Insight & strategy Shifting gears Insights are central to the AAs decision-making but can they help the breakdown specialist navigate a period of upheaval in the car industry? By Liam Kay I f your car suddenly breaks down on a dimly lit, winding country road, there is a good chance the AA will be your first call to get you back up and running. Since 1905, the motoring organisation has been rescuing drivers of all kinds, acting as a de facto fourth emergency service. As the age of the petrol car winds to an end, however, the company is at a crossroads, and insights are helping its shift to a new future. When Robert Gruszka, senior consumer research manager, joined the AA in 2015, it was looking for a fresh start. The company has long been an icon of British motoring, but older customers formed a large part of its membership, and the company had been absent from television and radio advertising for a long time. The biggest issue remains the radical changes on the horizon for the car industry. Electric vehicles, and the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars in the UK from 2030, threaten to shrink the roadside-assistance industry. Add to this the move towards car sharing, leasing and other modes of transport. We needed to put a line in the sand and re-establish ourselves both in terms of consumer awareness and perceptions of who we are but also define where we wanted to go, says Gruszka. We were talking in a language that was seen as outdated. Strategy Gruszka is the only member of the AAs consumer research team, and reports directly to the group marketing director. His status as the only pure researcher at the business means he is dependent on the use of contractors and external agencies. There are also separate insights and user experience teams, and a customer journey insights team. Insight sits within the marketing department at the AA, and has a predominant focus on brand and strategy, as well as marketing communications issues such as creative development insights and market tracking. The insight function may be small, but it plays an important role in the strategic direction of the company, argues Gruszka, because of the AAs relatively flat structure and the way the senior leadership team uses insights. When I joined, business decisions 40 Impact ISSUE 33 2021_pp40-43 I&S AA.indd 40 26/03/2021 10:09