Why Dealer Programs Can't Be One-Size-Fits-All

This has been generated by AI and optimized by a human. 

[00:00:00] Steven: I think what's most important about localizing dealer program is really that there's no one size fits all in dealer land. You could have a great dealer in one market who is incredibly successful, and also a really small rooftop, a really small operation, and dealer programs shouldn't be the same size and the same fit for that dealer as the 12-rooftop dealer on the opposite side of the country

[00:00:27] Steven: Geography matters a lot in dealer programs, especially when we look at markets like outdoor recreation, where the type of customer who buys a, power sports product like a,a motorcycle or a dirt bike in Southern California versus in Florida, very different.

[00:00:47] Steven: And it is really hard to sell somebody a boat in Florida when you keep showing them visuals and messaging from the Midwest. they just don't align, [00:01:00] and so many marketing programs are nationally run over top of, really segmented localized demand. 

[00:01:07] Crew: 

[00:01:07] Steven: marketing assets and creative can cause a dealer program to be super inefficient. I don't necessarily think they cause a program to fall apart. but if your marketing assets, your creative, your visuals, your copy, if those things are too generic and not fit super well to the dealers that need them, dealers aren't gonna use them.

[00:01:28] Steven: They're not gonna actually use their co-op dollars because you didn't help them see why they needed to use it. it is less so an efficiency problem than a full stop problem. 

[00:01:41] Steven: dealer program differentiation is important geographically, particularly because the buyer journeys can be different. it's not just that a customer buys a different product, buys a center console boat in Florida versus a pontoon boat in the Midwest. Like, create some core messaging [00:02:00] challenges to differentiate, but also the buyer journey length is likely to be different between those, those two markets. So, one of them might require direct mail while the other one might not. or when you look at markets in Florida, for example, it's a seasonal residency, so it's sometimes hard to use direct mail in that market and ensure that you're showing up when the customer's actually in their residence. If they have a six-month buying cycle, you wanna hit them around, four or five months in advance with the direct mail from the OEM, uh, or through a co-op program.

[00:02:34] Steven: But the real question is, especially in a marketing role at an OEM, where can I adjust what we're already doing? Do my ads talk to your local market? Do they resonate with, your buyers? Has any buyer ever said, "I saw an ad"? And if they did, which one was it? get some feedback from the ground level people talking to customers who walk in the door and see what they're [00:03:00] saying.

[00:03:00] Steven: But see through that as the dealer explaining to you the type of customers who are showing up. it's about horsepower and the dealer's saying you should have had something about horsepower in your marketing, it's really them saying you should be talking to a, performance enthusiast version of this audience better.

[00:03:21] Steven: Your messaging needs to be more performance-oriented and that's the feedback you're looking for. So you've got to translate the dealer speak a little bit, but the answers are there every time. 

[00:03:33] Crew: 

[00:03:33] Steven: A lot of OEMs will only have data on who buys based off of warranty registrations or maybe even, like DMV registration data. it's a very late stage look at retail activity. Sometimes those dots don't connect with the manufacturer's campaign.

[00:03:50] Steven: and also, sometimes, if a manufacturer's running a, a big national campaign and the dealer's running a super local campaign, [00:04:00] sometimes even those data points don't connect. So you've got a buyer journey. You're tracking this customer, like, the whole time they're interacting with the OEM.

[00:04:08] Steven: they become a lead. There's a three-month gap where n- no one hears anything from them, and then suddenly they show up on a retail registration report or a warranty registration report. That gap between tracking in the OEM and tracking with the dealer doesn't have to exist.

[00:04:25] Steven: It exists today because a lot of OEMs just hand off uh, a lead to the dealer and expect the dealer to take over. That sharp edge shouldn't exist, and there's a, a data thread, both in media and in co-op programs and helping a dealer who might not have access to, uh, walk-in traffic measurement or, some, geospatial ad tracking.

[00:04:50] Steven: Helping dealers through that, and connecting the dots, creating a, a buyer journey that exists and is trackable from the first moment they interact with [00:05:00] an OEM ad and the moment they become an actual registered owner. That creates an attribution value. It not just helps the OEM, with the return on their investment, but helps the OEM build co-op programs and marketing programs that dealers want to use, that dealers can see their effectiveness, and that are, easy to sell both to OEM leadership and dealer leadership.

[00:05:27] Steven: I think there's a world where both the OEM and the dealer can be contributing shared data. They might not even have a full-time marketing person to stand up a local ad program that has, walk-in traffic measurement, that has, you know, any type of, geographic, like, targeting or tracking associated with, their campaign.

[00:05:51] Steven: That becomes really difficult for them to add. The OEM can provide that at scale, as an extension of their national campaign with relatively [00:06:00] low resource impact. It's about creating these branches that are supported by co-op programs that give dealers access to the latest ad tracking technology, to the latest data about how these customers behave before they get to the dealership and after they leave the dealership.