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Dealership Choice And The Death Of The Mainstream Auto Media
by
Edward Niedermeyer
(IC: employee)
Published: October 27th, 2010
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As surveys go, the Morpace Omnibus Study [ full results in PDF here] isn’t perfect. But even though it’s based on only 1,000 online respondents, it’s chock full of provocative insights. Of course Automotive News [sub] misses the best one, in its haste to trumpet the headline
Buyers usually don’t consider loyalty when choosing dealershipsFine, that pulls uniques out of the dealership bullpen. The real news: when asked to rate how “influential” different media sources are on their “likelihood to visit a dealership,” respondents gave the category “magazines” the weakest scores. A mere three percent rated magazines as the top rating “high influence,” the lowest such number in the survey. A whopping 32 percent gave it the lowest “low influence” rating, the highest result in the test. And all this from a sample in which only six in one thousand rated “an effective marketing/advertising campaign” as the most influential factor in their dealership selection process, while giving top marks to “best deal offerings” (40%), “positive prior experience” (20%) and “referrals from family and friends (10%). But here’s the twist: respondents were asked to assume they already had a brand and model in mind. The plot thickens…Edward Niedermeyer
More by Edward Niedermeyer
Published October 27th, 2010 12:56 PM
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Buff Books were great back just before the web. You'd wait for the thick C&D (it was hot), R&T (the staid pipe smoking sportscar guys compared to the obnoxious C/D yuppies) and Motor Trend (recycled ad copy). I still miss L.J.K. Setright.... That of course changed...C/D lost it's mojo, R&T took over the recycled ad copy job, and Motor Trend grew a pair and became a decent read. Then the internet showed up. We could suddenly find out that everyone else with our car had a suspension problem, or the fuel pumps spit, or the leak in the dash was a design flaw. The veneer of BS from the mainstream mags was gone....forever. Suddenly you knew what was only known by your dealership service manager and the warranty department back at headquarters. The mainstream books NEVER covered repair problems or defects, any depreciation issues, or admitted that there even WERE used cars, until recently. It made it MUCH more difficult to BS the customers on many, many levels. Want to find out holdbacks, used car values or "cash on the hood" ? Google it. The magazines have the same problem the music industry found....a top down model is not favored by the customer, rather, this interwebs interactive model is better for us.....not them.
About 10 years ago it dawned on me: The only buff books worth a damn were the 2 big Brit classic-car mags ("Thoroughbred & Classic Car" and "Classic & Sports Car") and "Sports Car Market". Then about 6 years ago something else dawned on me: Online resources had advanced to the point where I didn't really need them, either (though I'd probably resubscribe to SCM if I were in the market for a classic).