The Four Hidden, Magical SECRETS to Automotive Marketing Product Price Place Promotion Product: Pretty simple, what cars you choose to sell Price: How you price those cars Place: Where you locate your dealership Promotion: How you talk about your cars, how you promote them and how you sell them. If all this looks familiar, it should; The Four P’s of Marketing have been around for 50 years in print (and was discussed in some college classrooms for about a decade before that). Some have argued recently that 3 more P’s should be added; People, Process, and Physical Evidence. It’s hard to argue that the added 3 P’s aren’t vital to car sales, but I do like the simplicity of the original Four. Let’s start with some obvious limitations.  If you are a franchise dealer, you have little control of what new cars you stock. The Product decision was made years ago in most cases. But you have a choice when it comes to used ca...

While looking over an upcoming conference agenda, I noticed a bullet point on speaker’s agenda: Winning pricing strategies -avoiding the death spiral of pricing to market average. This is a real concern, and one I address every day. The concern is that if everyone rushes to be a little more competitive, there will be no gross left in your used cars. One dealer after another will participate in a race to the bottom. The truth is the used car market is much more dynamic, with lots more moving parts, than this simplistic view represents.   If you pay no attention to the market, your customer base will be only the 10% to 15% of the market that doesn’t shop online. If you can stay ahead of the trends by using real data in real time, rather than historical data and outdated registration figures, you’ll be stocking less price sensitive cars – the ones in short-supply and higher-demand, right now, than your competition that is “living in the...

Order Taker… Few terms in sales are as derogatory. For some in car sales, this term applies to salesmen at reduced (or no) negotiation dealerships. At many dealerships across the country, management has embraced a competitive pricing structure to help drive traffic. At the best of these stores they also realize that because of the aggressiveness of their advertising, negotiation must be curtailed or eliminated. Indeed, the argument could be made, that the more negotiation that takes place, the less the customer is really “sold” on the vehicle. If that is the case, the salesman at the reduced negotiation store is actually doing a better job of “sales”.  In my mind, reduced negotiation requires every bit as much skill, and as clearly defined a process as at a traditional dealership. Not only must the customer be sold on the car, they must be sold on the value.  Heading off a negotiation before it begins requires a justification of value and ...

Yesterday Forbes published an amazing piece by Adam Hartung titled, "Core" as Killer - Demise of RIM, Yahoo, Dell.   The article begins with “Understand your core strength, and protect it. Sounds like the key to success, and a simple motto.  It’s the mantra of many a management guru.” And then Hartung goes on to clearly demonstrate how this advice ill-served the three companies spotlighted here. These three business giants let historical momentum blind them to the “changes in technologies, user preferences, competition and markets.” Hartung ends the article with, “Success actually requires overcoming internal momentum, built on the historical success formula, by putting resources into new solutions that fulfill emerging needs.  Being agile, flexible and actually able to pivot into new markets creates success.  Forget the past, your core strength and the momentum it generates.  Fixating there can kill you.&rdqu...

I came across this post this morning on Search Engine Watch - New Killer Facebook Broad Targeting Options. One of the broad options is an "Auto Intender" category. The name is a bit of a head scratcher at first blush, but as you can imagine (and confirmed by a Facebook Rep’), it targets users who are most likely in search of a new vehicle. Will you be hopping on board? ...