Florida Gulf Coast Chevrolet Dealer Combats the Economic Downturn With Strategic Initiative That Drives Sales Figures Up

- Unique marketing campaign for small business raises sales by 45 percent

FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla., Aug. 9 -- For Taylor Hood, general manager of Preston Hood Chevrolet, located on the shores of Northwest Florida's Gulf Coast, the challenges of the current economic climate have meant rethinking the way to operate his family-owned small business in a big way.

Hood, who is a fourth-generation auto dealer, understood that to make the 41-year-old dealership float through the financial crisis, he needed an innovative way to prove to consumers that his product is one he believes in, so he rolled out the DareToCompareChevy.com campaign. The result has netted increases of 43 percent quarter over quarter and 45 percent year over year.

Backed by a nearly $200,000 investment in 10 current models by Toyota, Honda, Ford, and Dodge, Hood invited customers to test drive his competitor's product against the automobiles he offered at his dealership.

DareToCompareChevy.com was created after the Preston Hood team developed the concept to rent competitor cars for a one-day event. But when consumer traffic rose to more than 450 percent over a non-event Saturday, Hood realized they had hit upon a permanent solution.

The promotion, featured at DareToCompareChevy.com, was recognized for its originality by Alan Batey, vice president of sales and service for Chevrolet in the United States, at Chevrolet's recent five-city corporate meetings. Hundreds of dealers learned of the promotion, which was featured as an inspirational new model for franchise sales efforts.

"Preston Hood Chevrolet's Dare to Compare program was born out of an excitement to impart to consumers that our products -- in quality, design, performance, fuel efficiency and more -- truly outpace the competition," said Garret Dvorsky, southeast regional sales and marketing executive, Chevrolet. "Last year, GM launched a campaign called May the Best Car Win, because we are so confident in our vehicles that we knew if you tested them against competitive models, that we'd win every time. The sales peaks that Preston Hood is experiencing is proof-positive of growing consumer attraction to Chevrolet products."

"Providing an onsite, side-by-side driving experience, along with a supporting website, was our way of making sure no question about our product by our customers - and our sales team - went unanswered," said Hood. "But on a broader scope, we were at a point where we knew we needed to do something different, something we had not seen before in our industry, to generate business, and DareToCompareChevy.com was the answer.

"Like so many other independent businesses, we are dealing with the effects of the economic issues, not to mention the regional impact from the Gulf oil spill; but, these challenges have, in turn, made us discover ways a small business can not only survive, but work toward becoming a success story," Hood added.

For more information on Preston Hood Chevrolet, go to www.prestonhood.com or call (877) 240-5253.

  For Further information:
  Lori Eckert
  Lori@Eckert.com
  850-855-0055