Ling Valentine runs LINGsCARS.com Ltd. This is a car leasing company that has taken marketing differentiation to a new level in an industry where professionalism is rooted in convention.
Ling Valentine
In an interview with Bronwyn Durand, Ling has given some great insight into how clear brand direction and giving your customers what they most want in a fresh way can be the path to your success.
Ling is a shining example of how breaking the rules may just be better.
www.LINGsCARS.com is on track to achieve 40million in leased car sales in 2009, despite the 25% drop in new car registrations in the UK. LINGsCARS is an online car leasing company, providing new cars by contract hire to private and business customers across the UK.
The website had 612,812 unique visitors to the site last year, and based on last month’s figures, is likely to achieve at least a million unique visitors this year.
Why?
Ling says, ‘Because, clearly, I am the best at providing the correct mix of cars, prices, service and entertainment’.
To fully appreciate the interview, view LINGsCARS here. A written explanation wouldn't do it justice.
So what is the Ling perspective?
Customers
The goal: To provide the very best personalised service to intelligent creditworthy customers; giving them a great experience while acquiring a new car; by the most transparent, cost-effective and simple method in the UK. Ling's customers are ABC123 prime and creditworthy people.
Ling's approach to customers:
- The focus is on people, not cars.
- Every customer will be dealt with in a thoughtful and a correct manner.
- Ling’s website demonstrates the customer response time (and its good).
- In a competitive space filled with faceless dealer groups, houses and brokerages, Ling stands out for quality personalised service and efficiency.
- Every website visitor is treated with equal importance, and their website journey is monitored on a live basis through another Ling ‘first’. Computer Shopper magazine spotted this and said about it: “Welcome to the future.” They called Ling “The leading evangelist of treating website customers with intelligence and collaboration”
The key effect of Ling’s differentiation is memorability. The interactive entertainment and sheer Chinese madness of the website create a powerful experience intended to optimise the chance to be first-to-mind over long buying cycles - Ling isn’t just concerned with the first sale, but the ones to come.
Website
The only car leasing company to have an entirely online business model, everything is done from the website: sales, marketing and customer communications.
Ling says: ‘My website is 100% up to date and alive. I monitor it constantly; I seem to live inside LINGsCARS. I have a database with over 10,000 car trims and over 250 tables. I have some pages, which if they were printed out would exceed 400 pages of A4 paper in length. I break all the conventional rules. My whole website is more advanced than any other in the UK car industry.’
This ‘live’ availability of great deals is very advantageous in an industry where speed of securing a deal is of paramount importance, and where competitors are displaying an outdated list of car deals.
Ling: ‘I used my energy to build the biggest and best website in the whole industry. There are no limits to websites’.
Marketing
Ling: ‘I consider everything I do to be marketing - its my number 1 concern’.
Marketing is planned each year, but in such a way to facilitate adaptation as marketing opportunities present themselves - like Dragon’s Den. A spend limit is defined and allocated to what will best take the business forward - often brainstorms producing the most remarkable or crazy ideas will get the budget.
Given that there is a mature customer management model in place, once Ling has sourced the best deals, everything is geared towards relentless marketing. Ling says: ‘You never know what will appeal to different people’.
While competitors are spending a fortune on paid adverts, including adwords, Ling has focused on developing natural search to be top for every strong search term in the sector, as well as a long tail of content-related searches.
Marketing is driven by the entertainment factor - Ling explains the approach: ‘Much in the same way that Top Gear does not “road test” cars on TV, but entertains the viewers in many different and quite crazy ways’.
Ling’s memorable marketing includes (there are many many examples on her website)
- “Rescuing” Northern Rock when it was collapsing: Ling invested £10,000 when everyone else was withdrawing cash and gained some big TV appearances on the news and GMTV.
- “Pitch and run” on Dragon’s Den: entirely intended to promote the business. Ling managed to be entertaining and secure offers from two Dragons before turning them down. Ling says: ‘That took a lot of planning to pull off. I practiced for weeks and it nearly killed me in effort. However, it was well worth it. Subsequently I was so successful I was featured in a BBC book and given a whole chapter “A lesson in sales and marketing”.’
- LINGsCARS is listed on EdExcel as an A-Level exam question alongside McDonalds, EasyJet, Boots and Sainsbury’s, for students taking business qualifications - demonstrating the belief that every activity is marketing, even when there is not necessarily an initial direct benefit.
- “Chop Gear” series of car road tests with Ling’s crazy sister Shan appearing as a Chinese Red Guard.
- Ling’s marketing assets include a Nuclear missile truck, a London bus, and Beijing jeep
Inspiration
Ling admires Michael O’Leary of Ryanair, and constantly watches for opportunities in the media. Ling says: ‘If it is difficult, we do it, because what makes things special is that no one else ever has the confidence to make the extra effort’.
Ling's advice for aspiring entrepreneurs is to have confidence in yourself and not to be afraid to make a fool of yourself. Take every opportunity presented to you and give it 200% effort. Always broadcast any results you get as you never know what can be gained from the extra publicity.
What next?
Ling is already bringing her unique approach to new ventures.
Check out www.lingsmobiles.com - an entirely automated site that runs without human intervention; used car advertising will never be the same again when LingTrader launches; and LINGsWINGS promises to find all those £1 flights you know exist but can never find.
Try this
If you type your first name into Google, what do you get? Try typing ‘Ling’.
Marketing differentiation is not about aligning yourself with your competitors and doing one or two things better or differently.
Ling inspired thoughts for your business:
- Don't take yourself too seriously
- Make Google spider food
- Make it as easy as possible to do business with you
- Try something different, and commit to it
Contact LINGsCARS:
LINGsCARS.com Ltd LING World Headquarters Vance Business Park Gateshead, NE11 9NE Tel 0191 460 9444 Fax 0870 486 1130
The full Ling Valentine interview and extra information can be found in the full article, here.
Bronwyn Durand writes the Marketing Voodoo blog for JupiterJasper , the marketing mentor for small businesses. Bronwyn consults on commercial identity as The Brand Whisperer.
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