Recently I was involved in a discussion on Twitter. I was taken aback at the phrase pricing is just a tactic. Twitter is a tough place to have an in-depth discussion, so I wanted to ask the DealerRefresh community for your thoughts.
My belief is that pricing can and should be an integral part of a modern automotive marketing strategy, but it could also be just a tactic. The right price on the right car can certainly drive traffic. By right price I don't mean the cheapest, but rather a well-researched, competitive price. It becomes much more than just a tactic when a dealer leverages the transparency of the Internet to justify and hold their asking price by showing customers how their cars pricing fits into the market.
A more Old School approach would be to use price to Just get'em in. The next steps for an Old School dealer would be switching the customer to another car and working hard to drive up the gross. In this case price is just a tactic and one almost guaranteed to perpetuate all the well-worn car dealer stereotypes.
What do you folks think? Should pricing be an important part of your strategy or just a tactic?
My belief is that pricing can and should be an integral part of a modern automotive marketing strategy, but it could also be just a tactic. The right price on the right car can certainly drive traffic. By right price I don't mean the cheapest, but rather a well-researched, competitive price. It becomes much more than just a tactic when a dealer leverages the transparency of the Internet to justify and hold their asking price by showing customers how their cars pricing fits into the market.
A more Old School approach would be to use price to Just get'em in. The next steps for an Old School dealer would be switching the customer to another car and working hard to drive up the gross. In this case price is just a tactic and one almost guaranteed to perpetuate all the well-worn car dealer stereotypes.
What do you folks think? Should pricing be an important part of your strategy or just a tactic?