Intelligent Marketing Plan Helped Brickell Motors Grow 1000% Under the leadership of Mario Murgado, President and CEO, Brickell Motors has sold more Honda and GM vehicles in the last 10 years than over the previous thirty years combined by using intelligent, innovative and integrated marketing strategies that have helped the organization grow over 1000%. To build a successful business, Murgado knew he would need a highlyeffective marketing strategy to affect multiple marketing mediums including traditional, digital, targeted, social,
media, publicity, niche marketing, and reputation management. Murgado also felt strongly that pro-active involvement in the local community and effective advertising to the local Latino population would be key to the success of the Brickell organization. This Success Story highlights some of the processes and practices that Brickell Motors has developed to grow its organization over 1000% by attracting, servicing and retaining more customers profitably for less cost in a competitive metropolitan market.
The basis of Brickell’s strategy begins with market research. Brickell sought to identify consumers with the highest statistical probability of doing business with their dealerships and to target those customers and prospects with custom messaging based on the status of their vehicle. “We use a combination of manufacturer research, Polk market data and the dealer’s historic sales and service trends to map out which customers to target now and in the future,” said Budd Blackburn, owner of www.TeamVelocityMarketing, the targeted marketing company that
Success Story Brickell Motors uses. “With the market data and our state-of-the-art print technology Brickell not only targets the best customers, but is also able to talk intelligently to their customers based on their vehicle status,” Blackburn added. Brickell’s marketing strategy consistently communicates a cohesive message throughout the five year life cycle of the customer that begins by thanking new customers, providing maintenance and service reminders, recall notices, and extended service warranty information. Brickell also has sales retention campaigns that target off-lease and retail finance customers. All Brickell’s customer communications are delivered with a message that is unique to the customer’s status whether they are due for minor service or are eligible to upgrade to a new vehicle.
Additionally, Brickell incorporates bilingual messaging on all its marketing given the large Latino population in the Miami metropolitan area. With approximately 50 million Hispanics living in the U.S. Latinos are the fastest growing demographic in the nation and represent over half of Brickell’s market. “For us to market successfully within the Hispanic community it is important to be in-touch with the emotional, cultural and traditional values of the community,” said Murgado. Brickell has always been actively involved in the community partnering early on with Camillus House, a non-profit organization that provides humanitarian services to men, women and children who are poor and homeless. “Camillus House extended its hands to the first Cubans who ar-
rived in this country. Partnering with this organization was a way to tell the community ‘we are here for you’, and we are still here for them today,” said Murgado. With the continued growth of the Hispanic and Latino population nationwide it is essential for dealers to understand how to market effectively to this demographic and Murgado’s background gives him a natural sensibility that is authentic. “It is very easy to work with Mario to market Brickell Motors because he is deeply involved and respected in the community so he is very aware of what consumers want and what they will respond to,” said Sean Wolfington, owner of www.Tier10marketing.com, the company that does all of Brickell Motors’ marketing in both Spanish and English. “There are more Latinos in the
In a Nutshell Brickell Motors has sold more Honda and GM vehicles in the last 10 years than over the previous thirty years by implementing an intelligent marketing strategy across all marketing mediums. • Brickell Motors conducts in-depth market research to nd customers with the highest statistical probability of buying or servicing a vehicle with their dealership. • Brickell targets the best in-market customers and prospects with custom messaging specic to the customer’s vehicle status. • Brickell Motors uses Video Search Engine Optimization (VSEO) to appear on top of the search engines for the most popular search phrases in their market. • Brickell has a comprehensive bi-lingual marketing strategy that targets the growing Latino community. • Brickell monitors all customer phone calls to ensure sales and service calls are being handled properly and alert management so they can save a deal today and customers over the long term. • The Brickell organization is deeply involved in the local community.
Success Story
Brickell Honda Promotional Materials
Success Story U.S. than there are Spaniards in Spain or Canadians in Canada, it is imperative to know how to market effectively to this population.” Always looking for opportunities to reach out to the community, Brickell also developed a special niche marketing program for local teachers with a “Back to School” promotion that honored all Miami area public and private school teachers with an exclusive special of only $50.00 over Brickell employee pricing on any new Honda in-stock, and the teachers kept all incentives. “We consider today’s educators pillars of the community who continue to educate our youth during a time of unprecedented budget cuts and economic adversity. We would like to extend this special thank you to them,” said Murgado. Their investment in the community is sincere, whether through special teacher programs or charitable works the Brickell organization is a true member of the community. Brickell’s commitment to outstanding customer sales and service has made them a stand-out in the Miami area. They are rated the #1 Honda Dealer in Miami by Google reviews so when you google Brickell Honda every result is positive which is not typical for most dealers. “To make it easy for our customers we built a web site, www.BrickellMotorsReviews.com, that gives our customers step-by-step instructions on how to share their positive reviews,” Murgado explained.
Brickell is also a member of the Automotive Advertising Network (AAN), the 3rd most popular lead generation platform, after Auto Trader and Cars. com, which generates thousands of in-bound links that increase Brickell’s online ranking. “If you search google for “Miami Honda”, Brickell Honda pops-up as the first Honda dealer for the region and in a competitive online market that’s where you want to be – on top,” said David Boice, co-founder of AAN (www.automomotiveadvertisingnetwork.com). Brickell also utilizes Video Search Engine Optimization (VSEO) to appear at the top of search engines for highly competitive search phrases. Consumers in the Miami market who search for vehicles online immediately find positive videos about Brickell and the cars they sell because Google gives 55 times more authority to video than text results, said Karry Moore, President of www.Car-mercial.com, the VSEO company that Brickell uses. “Video combines the power of sight, sound and motion that gets the customer excited and drives them to Brickell,” added Moore. Murgado has a passion for excellence and sets the bar high for his employees to make sure that every customer is handled with the utmost care, “We strive to clearly and honestly explain the products and services that we offer. Our customers want to be respected and understood, and it’s up to us to make this happen,” said Murgado. “Every call that comes into the dealer-
ship is monitored 24/7 and we send realtime alerts so the dealership can repair broken relationships before it’s too late,” said Chip King, owner of www.CallRevu. com, the company Brickell uses. “This system also helps us track our advertising to see what marketing initiatives are generating the most response – it’s a real eye-opener when you discover that calls you thought were simply coming in off our web site are actually initiating from other campaigns that directed consumers to our web sites. It helps us prioritize our marketing dollars more efficiently,” Murgado explained. “We spend a lot of money to attract customers and we want to make sure we exceed their expectations. My managers are alerted immediately whenever a potential problem or concern arises so that we can quickly reach out to the customer and hopefully fix whatever concerns they may have and create a customer for life,” said Murgado.
Teacher Appreciation Program