GM / Cobalt Flex Site - Extortion?

[Bill Taylor]

I look forward to your call, Joe. In the meantime I will try to answer your question.

Our Digital Marketing Package has two solution options--the Base (no cost) and the Performance ($699/month). Flexible Website Designs are only available in the Performance Solution, and is required in order to bring the personalized consumer experience and other features to life. The image below shows a comparison between the two solutions:






For all of the features in the Performance Solution, we feel the $699/month fee is an incredible value and know similar products in the marketplace can cost dealers much more than this amount. Dealers who wish to pay for it with their iMR funds (co-op) make this an even greater value (depending on their participation level in iMR, it can be as low as $388 from the dealer's advertising fund--with GM covering the remaining $311). I would be curious what some of the other dealers are paying for a non-GM site, as we are subsidizing this package well beyond the co-op match.


I think when you reference the "Digital Marketing Package" in your note, you might mean the Digital Advertising Package. If so, then that is a separate (and entirely optional) digital media play to drive even more traffic to the dealer's site.


Hope this helps. If not, I welcome further discussion.

Bill

Hello Bill,

If you can shed light on the fact as to whether or not a dealer is able to use Cobalt's Flex platform without either a $699 monthly increase or signing on with the much more expensive GM Digital Marketing package, please let me know. I will gladly call you tomorrow to get more details, and I am scheduled to attend one of your Thursday webinars about the enhancements to the DM package through your OEM portal already. In the end, I want my clients to lean on their OEMs to be as technologically advanced (for the money) as humanly possible, but I also want to be their advocate if vendors are over-playing their hands or positions when it comes to forcing in services. I'm sure you understand. You'll hear from me tomorrow. In the meantime, feel free to respond on this forum.

 

[Bill Taylor]

Great question, Josh. Hope this explanation helps:

GM has worked to build a competitive advantage for their dealers in the digital space. This includes new functionality for vehicle merchandising within the Performance solution. These new features include Similar Vehicles, where a vehicle of similar price will be served to an in-market shopper. Also new is Find it For Me request forms, allowing a shopper to work with their dealer of choice even if a specific vehicle isn’t currently on the lot at the dealership. We are pleased to say that we are working on more new features for vehicle merchandising including layout choices for inventory search results and vehicle details pages. The dealer will be able to set the default layout, and shoppers will have the opportunity to change the layout if they prefer. Look for these enhancements and even more later this year.

Was there a different feature or function that you were hoping to see?

Bill,

Why aren't the #1 and #2 most visited pages on every dealer's web site part of the new digital marketing package and new "flex" sites? The vehicle details page and search results pages haven't been updated in a very, very long time.

 

[craigh]

These new features include Similar Vehicles, where a vehicle of similar price will be served to an in-market shopper. Also new is Find it For Me request forms, allowing a shopper to work with their dealer of choice even if a specific vehicle isn’t currently on the lot at the dealership.

Bill,
I think the problem is that you are quoting features that other platforms (ie: Dealer.com) have had for years and years.

GM has worked to build a competitive advantage for their dealers in the digital space.

I'm not a GM dealer, but I would assume that they want more than just what everyone else has - a competitive advantage requires having something better.

 

[joe.webb]

Oh, thank goodness, Bill. You answered my question. The way it was described to my client is that the Flex site alone is an additional $699 unless they sign up for the Digital Advertising Package. It seems to be the difference in two simple words: Advertising and Marketing. Each have their own package, is that correct? The Digital Marketing Package is $699, and the Digital Advertising Package is significantly more, that is what you're telling me, correct? That definitely puts me at ease. However, I have to bring my client (and their local rep) up to speed on how they explain the program.

I'll still call today, but thanks for clearing up the miscommunication. It's still a Pay-to-Play scenario, but it is much easier to swallow now

I look forward to your call, Joe. In the meantime I will try to answer your question.

Our Digital Marketing Package has two solution options--the Base (no cost) and the Performance ($699/month). Flexible Website Designs are only available in the Performance Solution, and is required in order to bring the personalized consumer experience and other features to life. The image below shows a comparison between the two solutions:



View attachment 1705


For all of the features in the Performance Solution, we feel the $699/month fee is an incredible value and know similar products in the marketplace can cost dealers much more than this amount. Dealers who wish to pay for it with their iMR funds (co-op) make this an even greater value (depending on their participation level in iMR, it can be as low as $388 from the dealer's advertising fund--with GM covering the remaining $311). I would be curious what some of the other dealers are paying for a non-GM site, as we are subsidizing this package well beyond the co-op match.


I think when you reference the "Digital Marketing Package" in your note, you might mean the Digital Advertising Package. If so, then that is a separate (and entirely optional) digital media play to drive even more traffic to the dealer's site.


Hope this helps. If not, I welcome further discussion.

Bill

 

[emilymoore]

Our Chevy/Cadillac site was just recently "upgraded" to the Flex site a few weeks ago. Then just last week we were mystery-shopped by GM via Bestmark and received a horribly low score. Below is their critique:

The website's design looks
unprofessional. Navigation was
somewhat tricky. Once you click on
"Vehicles" you see a list of vehicles
where the price is clearly shown,
but you have to kind of look around
for the specs of the vehicle. They
did have photos of the vehicles that
were available to view, but there
was only one picture available for
several of the vehicles.


What I liked most (web inquiry):
I liked some features of the web
page, like the fact that could chat
with someone, that you could
compare different cars, and the
payment calculator.

What could be improved (web inquiry):
I definitely think that the whole
design of the web page needs to be
improved. The site looks a little oldfashioned,
it can be hard for some
people to navigate.

 

[craigh]

Our Chevy/Cadillac site was just recently "upgraded" to the Flex site a few weeks ago. Then just last week we were mystery-shopped by GM via Bestmark and received a horribly low score. Below is their critique:

Did you share this with them?
I would love to hear what they have to say if they are getting responses like this from multiple mystery shoppers.

 

[emilymoore]

Did you share this with them?
I would love to hear what they have to say if they are getting responses like this from multiple mystery shoppers.

I shared it with my rep at Cobalt. I did not share it with anyone from GM yet...

 

[craigh]

I shared it with my rep at Cobalt. I did not share it with anyone from GM yet...

I guess that makes the most sense, since it's their website.
I have nothing against Cobalt, I just have something against the idea that a manufacturer would enforce something like a website.

In Canada Hyundai does this, but we've finally got our hands on the guidelines and we think they're finally going to let us replace their site with a third party one. It's an uphill battle though and it frustrates me that the decisions appear to be made poorly at times.

 

[emilymoore]

I guess that makes the most sense, since it's their website. I have nothing against Cobalt, I just have something against the idea that a manufacturer would enforce something like a website.

I understand that the Manufacturer needs to look out for protecting their brand and that some very pathetic dealers led to the enforcement of this program, but I don't understand restricting dealers who want to (and are capable of) further enhancing their online presence.

 

[craigh]

I understand that the Manufacturer needs to look out for protecting their brand and that some very pathetic dealers led to the enforcement of this program, but I don't understand restricting dealers who want to (and are capable of) further enhancing their online presence.

Agreed. This is what we found with Hyundai - they have a vetting process.
If you can prove that your alternate website meets all their branding, design and information requirements you can file for a replacement. Otherwise, you get their gratis site on www.DEALERSHIPNAME.ca and they let you use the .com as you please.