Does your brand think like a retailer ?

[danoneil]

Before getting into the car business, my background was retail. I owned a music store and worked selling professional music gear for many years.

The one thing I have noticed about car manufacturers, at least Honda , is that they lay out a plan, but don't react to sales trend for the month.

An example this month would be 2010 Accords. We had $1200 in dealer cash or get a low rate. It wasn't until September 17th they realized sales were sucking and finally allowed dealers to combine the money with the rate. So it has helped a little, but not alot.

In the mean time they kept Civics with a take the cash or take the rate. Same with Odyssey and Insights EX trim level.

It seems like Honda is slow to react. Here we are crawling to a halt. And last year September sales were low because everyone ran out of inventory due to cash for clunker. Every one set record in July and August, but Sept & Oct were tough months in '09 .

Are other manufacturers the same ?

Is there one brand that seems to react quickly to the sales trend every month ?

I think Mazda just announced 0% mid way through the month.

Maybe I haven't been in the business long enough, but it seems like manufacturers should be able to react faster.

 

[joe.pistell]

Before getting into the car business, my background was retail. I owned a music store and worked selling professional music gear for many years.

The one thing I have noticed about car manufacturers, at least Honda , is that they lay out a plan, but don't react to sales trend for the month.

Maybe I haven't been in the business long enough, but it seems like manufacturers should be able to react faster.

Dan,

Marketing adjustments mid-month are amazing for a Goliath like Honda. You use to run a music store. Your store is like a speed boat, able to turn on a dime and hyper accelerate out of trouble quickly. Big As* car manufacturers are like gigantic cruise ships. It takes them miles to turn around. Not only do they have inertia, they have a crew of thousands to communicate and train.

The skills needed to run a gigantic ship require the captain to NOT react to every little data point, but to gather the data points and look for a change in the tide, not react to the waves. Your store is one of the data points, obviously, your numbers are not alone.

Lastly, a Captain of a cruise ship can drive a speed boat, but, a speed boat driver can't captain a ship. It's super easy to arm chair quarterback the CEO's decisions, but don't under-estimate the complexity of running an organization (and the safety it brings when the waters get rough).

 

[danoneil]

Thanks Joe. I appreciate the boat analogy. I'm sitting in my bath tub while reading this post.

I am aware if the difference between owning a small music store and the size of Honda. So I'm not under estimating Honda. Honda did change in the middle of the month on Accords. But I only sell Honda.

I'm curiuos to hear from people who sell another brand and see if they think that manufacturer is quick to react to the sales trend.

Chevy just started 0% or $2000 cash back. Mazda introduced 0%. I don't think either of these brand were offering this at the beginning of this month.

 

[joe.pistell]

Thanks Joe. I appreciate the boat analogy. I'm sitting in my bath tub while reading this post. .

Hahaha Dan!

Many auto manuf'ers add/subtract programs mid month. Think about how deeply committed and organized any business has to be to be able to react mid month.

Heres a test, Ask yourself this question. Your store traffic is down and so is your lead counts. What special campaign has your store created and executed to react to this?

See what I mean?

 

[danoneil]

Personally, I ask myself what I can do better every day.

We have 16 different stores in my division of Mileone -( We have 59 stores) . We have a marketing department that is able to react quickly to anything we suggest to boost business. We have radio, TV & email blast.

Personally, when business is a little slow, I go through every lead and turn no stone unturned. We average 500 leads a month.

I start listing more cars on craigslist and shop my competitors to make sure we are competitive. We are very quick to react. So yes, I know what you mean.

 

[joe.pistell]

...this month would be 2010 Accords. We had $1200 in dealer cash or get a low rate. It wasn't until September 17th they realized sales were sucking and finally allowed dealers to combine the money with the rate. So it has helped a little, but not alot.

In the mean time they kept Civics with a take the cash or take the rate. Same with Odyssey and Insights EX trim level.

It seems like Honda is slow to react. Here we are crawling to a halt.

Dan,

If I visit your site, I see you don't offer the Accord combo of Cash and low rate. Honda Baltimore | Heritage Honda of Parkville Dealer Baltimore MA, new cars, used car dealership

Dan, your site looks as it did last month and the month before and the month before that. Your looking to the factory to rev things up your team is... alseep at the wheel? Where is the "It's the off-season, 'll do what ever it takes to earn your biz right now"

No, I know your not in charge of the site, but do you see what I mean? Where is the call to action on your site?

Just another day here at New Honda Cars, New Car Pricing, Vehicle Details Heritage Honda of Parkville Baltimore, Maryland

Wheres the HOT Honda promo info on the VDP? ---->http://heritagehondaparkville.deale...&Make=Honda&Model=Accord&Trim=EX&Extc=WX.html (framed page)


zzzzzz....

No fault of yours Dan, but, you ought to bark up your tree to get your marketing dept motivated.

NOTE: I've never understood how dealers obsess over sites that have that cookie cutter look, yet leave their sites dead and lifeless, predictable and stale.

 

[danoneil]

Joe,

I appreciate you looking at our website. But I kind of feel like we should start a different thread ?

The main purpose of this thread was to talk about manufacturers and how they react to the current market. . But now your turning it in to something different.

Perhaps you should talk to Jeff Kershner to get a little background on me and mileone. There are some limitations what I can do with the website.

 

[danoneil]

Honda has very strict compliance issues and you have to be careful what is put on your website.

 

[danoneil]

Here's an example from Clay who is a Toyota dealer . "September, like August, pretty much sucks. I am reliant on my first party leads, because we are getting killed on price by every other dealer in our area. I only have a handful of sales from third-party leads this month. Dealers in our region are all down approx. 50% from last year"

Toyota dealers in his region are down 50% from last year. That's huge. So how does Toyota react to this trend ?
Is Toyotay giving there dealers more to work with to overcome this decline ?

 

[Patrick80639]

The only recent change in incentives with Toyota in my region is 2.9% APR for 60 mos. on CPO Camrys and Corollas. Otherwise, it's pretty much the same specials they've been running since the recall. Toyota is a lot like Honda, it seems to take 2-3 months before they react to the market and adjust incentives.

When I worked for Ford a couple years back, they were very reactive and quick with incentives. FMC was especially key to our new car sales performance, they really behaved like a captive lender. Wish I could say the same for TFS.