Can vehicle personalization drive loyalty? | with Roger Lanctot of Strategia Now

In this podcast episode recorded live at the COVESA meeting, host John Heinlein interviews Roger Lanctot about how the automotive industry can leverage vehicle data to transition from a B2B to a B2C model, prioritizing driver personalization over data monetization to enhance customer engagement and loyalty.

Creators and Guests

Host

John Heinlein, Ph.D.

An experienced technology and marketing leader, John brings his background from startups and established companies to Sonatus. He worked for 14 years at Arm, most recently leading Automotive Partnerships for North America where he engaged OEMs, Tier-1s, and others to deploy Arm-based solutions into automotive applications, including autonomous vehicles. His team was integral to launching the SOAFEE industry initiative for software-defined vehicles of which Sonatus is a member. Earlier he served as VP and Chief of Staff to the CEO and led a group responsible for competitive strategy. For three years, he was VP of Corporate Marketing where he led centralized outbound marketing, spanning marketing campaigns, press, events, web, digital marketing, ecosystem programs, and working closely with investor relations. Prior to Arm, John had an 11-year tenure at microprocessor startup Transmeta where he held several senior roles spanning business development, marketing, and customer success, among others. John earned his B.S. in Computer Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University and an M.S. and Ph.D., both in Electrical Engineering, from Stanford University.

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These episodes will include industry experts, whether from Sonatus, or from our amazing partners across the industry, all of whom will share their Ideas and their outlook for the most important topics in vehicle technology. Episodes span from more technical topics, to business evolution, and market trends. Join us and learn about the future of vehicle in The Garage.

Today in The Garage,

we're recording live at the
COVESA All-Member Meeting in

Porto, Portugal.

Our topic today is really
looking at vehicle data and the

opportunity to provide a more
personalized experience with drivers.

So much of what
vehicles are doing today

is thinking about engaging
the customer in old ways.

How can we bring
a more personalized engagement

model to vehicles and to
drivers similar to what people

are experiencing
with their phones.

I think there's been an efforts
in recent years to increase

connectivity in vehicles.

There's been an effort to
increase engagement and brand

loyalty, but only
some OEMs are really

embracing that to
an extreme extent.

We're also seeing an
opportunity to capture new

capabilities like improving
vehicle diagnostics,

improving vehicle ownership
experiences, and that all

relies on both data and also
understanding our drivers

and understanding their personal
preferences and what they like.

Joining me today to talk
about these trends is Roger

Lanctot.

Roger is the chairman and
founder of Strategia Now

Consulting.

He's an a fixture of the
industry for many years where he

has been doing consulting
and advice for all across the

vehicle industry and
other sectors as well.

He's a fixture at conferences,

and we were so excited to be
able to talk with him while

we're here at the COVESA
All Member Meeting.

Let's go!

Welcome to The Garage. Roger,
thank you for joining us today.

Always a pleasure,
John. Thank you.

You're a repeat
guest on the podcast.

Thank you for coming back
and joining us again.

I guess we didn't scare
you away last time.

Yeah.

In spite of the the debacle
of our first interaction. Yes.

I'm happy to be here.

It's great to see you.

So Roger, for those people who
might not know you as well,

tell us about you and your
company and what do you work on?

So Strategia Now Consulting
is an organization that I

work to amplify my clients'

messages as well as to help
build their network within the

industry and and build their
position and refine their

marketing messages.

And you've got a great
perspective because you,

of course, you work
extensively with vehicles.

You're working with vehicles
for a long, long time,

but you're also exposed to
some other markets as well.

Well, to be clear, I call myself

"car tolerant", not a
"car enthusiast". Okay?

But I do have
another incarnation,

which is president of the
Mobile Satellite Users

Association. So I'm active
in the satellite industry.

And there are some interesting
experiences that are

overlapping with the automotive
industry from the standpoint of

bringing satellite
connectivity to cars,

but also the fact that satellite

connectivity, LEO [Low
Earth Orbit] satellites,

are enabling experiences
on airplanes that

are creating some
interesting learnings that I

think are relevant to
the automotive industry.

