Last week, Community Tire Prosbroke ground on their new Community Salsa Garden project. According to their website, Community Tire Garden is focused on providing a neighborhood salsa garden and educating about the love of Mother nature and all she has to offer in the "Joy of Gardening!" The site will also feature education, on-site cooking Chefs, seasonal events, creative recycled Tire art, fun kid projects and more. Check out the video of the groundbreaking, and be sure to visit if you're in the area. Congrats, Community Tire team!
In two weeks, foodies will descend on Houston to rub elbows with some of the finest names in cooking - names like Paula, Pepin, Giada, and Chevy.
...Chevy?
That's right - MetroCooking Houstin this year will be sponsored by none other than Lone Star Chevrolet, not only the top Chevy dealer in Houston, but one of the top Chevy dealers nationwide. They also happen to be AskPatty Certified Female Friendly®.
When we heard that Lone Star was sponsoring a cooking show, we responded with applause and enthusiasm! You may think it sounds a little odd for a car dealership to be connected to a cooking event, but when you consider Chevy's green initiatives like the new Volt, positioning themselves to talk vehicle (and planet) nutrition alongside personal nutrition doesn't seem like such a stretch at all. Members of the Lone Star Chevy team will be at the event all weekend cooking up sizzling conversation and providing some great additions to the already impressive roster of guests.
The
Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show is a two-day food-lover’s
event featuring hundreds of exhibitors, cooking demos, tastings,
workshops, book signings and appearances by Food Network celebrities.
MetroCooking Houston presented by Lone Star Chevrolet & The Houston
Chronicle will take place September 15-16 at Reliant Center. Highlights
include appearances from Paula Deen, Jacques Pepin and Giada De Laurentiis; a Regional Cooking Stage honoring The James Beard Foundation
with local chefs including Hugo Ortega, Kiran Verma, Jamie Zelko,
Ronnie Killen, Michael Cordúa and Rebecca Masson; and a shopping
marketplace featuring hundreds of purveyors of specialty foods and
entertainment necessities plus cooking demonstrations, tastings and
hands-on workshops.
AskPatty.com and the Certified Female Friendly® program are sponsoring the first ever Diversity Women's Issues track at a large automotive industry event during the 2012 AutoConnections Conference & Expo September 5- 8th at the Aria Hotel in Las Vegas.
We know that customers only use a body shop once every seven years on average. For this reason, marketing to the end user is tougher than most other industries. To make matters worse, the insurance company is engaged in almost constant dialog with your customers. This relationship allows them to direct (steer) customers towards body shops that succumb to their demands and play by their rules. What commercials do your customers see on TV? Insurance companies dominate the airwaves but they aren’t the ones fixing your car and they don’t necessarily have the shop owners’ best interest in mind. If they did, they would always use the specifications and recommendations of the car manufacturer to use original parts when necessary, and not using aftermarket or used parts that are not recommended and take much more to install.
So how do we create our own relationships with the customers? Traditional advertising can miss the mark, and the message may be lost by the time they need your services. There are other sources of information for traditional marketing and advertising techniques, such as radio, tv and print media. I want to to discuss other ways you can make a lasting impression when reaching potential customers that may only need your services once or twice a decade.
We’re fighting an uphill battle. How do we connect with new customers when most of them let the insurance company tell them where to take their car? There are several methods for making an impression and getting your message out, here a few that I’ve used successfully.
Marketing to Women Case Study: FIAT of Austin Lisa Copeland, General Manager
FIAT of Austin sales numbers are still steadily rising with a startling 63.7% of vehicles sold to women car buyers.
FIAT of Austin sales numbers are still steadily rising with a startling 63.7% of vehicles sold to women car buyers. The FIAT of Austin studio experience is currently the #1 FIAT dealer in the US and opened their doors just last year in March of 2011. Lisa Copeland is the innovative GM who heads up this success, her passion is focused on improving the dealership experience for women, and gaining market-share by focusing on the women car buyer.
Half her dealers — and half her managers — are women, in a business where women often don’t like car shopping. One is not overwhelmed with choices. There are two models: A hatchback and a convertible. They come in six trims. Copeland’s store has sold more than 850 in just over a year.
“In all my years in the car business, I’ve never been so energized,” Lisa Copeland, GM says. “The No. 1 thing people say is they like the experience. No pressure. I don’t want someone to take a FIAT out of here if they don’t love it.”
Graff Chevrolet is proud to serve the auto dealership needs of cities such as Bay City, Midland, Saginaw, Mount Pleasant, Essexville, Pinconning, Coleman, Sanford, Carrollton, Frankenmuth, St. Charles, Birch Run, and Zilwaukee. They provide exceptional customer service, a warm and friendly environment, are heavily involved in community events and recently completed their training to become AskPatty.com Certified Female Friendly®.
Note: The population of Bay City Michigan is 33,780.
Case Study
Event: Facebook initiative aimed at reaching women and families to build stronger brand perception of Graff Chevrolet as a welcoming family friendly place to shop for and maintain their cars.
Promoted through Facebook, Twitter and Word of Mouth
Results
1. Facebook Fan Base grew from 960 to over 3600, a gain of 2600 during the 7 days of the initiative
2. Capture of over 2600 new opt-in new contacts for women to send follow up marketing and advertising
3. Sold 2 New Family oriented vehicles
4. Highest level achieved in interactions with women on Facebook
5. Low attrition rate of new Facebook fans gained during initiative (-70 in 30 days)
Quote from Lisa Kusey-Rechsteiner Graff Chevrolet, Inc. General Manager on the success of the initiative:
"We weren't really sure what to expect. We knew that the Great Lakes Bay Region has many adorable babies, but weren't sure as to how many photos would be entered into the contest. What a terrific community turn out! We received over 560 baby photos to enter into the contest. Many of these photos still receive daily visits and comments on Facebook yet today, which is two weeks after the contest conclusion. This couldn't have been facilitated without the help of our internal T.E.C. (text, email, call) Center and our website company Xspond out of Brighton, Michigan."
