With thousands of Toyota dealerships already struggling amidst decreased consumer spending and a national credit crunch, Toyota's massive 2.3 million vehicle recall has store owners nationwide bracing for financial loss and long-term backlash in the first quarter of fiscal year 2010.
The recall, which included many of Toyota's top selling models such as Camry and Corolla, has also prompted the manufacturer to halt production until the potentially fatal issue of sticking gas pedals is resolved.
While Toyota dealers are understandably panicked and bracing for a big hit following the recall, dealers still have a limited window of opportunity to mitigate financial loss in their local stores.
Here are five immediate steps dealerships can take to ride out Toyota's PR nightmare and financial storm this year:
1. Keep Marketing: It's a natural reaction to halt marketing when things look bad. However, this can open the door for more financial problems. When dealers suddenly stop marketing it creates doubt in the mind of the consumer and they get scared off. Instead, it's important to appear active and busy--especially as Ford and GM prepare to step up their advertising campaigns in the near future.
2. Become the "go to" expert for Toyota customers by writing, speaking and keeping people up to date on the latest developments: Dealers can calm fears in the marketplace by directly addressing consumer fears and concerns regarding Toyota's vehicle lineup. Providing information in the form of special reports, telephone call-in lines and informational videos posted to their blog will be a extremely useful tool. Fear is a major problem in situations like these. It will be a crucial time for the brand and making people feel more comfortable and confident with their decisions will be critical. This additional confidence will translate into sales and service business.
3. Be available for the local press. Positioning yourself as a resource and advisor for the local media outlets and the local community so everyone can fully understand the situation. This will help take some heat off Toyota and give you the spotlight.
4. Dealers can use their influence to hold local informational seminars for the local residents to get their questions answered: Open and honest communication will be the key to helping customers and prospects feel comfortable with Toyota. After they clean up the recall mess that is.
5. Use social media platforms to communicate and educate your community: Facebook, Twitter, blogs and video are a great way to open dialogue and engage consumers on their own turf. Social media is the cheapest, easiest and fastest way for dealers to stay on top of questions from the community and become a trusted resource in the face of Toyota's current storm."
Jimmy Vee and Travis Miller are the preeminent marketing consultants to the automotive industry and the authors of the best selling book Gravitational Marketing: The Science of Attracting Customers. They are the founders of the Rich Dealers Institute a Done-For-The-Dealer marketing company that helps car dealers attract customers, increase sales & boost net profit. http://www.AutoMarketingAdvice.com
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3 comments:
Interesting facts mentioned in the article. It's fantastic secrets which helps people to implement these secrets in their business also. One of the most excellent techniques to accomplish automotive marketing is to accumulate data and store it in some category of database. Details such as Name, Address and particulars of the vehicle are the main information the dealer needed.
Without an Automotive Marketing strategy it is very difficult to attract the level and quality of customers. This is a very nice article for automotive dealers to enhance relationship with customers by sharing information.
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