Okay. Well, let's
jump right into it.

Let's talk about data, I think,

is an important aspect we've
talked about here at COVESA,

a lot of the focus is around
data, vehicle data, and so on.

And I think about experiences.

So let's start by talking about
vehicle data and what do you

see as some of the opportunities
to use data in new ways?

So I was watching and listening

with interest to your interview
on stage just a little

while ago, this
morning here at COVESA,

and I was really beginning to
get thoroughly annoyed with

this data monetization expression
that we've adopted in the industry,

which I think is is putting
us on the wrong path.

Because you did use
this other expression,

which I think is
more appropriate,

which is personalization.

Right.

And I think that's really
what it is all about,

and that's how we need
to think about it.

That it's...of
course, we're trying

to, you know, leverage
the vehicle data...but

that's an old story,
remote diagnostics,

customer relationship
management, service scheduling,

things like this.

Artificial intelligence infusing

those experiences, of course,

have a more
intelligent engagement.

But personalization, I
think, is what it's about.

And that's the fundamental

challenge facing this industry,

that we're the automotive
industry is a B to B business.

The car makers sell cars
to and through dealers.

And the challenge that we're
facing as we're moving to

electrification is
becoming a B to C industry,

interacting directly with the
consumer and and having a more

a personal experience, more
in-depth engagement with the

customer, and intelligent
interaction with the customer.

Sure, we're turning
data into revenue

opportunities, but it's the
personalization that is going

to open the door to contactless,

seamless experiences,
frictionless experiences that

will open the door to further
revenue opportunities.

That is that is the
challenge facing the industry, I think.

I think that's right.

And we were chatting earlier
about how different OEMs have

had different approaches,

different philosophies about
kind of recognizing drivers,

engaging with drivers.

And I think your point about
carmakers selling to dealers,

which is which is true
and it's not a secret,

but it kinda maybe
fundamentally informs the

thinking about how
to engage with cars.

I think some of the newer
automakers, some of the,

you know, the fresh, you know,

brand new entrants have been
able to come at this a very

different way where they
fundamentally recognize the

engagement with the
the driver, the owner,

is fundamentally more important
and different compared to

maybe what has been
seen in the past.

You know, strategies like
understanding, you know,

my experience in the vehicle,
maybe my wife's experience,

what we might want, our
driving habits, our style,

our might be very different.

You were telling me some
similar stories about that.

Yeah.

I know you don't
wanna name names,

but I'm I'm going to
name a name because this

company has got gotten
a lot of things right,

but maybe not
everything quite right.

So I took delivery of a
Chevy Equinox in the fall,

and you get eight years of free
connectivity with that car.

That doesn't sound
like such a big deal,

except it's a very big deal.

It's a very big deal.

Because GM is not supporting
on their new cars,

CarPlay or Android Auto.

Because if you are
enabling Android Auto and

CarPlay in your cars,

you lose all visibility to
what the customer is doing,

you know, in that
in that ecosystem.

And so they they wanted
to have that visibility.

They wanted to have
access to that.

And so with

I get eight years of
connectivity for free.

So that's OnStar plus Google
Maps and Google Assistant and

the Google Play Store.

Now before I left
the dealer lot,

I had to provision OnStar.

I maybe I could have said I
could have driven off without

doing that, but he strongly
suggested that I, you know,

activate it on the dealer lot.

However, I didn't activate
my the SiriusXM subscription,

and the car was
intended for my wife,

and I was taking
delivery of the car.

In ideal circumstances,

she would have set up
her Google account.

So which she ultimately did,

and now in the center stack,
you can see my wife's face,

and her and her Gmail
account is, you know,

accessed and and synchronized.

But the missed opportunity is

prioritizing the setting up
of all the relevant, you know,

important subscriptions
in the car,

and I would submit to you a
SiriusXM subscription—GM's

getting a piece of
that action—so it's in their

interest that I at least
activate, you know,

beyond the free trial
period or something.

And so

but even more so, you had eight
years of free connectivity,

but it's not a
personalized experience.

