For the most part, dealers are playing by yesterday’s advertising rules when, in reality, the game has changed and the rules are being redefined. Negative media about the money crunch combined with traditional ‘interruption marketing’ tactics by dealers have shaken consumer confidence in the buying process and, in some cases, taken the consumer out of the game altogether.
This may not be happening at your dealership, but it is happening in every market and it is affecting your potential customers. The bottom line is, while the process of buying a car is the same, the consumers’ mind set has changed and so have their options. This needs to be recognized and addressed by dealers, the media and advertising agencies alike.
New times call for new tactics
Relevant marketing campaigns connect with and empower consumers by building solid marketing bridges that complete the link between the buyer and seller. The four simple steps to building relevant campaigns are: Identify, Find, Touch & Thrill the target consumer. If applied correctly, your dealership will have a more efficient media buy and will see an immediate increase in traffic. The best part is you will spend the same amount of money to reach more qualified buyers.
The key is a narrow cast approach
By placing a greater emphasis on the end consumer, media partnerships and relevant creative, you will receive a higher and more accountable ROI for each dollar spent.
Relevant marketing is not a one-size fits all approach. It must be tailored to match the dealer’s culture, brand and model offerings to the geographics, demographics and psychographics of the target consumers. Each campaign is then constructed to fit within the proposed media platform. This will work across TV, radio, print, digital, outdoor and direct mail. Through this approach, you will achieve relevancy across the creative and media mix and hit your target consumer with maximum impact. It is better to be everything to some people than to be some things to everyone.
This process should serve as the foundation of your annual marketing strategy. You can then add quarterly focus and monthly specifics to your plan based on ever changing market conditions and incentives.
Finally, you must ensure consistency across all forms of communications, both internal and external, to maximize consumer recall of your message. One slip up here and you will break the marketing bridge you have spent so much time and money to build.
Take time to challenge your current strategy, management team and advertising agency with the four steps to relevant marketing. You might be surprised by the answers you get. This focused approach will allow your dealership to construct a solid plan to connect with and collect customers rather than just advertise to them.
Thomas Hensey is the Managing Partner at Rhino Marketing, a full-service advertising agency in the automotive sector. Telephone 713-681-6711 or e-mail: thensey@rhinomarketing.cc
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
Sell More Cars with ‘Referral’ Based Radio Campaigns
If you could, wouldn’t you grow your business off referrals? What if you could combine the effectiveness of referral-based selling with your next radio campaign and get instant, credible and direct response results?
Well, you can, by utilizing referral-based radio campaigns. It’s the most cost effective and credible way to grow your dealership and it can’t be duplicated by the competition on that radio station. Positive word of mouth and a strong referral trumps thousands of dollars in advertising any day.
For over 15 years, Rhino Marketing has successfully used this approach with radio advertising to help dealers around the country sell more cars and gain market share. Properly set up and executed, it will deliver immediate and measurable results and you will never buy radio the same way again.
Select the right radio station and the right DJ
First, you must select the radio station that best reaches your target demographic. You then need to identify the DJ on the station that best connects with the listeners. This is usually the morning drive DJ but depending on the station could also be the mid day or afternoon DJ.
Next, you need to meet with the DJ and ‘sell them the dream’ of why you offer a better product, better selection, better service, better pricing, etc. You want to really ‘showcase’ the dealership and have the DJ become a product knowledge specialist on your vehicles. It may take several meetings to create the right relationship and may even involve having the DJ ‘test drive’ your cars during the campaign.
‘Live’ radio – not recorded
Once the relationship has been established with the DJ, you then you need to build a schedule based on ‘live’ radio spots, not recorded rotators. ‘Live’ radio commercials blend with the DJ’s editorial. This allows them to ebb and flow with the programming of the day, and many times, you will receive longer than the :60 seconds you purchased. I recommend one to two ‘live’ radio spots each day in the DJ’s day part or show. You don’t necessarily need to buy the station vertically or have a high frequency. Consistency in the day part is what works here and gives the DJ credibility with the listeners over the days, weeks and months.
Creative
Do not write a script and force words into the DJ’s mouth. Provide ‘talking points’ for the DJ to reference during each ‘live’ commercial. The real creative comes from the DJ and their experience with the dealership, the people that work there and driving the cars. The DJ has become a product knowledge specialist and knows your dealership as well as your best salesman. If done correctly, he or she will say “I drive their cars and you should too” OR “I do business with ABC Dealership and you should too”. That referral will immediately separate your dealership from all the other ones advertising on that station, giving you instant and positive credibility and direct response results.
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