Yesterday I wrote a blog post about SAAB. It obviously created some sort of attention since I almost had a new unique visitor record. Among the commenters were official SAAB representatives, positive even though I had quite a strong tone in my post. Another commenter, a bit surprising, was David Holecek, Interactive Marketing Manager at Volvo Cars. In his comment he wrote – “Sticking my neck out a bit, it would be interesting if you would do a similar exercise on our volvocars.com site (or rather volvocars.se, as we do not have all the shopping tools on our international site). We may be asking for a potentially harsh treatment , but feedback is always important.”

I was planning to do a video on the Volvo site as well, but due to kids at home I’ve not gotten the possibility to record something yet. It’s just to noisy! But, David, I decided to give you some feedback anyway.

I only walked through the XC60 part of the site since I’m more or less looking at buying exactly that kind of car right now. (Probably the new BWM X3, but I do like the XC60)

It’s sort of two-faced but here we go.

1. You’ve done your lesson when it comes to usability. Most things work the way they should part from minor things when I’ve already chosen a car and then have to re-choose it once I wanna testdrive for example. I like that I can have a PDF mailed with my built car.
2. The ‘closed’ interface forces me to navigate to much. Create less pages with more content instead. People don’t care about scrolling if they’ve come to the right place. Especially not in iPads and iPhones.
3. Drop the http://www.volvocars.com/se/all-cars/volvo-xc60/Pages/default.aspx link structure and implement a more SEO friendly structure and taxonomy.
4. I’d implement a lot more links between the sections. Such as moving people from the ‘What XC60 should I choose’ into the configuration tool for example.
5. It’s all built in Flash. That sucks from several known reasons.

How Volvo Cars look on the fastest growing internet platform in the world…not good.

And probably lots of more things. But…time…kids…

What if it looked like Apples website?

So, how should it look then? That’s of course a big thing to give feedback on and it would take some time, on the other hand, it’s sort of interesting to have a look at Apple, then swap all the content for Volvo Car content and see what happen. Hmm, why not try it? Said and done. I sat down for an hour and overlaid Apples Macbook Air section with XC60 content just to see what would happen. Here’s the result.

XC60 First page in an Apple Costume.

I’ve more or less just swapped content except for some copy that I quickly wrote to convey the right feeling. Don’t mind the top nav, it’s just there to get that Volvo feeling into the site. Click here to get the full view

Note. The design above is only produced for teaching purposes. Not to be used commercially

Volvo XC60 – The Design in an Apple Costume (excuse the mega long image)

By building the entire design experience, with designer videos, galleries and more, into one single page, you’ll award the visitor by letting him explore everything about the design without having to open new pages. You’ll also ensure that every link to the new Volvo XC60 design section delivers the exact same experience. You’ll have seconds to get people to stay, dont waste them on endles menus. Click here to get the full view.

Note. The design above is only produced for teaching purposes. Not to be used commercially

So, with that said (or designed…copied… in an hour). I think the Volvo Cars site features some sweet content and nice functionalites, but I’d repackage them into HTML5 based websites, lesser menu options and a bolder feeling to it. Obviously I’d spend more time than this to really work out how it should look in the future. Cars are beautiful objects made to be used by people so their sites should be too.

Thanks David for reaching out and I hope I’ve give you something to think about!

Usually when I don’t like something I try to give constructive feedback. But in this case there’s just to much of a history involved. About 9 years ago I tried to pitch ideas on Saab. Partly because I really wanted to work with a car brand and partly because they were Swedes. Already back then were the account managed by Lowe Brindfors. I thought Lowe did a shitty job then and obviously they do a shitty job now. Will they never learn? (That goes for both SAAB and Lowe)

Today, as was writing a blog post about integrated communication (soon to be published) I decided to do a quick video analysis of the current SAAB presence online. And let me tell you…it sucks big time. Sorry for the shitty English. But it serves the purpose.

I don’t get it. Aren’t car brands supposed to senior managers employeed that knows their shit? These guys sell products that costs a fortune and they can’t even product a simple site that will convert people into buyers. It scares me.

The first thought that comes to mind is that the marketing department don’t know what they’re doing to the brand, and that’s of course true, but then I think about it a little bit more. This is not a marketing department problem. This is a management problem.

Jan Åke Jonsson and the rest of you ‘silverbacks’ way up in the hierarchy! SAAB is not an industrial company – it’s a B2C product oriented and brand driven car company backed by great technology but emotions and brand comes first. And Jan, don’t come telling me this is a thing for the marketing department. Branding and marketing should be your, the management group and the board of directors first priority. It’s what your future is all about!

So. Jan Åke and the rest of you managers at SAAB.
You’ve sold SAAB to another company outside Sweden, but the a large majority of the cars are still being built in Sweden and lots of peoples incomes rely on you and your management team taking the right decisions. In the long run even I will be affected if you close down. And trust me, if you don’t stop acting like fools when it comes to branding issues (cause personally I think there are more problems than the site) you’ll close down anytime soon. It’s time to stop loving your history and focus on the future!

