Shift Technologies Inc Q3 2021 Earnings Call Transcript

The following is excerpted from the question-and-answer section of the transcript.

Question: Naved Ahmad Khan - Truist Securities, Inc., Research Division - Analyst : We are hearing about more and more car buyers just getting priced out and not ending up buying. Do you think the marketing efficiency can be higher in a sort of a more normalized car buying environment? And maybe just talk about the advertising channels, which ones are you seeing that are more effective? REFINITIV STREETEVENTS | www.refinitiv.com | Contact Us consent of Refinitiv. 'Refinitiv' and the Refinitiv logo are registered trademarks of Refinitiv and its affiliated companies. NOVEMBER 11, 2021 / 10:00PM, SFT.OQ - Q3 2021 Shift Technologies Inc Earnings Call George Arison - Shift Technologies, Inc. - Co-Founder, Co-CEO & Chairman Look, we certainly realize that as prices on costs have gone up and, it's creating a complete environment for a lot of people. And frankly, that's one of the reasons why we hope that eventually things kind of go back to where they were before and normalize. We are fortunate that our inventory is very broad. I mean you can buy a brand-new cars from Shift, that's 6 months old, all the way to a 10 or a 12-year-old car with 100-plus thousand miles. And so the price diversity that people can find it shipped very broad. And so hopefully, that's an opportunity for people who might not be able to afford a 2- or 3-year-old car, given the price increase to buy and really good Shift certified, 4 or 5-year-old diesel. And so we hope to serve them that way. With regards to marketing, as you know, and we've spoken to in detail, last Q1, we fundamentally changed how we approach marketing. Historically, we've been very focused on marketing through digital channels, whereas with this transition, we have refocused ourselves much more on brand and building a long-term sustainable brand that will pay off book today and over the long term. The primary way in we to do that is through video advertising. Obviously, television is one area, and I don't mean just television in a normal sense where you're watching CNN cable, but also over-the-top television where people consume on demand as well as other channels that people use to both brand. That's where a lot of our focus is. We obviously haven't stopped doing digital. We just do a lot less of it than we used to as a total percentage of our spend. And the digital channels that was always deployed continue to work really well for us, and we'll continue to utilize the need.