So there's no facial
recognition in the car,

or if there is,
it's it's not being

integrated with the
connectivity experience.

So there's a missed
opportunity to have a

personalization
experience in the car.

And what I'm and what I'm
saying is it's not even meeting

the the very low bar of the
experience you would have on a

Delta flight or a United
flight where you sit down and

you're identified in
your seat as hello, John.

Hello, Roger. My car isn't
even recognizing me and yet.

Yeah.

We're if we're we were
talking about that,

it seems because we're both
we will fly a lot and we're we

both have, you know,

customer customer loyalty
to our respective airlines,

which is the same airline.

But what you find is that
airlines in general, I think,

have mastered in many respects
the customer engagement

and driving customer loyalty.

And in some sense,

you mentioned, you know,

kind of sitting down
and recognizing you.

I think there's a growing trend
in in the airlines when you sit

down and says, hey,
Roger, welcome.

You know, kind of to to have that
last touch of customer recognition.

That's actually relatively
hard problem because there's,

you know, lots of passengers
moving around and so on like that.

Vehicle, generally,
there's maybe one driver,

maybe there's two drivers,
maybe three drivers.

But yet some cars have
different philosophies and

different strategies for
recognizing whether it's your

phone, whether it's a key
fob, or other kinds of things.

But generally speaking,

they're not consistently
recognizing the driver.

My wife is constantly giving me
grief when I get when she gets

in the car and it still thinks
it was me driving and the

seat's set wrong.

The wrong radio station.

Yeah.

So I think that's a that's a
simple opportunity to make sure

we're really engaging
the consumer,

engaging the driver
at another level.

What I'm suggesting is more
attention needs to be paid to

the fact that there is a
cost of customer acquisition,

and there's a cost to customer
retention or customer defection.

I love quoting
Alicia Boler Davis,

used to be head of
global connected consumer at GM,

and she had other
responsibilities there as well

before going to Amazon.

And actually, now she's
president of Ford Pro.

But she said one
percent of customer

retention is worth $700
million in vehicle sales.

It's like, oh!

Thats... I'm going quote
that, that's very good.

Now I care about
retaining customers,

and now I care about how much it's
costing me to obtain a customer.

And I don't think it's a secret
that a lot of Tesla owners are

quoted saying, I'm never
buying another vehicle.

I'm always going to
stay a Tesla customer.

Well, every automaker needs to
have that same kind of thought

process, that kind of
customer engagement.

Because, you know,

when I first came into
understanding of this

proposition was around
insurance, vehicle insurance.

And

it's understood in the
insurance industry 40% of the

time, if you have a total loss,

that customer is going
to go to another brand.

40%? 40%!

So that means at your lowest
point of customer satisfaction,

you're at the highest point
of customer defection.

That's how I ended
up driving a BMW.

I had an Infiniti,

some teenager not paying attention
pulled out in front of my wife.

So my wife T-boned
this Lexus with our

Infiniti, and I
ended up with a BMW.

And Infiniti never even
knew that that happened.

I, of course, kept getting
Infiniti mailers for

preventative maintenance or whatever
for a couple of years afterwards.

But the industry needs to
think differently about this

experience, this
customer engagement, and

how important it is.

And, you know, we just take
it for granted, you know,

that if you're a lot of
international flights,

your face is going
to get scanned.

If you go to the airport,

you're going to see
the Amazon store,

which says just walk out.

And it's like we're scanning our
faces with our phones all the time.

Why isn't the car scanning
our face and recognizing

who we are so your wife is a
little bit less frustrated.

Right.

With the proper seat settings,
the proper radio station.

II listen to WAMU in
the Washington DC area.

My wife is a WTOP listener.

It's kind of annoying if
I'm getting in after her.

Well, mean, you you you the question
about privacy you mentioned,

I think is an important one
because of course the industry

cares about privacy.

There's been a lot of
focus on ensuring drivers are confident

and can trust privacy.

But that's also not saying you
can't have drivers to have an

opt-in experience because
many of us, you know,

I opt in to pretty much
everything because I'm

relatively confident of
the companies I work with.

But if those those customers
that opt out, no problem.

