significant increase according to YouGov.
“We have a job to do in the UK with the Peugeot brand. There is some ambivalence towards the brand. As a French brand in the auto space, it is a challenge in the UK market to say the least and this is a very crowded marketplace with so many strong brands,” he says.
To do that, Peugeot aims to tap into the experience of someone purchasing a new car and the “honeymoon period” associated with that. Goodall believes this is when customers are most likely to want to share their experience of their car and he wants to “capitalise” on that.
Social media will also be incorporated into its CRM team to help them identify prospects and target them with paid-for advertising on Facebook. For certain models, such as the upcoming launch of the 108, Peugeot will also look at a more direct sales approach, identifying potential leads and approaching them with targeted messaging on social media.
Peugeot’s strategy will focus on Facebook and Twitter, although it is looking to expand its presence on Pinterest and Instagram, particularly for the 108 which is aimed at a female audience in their mid 20s to late 30s. It will also experiment further with Vine having launched the campaign for its new RCZ R model on the service, although Goodall says it won’t be a “mainstay” of its strategy.
