Audi Case Study

Our client’s goal was to become the world’s #1 luxury automotive brand. Having experienced yet another year of record sales growth they wanted to understand ‘who’ to conquest to continue building on their momentum.

The project was complex, but the outcomes weren’t: we helped our client better understand and connect with luxury automotive drivers, increasing sales and business performance in the US. Our client has since topped 250,000 annual sales, an 8% percent gain in a market that was almost flat.

Bastion db5 used a mix of qualitative ethnographic research (internal stake-holder interviews, drive-alongs, shop-alongs, expert interviews with high end valets) and quantitative (segmentation) to determine the optimal audience(s) and how to message to them.

What helped make it a success was very clear in-going objectives and goals. Initial internal stakeholder interviews with all senior management (finance, product and marketing) were the most homogeneous Bastion db5 has ever conducted. Clearly our client was aligned on their future vision. This made research design and survey creation very focused. The client used our research as a roadmap across departments.

—Determined Primary/Secondary target buyers by model
—Developed personas to inform strategy, communications planning
—Informed media selection and planning
—Inspired targeted experiential solutions for each segment
—Informed Product Planning
—Empowered dealers with better tools for customer-target interaction

One of the in-going goals was to meet aggressive 2020 sales goals, and the client was able to achieve these sales numbers in 2018 well before its goal. In mid 2018 our client completed 102 consecutive months of sales growth.