But for those
people that opt in,

make sure they have a
seamless experience.

Most cars in some geographies,
growing geographies,

occupant monitoring,

driver monitoring for
attention is required by law.

So actually, the data's already
there to recognize people.

So in an opt-in experience,
why not make it seamless?

This is, "oh, I noticed
it's John driving,

so let me set up John's
profile seamlessly".

So for example, on stage,

a part of the conversation was
also about data monetization,

but also about diagnostics.

You know, sort of
intelligent diagnostics.

So of course, I'm
driving my BMW now,

it's telling me I'm
overdue for service.

Well, give me the details, okay?

Because I got a mailer that
that I believe told me that I'm

no longer within the
free service period,

so I really don't want
to go to the dealer.

So why don't you tell me, you
are due for an oil change,

and, you know, we need
to check out your brakes,

and it's not going
to cost you anything,

or it's going to cost
you twenty five dollars,

or it's going to cost you three
hundred dollars, whatever.

You know, full disclosure,
we have the data, and

the informed what I've learned
from organizations like

Cox that have a lot of
CRM solutions out there

is an informed customer
is more inclined to pay.

So if they know that there's
something that there's

important that needs to be done,

they're more inclined
to to pay for it.

So just educate the
customer, you know,

and and be intelligent
about the interaction.

You know, coming
for an oil change,

I'm gonna go to Jiffy Lube, you

know.

Well, you you mentioned,
you know, data,

and this is a great transition
because in the the the panel I

was just participating in,

we talked about how vehicle
diagnostics is emerging as one

of the top diagnostics
preventative maintenance.

That whole family of things
is emerging from OEMs and a a

wide slice of the vehicle industry
feels like that's a critical thing.

And, you know, you talked also about how
the vehicle's collecting so much data now.

Well, if you think about it as
sort of the proverbial check engine

lights, right,

it's a fairly dumb indicator
that something's wrong.

Well, is that something
wrong? You go now?

I'm pull over? We've moved
beyond the idea of this.

But when it comes to oil changes
or other kind of preventative.

If we're providing better value
creating things that says,

you're having a
problem with a tire,

one of your tires is
wearing wrong, or you know,

you're you're this is a system
that you should fix quickly.

And by the way, you're
covered under warranty,

so let's make sure you get in and
out of the service center quickly.

We've got all the
parts ready for you.

Connecting all the
dots like that.

So talking about
applications of vehicle data,

we were chatting earlier
about usage-based insurance.

That's not a new concept,
but it has evolved a lot.

And just across the way here in
the the expo is our mutual

friends at MOTER.

And they were recent guests
on the podcast as well.

We were chatting earlier about
how we can take in, for example,

one of the things MOTER is
doing is is going beyond just

usage-based insurance to doing more
like driver coa-hing and so on.

What's your take on that?

Well, I've I've written about
this and it's no secret and what

they're doing is is is very clever
and and and industry leading.

And I have my own personal
experiences with usage based

insurance where I was getting
with State Farm Drive Safe and

Save, and this is years ago,

but it was interesting
at the time.

I had my wife and myself
and two of my sons

on a portal, all
be getting grades,

but you really couldn't figure out
exactly why you got that grade.

And so MOTER has

is giving direct feedback.

In fact, MOTER is giving
you feedback in real time.

Real time aspect to see in real
time, you know, what you know,

this is the thing
you're doing right now,

that is transformative.

That so you can
see drive by drive

with Tesla now, but
motor take is taking it

further, real time feedback.

And we had this chat with
with Michael O'Shea from from MOTER

a few weeks ago,

and I was making
the analogy with

him as well that when
you I drive an EV,

most of us drive EVs now,

and where you see how the
the EV will show you live how

much energy you're drawing if
you're accelerating very quickly.

And you very quickly realize,

I probably could have
accelerated a little more

slowly and gotten
there just as fast,

and it would have saved
me a lot of energy.

So that real-time
feedback is very powerful.

And I think that's the same
concept they're doing with

usage based insurance.

So we're on a little
bit of a journey there,

both in terms of
insurance and in terms of

EVs and how much
feedback you're getting.

