While consumers regularly patronize independent repair facilities, dealers have always been able to rest assured that any recall repair work would remain in their hands. However, according to an article in Automotive…

It Was Always Burning 

How Automotive Dealerships Can Win With Today’s Consumers

There’s not a dealership around that hasn’t noticed the changes today’s consumers have brought to the marketplace. The differences between shopping trends of the past and the way people want to do business today can be seen and felt on the showroom floor and the lot in every…

Is Your Multicultural Marketing Strategy the Best it Can Be?

Multicultural Consumer Needs 

As with every aspect of your marketing plan, when you look at multicultural marketing, it’s necessary to constantly ask yourself if you’re up to date and meeting consumer needs. Things are changing in the…

Why Is Telling a Great Story Important?People remember stories. In fact, even before writing was a preferred mode of communication, stories were being told and passed down from generation to generation. And people remembered them because they were interesting, captivating, and they left pieces of themselves behind to be told again and again. Even with all the modern technology and communication tools of the moment, it’s still important to remember how to…

Last year, Twitter partnered with the data firm Datalogix to study Twitter’s influence on sales transactions in the car industry. Twitter provided Datalogix with all the data they had about brand, dealership and consumer Twitter accounts. Datalogix then paired actual vehicle purchases by cross-referencing the Twitter data with data from Polk.…

Think about the last time you scrolled through your Facebook newsfeed, Twitter account or Instagram feed. How long did you spend on each post? My guess is probably less than a second. Most people don’t spend a lot of time analyzing and reading every post that infiltrates their newsfeed from their networks. A typical user will scroll through and, when something…

In the largest buy back action in U.S. history, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and Fiat-Chrysler America (FCA) have agreed that, in addition to paying a $105 million fine, FCA will offer to buy back 500,000 RAM pickup trucks from consumers. The value FCA has to pay consumers for their vehicles is extremely consumer friendly - the…

If your dealership has a mobile website, you are probably aware that 30 to 50 percent of your total website traffic are mobile users. You also know these mobile users are performing actions with their smartphones that are aligned with serious shopping behavior. In a…

How can it be possible that I would leave a job I LOVE after 25 years?

The fact is that I have always liked to be ahead of the curve and today’s customers are rewarding evolving dealerships that offer true Online Deal Creation with real perfect payment – where all that is left is the test drive. Don’t believe this can be done? Well, I am convinced that it can…

In determining the effectiveness of video marketing, perhaps the metric most used is views - How many views did this video get? In fact, in a recent study by Yahoo-owned video platform Brightroll, 31 percent of polling respondents from over 70…

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been battling with lawmakers in an effort to gain additional funding in order to handle – amongst other things – the 33.8 million Takata airbags recalled. In the most recent hearing, the NHTSA Administrator, along with several senators provided…

Consumers have been showrooming in retail stores for quite some time now and, while many retailers don’t like it, they’ve pretty much resigned themselves to the fact that it’s going to happen.  However, one surprising argument posted in an article by speaker, trainer and consultant, Bob Phibbs, went so far as to make the claim that showrooming is akin to stealing.

In his…

A 2014 study by Autotrader showed that consumers are visiting fewer dealers in their car shopping than ever before. This is certainly a by-product of the availability of information. No longer do consumers have to visit multiple dealerships to find the right vehicle. They simply sit in front of their computers and browse a dealer’s inventory on their website or, more commonly,…

Customers increasingly expect businesses to have a social media presence. The key however, is to not just have a presence, but to then use that presence to interact with customers. When customers engage with you, it’s important to give them an indication that you are, in fact, listening. Of course, to accomplish this, you must be paying attention in the first place. If you…

Following tremendous pressure from the NHTSA, Takata has expanded the recall on its faulty airbags. In fact, it just doubled the number of vehicles that are subject to recall to 34 million – that’s one in seven vehicles on the road today – and the largest recall in automotive history. Since then, consumers have been flooding the NHTSA website, searching to see whether their…

As a husband and father to 5 daughters, the cartoon above is, at times, a pretty accurate description of my life. I’m sure all men in similar situations have found that couch or chair they inevitably get placed in while the females in their lives try on shoes, clothes or whatever they may need.  In reality, I shop more than my wife and kids… they just don't go…

A recent article on The Hill.com detailed how the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers is teaming up with a Republican pollster to survey Americans on why they don’t bring in their vehicles for recall repairs. These actions are in advance of the…

At the end of March, Amazon announced the launch of what they’re calling “Amazon Home Services.” This new service by Amazon enables customers to order services for their homes without the inconvenience of having to search for these service providers, obtain references and obtain pricing. Services range from television installation, painting contractors, electrical work and……

While most forms of digital marketing offer some value to dealers, the one constant has – and always will be – the better your inventory merchandising, the higher your sales.

In the digital world, your merchandising takes place on your VDP Pages, making your VDP Pages one of (if not “the”) most valuable pieces of digital real estate that you…