Ford Turns to Tablets to Grow Consumer Loyalty

When you buy a gift card at Starbucks you have the option to place the card directly on your Smart Phone. When you order a pizza online you can track the Pizza’s progress from the oven to your driveway.  If you were speaking to Ford’s Vice President of North American Sales Ken Czubay he would tell you Ford is behind on the technology front and they know it.

Czubay, whose LinkedIn profile states he is Ford’s “Sales Guy,” is counting on Apple iPads to increase customer engagement. He spoke recently in front of a packed house at Wesley Chapel’s Saddlebrook Resort in Wesley Chapel during Ford’s regional Southeast business meeting. The tablets will be launched in both Sales and Service with a variety of applications targeted at giving customers a greater and more efficient experience. In Service applications will quickly pull up a customers vehicle history and offer an efficient RO build.

Ford began using tablets and their new “Showcase” application recently through a Dealership opt-in program. The application is an extension of Ford.com allowing vehicles to browse inventory and customize the Ford order of their dreams.

Czubay admits that despite Ford’s recent strides they need to become more of a car company being that the opportunity with their best selling F-150 truck is limited. While Ford’s Mike Rowe-lead commercials are favorably received customer loyalty is flat on both of the arena: sales and service. Whether or not tablets become a part of the successful culture of Ford remains to be seen but will in a large part come down to execution. Ford admits that until they find a differentiated customer strategy at the dealership level they will still be haunted by third-party Internet providers like TrueCar that offer and deliver a unique customer experience.

In a Challenging Economic Climate Gainesville's Buick GMC Completes $2 Million Dollar Renovation

[Gainesville, FL], August 21, 2012:  Wade Raulerson Buick GMC has been entrenched in the Gainesville community as a family owned dealership (under a few names) for over 30 years and in 2012 has undergone a major face-lift amounting to $2 Million Dollars for the Tampa-based Morgan Auto Group. 

“We feel good about the store’s reputation in the past but we wanted to show customers (new and current guests) that we believe in the Buick GMC brand and want to provide them with a better experience,” said Wade Raulerson Buick GMC owner Larry Morgan.

“Times are challenging and Gainesville residents have many options when it comes to their new or used car purchase. We wanted to say that we are serious about earning their business.”

The remodel brings a covered and climate controlled service drive and write up area to Gainesville’s Buick GMC franchise as well as a remodeled showroom to showcase current models. “For the first time in maybe forever we will have our cars right inside our showroom to demo for our guests,” recalled General Manager Andrew Vislosky.

The facility will add increased capacity and comfort for service guests, media and business access for those who need to work while they wait and a children’s play area.

“I lived here in Gainesville for three years while working with our Buick GMC store. I made some fantastic relationships here and Gainesville is a special place to me,” offered Larry’s son and partner Brett Morgan.

“We continue to invest in Gainesville not based on today’s market conditions but because we are positive about the future here in Gainesville.” The remodel is set to be completed by the 1^st week of November.

MINI targets Growth and counts recent Success

At their annual Regional MINI meeting in Atlanta, GA MINI USA targeted growth and opportunity while lauding the year’s successes including MINI of Wesley Chapel’s state of the art new facility and franchise.

The United States have become MINI’s largest market and are quickly, in light of BMW’s woes in China, becoming a real focus for BMW as well. MINI targets growth to 100,000 units annually by 2016; which would be a 34% increase for the manufacturer. They also state they will double sales of CPO (certified pre-owned MINI’s) in four years.

The New MINI Paceman Concept is Coming Soon

A large part of their strategy is to fix quality issues inside the brand. MINI has vowed to improve JD Powers initial quality issues which are the single black eye in one of the US’s most exciting car brands. MINI plans to add a few points as well which has not typically been a part of the MINI growth strategy.

MINI also plans new product launches with Paceman, which will be the first MINI to feature a rear boot badge. While MINI is careful not to lose it’s “MINI” appeal it has targeted the larger small car segment (Countryman) as a real growth opportunity. Nationwide events like Dragon and “MINI takes the States” have become more less a cultural phenomenon and will continue to be a point of MINI’s brand awareness strategy. Awareness of the brand is a challenge amongst a humble ad budget and small dealer body but the upcoming MINI advertising campaign will attempt to resonate with the unique proposition and personality of MINI and MINI buyers.

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Toyota Unleashes New Slogan; Promise of 8 new models in 2013

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Categories: Toyota Corporate

September 12, 2012
Toyota Provides Annual National Dealer Meeting Highlights
LAS VEGAS, NV (September 12, 2012) -- Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. held its annual Toyota division national dealer meeting here yesterday attended by representatives from over 1,400 of Toyota’s U.S. dealers. Speakers included Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) President Akio Toyoda, Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc. (TMS) Chairman and Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) Executive Advisor Yoshi Inaba, TMS President and CEO Jim Lentz, Toyota Division Senior Vice President Automotive Operations, Bob Carter, Toyota Division Group Vice President and General Manager Bill Fay and Vice President-Scion Doug Murtha.

