Posts Tagged ‘versus’

Understanding the Basics of Automotive Advertising Versus Marketing

February 19th, 2011
Automotive Market

Every time we turn on our television sets or computers, we are barraged with an endless stream of automotive commercials or advertisements from an auto dealership online marketing campaign. What many of us don’t realize is that while they are selling the same product the means in which they do so are completely different. Were you aware that there is a difference between automotive advertising and auto dealers marketing?

The majority of auto dealers make the mistake of confusing the two without even realizing they are doing so. Little do they understand of the complexities involved with auto dealership online marketing versus their advertising. Now, think about all of the many billions of dollars they waste every year in automotive advertising and car dealer internet marketing due to their ignorance. The automotive business accounts for the largest spending on local newspapers and local radio stations, for example.

Let me begin with going over the formal definitions of each with a quick explanation of how auto dealership marketing and automotive advertising vary from one another:

Automotive Advertising – Different from car dealership internet marketing in that this is usually defined as a paid, public, and non-personal announcement of some type of persuasive message from a particular sponsor, in this case the car dealership. Automotive advertising tends to be a non-personal presentation or promotion of its products to existing and, more importantly, new potential customers.

Functionality versus simplicity in today’s automotive CRM solutions

July 1st, 2010

We all have heard of the saying “functionality over design”, but how can this phrase apply in today’s automotive CRM industry? After been in the Canadian automotive industry for the past 7 years, I have encountered many CRM solutions from the software vendors. There are a wide range of selections of software available in the Canadian market, but very few are catered towards the smaller dealers. Many CRM solution vendors are in a rat race to become increasingly more complex, this unnecessary growth in complexity usually forces the end user to make mistakes rather than profit. A poorly designed CRM solution often enforces many artificial business rules that are not a reflection of the real business world.

No two automotive dealerships are the same, hence no two business rules can apply exactly the same way. It is better to build a CRM offering the end users the option to manage the inventory and customer quote rather than trying to outsmart a human. Keep in mind a CRM system should be there to help the end user to run their business more efficient rather than forcing the end user for product training. The key concept when it comes to a successful CRM solution is the business models itself, as long as the business model is accurate, the vendors should leave as much options open as possible. A CRM solution that can be used to reflect the true relationship database model will be the most successful. Linear business process is a dangerous design and can cause a lot of headaches for the end user down the road.