Australian Off-Road targets younger buyers

Caloundra, Queensland's Australia Off-Road is turning the introduction of its new Sierra box camper into an innovative opportunity to attract a younger buyer demographic to the brand.

With the majority of AOR customers aged from their mid-50s upwards, the company this year asked the many under-30s in its 80-strong workforce to tell them what Millennials wanted, how long they were prepared to wait, what features they sought and what they were prepared to pay.

“After nearly 20 years in the business, we knew how to build off-road caravans, what would work and what wouldn’t,” said AOR founder Steve Budden. “But we knew that wasn’t enough going forward. We needed to blend young ideas with our building experience.

“The penny dropped for me when our 35 year-old Product Manager, Shayne Mayers, asked me why I wanted the white branding on our tyres to face inwards unless customer specifically requested otherwise.

“I told him that we always did that because it was more understated. Shayne told me if that appealed to older buyers, we should do the reverse with the Sierra!”

There's also no radio or built-in speakers in the Sierra, because younger people stream through their phones to mobile speakers

Budden says the major change that the Sierra brings to AOR is in re-opening the younger market it vacated more than a decade ago.

“When we shifted our focus from canvas hard-floor campers to hybrid super-campers from 2008, we took existing owners with us, but left many first-time buyers behind,” he said.

“Now the Sierra takes us back to that market, but the customers today are quite different, so we have to approach them differently.”

AOR’s General Manager Russell Evans said younger buyers today ‘want it all and they want it now’, so brand loyalty often takes a back seat to availability.

For this reason the Sierra is being launched from $42,500 in comparatively ‘stripped back’ form, albeit with a 150AH lithium battery, 1000 Watt inverter, Finscan Nucleus RV automation with 3.5-inch touchscreen with mobile connectivity. and a single 60-litre water tank as standard, but with no hot water, stove or fridge.

Three on-trend Raptor colours for the fibreglass and aluminium body are offered – Platoon (sage green), Fighter Jet (light grey), or Desert Storm (camouflage tan).

The plan is to stock-build these basic fibreglass and aluminium modules that can then be racked and optioned to customers’ specs within days, rather than months, with bolt-on factory options, such as additional water storage tanks and space heating and adjustable air suspension.

AOR additionally is currently developing its own PEAK-branded range of remote area camping equipment, from three different models of rooftop tents, to external drop-down shower rooms, general car and camper pull-out awnings, add-on canvas rooms and full memory foam mattresses that can be fitted to most brands of campers, hybrids and caravans – not just AOR models.

Like their market counterparts, most of these items will be manufactured in China to AOR’s specification and will be warehoused in Caloundra ready for factory, dealer, or online customers.

Through these measures, the plan is for the Sierra to grow AOR’s business.

“We’ve set an annual production limit of 150 Super-campers and caravans, because we know the size of the market and what is economical for us to build to meet its expectations,” said Evans. “It’s a finite market and the opportunity for us there is market share, rather than volume.

“However, with the Sierra we have the opportunity to expand into a growing market and we see the potential there for perhaps another 50 units a year, which equates to around three or four a month.”

Evans sees many of these coming off the AOR racks to be completed to individual customer spec, with AOR teaming up with the Fox Financial Group to offer finance tailored specifically to this younger market.

“Unlike our older customers, many of these buyers will want to experience things now, rather than later, as most older customers do when looking forwards to long service leave, or retirement.

“In some cases they will want to tick 'Outback adventure travel' off  their bucket list before perhaps moving on to some other ‘experience’, so we need to be prepared to deliver when they are ready.

“We expect to supply enthusiastic customers in as little as three days from order when we have built enough stock.”

“In some cases they might want to purchase a basic version now, perhaps supplying their own fridge or cooktop that they used before when tent-camping, then add other modules later – perhaps when they have children.

“We have also had owners of our larger AORs show interest in getting a Sierra for their young adult children and the enquiry rate is current running unexpectedly high since it made its debut at the recent Sydney Show, at the rate of around 10 a day.”

The Sierra is just the start of a multi-model Sierra range offensive for AOR, with a longer version to be added next year, when it will join a new tandem-axle version of the hard-roof Matrix as 20th Anniversary models.

At present, the $42,500 entry level Sierra is unlikely to cost more than $55,000-$60,000 fully optioned, leaving a gap to the $71,990 Odyssey pop-top that AOR is keen to fill.

“There are a lot of people in the $50,000-$90,000 space and we plan to build multiple products for it," he said.

By the Brisbane Caravan Supershow in June next year AOR also expects to launch its new tandem off-road caravan. Called the ‘Synergy’, it will be about the same length as an existing Matrix, but 600mm longer inside.

Slated for April 2020 production, it could come to market at about $140,000, or about $15,000-$20,000 less than the current range-topping tandem-axle Aurora, although official prices are yet to be released.

AOR has also moved to ensure its presence at the major Melbourne and Sydney caravan shows, following growing moves to exclude interstate exhibitors unless they have a local sales and service presence.

AOR earlier this year opened an authorised sales and service outlet near Newcastle to  give it access to the Sydney shows and is currently looking to establish a similar facility in Victoria.

Also read: AOR outlines survival strategy