Sunday, September 16, 2007

Car dealership consistency

How does your marketing resonate with your customers?
I recently was at one of the Pohanka dealerships to have some car work done. They had a giant sign behind the front desk comparing prices to other dealerships in the area, attempting to show that the total cost of having work done, wasn't so bad vs. other dealerships in the area. It seemed to make some valid points; that there were lesser diagnostic charges, and they had some add ons, so the $100+hour tech rate wouldn't be so bad. Obviously, they'd gotten dinged by a variety of people about this. They even had the same sign above the stalls in the bathroom. Which is where the helpful information broke down, in the small print. The survey was done in March of 2006. 18 months ago! If you're going to go to the trouble to try and convince people you're offering people a premium product, you need to be consistent, and one part of that would be to have up to date data. I have a feeling it wouldn't change, but a lot of people probably saw the date, laughed, and discounted the entire marketing effort they'd put into it, because of that detail.

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