Radio Sales Café

Ford Motor Company, which did not join rivals GM and Chrysler in accepting government bailout money, posted an astonishing $997 million third-quarter net profit. According to a story in Automotive News, the company is now saying it will be "solidly profitable" in 2011. Not surprisingly, Ford dealerships across the country are capitalizing on the parent company's surge of optimism, at the expense of local GM and Chrysler dealerships. These dealers - our clients - have been put in an unfortunate position through no fault of their own. My question to RSC members: what are you doing to help your local GM and Chrysler dealerships make the best of a bad situation? What messages, promotions, etc. are you finding to be effective for these dealerships in your local markets?

Rod,

Our local Chrysler dealer didn't have any new inventory for three months because the factories were shut down, so he went heavily into Used Cars, and did quite well. So well that he has decided to assign specific salespeople to work Used only, and is going to the Auctions to pick up inventory. In the last serveral months he has sold more many more Used than New, and we have featured a car a week in his Radio ads and usually had to replace it as it was sold before the end of the week.

The GM guys in our area are taking a similar approach, but they're really hurting. We are trying to help them maintain their visibility by bonusing a percentage of their schedules.

The best thing that can happen for the car dealers and the entire country is for the President and others in Washington to stop doing things that keep people on edge and unsettled. In the last three weeks I have visited every client and many former clients and the story is the same. People are frightened and do not have confidence that things will get better, so they're only buying necessities and putting off large purchases. That is hurting all of us, car dealers included.

Hal,

Appreciate the thoughtful post. You may recall some time back that Eric Rhoads (Radio INK publisher) approached Dick Orkin's Radio Ranch about producing some brand-agnostic messages to encourage shoppers to visit their local car dealers. Lots of stations across the US ran them - ours in Pullman among them - and I thought they sounded pretty good on the air.

You're right about the fear factor. We may not have much of an influence beyond our signals, but I do believe that we can and should encourage our advertisers, especially car dealers and other large-ticket retailers, to maintain an optimistic and energetic public face, and do so ourselves.