The hottest topic in marketing right now is Total Channel Integration. Some call it '360 Degree Marketing', some call it 'Spiral Integration', but it all means the same thing: The utilization of every medium in your communications tool chest to its fullest potential, while creating a system in which every medium/channel complements and supports the strengths of all others.
Blame the Internet for these latest marketing buzzwords. Never has any medium created such confusion in the minds of so many. Many ad people and most retailers still don't quite understand what the Internet is, and how it fits into their advertising program. Most of those who do understand are now into their second and third generations of website design, creating multi-dimensional sales channels.
One of the reasons many automobile dealers don't understand the potential benefits of the Internet and the value of a properly designed web site stems from the distrust created with the 'brokerage' onslaught a few years back. Many dealers saw the Internet as the enemy. A tool solely benefiting a new breed of competition. Other dealers saw the Internet as an opportunity for cheap advertising. Neither were right.
Today, the Internet and 'user friendly' dealer web sites are starting to produce substantial value by complimenting traditional sales efforts, rather than competing as a separate entity. In fact, dealers who recognize the strengths of their web sites as sales-assistance channels, rather than stand-alone advertising mediums, seem to be the most successful with their investments. A well designed web site can give your customers massive amounts of useful information on both products and your dealership 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (24/7 in techie talk).
Your web site can introduce new customers to your dealership who visit directly or via links and it can provide additional information and assist your sales staff with customers who call or walk through the door.
Here's a real bonus for dealerships with informative web sites. Salespeople have access to information on their own company and it's products. With password-access, dealerships can even provide complete training facilities right on their own web site that's available to employees 24/7. In the future, dealer principals and management may use employee-only access pages as forums for new ideas and announcements. Your web site can even become a constantly-updated company newsletter!
Don't expect to cut advertising budgets with addition of a web site. Total Channel Integration also means using certain media to direct customers to other mediums. Some dealers have started running radio and television ads solely designed to bring customers to their web site, rather than just 'dot com' mention at the end of the spot. More billboard budgets are also being diverted to web site advertising. In fact, rather than cutting into ad expenditures on traditional radio, television and billboard ad mediums, 'dot com' advertising has boosted the revenues of these media to their highest levels in history. Because web site activity is so easy to document in detail, it is also easy to ascertain exactly which medium is bringing customers to your site as well as the most effective time to advertise.
Sales costs for successful Internet dealers are up too! Just as it takes a well-trained salesforce to meet and greet customers at the door of your dealership, it takes trained talent to greet visitors to your web site via interactive buttons and email. One West Coast dealer friend of mine has a ten-person Internet department selling approximately 120 vehicles a month-almost the same ratio of sales to salespeople as a traditional dealership. Expect physical expansion costs too! While you don't necessarily need more showroom space, you do need space for salespeople and equipment.
One of the most dramatic effects Total Channel Integration will have on automobile retailing is the necessity to create, if you haven't already, a true marketing department within your organization. You simply can no longer afford to let the used car manager do your print ads, and let your local radio and television stations to come up with ideas for next week's commercials. The complexity of integration, coupled with the increasing medium choices and rising media costs requires the full-time attention of a professional. Whether you choose an outside advertising expert or an in-house marketing director, or a combination of both, you need an 'accountable' manager to constantly evaluate each mediums best use, and the relationship of those channels to your overall marketing strategy.
Remember, you can't have total channel integration without successfully integrating the channels.