Mr. Toyoda shared his vision for the company and his focus on collaboration as a key contributor to the company’s success moving forward, when speaking about the new tag line, “Let’s Go Places.” Some key points from his speech included:
“Let’s Go Places,” Toyota’s engaging new tagline, reflects the company’s commitment to more exciting products and the promise that customers are invited to take part in shaping Toyota’s future. The new tagline will be integrated into all of Toyota’s national and regional advertising in 2013.
Collaboration not only within Toyota, but across the industry and with key businesses in other industries. Mr. Toyoda pointed out recently formed alliances with Tesla, Microsoft, Salesforce.com as well as BMW and a partnership with Ford on the development of an advanced new hybrid system for light trucks and SUVs. These collaborations help the company stretch beyond its own boundaries and create cars that will improve the lives of customers.
While acknowledging that his vision of collaborating with competitors may seem unorthodox, Mr. Toyoda explained, “Let all of us in this industry strive to make the best cars we can and work together for the greater good of all our customers.”

Highlights from other executive speeches included:
Seven new or updated Toyota and Scion vehicles launched in 2013. The company continues its commitment to building in the U.S. with strong product cadence including the new Avalon and others.
Toyota’s Sales Recovery. Customer loyalty was key to realizing the strong and successful recovery. Toyota’s U.S. sales are up 31 percent from last year, while the industry is up only 14 percent. The company expects to sell over 2 million vehicles in 2012 – the first time since 2008.
Prius family launch. The brand continues its success and domination of the hybrid market with more than 50 percent market share.
The launch of the new generation Camry. The passenger car sales leader launched successfully, resulting in large gains appealing to younger drivers and families. The average Camry buyer is now just 52 years old, down from 60 years old previously and below the segment average of 58. There are 7.5 million Camrys on the road today, and Camry continues to have the highest owner retention in the segment.
Toyota’s commitment to putting a fuel cell vehicle on the road by 2015. Toyota is researching bio-fuels and next-generation materials to help make vehicles that will be lighter, safe and more fuel-efficient. Telematics, another area of investment for the company, will contain research into car-connectivity technology such as gesture recognition and an autonomous car project that would help eliminate driver distraction and improve safety innovations.
Toyota is committed to the communities in which it does business. Since 1991 the company has given nearly $600 million to charities in the U.S. and with the 100 Cars for Good program in its second year, more than 200 local organizations will benefit from the use of a new vehicle to do good.
The new Customer First program. Executives lauded this new program’s launch designed to help connect customers throughout the ownership cycle, from shopping and sales to parts and service.

Media Contacts:
Celeste Migliore
Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
Celeste_migliore@toyota.com
(310) 468-4491

Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Media Line 310-468-5297


About Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
Toyota Motor Sales (TMS), U.S.A., Inc. is the marketing, sales, distribution and customer service arm of Toyota, Lexus and Scion. Established in 1957, TMS markets products and services through a network of more than 1,400 Toyota, Lexus and Scion dealers. Toyota directly employs more than 34,000 people in the U.S. and sold more than 1.76 million vehicles in 2010.

For more information about Toyota, visit www.toyota.com, www.lexus.com, www.scion.com or www.toyotanewsroom.com.
Tags:
toyota national dealer meeting corporate

Honda of Ocala (Case Study): Using Facebook Offers to Drive RO Counts

I am smack dab in the middle of my first trial using Facebook Offers to drive repair order counts at one of our stores. My guinea pig is our Honda of Ocala dealership. I am using Honda of Ocala cause we are smack dab in the middle of a car giveaway as well and that Facebook page has quite a bit of new fans (many not our core customers) and lots of activity.

http://www.facebook.com/HondaOfOcala/ 

1) Choosing the Offer:

The offer we chose was one that had done well in previous mail outs. I wanted to make sure that the offer would never be in question only Facebook's ability to get customers attention and to get to try our service center.

One thing I have realized is that with our mail outs we had more of a captive audience: our past customer. Also most of that audience was familiar with our location and more than likely still owned a Honda vehicle. On Facebook especially within the contest of our Civic giveaway we have less than a focused target. Our Facebook fans (knowing 70% of our fans had come in the last 30 days) more than likely drove other makes and models.

What I am getting to is that perhaps our offer could have been more focused on those that drove other makes outside of the Honda brand. Also a more inexpensive offer with less bundled "features" may have been a better approach. So moving forward our next offer may be simplified at a lower price point with a focus on non-Honda customers.

