How pictures influence the service life of vehicles

A car dealership markets its vehicles in various online channels via images. This seems quite natural to the prospective customer looking at autoscout24.de, mobile.de & Co., but complex processes are behind such a vehicle image. Car dealerships can automate these processes in order to act efficiently in their online marketing.

How do the processes of online publication of images work?

It takes a few steps until the appropriate pictures of a vehicle are available online in all important channels. Therefore, the process can be lengthy and may require many participants. These in turn are all interdependent. The processes can be described in detail in this way:

• A photographer takes the pictures. This requires the right equipment (professional camera instead of smartphone) and know-how. There are very specific angles from which a car should be photographed from the outside, even the angle of the wheels plays a role (bringing out the rims). The light has to be right, and interested parties also want very specific interior views. Professional photographers know that.
• A conditioner takes care of the appropriate digitalization of the images and possibly conditions them again with an image processing program. In any case, he should add the logo and other corporate design elements of the car dealership so that the dealership can present itself as a brand through the images. This is the only way the car image can support the dealer's own marketing.
• Now the image must be added to the vehicle data record. This is usually done by employees in the car dealership. Every better secretary knows the process.
• Finally, the now finished data set - vehicle image and data - must be brought to the individual marketing channels. This is again not so easy, because the individual platforms require different techniques for setting up - including different rules, advertising costs, etc.

Technical interdependencies between the parties involved arise from the file formats required for digitisation, which must be used in the correct type and size (which determines the resolution of the photos, for example) from the outset. It is not possible to upload any photo to Autoscout24.de. Timelines must also be adhered to and agreements made.

How can these processes be made more efficient?

There are intelligent solutions for the digitization and automation of processes which efficiently design the described process. This is also necessary. A car dealership should post pictures every day and, if necessary (after the sale of the vehicle), delete them in order to stay up to date. But this also means that external service providers - usually the photographer and the data processor - must work for the car dealership on a daily basis (not just once a week as is often the case).

After all, the car dealership usually also receives new cars for sale every day, which have to be put on the net. If this does not happen, it could become expensive. On average, a car parked in the dealer's yard costs 20 to 30 euros per day. Dealers are therefore always anxious to sell their cars as quickly as possible. If a car does not find a buyer for four days, simply because it was not visible online due to a lack of photos, it can cost the dealer 80 to 120 euros. The dealer should therefore strive to automate the processes of online marketing, including the extremely important part of the pictures. Professional service providers have the necessary tools for digitalisation and automation.