This year’s 8th Annual M2W® – The Marketing To Women Conference, was a re-charge fo rme full of research, data, cases and companies that show how marketing-to-women makes great business sense. It was even suggested that “marketing-to-women” be called simply “marketing” after a research presentation based on interviews with 20,000 consumers worldwide revealed that women’s purchasing power globally exceeds 20 trillion.
Some of the session that were very relevant to my readership, company, clients and the automotive sector included:
Marketing A Male Dominated Category To Women - Panel Moderator: Stephen Reily, Vibrant Nation. Panelists: Garry Rosenfeldt, Midas; Onney Crawley, Craftsman Lawn & Garden, Sears; Hilary Shaev, NBA; Suly Salazar-Layton, Genworth Financial; Claudia Garber, Harley-Davidson Motor Company
Women Want More: How to Capture Your Share of the World’s Largest, Fastest-Growing Market - Michael Silverstein, Boston Consulting Group
Eve-olution: Why Women Rule the Web - Amy Janis, Yahoo!
Black Women: Diverse, Strong, Moving Forward and Under the Radar - Pepper Miller, The Hunter Miller Group
Workshop: How to Avoid Extremism in Marketing to Women... As Told By A Man - Gerald A. Carrafiello, The Gate Worldwide
Never mind. I will break it up into a series <adjusts title of post>. Read on!
I loved my Acura. She was this little blue sporty car, with leather seats and a good grip on the road. She cornered well, had a nice growl when you pushed the gas pedal, and I could drop the gears and pass almost anyone on a hill. I LOVED her. And I bought her on my own. She was my first. I wanted to have her forever.
If I had the money (and a partner who wouldn’t divorce me and a garage that could hold three cars), I would have kept her as a fun car, maybe even finally modifying her as a hobby. Because other than changing out the audio and adding in Bluetooth and a reverse sensor, she was stock. I bet she would corner really well if she was dropped a bit.
This photo is of us back in 2006, the year after I bought her. Funny, I've had several hair colors and styles since then but I am back to dark and long.
This was taken for Ask Patty when I worked there. You can even read my article on why I bought her.
There are many wonderful talented women in the auto industry holding important roles in the dealership arena. Women can make a difference in this industry. They are smart, hardworking, can think outside of the box and genuinely want to make a difference in the outside world! There is story upon story of successful women who fought hard to get where they are today. Two women that stand out to me is Tammy Darvish Vice President of DARCARS Auto Group. I read Tammy's book and it gave me an insight to dealers that I had not known and I have been in the automotive industry for 21 years! Another woman I had the pleasure to meet is Cherie Watters, General Manager of three dealerships in the Los Angeles area. Cherie won the Women's Automotive Spirit of Leadership Award. During the downturn Cherie went to work one day and found the dealership where she worked had shut their doors. A year later Cherie found a buyer for another dealership and opened Puente HIlls Hyundai with all of her team following her! She now is General Manager for three dealerships.
I attended the PCG Digital Marketing Strategy Conference as well as the National Automobile Dealers Assocation convention with Jody DeVere CEO of AskPatty.com recently.
My impression of dealers and experiences with dealerships as a consumer has not been positive. I have many stories of how I was treated as a women and as a customer by several dealers with unsatisfactory customer service. So my perception going to this conference was more on a negative view.
What I saw and learned over the past several days is you cannot judge a book by it cover. What I found is many dealers want to have the best customer service to all of their customers no matter what the demographics are. They make a concerted effort to try and understand what will make a customer happy. The are placing emphasis on the experience of you buying the car. Yes,the car is important, but what is going to make the customer feel different about the experience of purchasing a car from my dealership.
Spent a week in Vegas leading up and over Super Bowl weekend immersed in the world of car dealerships, auto makers and the best and brightest minds at the Digital Marketing Strategies Conference (DMSC) and attending the National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) convention. Wanted to share some highlights to give you an insider view of what goes on behind the scenes with highlights of what happens when 20,000 automotive industry professionals gather in Las Vegas!
Digital Marketing Strategies Conference (DMSC) Tuesday - Friday
Best Speaker by far was Inspiration Speaker - Todd Durkin, CEO of Fitness Quest 10 Strategy. If you ever have the opportunity, run do not walk to hear this man speak! He will energize you and the entire room.
Fitness Quest 10 is a premier health and human performance facility in San Diego CA. We specializing in Sports Performance, Personal Training, Massage Therapy, Pilates, and Yoga. Owner and founder, Todd Durkin, is a leader in the fitness industry training athletes like LaDainian Tomlinson, Drew Brees, Carson Palmer, and Reggie Bush just to name a few. Todd’s passion for health and fitness has lead Fitness Quest 10 to be recently named one of the top 10 training facilities in America by the nationally publicized Men’s Health magazine. To find out more information about Fitness Quest 10 please visit his website at www.FitnessQuest10.com.
Lots of thought leaders and awesome workshops during DSMC on social media strategies and connecting with shoppers at ZMOT, Winning the Zero Moment of Truth, a new Google 75 page FREE eBook. Attended social gathering galore with some of the brightest minds in the industry. Had the opportunity to keynote on "What is Your Strategy To Dominate Your Market with Women Buyers?" to rally dealerships to deliver a WOW experience to women.
Thank you Brian and Glenn Pasch and PCG Digital for including me in this powerful thought leader educational event.
