Obviously car dealers are hurting in ways never seen before. But how many of them have taken the time to figure out what the consumer wants to hear? Something that will make those who can still afford to buy in this economy get off their couch, or at last pick up the phone.
One of our clients, a dealer in a relatively small, isolated market, was struggling to find a message for this past 4th of July weekend that would make people not only get off the couch, but buy a Ford. And we needed them to buy on a holiday weekend that is notoriously slow for retail sales in their market.
Ford offered up a 4th of July weekend special, extending their 0% financing for 60 months to 0% financing for 72 months on some of the stronger selling Ford products. But that’s all. Other than this incentive change, there was nothing else unique to offer. Not to mention that our client’s inventory was not in great shape. In past years they would have had close to a thousand vehicles in stock. This year, it was less than two hundred.
Between the dealership management and my agency, we were struggling. The 0% for 72 months was enticing, but it didn’t seem strong enough. That is, until we ran the numbers and realized that this 60 vs. 72 month difference in financing equated to about $100 a month less in payments on a $30,000 purchase.
So we skipped the typical industry standard of merchandising particular vehicles as examples and just told the customer what they needed to know. That is, if they use the 0% for 72 month payment plan and buy a $30,000 Ford over the next four days they would save about one hundred dollars a month in payments. And they had four days to save. Period. It was short, sweet and to the point.
What was so gutsy about this? Well for one thing, no one else was doing it. And that usually kills any idea in the retail auto industry. Not to mention that most car dealers don’t want to promote a $30,000 vehicle price as their price-leader in marketing efforts. Unless they’re a Mercedes or BMW dealer, there are usually products they can advertise for much less. But, at the end of the day, $30,000 really is the average selling price of a Ford vehicle. So we went for it.
And guess what happened?
They had their best weekend in over a year. On a weekend notorious for being bad. We made no changes to the marketing budget from previous sales event weekends that had proven dismal. And we’ve only just begun some online social media tactics with this particular client, so we were tied to the inconsistent and declining success of TV, radio and newspaper. Everything was working against us, but the message overpowered the media.
The conclusion is the consumer heard something fresh and honest. It spoke to them respectfully and intelligently. It gave them the simple truth. And they knew it. We respected their intelligence. They respected our message. Everybody won. All it took was the simple truth.
Tags: 4th of July, automotive advertising, ecommerce, Ford, Marketing, truth sells
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