drive

2014, the year car brands and consumers got hooked on customisation

December 22, 2014

The demand for luxury and differentiation runs throughout the auto industry. – AFP/Relaxnews pic, December 22, 2014.One of the standout automotive trends of 2014 has been carmakers' increasing focus on personalisation. But what is driving this trend, is it just a fad, and if not, where is it going?

The end of mass consumption is nigh. In fact, according to Philippe Claverol, director of brand strategy and experience for DS, Citroen's new premium marque, in many areas it's already over.

"People want personalisation and consideration. People want to feel more and more that they are an individual," he says.

It's a growing, increasingly global trend that Citroen has been tracking for over a decade and is one of two key trends that informed the development of the DS3.

The other, Claverol explains, is consumers' growing appetite for investing in things that they care about: "Customers are making strong choices in favour of products where there's a strong connection."

That's why when the DS3 rolled out in 2009, it was both a premium car in its supermini segment, but also one that offers a host of personalisation possibilities – from roof and wing mirror colours, to custom wheels, paint finishes and graphics and interior tones and materials.

Trendsetting brands

Although the DS3 has taken things to another level in terms of adding personal touches – the latest option for French buyers is a choice of regional flag patterns, from Breton to Basque on the roof – Claverol concedes that his wasn't the only company to identify and seize upon these trends and points to the Mini as the car that first tested these waters when the brand started offering customised roof finishes and graphics.

According to Emma Begley, Business and Finance Communication, Mini, 30-40% of new Minis are currently built to order.

"That means the customer specified before it was built how the car should look and what equipment it should contain. Even in the USA, where cars are usually bought from showroom stock, around 25% of Minis are built-to-order."

The fact is, especially in the more saturated market segments,"Nobody wants to have the same car as his neighbor," explains Claverol. "They want something slightly different. The idea behind the DS3 is to say to customers, you create the car that you want and you will have something that to a certain extent resembles who you are. "

Newcomers to the party

And four years on from the first DS-badged car's launch, Citroen isn't the only company offering these levels of personalisation to customers. The list of aesthetic options for the Fiat 500 is getting longer every year and the Vauxhall/Opel Adam, launched in 2013 is as notable for its 61,000 exterior options and 82,000 potential interior options as it is for its design.

"What is very interesting is that by doing this we are going back to the pure essence of luxury, which is a product made for you," says Claverol . "A tailor-made suit is luxury because it is your choice. What we try to do with cars, taking into account that it is an industrial process – we have customers that do appreciate this personalisation because it feels luxury."

A luxurious touch

And this demand for luxury and differentiation runs throughout the auto industry. This year was the first in history that every single Ferrari to roll off the production line did so with some form of customisation or bespoke feature. And 2014 will be remembered also as the year that Maybach, Mercedes-Benz's luxury limousine brand was resurrected.

But all of these brands are meeting the same demands for growing personalisation and consideration. For something that feels bespoke. But as well as dusting off the Maybach badge, this growing trend has also enabled Citroen to add other DS models – the DS4 and DS5, alongside the DS3 and to spin those cars out as a standalone, premium brand that's already racked up 500,000 sales.

So how are these trends going to shape the industry over the rest of the decade? The answer, according to Claverol is services. The way that cars are sold will increasingly become as personalised as the vehicles themselves.

"What we will see in the future is more and more companies interacting with customers to involve them in the process of creating products, offers and services. This will also be a way of going even further than personalisation, it will make them part of the future of the company," he says. – AFP/Relaxnews, December 22, 2014.