ORLANDO, Fla. -

It’s not uncommon these days to find a dealership that will turn to the service lane or reach out to its existing customer base to generate a trade-in and boost its used inventory.

But these are current and/or prior customers; what about advertising to the public and telling them, “We’ll buy your car if you buy one from us”?

According to FirstLook, it’s becoming more popular as dealers think outside-the-box in their efforts to pull in much-needed used supply

In fact, director of product marketing Steve Miner said a “really large” dealership group that works with FirstLook took all of its group advertising and put it toward marketing a “we buy” program in an “all-encompassing” approach that included everything from billboards to TV and radio ads.

“You’re seeing a lot more of the ‘we buy’-type programs, where they’re mirroring the CarMax approach; ‘We’ll buy your car if you buy one from us,’” Miner told Auto Remarketing during an interview at the NADA Convention & Expo in Orlando, Fla.  

(Note: CarMax says it buys consumer vehicles even if the consumer doesn't buy from CarMax)

To illustrate how dealers can take advantage of such a program, Minor pointed to the following example. FirstLook has found that 77 percent of traffic coming into a dealership comes from either the Web or a referral from a family member or friend.  

“The interesting part is, spending is not necessarily mapped in the same way,” he added.

Miner talked about how dealers are pumping a good bit of money into TV, radio and newspaper advertising – “and not to say that’s not still a vital channel” — but suggested those dollars could possibly be better spent to “advertise the ‘we buy’ program that you have, so that you draw people to your store (and) you’re buying more of those trade-in-like vehicles” that can generate profits.

So how should a dealer go about advertising such a program? Well, it depends on whom you’re trying to reach, Miner said.

“My dad is 62 and still reads the newspaper from cover to cover every day. But if you’re looking at buyers in their 20s or 30s, they don’t pick up the newspaper; they read it online,” he said.

And as FirstLook chief executive officer Jeff Summers pointed out during the interview, “Even though this is a very specialized industry, a lot of the basic advertising and marketing concepts still apply.”

Summers went on to emphasize that it’s not just about throwing an ad out there advertising a program, but “thinking the campaign all the way through” each step of the process.

“To build the value at all steps of the process,” Miner chimed in. That means it’s not just about the actual ads; for instance, you’ve got to continue emphasizing the value when the customer gets to the lot. “And this is true whether you’re advertising the cars or advertising the program.”
 

Joe Overby can be reached at joverby@autoremarketing.com. Continue the conversation with Auto Remarketing on both LinkedIn and Twitter.