Auto Dealer Monthly Magazine is the daily operations publication serving the retail automotive industry. This automotive publication serves dealer principals, officers and general managers with the latest best practices.
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By Paul Potratz A DV E R TISING & M A RK E TING POINT AND SHOOT Marketing expert explains how selling a car is like selling a camera: You have to create brand awareness before trying to sell a price. SELL BY PRICE, DIE BY PRICE Tis cycle is always followed, whether it takes a day or several weeks. Te actual purchase is the fourth stage, a.k.a. the "action" stage, of the six-part shopping process, which includes awareness, consideration, preference, action, loyalty and advocacy, in that order. When marketers focus on the action stage, they rely on price advertising. Hence price advertising skips the three prior stages. So you can sell by price, but you will also die by price. If you ©ISTOCKPHOTO.COM/HU-JUN Pricing sy Pricing is s i synonymous with conrsion, i version, but should it be? Before answer, a e I answer, allow me to challenge r non non-a o your non-automotive mind. In th words, other words I want to think like whe you do when you're shopping for personal item items. Let's say you're early in the process of shopping for a new camera. You have determined it should be a Nikon. You have never owned a Nikon, but in your mind, the brand has a great reputation. As consumers, we all follow the same rules in the shopping process — or "sales funnel" — listed below. Understand the psychology of a shopper and use it to your advantage. You will win! don't always have a sales event going on that prices your vehicles below those of your competitors, your sales can sufer. Of course, the same strategy also drives your sales increases late in the month. Let's consider diferent ways you can start merchandising your inventory. Let's look at the shopper funnel cycle in more detail. First, you became "aware" that you needed a new camera. I use the word needed but the real word is wanted. We don't need the vast majority of Paul Potratz is COO of Potratz Advertising and an industry speaker in digital, mobile, behavioral and social media marketing. He shares his expertise weekly through online workshops and hosts the weekly video series, "Think Tank Tuesday," which reaches more than 42,000 automotive professionals. PPotratz@AutoDealerMonthly.com 8 AUTO DE ALE R MONTHLY • AUGUST 2013 stuf we purchase. So what caused you to even think it was time for a new camera? It could be one of any number of reasons: • You saw another person using a camera that caught your eye. • You watched a cute TV commercial that made you laugh. • You decided it was time to get a hobby. • You saw an inspiring photo and said, "I could do that." Te next level is "consideration," and you'll notice that price is not yet even a factor. You're still trying to decide which Nikon camera will ft your needs — you need a camera you can use to take pictures of your children playing sports, you need to be able to shoot in low-light conditions, you need something light and portable. WANT TRUMPS NEED Our subconscious minds force us to justify our every action, including purchases. You can justify your need to buy a camera by saying it's for the family — children are only young once and we have to capture those Kodak moments. Tose moments could be captured on an iPhone or a $79 point-andshoot. But you will fnd a way to justify a bigger expenditure. In the car business, we are pros at helping customers justify their purchases. Your goal is to develop your website and marketing strategy into a purchase-justifcation resource with compelling content. With the right content, you can dramatically increase your chances of capturing every car buyer who visits your site. Employing this type of strategy can seem overwhelming and costly,