2) Implementation:

The offer was built as our "Facebook Special" and was "re-shared" across our platform each day and promoted as well for $5.00. We decided to promote the ad so that "friends of our fans" would have exposure to the ad as well.

We created a separate operation code for our DMS system and began the offer on Friday August 10th at around 3pm. While it is only Tuesday of the following week and we only have around 5 coupon redemptions it's probably not too early to look at the success of the campaign from an impressions and "claimed" standpoint.

Our most successful post was our first "Offer launch" on the 10th.

3) Results of First Post

As of today we have had 828 organic impressions through our timeline. We have a little more than 1100 Facebook fans but this seems to be a good number.

The key here is seeing over 2,600 "Viral" shares meaning that our fans shared the offer to their friends. This increasingly supports the notion that people can and will use Facebook to seek and find offers much like a Groupon or discount website.

The remaining impressions were 1150 some "paid" and supported listings working out to about 4,655 total post impressions.

4) Conclusion of our " Honda of Ocala " case study:

As of current date (5 days after launch) we have 33 offers claimed with a combined reach of 8,558 and 87 Engaged Users and 65 Clicks resulting from low cost promotions. Total dollar amount spent $30.55 in promoted ad spend. Conclusion will have to wait to see who has actually come into our facility off the offer but so far Facebook looks like a viable campaign medium for our Service department.

http://www.hondaofocala.com
http://www.morganautogroup.com
http://www.facebook.com/MorganAutoGroup

Sam Raabe promoted to general sales manager at Brandon Honda

Sam Raabe promoted to general sales manager at Brandon Honda

Tampa, FL – July 19, 2012 – Sam Raabe has been promoted to general sales manager at Brandon Honda. Mr. Raabe is originally from Ocala and was formerly employed at Morgan Auto Group’s Honda of Ocala in sales and finance for eight years before joining their Brandon Honda dealership earlier this year as its business manager.

In his new role, Mr. Raabe oversees the day-to-day new and pre-owned vehicle sales operations of the dealership. “I’m excited to have the opportunity to clearly focus the dealership on the art of true customer service,” said Mr. Raabe. “All too often, managers get caught up in managing the bottom line, rather than focusing on their customer relationships. I’ve always found that if you just put the customer first, success will always follow.”

“Sam embraces the unique Brandon Honda brand of customer centric services that we want every sales representative to provide every customer, every day,” said owner John Marazzi. “He and his team are boldly moving us forward in a way that distinguishes us from other area automobile dealerships.”   

Brandon Honda was acquired by Morgan Auto Group and John Marazzi in August 2011 and is located at 9209 E. Adamo Drive in Tampa, FL 33619, one mile west of I-75 on Route 60. Their exclusive eight-point Brandon Honda Promise includes a free lifetime and extended warranties, breakdown coverage, and price protection for buyer peace of mind. For more information, call 813-664-1234 or visit http://www.BrandonHonda.com/.

5th Annual Morgan Auto Group Charity Basketball Tournament - Success!

On July 15th 2012 the Morgan Auto Group hosted their 5th Annual Charity Basketball Tournament to benefit the Helping Hand Fund (an employee emergency relief fund).

The tournament boasted ten teams from our car stores and affiliated companies: Highway Safety Devices, Brandon Honda, Honda of Ocala, Honda of Gainesville, Wade Raulerson Buick GMC, Ford of Port Richey, Creative Sign Designs, BMW of Sarasota/MINI of Wesley Chapel, Toyota of Tampa Bay and Moore & Scarry Advertising.

Highway Safety Devices overcame a 1st half deficit of 15 points to take the championship, overcoming a very strong Brandon Honda team that had blown past Ford of Port Richey and Honda of Ocala.

Honda of Gainesville fell in the other semi-final game to Highway Safety Devices.

Authorized Free Agent Tanner Boyle was acquired by Ford of Port Richey for a $1000 dollar donation but then sold to Highway Safety Devices (who were playing with only five men) for another $500 dollar donation.

The tournament for the first time was moved from Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Clearwater, FL to the Long Center where three games could be played simultaneously. Each team was guaranteed at least two games (win or lose) and many teams (those who had play in games) ended up going 3 games.

Award Winners:

Tournament Winner - Highway Safety Devices

Consolation Bracket Winner - Toyota of Tampa Bay

Philanthropy Award (Money Raised) - Toyota of Tampa Bay

"HORSE" Award - John Marazzi (BH) defeated John Gliem (TOTB)

Three Point Competition - Tony Suares (Moore & Scarry)

Tournament Highlights: 


Authorized Free Agent: Tanner Boyle in the "Decision" 

Tournament Highlights: 


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r15o1spry8&feature=plcp