When I'm in a Prius,
Uber, or whatever,

some of the information that's
being delivered to the driver

in real time about the
battery performance and energy

consumption seems a little
like information overload.

But that's what I mean.

We're on a journey as to
understanding how much

information is useful, how
much is too much Right.

While you're driving the car.

I think simplifying,
you're right, simplifying

in the right direction.

Less is more.

I mean, I think some of
these displays in my car,

for example, is quite simple.

It's like really getting a
sense of sort of the energy

draw, and a lot of different
vehicles have this now.

Energy draw.

It's a simple thing to
understand is like, oh,

I really could have
eased up a little bit.

And and I think that's causing
me to think about my driving

slightly differently.

Like, you know, maybe there's
times you need to accelerate.

There's other times when, yeah,

you could just take it take
it a little easier and get a

little extra range
on your vehicle.

So this is where, you know,

you were asking me before we

came here about
artificial intelligence.

Yeah.

So artificial
intelligence, you know,

these agentic experiences can be

fantastic.

So when I'm in
the Chevy Equinox,

I'm asking, you know,

I'm interacting with
voice almost all the time.

I have a similar, but not
equivalent capability in my

BMW, but my son was complaining.

So he has an older GM product,

so he's using his Android
Auto with his phone.

And he was complaining that
Gemini has now been enabled on

the Android Auto platform,

and it's like talking to him
when he's not really interested

in that interaction.

So again, it's appropriate
opportunities to engage.

And the other thing is, he's
younger, know, you might think,

they may
be more pro-interaction,

but he actually is
less interested.

So the reality is you just
have to understand your driver,

understand their
different preferences,

meet them where they are.

There are opportunities to

have a higher level
engagement with the customer,

a personalized experience.

And so that's the bone I
wanted to pick with you

a little bit after watching
the interview on stage.

It's so much data monetization,
it's personalization.

Because the ultimate objective
is to get to the point where

the customer is very
comfortable in the car,

and then you're setting
the stage for seamless,

frictionless revenue
opportunities and experiences.

And that's, I think, really where
we want to be as an industry.

What that contributes
to ultimately...

so the Equinox, like I said,

eight years of
free connectivity.

Of course, it's not free.

And that was made clear from
the latest GM earnings report

where they talked
about that this year,

GM expects to have seven and
a half billion dollars in

deferred revenue.

Well, a lot of that,
if not all of it,

is coming from the car
connectivity that's being paid

for in the price of
the vehicle as new.

So they're capturing
that revenue,

but they're setting the
stage for even more revenue

opportunities by...Value
creating things...based on

taking connectivity just
out of the equation.

It's included.

Right.

Your car is of course,

it's connected and we're
going to but they haven't

closed the loop at the end.

They're not alone
in the industry.

Turning that connectivity
value proposition into a

different form of
customer engagement.

And ultimately, the the
dealers are gonna be

have to have to really change
the way they're engaging

with their customers.

Dealers should be like
genius bars for their OEMs.

And I don't think anybody thinks
about their dealers that way.

Most people, when they
think about the dealer,

they grab their
wallet, you know,

because that dealer
is gonna, you know,

he's gonna take money from me.

That needs to change, I think.

And I think it is
changing with, you know,

some of the new upstart
OEMs are beginning to change that

engagement model that, you know,
I think, dare I say,

in some cases, you
mentioned Tesla earlier,

drivers are excited to engage
with the OEM, are excited,

which is a crazy thing, as
you say, to think about.

So I think that that's an
opportunity that the industry

has to to change that.

And your your point
about connectivity,

taking connectivity off the
table as a barrier to creating

these value creating
services and capabilities,

I think it's a smart move.

I think we're gonna see more
of that in the industry.

Well, Roger, it's always
great to talk with you.

I we I constantly run
into your conferences,

so I'm always excited to have
you on the the show and and

bring your fresh and
unvarnished perspective.

You're you're you're willing
to tell people like it is and

that's why we're
glad to have you.

It's great to see you as always.

Thank you for having me, John.

If you like what you're
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