For years I’ve thinking about this post but it has seemed so obvious so I didn’t bother writing it. But nothing happens so it’s time to put my thoughts down in writing and give one of my business ideas away.

The unexplored room of business development

The car industry has access to a very unique thing. 4 seats where people have different needs depending on age, sex, where you come from and where you’re heading. All of this in a small contained area that today is pretty boring and unexplored.

What if the car industry decided to start a company together, sort of a foundation like the mobile world has launched Symbian, that developed a new operative system optimized for cars. What would be the specs and how could it benefit the car brands.

The benefits would be enormous. Let’s brainstorm for a couple of minutes:

Maximum connectivity with USB, Firewire, SD card slot and Bluetooth accessibility and Wifi & wireless 3G broadband connection.

It’s pretty obvious. Getting internet into the car would not only enable me to download apps, stream videos, listen to internet radio and play online games but it would also enable me to upload stuff to the car from home. Sync videos, photos, software and more. On top of this I wouldn’t have to go to a garage to check up on problems with my car. Instead I would be able to hook up online and get a diagnose to see what the problem is all about. You could probably even get problems fixed without even going there at all.

Of course you should enable companies that manufacture physical gadgets the option hook em into the car. Say Electronic Arts loves your new open source environment and produces Tiger Woods 2010 to be played inside your car. Then of course another manufacturer of gaming controls should be allowed to hook up their shit.

On top of this everyone who want to should have the possibility to extract or insert data from/into the car. I can’t see the point why I should be able to back up my newly taken photographs straight into my car hard drive.

An application platform with open API

With an open API the car industry would open an a whole new business area. Entertainment, tools, information, sociala networking etc. Think for yourselves – if you could have anything you want on a screen while driving your car – what would it be?

Think about this, your need is totally different depending on your placement in the car. If you’re driving you need one setup of apps. If you’re in the seat besides the driver you have another need. In the back of your car you might have two kids trying their best not fall down dead from boredom. The possibilities are of course enormous. Ultimately the car industry would end up launching their own app store.

Graphic capabilities that could handle games as good as the ones for Xbox 360 and Playstation and play back High Definition (HD) and Blueray movies.

Build it and they will come. This was said by Kevin Costner in the movie field of dreams. And when it comes to this bullet it’s true to the bone. If the car industry would build a great OS that had the capabilities above every developer in the world would develop games for it. The entertainment industry would dance of joy. But even better – The kids traveling in the back of your car would shut up and enjoy the ride!

GPS and motion sensors

A no-brainer. You’re in a car. You’re traveling and you’re accessing information and applications that can become a lot richer if they can know about your whereabouts and what you’re doing. From a safety perspective we will see applications that monitor our driving and automatically calls the emergency number if we crash.

One touch-screen per seat!

And I really mean one screen per seat. Just as stated above the needs are very different and very individual for everyone traveling in a car. The OS should of course handle different profiles etc. When I get in to the drivers seat the OS should treat me in one way. When I sit my self in the passenger seat the system should treat me in another way. Shortly – let me have what I want!

Finally – branded applications

Of course, if you had this InCar OS installed in every car of your brand you should definitely add some branding to it. If I buy, say a BMW, with this OS i will of course expect applications and functionality tightly tied to BMW and their brand. Think about it – what an opportunity to strengthen relations and establish long term structural bindings.

To sum things up.

Car brands all over the world. Join forces. Hire the best developers from Apple and get going on your own ‘InCar OS’ and change our in-car experiences and your profits forever! (maybe before Apple does!)

I just got back from reading a post on Autoblog about Saab 9-3X and 9-5 officially confirmed for 2009 rollout. And the post is accompanied with the image above.

Here lies the SAAB problem. This image is probably number 200490934782 in line that i’ve seen the last years promising me that SAAB is about to release something that will kick ass. And then when they get a car on the market it’s a disappointment.

I have no doubt in my mind that SAAB has the competence to build one of the best cars on the market, a car that people will love, a car that will be known worldwide for unique ideas and solutions. After all, if we look back in time SAAB has a history of inventing great things for everyday cars.

SAAB’s problem is really not that different from any other brand. What SAAB has got to do is rise to the occasion. It’s time to step up, skip the internal politics and make that vision come alive again.

In many way’s they have some of that uniqueness that people crave from a brand that leads the way, but then on the other hand the car is filled with stuff that makes you go blah. SAAB has a future, but it’s not mainstream, it’s about being unique and launch cars that fill a space in the market that no one else does. You have to get back to building your brand on innovations and differentiation…for real!

B ut until you do, please stop telling people about these fantastic conceptual cars that never make it to the market. Set peoples exceptions right and outperform instead of vice versa.