Developing A Marketing Strategy

Car dealership service departments are involved in one of the most ferociously competitive marketing businesses there is. Competition is fierce, and there needs to be a lot of service sales or hours generated in one year (from a limited and very transient pool of potential customers) in order to make projected profits and budgets. The most compelling factor in getting those service sales (hours generated) is giving people a reason to come through your doors, and this will require a concentrated marketing campaign.


The problem most people have in a dealership is the fact that the marketing is left to the heads of the departments who do not have formal training in marketing or advertising. Most often the service manager was a senior technician or shop foreman who was promoted through the ranks to become the department head. Therefore the service manager’s specialty is with production and procedures within the service department, not the marketing fundamentals of promoting the dealership service department to the public.

The second problem most dealerships face is the fact that most people involved in the dealership service department management team do not know the difference between advertising and marketing and most people confuse the two.

Advertising consists of the process of developing strategies such as ad placement, frequency, locations or advertising vehicles or mediums - such as print, internet, radio or television. Marketing is the detailed planning, implementation and management of a blend of business functions intended to bring together buyers and sellers, for the mutually beneficial exchange or movement of products and services.

Advertising only equals one piece of the orange in your marketing strategy. All of the aspects must not only work independently but they also must work interdependently to achieve the bigger goal. Marketing is a procedure that will take time and can involve hours of research for your marketing plan to be strategically effective. Marketing should be thought of as everything that an organization does to promote an exchange of goods or services between the dealership and its customers.

Because the automotive service industry is under unprecedented pressure to increase customer satisfaction, make sales and market to customers more efficiently, your marketing plan must have clarity, vision and a focus on what you need to accomplish. Due to the declining markets and rising industry competitiveness, customer incentive spending has been steadily climbing and this effect has been eroding profits at dealerships all over the country. Therefore a marketing plan which incorporates strategic pricing and is focused on building value to attract potential customers, and retain the customers you already have, is the key to future success.

The first steps that you need to have are Goals, objectives, and procedures, these are the most critical steps and are important to follow in growing your business. Therefore you need to:

1. Figure out where you want to take your business
2. Determine the length of time required for you to get there
3. Establish the procedures needed to achieve each step

As you are planning each of these steps, you need to contemplate your current marketing activities and pinpoint what worked and what didn’t work, and you will probably need to make some adjustments. By working through these steps, you will be better equipped to simplify the process and develop a marketing plan that makes sense for your service department.

The essence of your marketing plan is keeping your dealership in front of your customers and potential customers, the more frequently the public hears about your dealership service department, the better your chances are for achieving your brand recognition, integrity, and greater market share. Productive and effective marketing strategies are the result of exposing your target audience to your name and your selling (or value) points as often as possible, in as many ways as possible, and as cost-efficiently as possible.

Your marketing procedure and planning encompasses your plan of action to reach your marketing objectives. The difference between a marketing objective and a marketing procedure is that the objective states what you will do and a procedure states how you will do it.

I will have more over the next few days on marketing and some service initiatives to help drive some additional service traffic into your facility.

David