For those of you who know a little bit about me, you know that I  worked in the print media and advertising industry for nearly a decade and grew up around the industry my entire life. I want to spend a couple of minutes discussing some concepts that I am more than confident will help your dealership in attracting new and returning customers so that you can…

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Former General Motors U.S. sales and marketing boss Mark LaNeve has been named chief operating officer at Ford's agency Team Detroit.

Mark LaNeve…

The customer / vendor relationship is an important one. Customers rely on vendors for different aspects of their business that affect their bottom line, in one way of another. Vendors rely on customers for income — and a bad experience can lead to a drop off in current and future business.

Following up on the last blog "Who's Fault is it?" this article, I will recommend 10 things that a customer must do to preserve the value of a relationship with the Vendor. And since relationships…

 Loyalty Is The Heartbeat Of Your Dealership

A few years ago I can recall a conversation that I had with a dealer whose dealership has been around since the 1920’s. He said you know what troubles me most Shawn? “Our customers just are not as loyal as they used to be back in the day, how can we make them loyal again? In this case the problem…

Social media is a broad term that covers a lot of sites on the web these days. Its a term that has a lot of connotation attached to it, and recently, companies have been paying big money for anything that shows a hint of success in the world of social media. Need an…

The other day I was reading the latest headlines on automotive advertising strategies, and came across this post:

"Porsche Makes Direct Mail Personal…And A Little Bit Creepy"

Have you all heard about this? An ad agency named 'Low Roche' recently helped one of its clients, a Porsche dealership, get a 32% response rate on a 'mailer' -- using some very…

THE  INTIMIDATION NETWORK ZEROING IN ON CHICK-FIL-A

By James A. Ziegler

Recently I’ve had it up to my eyeballs with the concentrated attack on Chick-Fil-A regarding statements made by CEO, Dan Cathy concerning his views on Gay Marriage.

I have seen blogs and social media attacks on Chick-Fil-A stating they discriminate against gays and mistreat gays, which is TOTALLY untrue. Chick-Fil-A has NO policy concerning their gay employees or gay customers.

And, now we’re…

Like buying a car, your customer has a choice when it comes to service. Your odds of winning that business dramatically increase, if you are on the phone with your customer, at the point the need for service is created. AutoMBrace was created to fill this void.. Contact us through Dealer Elite.  

Fewer cars, lower margins – AutoMBrace understands that the dealerships profits come from the service department. Service revenue depends on selling service to your customers and,…

Where have all the cowboys gone?

That was a great song from the ninety’s right? Well maybe not such a great song but it was the song played over and over and over. For some reason on my way to the dentist this morning this song popped in my head because I’ve really been wrestling with the fact that the cowboy…

When I lived in Okinawa, Japan for four years I learned a significant amount of how their collective culture works. In particular, their management style is vastly different from that of the Western culture. Things like verbal arguments, tantrums, and egos were non-existent in the workplace. How could that be so? One word--kaizen. Read …

Digg has been trying to make a comeback recently and even went so far as to completely redesign their site in the hopes that they can climb back towards the top of the social mediaranks. Once upon a time Digg was at the top, it was the place to be. Unfortunately for…

"Dealer traffic volumes are expected to decline 20% by 2013, causing a 25% drop in revenue that will force car dealers to adapt to an *increasingly difficult environment and try new methods to keep customers coming back." says J.D. Power

This information was published on the home page of Yahoo News in the fall of 2010.

Have you established…

With so many choices this fall, we hope that AutoCon 2012 will be on your conference short list.  First Class Educators is very excited to have been selected to produce AutoCon in conjunction with Automotive Media Partners (AMP).

There has been great buzz about AutoCon 2012; the exhibitor hall is full! The 70+ workshops on the…

**Contact Keith Kaiser at kkaiser@performanceauto.com**

Performance Automotive Group represents a new type of car dealership.  If you’re motivated to make a difference in the emerging space of digital media we want you on our team.  We’ve created a colorful loft work space for our digital team to provide a fun and engaging work environment, and to show our commitment to being leaders in the digital…

Have you ever wondered where Google gets some of the photos that is uses to display on Google+ Local?

When business listings were managed under "Google Places," it was very common for a dealer to call me in a panic because unprofessional photos were showing on their places page.

I recently received some clarification on this matter, and the solution requires another process that dealers should put…

Does anyone remember when car dealers thought the Internet was not going to impact their business and that they did not need it? Heck I sure do because I was behind a desk at a store and remember it like it was yesterday.  Well now we are faced although in a smaller scale a similar question, “Do I really need a mobile website”?

My goal of this blog is to give you some statistics and patterns that will certainly open your eyes as to what is happing in the automotive segment and what is…

Facebook page posts can now target multiple audiences with many more options.

Over the next few weeks, Facebook Page admins might start to notice a strange button that looks a lot like a deer-shooting-target from a rifle gun. Could this possibly be a new targeting feature? Yes, yes it is. This targeting feature, called Page Post Targeting, is similar to…

Need a good reason to get away from the dealership? How about visiting one of 5 great American cities? Or the chance for the automotive industry’s top minds analyze your digital strategy? What about a trip filled with inspiring keynote addresses and workshops to prepare you to dominate the digital landscape? Of course, we’re speaking about the GM eSummit, and the conference tour kicks off in just a few months.

Sign up…