DEALER BEWARE: You might want to think twice before you let any of your employees read either Automotive Executive or Ward's Dealer Business magazines. These ads ran in the October issues of each and have been running for a number of months. As publisher and editor of this magazine, which always takes the dealers' side, I was curious as to the purpose of these ads. It appears as though they are recruiting franchisees.
By running in magazines which supposedly target franchised car dealers, are these ads proposing that dealers become franchisees? In between interviewing Madison, Wisconsin dealer John Lancaster for an upcoming Cover Story and making advertising sales calls with a rep in Chicago, I stopped by the advertiser's advertising agency in Milwaukee to find out why these ads were running in these two magazines.
By asking the right questions, I quickly found out what I wanted to know. Considering the fact that their franchisees can contract three units, but must drive one themselves, I concluded these ads were not targeting franchised automobile dealers. These ads are targeting the employees of franchised automobile dealers, specifically service managers, writers and technicians. Hmmmmm. I politely told them that this was a mistake and a disservice to automobile dealers. I also told them that although I would love for this advertiser to spend money with my magazine, we would not/could not run this type of advertising. I thanked them for their time and left.
As for the magazineswell, I'm not surprised by the magazine that tries to be all things to all people. But NADA's Automotive Executive shame on you! Maybe Paul Holloway was right when I interviewed him up in New Hampshire last year and he said, "I don't think they know what they want to be." But for cryin' out loud, until they figure out what they want to be, the very least they could do is not sell out their dues-paying members for a few ad pages. Consider these lines from the ads: "You've respected _______ for years. Now it's time to join our team." "You already have the automotive knowledge; now you can use your knowledge to change your life."
My magazine loses considerable factory and captive advertising because of Jim Ziegler's column. We can't get any dealership insurance companies to advertise with us because we run a column every issue which promotes bidding your insurance every year. Nothing, I mean nothing, comes before our number one priorityserving and championing franchised automobile dealers. Don't get me wrong we don't eat unless we sell advertising, but we would never compromise our loyal dealer readers for a few ads. We are the dealer advocate publicationand we always will be.