How M/A/R/C helped one automotive part distributor utilize the voice of the customer insights to help develop a new way to reach replacement part buyers.

1. M/A/R/C Case Study
Developing Customer Relevant Concepts
How M/A/R/C helped one automotive part distributor utilize the voice of the
customer insights to help develop a new way to reach replacement part buyers.
© 2011 by M/A/R/C® Research
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2. The Business Issues
Throughout the automotive industry, our client’s type of automotive replacement part is
currently marketed using one primary standard. Our client wanted to develop a new
concept for the part which would emphasize assessing multiple aspects of the automotive
part when deciding on a replacement, rather than the single aspect currently being used
for selection. It was expected that this new concept would allow customers to be able to
select an automotive part that would fit best with their own driving habits, environment
and other needs. By allowing customers to have a more “customized” fit between their
needs and their replacement part our client hoped to differentiate themselves from their
competitor’s.
Many automotive replacement parts are difficult for most consumers
to distinguish between, and often a “grudge” purchase that is made There was a lack of an
out of necessity…rather than the result of a well thought out, planned understanding of customer’s
process. Recent trends have shown fewer and fewer consumers needs when deciding on a
replacing automotive parts themselves, instead relying on replacement part.
recommendations and installation from their mechanic when choosing
which part to purchase and install in their car. Additionally, for most
automotive parts, there is little awareness of which characteristics are
important to consider when making purchase decisions. As a result,
the ability to differentiate automotive replacement parts in the minds
of consumers is a challenging undertaking which requires knowing
how they currently choose the parts, as well as what areas they might
need to be educated in to respond to the new concepts our client was
developing.
Given that information related to how and why customers choose a specific replacement
part was critical to choosing the new concept that would best differentiate our client’s
automotive part it was important to uncover all of the drivers, both rational and
emotional, behind a consumer’s parts choice. At the same time it was important to also
understand if there were any needs among consumers related to this type of part that
were currently not being met that could be incorporated into the new concept to ensure
its success. A key part of the research was also to understand how and why dealers and
mechanics were recommending a specific replacement part to their clients given that most
consumers rely on the recommendation of these professionals when purchasing a new
part.
The Research Objectives
The research was driven by a desire to understand customer’s wants and needs related to
our client’s type of automotive part:
 What were customer’s needs associated with these replacement parts, and what
benefits (both functional and emotional) did fulfilling these needs bring?
 Understand perceptions of potential concepts and importantly identify ways to
improve to make more consumer relevant. Page 2
 Identify the features of the new concept to be optimized? (To be answered with a
quantitative phase)

3. The Solution
The study M/A/R/C designed combined both qualitative and quantitative phases in order
to provide detailed guidance to our client regarding how to optimize their new automotive
parts concept. The key goal of the qualitative interviews was to both gain an in-depth
understanding of what drives consumer’s automotive part replacement choice and to
refine those concepts that could then be tested in the quantitative phase of the research.
The qualitative phase featured the M/A/R/C CustomerVoices SM interview process…a
process used to gain a literal “straight from the customer’s mouth” perspective of the
marketplace. CustomerVoicesSM is a rigorous interviewing and analysis technique that has
its origins in laddering. It is an exacting qualitative methodology that is used to elicit and
identify the marketplace needs for products and services.
A key to the CustomerVoicesSM interview is to let respondents
introduce ideas in their own words rather than supplying
terminology. Once needs have been identified by the customer, the
The study design addressed
moderator then follows up on each need separately to gain a deeper
the unique aspects of the
understanding of the rational and emotional benefits that are a result
how and why consumers
of having these needs met. In addition to the more concrete rational
choose an automotive
automotive parts characteristics, uncovering the “softer” more
replacement part.
emotional reasons underlying consumers’ replacement choices was
not an easy task, especially given that most consumers give relatively
little thought as to which brand or type of replacement part they will
install in their vehicle. Since many consumers rely heavily on the
input of dealers or mechanics; in addition to talking with consumers,
we used the same interviewing method to talk with dealers and
mechanics to understand how they make their recommendations.
The qualitative research was conducted using face to face interviews among; a) “shade
tree mechanics”, those consumers who installed their own replacement for this type of
part, b) consumers who used a mechanic for the installations, and c) replacement part
dealers and mechanics. The interviews were conducted over a four day period in two
cities. Using this sample make up and choice of locations helped ensure that a wide variety
of perspectives on replacement part choice were obtained in order to be able to guide the
development of possible concepts.
The Results and Actions Taken
Using the insights gained from the qualitative interviews M/A/R/C was able to make
concrete recommendations as to how best to optimize the different replacement parts
concepts to be tested in the quantitative phase of the research.
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4. Prior to beginning the qualitative phase of the research our client had Strong qualitative findings
strong ideas about which replacement part concept they wanted to allowed for the refinement
move forward with developing. However, they had not conducted any of concepts before the
research among consumers in order to gain their feedback on any of quantitative phase.
the different concepts or their components. As a result of the
qualitative phase of the research several of the original concepts were
abandoned while others were refined. At the same time some
additional new concepts were developed based on the feedback from
both the consumers, as well as the dealers and mechanics.
After changes were made to the concepts, the new versions were quantitatively assessed.
At the conclusion of the quantitative research it was clear that the client’s initial favored
concept did not resonate with their customers, and as a result was not developed further.
Instead a different concept, highlighting different benefits was chosen as the way to move
forward. By having direct feedback from the consumer it allowed our client’s marketing
team to show their internal clients why certain concepts should not be developed in favor
of others and how this would impact their business.
This research showed the importance of having consumer input in the development of
product concepts prior to the beginning of a larger scale quantitative study. Using a
combination of more open ended questioning to understand the relevance of this type of
automotive replacement part to the consumer along with the ability to qualitatively refine
or develop concepts proved important to ensuring that the concepts were customer-
centric and that only the most viable concepts are tested during the larger scale
quantitative phase of the research.
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