Marketing to your existing customer base is critical in today’s shrinking auto industry where new customers are few and far between.  Unfortunately, the auto industry has a well deserved reputation earned over many years by fast talking car salespeople who relied on buy or die selling systems that ignored the importance of relationship based transparent negotiations to earn - and keep - a customer.  Experience has proven that if you make a friend you are more likely to make a sale.  More relevantly to this post, if you plan to market to your existing customer base it is critical that they are more than customers.  If you hope to earn their future business in sales and service they must be friends, not just previously sold leads.  After all, what are friends for!

Human nature drives every aspect of our lives - especially when buying a car - so it always amazes me when auto dealers implement a selling system or design an automotive advertising plan that doesn’t consider it.  This post will provide some insights from the customer’s perspective that must be addressed before you can presume to market to them as a long term customer vs. only a single sale. Read the rest of this entry »

Branding in the retail automotive industry used to be the manufacturer’s job but times and consumer brand loyalties have changed.  Automotive advertising is broken down to three complimentary tiers.  Tier I is maintained by the O.E.M.s to build awareness of the brand.  Tier II is coordinated by auto dealer advertising associations to provide leveraged marketing messages to promote regional sales for the brand and the auto dealer members.  Tier III is provided by individual auto dealers challenged to promote their deal of the day with a call to action for today’s new car buyers.  Technically, Tier I, Tier II and Tier III still exist but reduced sales volumes have limited national and regional budgets.  Individual auto dealers are also limited in their ability to promote their own daily specials with a call to action and a strong retail message built on the brand recognition that was supposed to be developed by Tier I and Tier II advertising.  As a result of their limited budgets, the O.E.M.’s can’t effectively develop top of the mind awareness of their brand to place their products on the short list when a customer is ready to buy a new car.  Similarly, local auto dealer automotive advertising associations can’t afford to promote their brand value to supplement Tier I and support Tier III advertising.  Finally, since the auto dealers always depended on Tier I and Tier II to provide a “branding” message they never prioritized it in their advertising.  In today’s troubled auto industry auto dealers can’t afford to shift focus away from their own retail sales to build a brand for the O.E.M.s.  The result is that factory branding messages have been reduced which has contributed to the deterioration of their customer brand recognition and loyalty. Read the rest of this entry »