The Tendo View

Relationship marketing done well should build brand affinity. The goal is to facilitate both word-of-mouth evangelism and a propensity for repurchase. But like Maui’s scenic Road to Hana, the journey is often more interesting than the destination. Take the Smart car, for example.

Just minutes after the U.S. launch of the Smart car was announced on automotive blogs, my wife and I placed our deposit through Daimler’s U.S. distribution arm, Penske Automotive Group. This was a unique product offering by a new brand, offered in strategic geographic markets. We would be among the first dozen proud owners to take delivery in the San Francisco Bay Area on a car sight unseen, without the benefit of kicking its tires, much less taking a test drive. As financing had yet to be established for the U.S. market, we would have to pay cash in full upon delivery. Not a single ad had run, and not a single dealership had opened its doors when we placed our deposit. If ever there was a definition of  an “early adopter” purchase scenario, this was it.

The Daimler/Penske/Smart trio ran into their share of potholes along the way. Supplies were short, and the first shipment of cars was delayed; when they finally arrived stateside, disorganized dealerships scrambled to release inventory to anxious customers. On top of all that, initial reviews from the automotive press were lukewarm at best. It was an imperfect car, released to market imperfectly. C’est la vie.

That said,  Smart played it, well, smart. They avoided the single biggest mistake that could have derailed their U.S. launch: ignoring their first round of customers in the interest of cultivating new sales prospects. I have bought new cars along the high end (Lexus) and the low end (Nissan) of the automotive spectrum, but Smart outsmarted them all.

Unlike Lexus or Nissan, Smart made a point of getting online and helping enthusiasts organize get-togethers. Whether this meant providing T-shirts and swag to a handful of Smart owners for a picnic at the beach or helping gather up a couple hundred Smart cars to fill San Francisco’s twisty Lombard Street from end to end, Smart USA made a point of finding out about, supporting, and attending owner events.

Smart also realized that without the benefit of traditional advertising, the single best way for the company to spread the gospel was an informed and enthusiastic owner base. Shortly after taking delivery of the cars, Smart owners received an “Emergency Roadside Kit” consisting of gift cards to Starbucks, ExxonMobil, and Barnes & Noble with interesting facts for us to use in conversation about our unique little cars. Whether it was the fact that our dashboards were made of flax rather than plastic or that our cars were powder coated using a solvent-free process, Smart armed us with the information we needed to be experts in all things Smart.

When we brought our cars in for service, we were provided with handy cards to keep in our glove box to help answer the most common questions from curious onlookers: is it safe (yes); can you drive it on the freeway (most definitely); is it electric (no, not yet); and so on. Smart took the time to educate, entertain, and reward its owners without asking (at least overtly) for anything in return.

Lexus, by contrast, had the slick dealership experience and impressive owner magazine brimming with shallow assumptions about what someone in my (presumed) demographic must be interested in: golf, luxury vacations, fine wines, cigars, etc.

Nissan acknowledged my purchase with a cheap brochure highlighting other Nissans I might be interested in (hey, didn’t I just buy one?) and some great financing terms for new buyers, a deal that would have been great to know about at the time of purchase but no longer applied to me as a new owner.

In short, Smart took the opportunity to get to know me and to help me get to know the company, while Lexus welcomed me into an exclusive lifestyle that I’m not sure I wanted to be part of and Nissan thanked me for my purchase by offering me a great deal on another Nissan.

Smart doesn’t have another car to sell me (yet), but I can honestly say I have done my part to turn more people on to Smart than either Lexus or Nissan. When the time comes, I’ll gladly consider purchasing whatever novel car Smart next offers to U.S. buyers.