Honda Dealer Takes All Ads Online
Did that headline make you grimace?
Me, too.
Saw it today in the current issue of Automotive News, which arrived in time for me to digest the article along with my lunch.
Anyone have a Rolaids?
This dealer is in the Portland, OR market, which is also home to more than a few exceptionally talented radio folks. It's no coincidence that in 2009 Larry Wilson, former owner of Citadel Broadcasting, chose the Portland market for his re-entry into the radio business, with his acquisition of a half-dozen stations to form his new radio company, Alpha Broadcasting.
So, how did this automobile dealership end up leaving radio?
The article begins:
Ted Davis advertises vehicles almost exclusively online these days.
The dealer manager of Parker Johnstone's Wilsonville Honda outside Portland, Ore., has seen the store vault to No. 2 in the state in new Honda sales, in large part because of a shift from print and radio advertising to digital, he says.
Whereas the store was 70 percent traditional advertising spend four years ago, it's 2 percent today and that's "only because I get weak in the knees occasionally" and place a newspaper ad, Davis says.
The store spends less than $15,000 a month on digital advertising and sells more vehicles than four years ago when the dealership was spending "considerably more" on advertising.
Admittedly, car dealers are a different breed. Their near-myopic focus on today's sales with little interest in anything the future may hold borders on the fanatical. Most car dealer ads are written to attract today's buyer, not to impress someone whose purchase may be months (or even years) into the future.
Many, too many local car dealer ads are predictable: shouting and hyperbole, filled with artificial urgency, if not outright prevarication, and not a whole lot more. Their attempts at humor, melodrama, or "real people" dialogue are usually a disappointment. In fact, I can think of only a handful of instances where the dealer's commercial or campaign came across as genuinely engaging without being insulting to the listener's intelligence. So, perhaps it's inevitable that a car dealer whose preoccupation is moving metal today would jump ship from radio (and print) to online auto research and buying sites to cast his bait where he knows the fish are biting.
It remains to be seen whether Parker Johnstone's Wilsonville Honda will be able to sustain his growth and preserve his market share with this practice, particularly if a competitor in his market figures out how to use the intrusiveness, pervasiveness, and affordable frequency of radio effectively. I still believe what was drilled into my head decades ago: "Speech is man's primary form of communication. Print (whether newsprint or pixels) is an imitation of speech."
Is there a dealership in your market flirting with a similar move? How are you dealing with the situation?
Read more: http://www.autonews.com/article/20121217/RETAIL03/312179987#ixzz2FXutzqVw
