Tag: car dealer advertising

Become Known For What You Know

If I were asked to give one piece of advice to someone considering a career in media sales, it would be this:

Please find something else to do. I don’t need the competition.

If, on the other hand, I could offer two pieces of advice, the second one would be: learn something valuable that most of your colleagues don’t know.

I may have saved a client several thousand dollars the other day with that kind of knowledge. He is the General Manager of a local auto dealership. He worked for a long time in the Portland car business, moved to California for several years, and recently returned to Oregon.

He emailed me the other day because he was planning to launch a new used-car promotion. He has a selection of pre-owned vehicles priced at half their original MSRP, and wanted to feature them in his radio advertising.

What he didn’t know is that while he was in California, the state of Oregon made it illegal to compare a used vehicle’s price to the MSRP in an ad. The official commentary accompanying that section of the law (technically an Administrative Rule) explains that MRSP is a term reserved strictly for new vehicles. Because so many factors (mileage, wear and tear, accidents, etc) affect the price of a used car, the law forbids using an MSRP in any way when referring to anything pre-owned.

I know this because a little more than a year ago, I was the only Portland broadcast rep to drive to Salem for a seminar on the new laws. So I was able to warn my client away from a strategy that would have earned him a substantial fine from the state.

My clients know I’ve taken the time to learn the rules, that I’ve got copies of all the relevant consumer protection laws, and that I check with my contacts at the Oregon Department of Justice if I’m not sure of something.

They also know that my competitors weren’t at the seminar, and may not know the law as well as I do (I’ve been known to bring that up in conversation). So I get phone calls, and business, from advertisers who might otherwise take their money to another station.

The extra income this brings me stops briefly in my bank account, until my wife decides she needs something like new lamps for the living room. The lamps are pretty nice, actually.

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Southern Auto Dealer Shares His Opinions

In case you were thinking that the recent Presidential election signals a new, color-blind United States of America, there’s some evidence that we may not be there yet.

A Savannah, GA auto dealer named O. C. Welch was in a foul mood one day recently, and happened to be near a microphone. You can hear the resulting hairball of a radio commercial here, on my colleague Mike Copeland’s blog.

Factually dubious (many of the Toyotas he’s complaining about are built by Americans in Alabama, Kentucky, Texas, West Virginia, and Indiana) and downright racist (“rice-ready”???), the ad acts as a sixty-second test for Savannah:

How many angry bigots are in the market for a new car this weekend?

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Confidential to Oregon Auto Dealers

Who’s writing your copy? If it’s someone at a radio or TV station, you probably assume that you’re working with a professional who’s up to date on auto advertising laws.

You may very well be wrong.

A few months ago, the Oregon Department of Justice, having just issued a new set of rules, held a half-day seminar on how to keep auto ads legal. The only Portland broadcast rep who attended the seminar also writes this blog.

Yesterday, I heard a commercial that committed five separate violations in 60 seconds. I didn’t think that was possible, but in fact, all of the violations took place in a 25-second span. The commercial violated the Federal Truth in Lending Act, along with several Oregon administrative rules.

If the commercial had actually aired, the dealer could have faced thousands of dollars in fines. It didn’t air because I heard it in advance, called the other radio station and told them how to fix it.

I guess I’m just a giving sort of fellow.

Want to know if your commercial’s legal? Give me a call before you put it on the air.

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A Smaller Pie Doesn’t Mean No Pie

Over at the Sales and Marketing Loudmouth Blog, Tim Rohrer has a very interesting take on the role of local marketing. He summarizes his premise this way:

Remember, to advertise effectively at the local level, find out how consumers are behaving and then fashion your message to take advantage of their direction and momentum.

I agree with him as far as that goes. But he loses me when he tackles the car industry. Although he doesn’t come out and say it, this paragraph would lead an auto dealer to conclude that he should stop all advertising until sales improve:

Auto dealers must measure the cost of the advertising against the return they are likely to get right now and not on some future share. The reason is simple: A very small percentage of the public is in the market for a car (maybe 3% under normal circumstances and 2% right now). Consumers only hear the advertising that pertains to them. So, any market share gains made by a local auto dealer are being made with the 2% of people who are “now” buyers of autos. These now buyers will not be in the market again for another three years so the advertising seller is asking the auto dealer to spend money with them to 1) gain market share of an unusually small pie and 2) wait three years to get a payoff on that growth in share.

What this argument neglects is that if, for example, Chrysler’s sales are down 25% (as they were in May), that means that 75% of the normal-year buyers are still buying Chryslers from someone. And there are fewer Chrysler dealers on the radio this year than last.

So the “right now” pie is 25% smaller, but a Chrysler dealer willing to be agressive has a shot at a larger piece of that pie right away. And that dealer’s ads are also talking to a lot of folks who are going to buy from someone later this year. If you’re a Chrysler dealer, the fact that overall sales are down 25% doesn’t mean that you have to be down 25%.

A good, well-thought-out campaign may mean that you’ll stay even while your competitors drop even more. And the difference may very well justify a significant advertising investment even now.

All the standard rules apply — frequency, a strong offer, and good creative — in fact, those things are more important than ever. And yes, dealers are going to have to cut back.

This scenario is playing out in many different industries. Some consumers have changed their behavior, but many are still going to buy from someone. The fact that the pie may be smaller right now doesn’t mean there’s no pie to compete for at all.

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When the Disclaimer Cancels the Rest of the Ad

A recent issue of Automotive News had a print ad for Force Events. Here’s the headline:

GET 1000 UPS* IN YOUR SHOWROOM THIS WEEKEND!

An “up,” in auto dealer lingo, is a prospect who walks onto the lot. So if a dealer hire Force Events this weekend, he’ll get a thousand customers through the door, right?

Not so fast, Chester. The asterisk takes you down to some really, really tiny print at the bottom of the ad: “Results may vary.” It could be a thousand customers. Or a hundred. Or ten.

For all I know, Force could be a terrific company. But the fine print at the bottom wipes out the promise they make at the top. And auto dealers are masters of fine print — they won’t miss it.

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Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising Blog.

Request your free copy of my white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call me at 503-323-6553.