Interview with Don Bode, Fleet Business Administrator at the Remarketing team of the Europcar Mobility Group

Mr. Bode, how long have you been working for Buchbinder and what are your responsibilities?

I have been working for Buchbinder Auktion since 2018 and for remarketing at the Europcar Mobility Group since mid-2021. As a Fleet Business Administrator, my current focus is on the planning, execution and evaluation of online auctions. In recent years, we have increasingly brought the live on-site business into the digital world. The challenge and the exciting thing about this is to define on which channels we create which offers for our customers. With our livestream auctions "Buchbinder e-auction" and the purely online auctions "Europcar 2ndmove", I think we have developed an offer for our customers that is probably unique in the market in terms of form and breadth.

A second focus is on marketing and communication. Here I take care of digital marketing such as SEO work (Search Engine Optimization) with a partner agency, the e-newsletter and our homepage. We also keep an eye on social media. There are also projects in telephone marketing and classic mailing campaigns. And hopefully live events will be added again in the near future.

What is particularly important to you at work?

Teamwork is particularly important to me. Therefore, I am very happy about the fair way of working in our Regensburg team, the active cooperation with the team from Hamburg and the exchange with international colleagues, e.g. from Portugal.

What do you like about your work?

That it is and remains varied and exciting. I always like to think outside the box. We have major changes in the market right now. This includes the move away from combustion vehicles towards electric cars and hydrogen cars. This has a direct impact on our marketing strategies.

In addition, Corona has mixed everything up in recent years. We had to switch our auctions to online and become more digital overall. And in the working world, hybrid working has prevailed, which means we have had to learn to adapt our working style and our way of maintaining contacts. I gladly accepted all these challenges and try to make the best of it in our department and team.

What are the biggest challenges in your work area?

Despite the trend towards electric cars, combustion engines are still our main sales model. E-cars are currently even more difficult to sell on the used car market, since the benefits offered by buying a new car are no longer available. And the hydrogen cars are unfortunately not that far yet. That's why our department always comes up with the core question of which vehicles our customers want or need.

In addition, we have different levels of development among retailers when it comes to digitization: from those with little knowledge to digital experts, everything is included. Of course, we have to adapt to this so that you don't lose out on certain customer groups.

What wishes do you have for the future?

The first thing I wish for 2023 is that there will be live auctions again. It would also be nice to actively participate in an event again, such as the Remarketing Congress.

Since the used car market will certainly "normalize" again, in my opinion a stronger focus for marketing and communication is enormously important. I see great potential to reach a heterogeneous customer group of all ages better and more successfully through the mix of digital and classic marketing tools.

Beyond 2023, it is important to me personally that I can develop professionally. In addition, the last few years have shown that health is paramount. And finally, I wish for all of us more peace and justice in the world and for us more sustainable behavior and awareness for future generations.