confirm the appointment and lead the transaction through to a successful
conclusion where the prospective customer purchased a Rover car.
It can be seen that unlike the earlier Catalyst programme which was
designed to have dealer involvement, and sometimes suffered as a result,
Conquest ‘91 put minimal demands on the dealer. It eliminated the admin-
istrative chores, and played to the dealer’s strength – selling cars.
This approach also eliminated the need to have a development team to
familiarise dealers with the relative complexities of the earlier Catalyst pro-
gramme. In addition, by maintaining control over the process, Rover could
ensure that all communications were conducted with a level of profession-
alism in line with the desired total-quality image the marketing depart-
ment sought to establish.
Follow-up phone call
Approximately three months after agreeing to take a test drive, those who
did not purchase would receive another telephone call. This would check
if:
●The situation had changed, in which case the database would be updated.
●The prospect was aware that the incentive vouchers were due to expire (nor-
mally they were valid for three months).
●Something had gone wrong, in which case an attempt would be made to rectify
the situation.
●They had purchased, but had yet to claim their gift (something which was found
to happen quite often).
Evaluation
At many different levels this programme can be rated as a success. Targets
set in December 1990 were achieved by December 1991, even though the
car market was further hit by the recession. As part of the Roverisation pro-
gramme, image and quality became the important tools of differentiation
from competitors. The whole Rover marketing strategy was based on this
differentiation.
Rover has achieved a purchase-to-test-drive ratio of something like
50–55 per cent, compared with the industry norm which is believed to be
in the order of 40 per cent.
In addition, the Conquest ‘91 programme has yielded valuable informa-
tion regarding:
●Best media in which to advertise for leads.
●Best methods of trawling for quality leads.
●Most attractive incentives (through analysing gift take-up).
●Levels of incentives according to model purchases (through analysing gift take-
up).
The customer market domain: Managing relationships with buyers 109