Sometimes, it’s just a short step from an ultra-personalised phone case to an almost unique colour scheme for your bodywork… Nowadays, we always expect even more: we want to choose from a wide range of products or services, then we want to personalise our choice to suit our tastes and needs, or better still, make it unique. Wants to which Groupe Renault is responding. The latest example is the New Captur, presented at the Frankfurt Motor Show, with its 90 possible external combinations. The proof of our ability to offer unique tailored services for everyone. So how has it been possible to design special cars for everybody for more than 120 years. Read about an approach that is rooted in our very identity.
by Thomas AUDEBERT
…AND THEN THERE WAS DIFFERENTIATION!
The time when brands told you what to buy and why is over! Today, consumers are at the heart of everything. And they expect, first of all, that the company will understand them and be able to offer a tailored, personalised experience.
91% of people…
are likely to buy products from a company if it recognises their interests, remembers them and provides them with offers tailored to their needs and wants [1].
91% means 9 people out of every 10. More or less everybody. And the car is no exception to this rule, but it has taken a while to get here.
CHRONICLE OF A SUCCESS FORETOLD
Do you know the tale about the first Renault vehicle? On Christmas Eve, 1898, Louis Renault bet that he could drive up rue Lepic, the steep, cobbled road up to Sacré-Cœur, in his voiturette type A. His success earned him 12 immediate orders for the small car. 12 sales that formed the springboard for an entrepreneurial success that endures to this day, 120 years later.
Jump forwards in time to the 1950s. Until then a luxury item, the car became a popular purchase with the advent of the consumer society. As the market got more and more crowded and competitive, Renault rose to the challenge by offering innovative vehicles that were in tune with the times.
Review of 4 iconic vehicles.
From the R5 to the Captur, by anticipating trends and adapting to the market, Groupe Renault has always been ahead of the game with its various models. With an unchanging mission: to produce vehicles designed for both the driver and the passenger.
ALPINE’S DIZZYING ASCENT
The successful return of the Alpine illustrates this power to grasp the zeitgeist. Awaited eagerly by a large community of fans, the brand with the arrowed A benefited from the extraordinary buzz created by the “Alpinistes”. At the end of 2016, the Alpine A110 Première Edition, of which only 1955 models were made to commemorate the year that the brand was born, was a critical and a commercial success. With the “sold out” sign going up after scarcely 36 hours, this offer proved to be the ideal start for the definitive return of the Alpine.
KEEPING AHEAD WITH NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Nowadays, consumer focus no longer means just concentrating on the final product. Habits are changing, and with them the paths to the customer have changed too.
Fifteen years ago, who would have thought it possible to order a product in the morning for delivery the same day? And what about tracking it easily online? Whilst same day delivery of a customised car isn’t yet feasible, digitalisation makes it easier to track its production. It’s as if you were attending the birth!
Resolutely turned towards the future, Groupe Renault’s production system is developing continuously to meet the new challenges for the car and fulfil the expectations of its customers.
TRACKING THE VEHICLE
Total traceability is one of the pillars of the digital transformation, an essential for the industry 4.0. As part of an optimum quality approach, the Full Track and Trace project is able to retrieve the production history of a vehicle. It’s like its own personal i.d. It tells us the manufacturing context, along with who built it, and monitors it right up to the moment of delivery. The customer can learn about every stage of their vehicle before it comes into their hands.
ON TRACK WITH DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION
The launch of the FAST Programme (Future-Ready At-Scale-Transformation) is a part of this approach too. To keep as close as possible to its customers’ expectations, Groupe Renault is transforming its working methods. Faster and more flexible… Thanks to its use of data and its digital transformation, it is adapting to new requirements: by recruiting new skills from the digital world, by preparing brand-new connected services, by imagining a bespoke in-car experience. An example? Groupe Renault’s AEX (Augmented Editorial Experience) project, presented for the very first time at the 2018 Paris Motor Show. The objective: to offer users an immersive experience enhanced by unique, personalised content. A true differentiation lever when it comes to the purchasing decision and the use of a vehicle.
Renault Fast
ACT FAST TO SEE FURTHER
“With the FAST program, we’re making changes across the company to fully address the challenges of our industry and the mobility of the future.” This announcement by Thierry Bolloré, CEO of Groupe Renault, heralds an ambitious program of transformation encompassing the next three years.
WITH EZ-FLEX, MOBILITY AT WORK GETS FLEXIBLE
Presented at the latest VIVATECH show, EZ-FLEX is a practical example of a vehicle that can be adapted to the user in near-real time. Thanks to its modularity at the back, this experimental light commercial vehicle offers many conversion options to suit the requirements of each user, whether a tradesman, an SME or a major account. Connected and fitted with sensors to collect and analyse operational and trip data, such as mileage, range, speed and even the number of stops. In other words, everything we need to know about how deliveries work in the real world.
EZ-FLEX is the result of a partnership between Groupe Renault and Groupe La Poste and is being trialled in a real situation. The data gathered will be analysed alongside feedback from the post worker about his day-to-day operations, his constraints, his interaction with the environment. These will then be used to adapt the van to the urban delivery of tomorrow. An innovative approach, anchored in the principle of “test & learn”, unlike the traditional practices of the mass vehicle sector.
TASTES AND COLOURS… A PALETTE OF OPTIONS
As we wrote at the start of the article, the modern customer expects relevance from brands, and demands to be offered an appropriate product. One that allows self-expression or, better still, one that allows them to stand out. The All-new Captur is keeping all of its promises and has become a chameleon. With its many colours and ambience possibilities, both inside and out, you can give free rein to your creativity as you concoct “your” Captur.
Captur offers
0
Bodywork colours
0
roof colours
0
colours for the front and rear skis and door protectors
so many possibilities
0
possible combinations for the exterior
0
interior ambience configurations
80% of Captur
sales involve two-tones models.
MOBILITY – SEE TODAY’S MENU
And now? The ability to choose your options is essential, as is the ability to trace your vehicle right from its design stage. But what about everyone else? Those who don’t, won’t or can’t drive? Thinking about the customer at each stage also means thinking about those without their own vehicle, who want mobility “à la carte”.
With the extension of its activities to mobility services, Groupe Renault is ensuring its uniqueness by transforming itself from a builder of vehicles into a supplier of services, to allow each user to personalise their trip as the miles go by.
Galloping urbanisation means there’s no way round it. In town or over longer distances, car-sharing or private hire can often be the easiest solution. This is what Groupe Renault is developing with Zity, Moov’IN and the Marcel ride-hailing system. A growing market where personalised content and services will make all the difference. The challenge tomorrow will be to offer personalised, creative on-board services, to make the difference.
[1] According to the Personalization Pulse Check 2018 survey by Accenture Interactive
