February 2013 Success Story

Success Story

Jersey City Ford 2012 Sales Up 47% YOY for Jersey City Ford, Clinching No. 2 Spot in Northeast Region for December Many dealers face the ongoing challenge of how to effectively reach the right customers with the right message, bring those customers into their showroom and service bays, and keep them coming back again and again.

As consumer shopping habits continue to shift away from traditional mass media platforms like TV, print and radio, toward more targeted and digital mediums that include targeted direct email and mail, internet and mobile, dealerships must also shift their marketing practices.

Today’s most successful dealers use targeted and digital mediums that are less expensive, more measurable and give a better return on investment than traditional mass marketing. Dealers that fail to recognize and embrace the changes of these new ad mediums and consumer habits will continue to see diminishing returns with traditional mass marketing.

Jersey City Ford has always seen challenges as opportunities, but was dealt the ultimate challenge late last fall when Hurricane Sandy barreled down on the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut wreaking havoc on everything in its path. Like many in the northeast Jersey City Ford was hit hard by the storm.

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Success Story Ä CONTINUED FROM THE COVER

“Super Storm Sandy hit us hard at the end of the year, but we were able to bounce back and finish No. 2 in our region for December – which is an amazing testament to our team. Everyone dug-in and stepped up to the challenge,” said Alex Maglio, Dealer Principal of the Jersey City Ford store.

Overall, Jersey City Ford was having a good year, trending up steadily with a 47 percent increase in sales YOY for 2012, while Ford was up only 5 percent nationally. They even outpaced themselves in December clinching the No. 2 spot in the Northeast region.

Jersey City Ford has steadily gone from No. 47 in 2010 to No. 11 in its region for 2012. For Jersey City Ford to continue to keep pace when the chips were down begs for a deeper look into their overall strategy.

In late 2010 Jersey City Ford began implementing a targeted and digital marketing strategy across multiple mediums that enables them to attract, sell, service and retain more customers.

Their integrated strategy combines mediums that are less expensive, more measurable and give a better return on investment than traditional mass marketing.

Jersey City Ford began with a comprehensive five-year historical analysis of their sales and service transactions to determine customer trends. Those findings were then compared to leading third-party and industry data to establish consumer patterns within the local market. The results enabled Jersey City Ford to identify vehicle owners with the greatest probability of buying or servicing with their dealership, as well as identify samebrand owners who had never visited Jersey City Ford, and off-brand owners with a historical pattern of crossing over to Ford.

Once Jersey City Ford had more clearly defined their market, they implemented a comprehensive targeted and digital marketing strategy using variable direct mail and email campaigns that consistently speak to customers throughout the 60-month life cycle of their vehicle with custom messaging that includes: a thank you and welcome message for recent purchasers, maintenance reminders for newer vehicles not yet in-equity but that may be due for recommended maintenance, and ongoing targeted mail and email sales communications to customers in an equity position. Using high-end creative campaigns, Jersey City Ford promotes its best sales offers with custom service offers that reflect the service status of the customer’s vehicle. For example, active service customers who routinely come in for service receive a $39.95 “The Works Oil Change” coupon, but customers who are categorized as lost, or who do not regularly service with Jersey City Ford, receive the same offer but for $29.95 to encourage them to come back.

“Super Storm Sandy hit us hard at the end of the year, but we were able to bounce back and finish No. 2 in our region for December – which is an amazing testament to our team. Everyone dug-in and stepped up to the challenge.”

ALEX MAGLIO Dealer Principal

JERSEY CITY FORD STORE

Jersey City Ford also aggressively targets conquest service customers within their primary marketing area who own Fords but did not buy from them. This is unique because most dealers use the manufacturer’s service marketing program which often limits a dealer to only communicate with customers that have purchased directly from their store, but also limits the dealer from contacting numerous conquest opportunities within their market. If a dealer only has 30 percent market share, they are essentially missing out on an additional 70 percent of the area’s service market. Jersey City Ford recognized the opportunity to broaden its service marketing program with conquest and has greatly expanded their reach of potential service customers.

Another component to Jersey City Ford’s strategy is that every outbound targeted mail and email campaign directs customers to an online Campaign Conversion Site that not only displays the featured promotions of the mail or email campaign they have just received, but also shows them every sales and service offer that Jersey City Ford is currently running. If a customer is not in the market for the specific offers they receive in the mail or by email, they can check Jersey City Ford’s campaign site, www.JerseyCityFordOffers.com, for other available offers.

“Our targeted marketing helped us to keep our momentum going without missing a beat. We were able to target customers and prospects with Sandy-related special offers to help folks get their storm damaged vehicles back on the road,” said Rudy Tremenio, General Manager of Jersey City Ford. “We offered $1,000 Dealer Assistance vouchers toward any new or used vehicle – and we provided free towing and pick-up services.”

Jersey City Ford

In addition to their targeted and digital campaigns, Jersey City also implemented a unique strategy that specifically targets vehicle sales within their service lanes. This program, the “Vehicle Exchange Program” is integrated across Jersey City’s web site, campaign conversion site, the showroom and service lanes, as well as their direct mail. “The key to this program is the confirmation call to confirm the customer’s service appointment. If a customer is in an equity position, our team informs them that they are eligible to upgrade into a new vehicle for the same payment as their old vehicle,” explained Tremenio.

“So rather than wait and hope that the customer will buy from us when they’re ready, we proactively try to sell the customers in service before they enter the market and shop our competition.”

“The real value with their strategy is that it generates revenue for three of their major profit centers. It increases new car volume and service revenue because of the reconditioning required to turn a tradein into a resale, and it has a big impact on their used car business because it allows them to take in hard-to-find used cars for less than what the competition pays at auction,” says Budd Blackburn, owner of Team Velocity Marketing, the company

that Jersey City Ford uses for their sales and service marketing.

To measure the effectiveness of all their marketing strategies and ensure quality customer care, Jersey City Ford uses a call-monitoring system to track their advertising, employees, and how their customers are treated by listening to every call that comes into their dealership. They receive daily, weekly and monthly reports that enables them to see which ad campaigns generate the best response and pre-empt any potential customer concerns before they escalate – which improves their overall CSI and helps create lifelong satisfied customers.

Success Story

Success Story “Our targeted marketing helped us to keep our momentum going without missing a beat. We were able to target customers and prospects with Sandy-related special offers to help folks get their storm damaged vehicles back on the road.

We offered $1,000 Dealer Assistance vouchers toward any new or used vehicle – and we provided free towing and pick-up services.”

Jersey City Ford

STEADILY RAISES TOWARDS THE TOP

RUDY TREMENIO GENERAL MANAGER OF JERSEY CITY FORD

#11 IN THE

2012

REGION

#47 IN THE REGION

IN A NUTSHELL 2012 Sales Up 47% YOY for Jersey City Ford, Clinching No. 2 Spot in Northeast Region for December • Define their ideal local market by finding customers and prospects with the highest statistical probability of buying and/or servicing with their dealership now and in the future.

• Implement an integrated targeted and digital marketing strategy across multiple mediums that promote all their profit centers, new, used, finance, service and parts.

• Create dynamic, cohesive campaigns that consistently speak to their customers throughout the 60-month lifecycle of their vehicle.

• Consistently target in-market same-brand prospects, and consumers who drive off-brands with a historical trend of crossing over to the brands they sell.

• Establish a sales-in-service program to sell vehicles from their own service bays for your in-equity customers before they shop the competition.

• Monitor inbound calls so they know what ads are generating better response rates and pre-empt CSI issues before they escalate.

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