All talk and no game
There is so much jabber in the automotive blogosphere today about how blogging and social media/netoworking/marketing are becoming relevant to automotive retail you would think it is becoming the “next big thing”. But just like PPC 3 years ago became the prominent buzz word in automotive online retail promising dealers the opportunity to become their own “regional buying service”, blog marketing and social media are likely to become the next great distraction for dealers too.
The reason why is not because blogging and social marketing are fads, phases, or unreliable forms of marketing but because of how they are represented to car dealers by marketing/technology providers.
Dealers want increased sales and increased profit margins which require more business opportunities at less cost. The Internet promises to do this because you can reach more audience with less cost and Internet marketing companies promise to help dealers accomplish these things. Research, surveys, and statistics constantly tell us that advertising dollars continue to shift from conventional off line advertising to online media. Naturally, dealers are forced to put their money into strategies and schemas they struggle to grasp but because they trust the people providing them and because of good sales and marketing presentations dealers often buy in to mediocre situations.
All this is perfectly reasonable except for the fact that dealers continue to be disappointed and confused. Part of this is their own fault for not taking the time to digest important information, but a lot of this comes down to the mere fact that in the auto industry, dealers marketing and technology providers are often one and the same.
This is not to say that it is possible for a single company to provide marketing and technology, but if you look at other industries you will find that businesses typically provide one form of service or commodity, not two completely irrelevant forms such as technology and marketing.
For instance…
- IBM, Microsoft, and Sun provide technology, not marketing
- Coca-Cola and Pepsi provide soft drinks, not marketing
- MCI, Sprint, and T-Mobile provide telecommunications, not marketing
Of course, these companies have marketing divisions within their own organizations, but more often than not they partner up with major marketing agencies to assist with THEIR marketing strategy and they certainly are not providing marketing services to other companies. Chances are, these “marketing agencies” are not providing these firms with any sort of technology either.
So why is the auto industry so special that marketing and technology tend to go hand-in-hand? Could it be that dealers get ridiculed for being “behind” on trends because they are being led by mediocrity? There is a lot of good technology out there that is completely relevant and useful for dealers. But putting these technological tools and resources to use is a whole other ball game.
Dealers need to consider this when talking to firms about things such as blog marketing, social media, and search engine brand marketing. These are going to be some of the more sophisticated forms of marketing known to dealers and expectations are certain to be let down if marketing/technology providers are misrepresentative about what can be accomplished with them.
[tags]automotive marketing, online marketing, car dealers, auto industry, search engine marketing, brand marketing, social media, IBM, Microsoft, Sun, Coke, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, MCI, Sprint, TMobile, telecommunications[/tags]
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