AUTOMOTIVE ADVERTISING & MARKETING

Entertainment

Get ‘Em Before they Need a Car … Using Entertainment

JKRAdvertising / Automotive Advertising, Automotive Advertising Advice /

May 26, 2016

Entertainment can be the deciding factor used to persuade a customer to buy a car from your dealership. In a recent Monday Morning Memo (the column on the Website of Roy Williams, the renowned “Wizard of Ads”), the premise of one particular correspondence was this: You need to make the customer fall in love with you long before they are in need of your product or service. This is particularly true for an auto dealership!

How do you win the affection of a prospective customer? According to the column, one way to do it is by making your ads entertaining enough that they hold the interest of those in your community. If you can gain the interest of someone via your commercials, they will think of you first – and have a positive feeling about you – when the time comes that they actually begin to shop for a new or pre-owned vehicle.

The thought process here is that entertainment brings us pleasure – and because there are so many things we deal with on a daily basis that don’t do that for us, we are especially drawn to the things that do. The article is absolutely correct, and over time entertaining commercials build brand awareness for your store.

If your dealership has not built this kind of brand awareness, the odds of luring a customer to your dealership simply aren’t going to be in your favor. In fact, research shows that about 80% of consumers turn to brands they are familiar with when the need for a product or service arises.

JKR: That’s Entertainment!

Can you say your dealership has attained the pinnacle of brand awareness through the use of entertainment? If not, the folks at JKR Automotive Advertising can get you there. We’ll help you reach the masses with a memorable message … and our savvy media buyers and state-of-the-art industry software help you get the most bang for your advertising budget. You’re just a phone call away from a level of success you’ve never experienced. Give Eric Tigner a call today at (321) 397-0777 and get the ball rolling.

JKR Automotive Advertising: We Move Cars.

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Post-Pandemic Dealer Gross Profits are Down – But They Don’t Have to Stay There!
March 13, 2024
It is no secret that dealer gross profits per vehicle are down sharply in the post-COVID automotive world. According to a recent article in Automotive News, gross profits of the six largest publicly traded dealership groups plunged significantly from Q4 2022 to Q4 2023. One of them was actually down 35% per vehicle!

The article explains: High interest rates, more expensive vehicles and a steadier post-pandemic supply chain continue to soften demand and bring it closer to pre-pandemic levels. Still, new-car buying has remained strong overall …

This means that, while sales volume is similar, overall bottom lines are lower for many dealers due to the reduced gross profits. What about your dealership?

Being Realistic
It’s time to turn the page! The time for dealers to simply be order takers for people willing to pay MSRP for a vehicle (and in some cases more) has passed and dealers have to work hard once again to achieve acceptable gross profits.

Selling a high volume of cars doesn’t control gross profits, no matter how much you wish this was the case. Correct processes and menu pricing – and strict adherence to them – do!

What kind of processes?
∙ Slow down the transaction! Your sales staff has to once again sell the customer on the features and benefits of every new and pre-owned vehicle on your lot.

∙ Your salespeople and managers should devalue the customers’ trade-in value (politely, of course) as much as possible. After all, if the customer expects you to lower your price, shouldn’t you be able to do the same on their trade? Remember, you’ll have to fix it up, put your name on it and resell it to someone else with all the tenacity you would a brand-new car. So make sure you buy it right … because the profit is made when you buy it, not when you sell it!

∙ To that end, management should be ready and willing to leave the desk and do thorough walk-arounds on each trade to ensure the best outcome for the dealership.

The Cure for Low Gross Profits
If you are like a lot of dealers these days, you could use some good news. Here it is: while you may not have the capability to achieve profit margins similar to those you enjoyed during the pandemic, they could likely be improved. JKR’s clients enjoy the benefit of attracting not only more customers, but better ones, too!

If meeting and exceeding your sales goals (and increasing gross profits at the same time) sounds great to you, you need to call us. Don’t settle for reduced gross profits when help is out there to get you closer to where you’d like to be.

Want to know how we do it? Reach out to Senior Partner Richard Brauns (407) 701-4233 or Partner/Vice President Jon Albert (407) 718-2494 today.

JKR Automotive Advertising: We Move Cars.

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