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Dealers Superimposing their Pictures in Front of the Dealership

ddavis

Boss
Jun 28, 2011
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First Name
Doug
Interested in what others think of this practice. When people are looking for a specific car and get to the search result page, I always wanted my vehicles to fill the picture as much as possible. I am convinced that most people use tablets and the pictures on the SRP are already very small. I'm convinced that people are more likely to click on a quality picture and one where you can actually see the vehicle. Having the largest quality pictures where the vehicle fills the frame will draw the most clicks.

And what about Superimposing vehicle photos in front of the dealership for branding?

What do you think?
 
I was hoping someone else would jump in here before me. Mostly because, surprise surprise, I take some issue when ego gets in the way of customer experience.

It seems that we live in our own echo chambers when it comes to thinking about what a customer wants. I know, I lived in my own my entire life at Checkered Flag. I had to leave the dealership to discover what it is like to be a customer! And I was SOOOOOOO WRONG as a dealer.

There is much to say about that last point, and this thread is not the place for it.

A customer, while online, needs to land on a vehicle before she wants to be sold on the dealership. It is a little backwards from our Road to the Sale training, but the online "road to an up" (I'm coining this phrase now) is:
  • let me land on a car,
  • then let me land on a price,
  • then let me land on a value statement,
  • and lastly, let me land on you.
Sure, this might not be the exact order for every person, but too many eCommerce strategies try to inject specials and selling the dealership too soon in the customer's process. This is especially apparent in watermarked vehicle images where sales and/or branding messages disrupt the customer's quest to land on a vehicle. It is a turn off.
 
These "untouched" photos that are a car cut out and pasted onto a dealership photo annoy me to no end.
How can you convince a customer you didn't retouch a photo when you've clearly cut it out and pasted it onto a blurry photo of your dealership?

I like as much car as possible, with consistency and high quality images that haven't been compressed by some classifieds company.

The angle seems odd to me, but it's performed pretty well in our testing.

upload_2018-2-21_11-47-25.png
 
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I like as much car as possible, with consistency and high quality images that haven't been compressed by some classifieds company
View attachment 3429
Agreed, most inventory feed feed providers (homenet, vauto, dealer specialties, etc) automatically compress images and decrease the max image size to 800x600px. So even though our websites could feature higher quality photos, the current technology widely available prevents us from doing so.

I know they do this to save on CDN expense but I feel like it's time to move the needle forward a little bit to maybe at least 1024x768. Heck I can see a 5000x5000px photo of a $15 t-shirt but can't do the same on a $50k truck?

I believe Dealer Inspire is going to be showcasing an awesome new inventory management tool at NADA that revolutionizes the inventory management software space with increasing the max image size as just one of the many features. It's about time someone innovated a little bit!
 
revolutionizes the inventory management software space with increasing the max image size as just one of the many features.

I agree with what you said, except that there's nothing revolutionary about larger images.
It's really only the big players that don't do it.

I've found a happy place is around this size:
https://www.richmondhilltoyota.com/uploads/vehicles/LR31754/20140_toyota_corolla_1933_1.jpg

It scales down for some screens, it's still high quality and it works great with magnification tools or larger/retina displays.
I would love to see even bigger, but the cost ends up being on the consumer side as they have to download 25+ of these images on a VDP.
 
I agree with what you said, except that there's nothing revolutionary about larger images.
It's really only the big players that don't do it.
Just one of the MANY features, I didn't want to spoil any surprises and talk about every new feature. :) And revolutionary might have been a little too strong of a descriptor, they are just bringing the inventory management software space to where it should be today since the big players have been relatively stagnant for the past 10 years.
 
That's good news.
I've spent the last 6 years dabbling in inventory syndication and it sucks, but more players can help clean it up.
The only reason we built an inventory syndication and management tool is because all the vendors were providing crap and ruining our photos and, in some cases, our data.

They're going to love having the control over data, because it lets the client maintain their own quality listings from 1 place using tools that aren't built in ASPX or using Flash.
 
What do you mean guys!? This SHIT is the REALLLLZZ!!!
clark-howard_576872301.png
 
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what about Superimposing vehicle photos in front of the dealership for branding?

Hi ya Doug,

If its done wrong, It looks out of place which may cause the shopper to fire off their internal distrust signals*. There are many other ways to bring in branding with zero risk and zero cost (time & money).


*visual distrust signals...
  • What if the car and the dealer building look wonky?
  • what about outdoor photos in different 4 seasons?
    • The shopper sees the 1st shot with the dealer building superimposed and the remaining shots need to be in the same visual context so it flows (e.g. Sunny skies on 1st shot, then overcast on all remaining. Plants in front of building in the dead of winter)
 
It puzzles me that there is soooo little creativity among ALL dealers when it comes to Inventory photos.

Dealer photos are EASILY the best marketing weapon the dealer has. I have yet to see ANY dealer step outside the box and have some fun!

Has anyone seen a dealer do crazy stuff in their photos? Where is the uber creative mind of @Mitch Gallant ? I bet he's tinkered with this theme.
 
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