Advertising: Maximum Value Strategies
By Jim Boldebook
Every dollar you save on advertising and promotion falls to the bottom line-right? That's the reason so many automobile dealers pull advertising at that last moment! It's a quick and easy way to pull the month out. The truth is that knee-jerk manipulation of ad plans may put a few dollars on the bottom line this month, but those actions may injure your overall marketing strategy and your long term success.
After almost 20 years of studying the game plans of the most successful dealers in this country, it's clear to me that these dealers understand the importance of investment and commitment in three important areas-people, inventory and advertising.
The best dealers spend the time and money to hire the best people, investing in their training and development. If the month slows down for some unexplained reason, the best dealers don't throw people out in the street to save on payroll.
The best dealers stock lots of cars and trucks. They buy inventory on the come, knowing you can't reach your sales goal if the customer can't shake a door handle. Occasionally the best dealers (and their buyers) make mistakes. Then they use their excess inventory to create excitement and build market share even if the grosses take it on the chin.
The best dealers formulate an advertising strategy, make the best buys possible, educate their troops on the game plan and run with it. They don't pull schedules on a whim. The best dealers understand advertising serves two functions, capturing share of market and share of mind. Even if this weekend's sales are not up to par, advertising is building mind share for next weekend or next month or next year.
Getting the most for your advertising and promotional expenditures requires careful planning, a long-term strategy and a lot of common sense. Here's how the very best dealers maximize their advertising efficiency:
Clarify Your Marketing Position
Boil your unique selling proposition down to one clear statement. Make sure your employees and your customers understand it. Incorporate that theme in every single thing you do.
Have a Game Plan
Insist on a short-term and a long-term strategy. By the tenth of this month have your ad plans finalized for next month. You should know what your theme is going to be with at least some idea of the actual creative strategy. Your media buys should be negotiated and placed. An internal flyer, newsletter or e-mail should inform all of your employees of ad plans well in advance of their start date. You should have tentative plans for ad themes for the next three months. Take the time to study last year's sales and successful promotions.
Insist on Total Integration
Time and time again great dealers have demonstrated the power of integrating marketing and advertising themes in every aspect of operation. Imagine how much greater your next major sales event can be if you involve every department in your dealership. Have a contest for referrals. Hold a special breakfast prior to the sale to share your strategy. Make your financing partners part of your promotion. Send an invitation to your current customers for an opportunity to take advantage of specials before advertising to the general public. If you've got a great idea, why just throw money at the media? Milk it for all it's worth in every possible way.
Do the Research
You cannot afford not to do some kind of media habit research. Don't fool yourself by believing your "gut" knows. Develop your own internal program or entrust it to a professional, but don't even think about making media buys without concrete data to justify your rationale. And don't forget about point-of-purchase post analysis of media expenditures. During last year's N.A.D.A. convention, I met a dealer who has had great success with informal research forums. This dealer invites groups of customers to private catered gatherings three times a year. The dealer brings along the marketing team to meet customers and discuss their impressions of advertising and media habits. Some of these customers are then invited to participate in a focus group on advertising strategy, for which they are compensated with a $100 gift certificate in dealership services.
Cut Your Production Costs
You don't need to produce a new TV, radio or newspaper ad every week. Get away from the gimmicks and get with a solid theme you can run for 13 weeks or more. Design advertising that can be modified and freshened for less than the cost of new production. Minimize field shoot costs at your dealership by planning several months of promotions in advance. If you need to integrate current lot shots and newly arrived models, pictures taken with digital cameras often can be integrated with footage to cut costs. You might be able to find substantial savings by re-using spots from a previous year's promotion with just a few cosmetic changes and a new voice-over.
Buy Your Media in Bulk in Advance
Once you're comfortable with the media that will do the best job in reaching your potential customers, negotiate the best possible deal as far in advance as possible, especially if you are in a major market where demand is far exceeding supply.
Leverage Your Strengths
You may not realize it, but automobile dealerships, for the most part, are revered by media for the amount of dollars spent, the consistency of expenditure and the prompt payment of bills. Don't hesitate to remind your local media rep of this. Old receivables are the great plague of the advertising media. Most reps are paid on collections, not billings. Recently, an article detailed the woes of collections from the surge of dot.com companies. These are the folks that have been depleting media inventories and driving your costs up. Remind your local stations of your expenditures over the years, the fact that you do business and advertise 12 months of the year and how you pay your bills promptly.
Partner Where it Makes Sense
Many successful dealers partner with non-competitive advertisers in numerous ways. Your Web site opens up even greater possibilities. If you are advertising your Web site, you might be able to attract insurance companies, restaurants, resorts and other retailers to coat-tail your success...for a fee of course.
Take Advantage of Co-op
Whenever it makes sense, take advantage of co-op dollars from the factory or partners. Make sure your advertising meets the co-op requirements and materials are submitted on a timely basis for reimbursement.
Get the most for every advertising dollar you spend by maximizing your effectiveness with advance planning of themes and promotions, thorough research and careful negotiation. Avoid knee-jerk, last-minute manipulation that can do more harm than good. That's a plan for success!
Jim Boldebook is President of Creative Broadcast Concepts (CBC), an advertising/marketing agency working with some of America's most successful dealerships. jboldebook@dealeronline.com
