CIM: The automobile industry is in a crisis and is cutting its budgets. How are your global events affected?
Frank Schultz: All marketing measures have certainly to be checked more closely than ever and if needed adjusted or even cancelled. We continue to follow our mid-term goal of developing customer-oriented events with added value, but even more integrated with our markets. The key word is synergies.
Is pressure growing on you to prove the benefits of your events?
In situations like the current one, pressure grows, but we have always critically evaluated all of our measures! We work completely transparently at Volvo. This also applies to our suppliers. Until now we have concentrated on measuring the qualitative goals of our events. Now we are working more on a quantitative method in order to more intensively evaluate the results.
Your Global Dealer Launch Events receive 6,000 participants spread over nine weeks. How do you measure the success?
As mentioned, our focus till now has been on qualitative measurement. It is aimed at two target groups. The main focus is foremost and above all the satisfaction of our participants, i.e. our partners. Each participant receives a questionnaire after the event, with which all the relevant details of the event are evaluated. The evaluation follows a marking systems from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). The second target group of our questionnaire is made up of the contact partners at national sales companies. Since our markets have been involved from the beginning conceptually, it is very important for us to find out which processes functioned well, or less well, in the planning and implementation phases. When events receive several international event awards, then we are especially happy.
You have hosted a one-day ROI seminar. What did you learn?
The seminar was very useful, since it demonstrated a method to quantitatively measure events. It is vital that ROI is used as a planning tool, not merely a measuring tool! In order to measure results clear goals have to be defined beforehand. This might sound very logical, but the reality is that in many cases no goals or only very “soft” ones are formulated.
Was the seminar “worthwhile” for you?
Definitely! I can only recommend it highly. These times should inspire us to re-think processes and to try out new paths. Such a tool provides us with a sound instrument for evaluating the success or failure of an event. The current situation makes it more than ever necessary to define specific goals and consistently implement them.
