If you do you should listen to what the Chief Marketing Officer for the Craig Zin Automotive Group, Micah Blehm (pictured right), shared at Radio Ink’s Hispanic Radio Conference on Wednesday. Blehm was part of a panel moderated by Gary Rozynek and included Mindy Figueroa from L2L Marketing.
Blehm had no automotive experience when he was brought in to work with one of the most successful automotive dealers in the country. However, his knowledge of how to market (he worked for Neiman Marcus and started his own modeling agency) was the key to why the auto group continues to succeed and grow in an ad category very important to radio.
Blehm came in when the group was spending a ton of money on radio, but they were not gauging results. He figured out his own way how to gauge the results radio could bring the dealership by creating the “Lexus Social Club.” The dealer would never mention price or payments in ads, like just about every other auto dealer on the radio does. His announcers are not shouting at listeners, which tends to turn listeners off, especially millennials. Subaru would sponsor community outreach events, for example an event at the local Humane Society.
Blehm would also take over a radio station’s website and have the station push listeners to the website where they would register for a chance to win tickets to an intimate concert event, sponsored by Subaru. In reality, listeners were on a landing page and Blehm was capturing all the listeners information and creating a database for the dealership. He was also gauging the results from the radio station, something he was not able to do when they were only running spots.
Blehm explains why the dealership is not pushing sales or low payments. “We promote safety features, radar systems, style. We want to instill an amazing experience and our radio partners have done a great job helping us get that out.”
Blehm then follows up with the database he’s created. If it’s a millennial he might send a follow-up e-mail every week. If it’s a working professional, maybe it’s once every two weeks. He says the e-mails cater to the customer’s profile with the goal of keeping them engaged. The goal is, of course, to keep the customer thinking of his dealership when he or she is ready to purchase a vehicle.
