Radio Sales Café

Happy Friday, everyone!

Here is this week's multi-part poll question:

Which car dealerships in your market are doing the most radio advertising?  Which are doing the least? 

What ads are you running that have worked particularly well for the dealerships (feel free to attach audio files)? 

What do the dealerships’ buys look like (e.g., sponsorships of features such as weather, shows; spots only, remotes plus spots, etc.)?

Looking forward to reading your replies!

We have a very savvy dealer who buys traffic and feature sponsorships and online in addition to their spot buy, they do events with us and sponsor non-profits when it's not quite a direct fit (like our Health Fair). They even buy our stations in the next market over. Excellent marketers.

Then we have the dealer in the next market over who buys 1/10th of what these guys spend in their own market. So tight, I'm not a good enough salesperson to convince them that people are hearing their competitor 80 miles away more than they hear their own local dealer.  Even great production doesn't sway them. These are two ads I wrote and had our best producer on and it's like they don't care. This fearful approach is really sad to me because it's going to keep this smaller dealer small forever.

I'm very surprised that there is so little response to this topic, so far.  In my experience, auto dealers are probably in every commercial stations' Top 3 advertisers!  In fact, for many stations - such as my own - Automobile Dealers compete with Banks to be our Number One advertising category (by business type) of the previous year - excluding Political advertising, of course.

In my station's rural and suburban market area, we have some continuous and heavy auto dealer advertisers, primarily new car dealers.  The next tier down are small-town new cars dealers and large 'exclusively used' vehicle dealers. Finally, there are a few new and/or used vehicle dealers who run NO radio advertising, although most of these DO run display ads in local newspapers and 'shopper weeklys'.

This probably looks like I'm babbling about the obvious, but I guess I am trying to make a point:  WHY WOULD SOME CAR AND TRUCK DEALERS CHOOSE TO ACT CONTRARY TO MOST OF THEIR COMPETITORS AND NOT ADVERTISE ON OUR RADIO STATION?  In my limited experience, there seem to be three reasons for choosing not to advertise on my radio stations:

(1)  The owner "doesn't believe in - or like - radio advertising",

(2)  The owner doesn't believe in any form of advertising (very rare),

(3)  The owner believes he has been unfairly treated - or misled - by your particular radio station(s).

If anyone else has any other reasons why somebody in a 'high advertising business group', like auto dealers or bankers, won't advertise on commercial radio stations, I would be interested to hear it.

Lisa:  Those are some good imaging ads for DeLong Ford.     Your frustration with trying to get the client to see the big picture is mirrored by their lack of online presence.

I Googled "Delong Ford Nevada" and the website click through took me to a different DeLong Ford in Illinois.   Not good at all.

So it's not just their radio marketing that's lacking;  their online presence is missing as well.

James

James,

I really appreciate you taking the time to listen to the ads and Google the client. I have to admit their apathy is contagious - I didn't even do a search for them. Not good on my part either.

I need to put my marketing hat back on for them and push a little harder. I put a proposal in front of them and just heard "it's in the boss' inbox". This is too passive, I have to get in and meet with that boss. They're actually wasting the little money they are spending with me.  Thank you.

-L.

car dealers are sale people first.. of the ength degree! They can be your best client and your worst all at the same time. They spend money like drunken sailors in ALL media; not just radio. I would hazard to assume that after nearly 25 years in this radio game; that the radio dollars a given dealer spends pales by a very large comparison to what they spend in print.

Although we like to think that radio is the best thing for selling cars because a car is a radio on wheels.

Or.... no better place to sell a new car than when you're in your own hunk of junk. Catchy if not funny analogies; however if truth be told; radio is an important part of a car dealers media arsenal; but not as important as radio peeps would like to think. The "Mix," of all media being used by a car dealer is far more important than any one element.

Therefore radio is an expendable marketing platform if removed from the MIX.

The other combined elements or marketing platforms will still provide the car dealer with "perceptible" and realized ROI.

Car dealers today use....

website, facebook, word of mouth driven by social media, Auto-trader, print publications,( and a lot of 'em) , specific lead tracking software... and the list goes on.

If a car dealer doesn't buy radio it's simply because he [she] doesn't believe or realize the Value proposition that only radio can deliver. Remember a car dealers world is measured by units sold this month. Radio has to clearly be part of the value equation; if not it's a tough sell. Radio can do things that all the other media can't do. That is be creative, make an emotional mark on the psyche of a potential " UP."

to put a spin on positioning radio in a more favorable ROI position... try this one....

before you see the dealer principal..

• create a schedule that generates a 3.0 frequency on your station and price it out assuming that you may discount the rate for a 52 week commitment... let's it's $1000 weekly/
• Then you'll have to do a real or virtual lot walk or just ask.... you want to know  how many new cars are on the lot as an average weekly? how many used? An average sales week for these two classes of cars is what? How many of the new inventory is sold and used as well.

• Car dealers make more money on used car sales; so start there. divide $1000 by the average number of used units on the lot in a given week. So let's say they have 50 used car units on the lot in a given week. That works out to $20.00 as a cost of sale per used unit. So ask yourself or the dealer... how many used units would he have to sell weekly to justify the $1000 weekly radio investment? Could he afford to use the 20.00 as a cost of doing bidness.. or cost of sale.
• Once you get down to this base level of investment for sales... with a car dealer ... you are now talking to the dog in the language of the dog. 

and finally.... car dealer love the art of the sell.....haggling, negotiating and making the dealer feel that he has won a good deal from you is part of the beginning  of successful relationship.

Remember the story of the emperors new clothes?

Many car dealers (and others) are buying the idea that Facebook, Twitter, Instagrahm and Yelp are better stagings than radio. And they think it's cheaper. (This inspite the cost of the computer and the internet line and the IT expert.)

Like the Loch Ness monster, they are willing to buy the myth of 21st century technology.

I believe they will be back if they don't shut down first.If nothing else we can help them drive their target audiance to their computer sites.

Just my two cents and I'm completely biased, but auto sales would greatly benefit from a RingWord.

Yes, nobody ever heard of us...yet, but we are inevitable.

For example:

RingWord.com/Mercedes