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Fitch Client Midwestern Auto Group Receives Award

17 May 2000

Fitch Client Midwestern Auto Group Receives American Marketing Association Marketer of the Year Award

    COLUMBUS, Ohio--May 17, 2000--Fitch client Midwestern Auto Group (MAG) recently received the prestigious Marketer of the Year award from the American Marketing Association (AMA). Besting other nominees Submitorder.com, DSW Warehouse and Ross Products Division, MAG CEO Mark Brentlinger was pleased to accept the award recognizing marketing excellence. He expressed thanks to the AMA, Fitch and the architectural firm on the project, Karlsberger, and said the collaboration between these three companies transformed what is traditionally an unpleasant consumer experience -- car shopping -- into a thoroughly enjoyable one.
    MAG offers the largest selection of European car brands in the United States, and their showroom, as designed by international brand and design consultancy Fitch, is a car enthusiast's paradise. The attributes -- performance, heritage and craftsmanship -- and accouterments of each car manufacturer sell themselves in contexts befitting each brand.
    Fitch Executive VP and Managing Director Mark Artus said, "Fitch was fortunate to have worked with a company as reputable and trend-setting as MAG, and we congratulate them on their achievement. Through the combination of consumer research and brand strategy, interior design, graphic design and architecture, Fitch helped MAG truly reinvent the car-buying experience. The sales figures resulting from MAG's in-store marketing sophistication have been phenomenal since the showroom's opening in 1998." MAG is consistently ranked among the top dealerships in the nation for customer satisfaction and its sales soared from $100 million in 1999 to an estimated $150 million in 2000.