A few weeks ago, Ford managed to accomplish a task that many brands dream about but never achieve… to have an ad go viral. You might think this is a good thing except for the fact that this particular ad went viral for all the wrong reasons.

JWT India, Ford’s ad agency in India, was holding an inter-company contest for ad creativity. One of the designers came up with an ad showing 3 women gagged and tied up in the trunk of a Ford Figo. The first concept showed Italian Prime Minister Silva Berlunsconi with three women and the second derivation (which seemed aimed for an American audience) showed Paris Hilton with the Kardashians tied up in the trunk.

Ford never commissioned, approved or even knew of their existence until they saw them where the world did… on the Internet. The ad agency decided to post the contest entries on the Internet for judging purposes and, as we all know, once its on the Internet, it never goes away.

Ford could’ve handled this many ways but they chose to handle it the way that all companies should -- by accepting responsibility. 

The lesson to be learned here is to choose your partners wisely. JWT India had a track record of producing some tasteless and offensive ads in the past, which had resulted in the loss of some large American corporate accounts. Even though this was a contest within the company and these concept ads were never meant to see the light of day, the fact remains that they did.

You are responsible for anything that bears your branding regardless of whether you created it, authorized it or knew it existed. The consumer doesn’t know who authorized what or not, they simply see your branding and assume that it was company sanctioned. Your branding is your business’s most important asset.

When considering a partnership that would allow another entity to use your branding, be just as diligent in choosing that partner, as you would be in vetting a babysitter.

Now that the focus in many industries is on data and behavioral marketing, marketing departments are increasingly better able to pinpoint areas in which they can improve. With the right data, not only can you determine your product’s demographic but now you can discover when and why your customers make that ultimate decision to purchase. That being said, just because you discover what’s wrong, that doesn’t necessarily mean you should share that nugget of wisdom with your consumer. Take Mattel’s recent faux pas as a case in point.

Mattel came to the conclusion that sales of their toy car lines were flat because mothers “didn’t understand how much fun these cars were.”   I’m sure anyone would agree that toy cars are, primarily, “boy toys” and females may not be able to understand the fun inherent in rolling toy cars around the room, reenacting car chases and crashes, which could prevent them from purchasing these toys for their sons. This isn’t due to any malice towards the brand or type of toy. It’s simply a mother making a purchasing decision based on their belief of the type of toy their child would like to play with, and toy cars aren’t high on that list.

Armed with this knowledge, Mattel wisely began a marketing strategy in which they set out to educate mothers on how fun toy cars really are for their kids. In their endeavor, however, they made the mistake of revealing their discovery to the very people they blamed…mothers.

Of course, mothers didn’t particularly like being blamed for a company’s poor sales because they just didn’t “get it” and began taking to the blogosphere and social media expressing their anger and telling Mattel that they should make better products instead of blaming people for poor sales.

In the end, Mattel’s brilliant use of big data to identify a barrier and great strategy designed to break through it backfired because someone decided to tell the barrier it existed and, well, the barrier didn’t like it all that much.

Marketing should certainly be data-driven, targeted and relevant. With all of the data available your marketing can be super-charged to get big results with minimal expense. In the past, a company could only get a general idea of the problem and then had to cast a wide net in their attempt to fix it. Now, the net need not be so big to catch the right fish….

Just don’t tell the fish you’re coming.

I just came back from NADA in Orlando, FL, which was a great show. However, with all the wonderful things I ran into at the show, I honestly think that one of the highlights was seeing U.S. Army Veteran and Automotive Sales Trainer Joe Verde make the winning bid of $26,000 on a 2011 Fat Boy Harley-Davidson motorcycle. You can view the video here: http://ow.ly/hIWub .The live auction event, sponsored by NADA and ADESA, was held to benefit wounded veterans, a wonderful cause worth supporting.

The motorcycle was donated by ADESA, which runs vehicle auctions throughout North America. According to the association, the Frank E. McCarthy Memorial Fund of the NADA Charitable Foundation has contributed $190,000 to Canine Companions, placing 19 companion dogs with physically disabled children and military veterans since 2002. The NADA Foundation established the fund to honor McCarthy after his death in 2001.  

Joe Verde, president of Joe Verde Sales & Management Training Inc., in San Juan Capistrano, California, served in the U.S. Army for more than seven years. He was stationed in Vietnam during the Vietnam War from 1967 to 1969, as a CH-47 Flight Engineer. Verde’s father was a veteran, and his son and grandkids are all veterans. As a Purple Heart recipient himself, he has a strong connection with other veterans and has become active in ways to help them make a smoother transition into their lives back at home. His winning bid of $26,000 will benefit the Wounded Veterans Initiative of Canine Companions for Independence and provide up to three specially-trained service dogs to assist disabled U.S. veterans. Word on the grapevine is that Joe does not plan to hold onto the Harley himself, but has further charitable plans for it, so stay tuned …..

Please do all you can to support this worthy cause: http://ow.ly/hIWAi 

DealerRater is conducting a short survey about online reputation management and cordially invites auto dealership personnel to participate. All responses are confidential and upon completion of the survey, you will be entered into a random drawing for a $200 American Express gift card. Your participation matters. Results will be summarized in a future press release and will cover any important trends revealed regarding online reputation management and social media in automotive dealerships. 

Thank you so much for your time. Click on this link to take survey:http://ning.it/IQ5WEv

Many auto dealerships are closing just twenty percent of shoppers who come through the doors, while the remaining eighty percent simply walk away to a competitor. CAR-Research XRM, a single-source CRM solution uniquely branded as; “XRM, Exceeding CRM”, recently released: An Auto Dealers' Guide to Outselling Competition, Increasing Car Sales, Decreasing 3rd Party Leads and Closing more Be-Backs. The new eBook is a best practices guide for auto dealers, covering CRM strategies for selling unsold customers. It reveals how to get these unsold customers back into the dealership and close the sale.

The new eBook provides best practices strategies to help auto dealers use their CRM tools to:
 

• Increase sales to showroom traffic by 50% or more by identifying and overcoming 'real' customer objections vs. false excuses.
• Create a showroom process which will consistently increase sales to be-backs, repeats, and referrals every month, for higher gross and higher CSI.
• Increase accountability in your dealership which will insure process improvement on your showroom floor, resulting in additional sales.

Finally, the eBook reveals what research with thousands of car buyers from dealerships across the US has found are the real reasons they leave a dealership unsold – and how dealers can leverage this insightful information to improve internal processes, so fewer shoppers walk on you in the future.

To quote Bruce Glasscock, General Manager/Owner of Spring Chrysler Jeep Dodge, "We used to sell 70 units per month. Now we are selling over 400 and have sold as many as 700 in a single month. The information we get from the Unsold Interviews is truly the magic ingredient that allows us to know more about each customer we are working, get more of them back in, and close more deals."

The book can be downloaded at:http://www.car-research.com/auto-dealers-guide.pdf