A dealership depends on its name. Visibility and name recognition grab attention. The goal is to elevate your name to function as a leader in the industry. The thought of a dealership should immediately bring to mind your name. This is accomplished by the community, the people buying selling and utilizing the dealership’s services. Effective placement of your dealership’s name comes in putting it at the center of the community.
A large focus of automotive marketing efforts where dealerships are concerned are to develop name recognition. Car sales depend on relationships to the dealers and the dealer’s larger relationship to the community. Your name must become household but it must do so in the correct way. The old adage that all attention is good attention is not always true with regard to the automotive industry. If the public knows your name due to advertisements that drive them crazy, that’s a negative association to your name. They know your name immediately but they know it as they say “I hate (Dealership Name)’s ads.” They then fumble to change the channel, switch radio stations or roll their eyes at billboards. The advertisements and the creative that bears the dealership’s name has to be very well done. Advertisements that rely on annoyance to stick in the minds of the public are detrimental to the company. Create a positive name recognition by monitoring the types of ads you produce. Your name and your reputation can be your most valuable commodity to move units.
Dealers, every time you ask for a withdrawal from the community, make sure you’ve given them something twice before. Making deposits in the community will elevate your dealership in the minds of the public and help promote your name in the right way. To sponsor one specific children’s sports team is not enough. It’s a start. It’s a charitable deposit into the community but your name has to be everywhere as do your employees. If your dealership’s name is after the owner, allow them to be the face of community deposits. The work never stops in promoting a name. It is like inflating a beach ball with a hole in it. If you’re diligent about pumping it with air, it’s going to function well. If you stop putting air in, it will quickly lose steam. The name of your dealership will deflate as well if your ratio of deposits and withdrawals are off.
Your dealership provides transportation and safety to the people of the community. Your service facilitates their everyday lives and their business keeps your lights on. Local car dealerships and the communities they serve are so connected and intertwined that the most detrimental thing a dealership could do to their own business is to not invest in the community.
