Next Day Traffic

Demographic Profiles of the largest and most commonly used social media sites for dealers.

• 325 million people actively using Facebook regularly
• Number two traffic site behind Google
• 50% of them are on at least once daily
• 42% males
• 55.7% females
• 150 million on Facebook at least daily
• 2/3 outside of college
• 70% over age 21
• Average age is 26
• 35-54 age group growing fastest, accelerating to a 276.4%
• Growth rate over the past six months, and this number is doubling exponentially every six months
• Adults 55 and older grew at a rate of 194.3% over the same period
• Average member has a circle of 130 friends
• 20 million users update their status at least once a day
• 8 billion minutes are spent each on Facebook, more than Google or Twitter
• There are more than 65 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices
• People who use Facebook on their mobile devices are almost 50% more active than non-mobile users!

With 50 million active users – regardless of the differences in projections among researchers – this is by far the most professional, affluent, best-educated, adult-oriented online social network. This is the professional and executive audience that is traditionally most elusive and hardest to reach.

• Average age – 41
• 50 million active users
• 50% of users in the USA
• Household income average – $110,000
• 64% male
• 80% college graduate
• 24% net worth exceeding $250K
• 49% executive decision-makers
• 26% company larger than 100 employees

Twitter, micro-blogs: 140 characters or less.

Twitter users tend to be the mobile, wireless, tech-savvy crowd with more than 80% of them receiving the Internet through handhelds (20%) and wireless laptops. These are people you’re generally not going to reach with other mediums.

With new technology devices (iPhone, Blackberry Storm, Samsung, etc.) you will find 3G and 4G technology bringing high-definition video and sound to the handheld. The quality of the message and communication is incredible.

• Median age of a Twitter user is 31.
• Twitter gives you the ability to create viral conversation and pass live links to video or websites (in 140 characters or less).
• 88% of all corporations have a presence on Twitter.
• 60% of Twitter users abandon the account in the first month.
• Twitter’s retention rate is only 40% compared to MySpace and Facebook, which enjoy a 70% user retention rate (Twitter quitters).
• However, Twitters year-over-year improvement hit a staggering 3,712 percent despite dropouts.

March 5, 2010

Toyota City, JAPAN (Reuters) -

Toyota Motor Corp said a partial review of complaints of unintended acceleration after vehicles were repaired for accelerator pedal problems, had found no evidence of failure in the electronic throttle system or in the repairs.

It also said no problems in the brake override system had been found.

U.S. regulators are reviewing more than 60 complaints that fixes made on recalled Toyota cars for unintended acceleration had not solved the problem.

The world largest automaker said in a statement that it had evaluated the cars and interviewed the owners.

Separately, Toyota’s technology chief said on Friday that the automaker as not able to get a good grasp of specific details of complaints about its cars.

Toyota also plans to review its research and development process and set up a special team to beef up road tests, said technology chief Takeshi Uchiyamada, joining other key executives in speeches to workers and dealers at the automaker’s headquarters in Toyota City.

“The Toyota brand is in a deep crisis,” he said.

Toyota’s North American chief Yoshimi Inaba said the automaker had not been able to dispel concerns about quality during a series of U.S. congressional hearings, while President Akio Toyoda said the company had often just assumed a mantle of success but it would now have to abandon that stance.

Hit by a massive global recall, Toyota executives testified this week and last week before U.S. congressional hearings.

(Reporting by Yoshifumi Takemoto and Nobuhiro Kubo; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)

U.S. CAR AND LIGHT-TRUCK SALES, FEBRUARY

All manufacturers have reported.

Numbers in this table are calculated by Automotive News based on actual monthly sales reported by the manufacturers and may differ from numbers reported elsewhere.

Source: Automotive News Data Center

Note: Other includes estimates for Aston Martin, Ferrari, Lamborghini and Lotus

*Includes Mini and Rolls-Royce

**Includes Maybach, Mercedes-Benz and Smart

***Includes Volvo

****Includes Saab

†Includes Honda Division and Acura

††Includes Hyundai and Kia

‡Includes Nissan Division and Infiniti

‡‡Includes Toyota Division, Lexus and Scion

‡‡‡Includes VW, Audi and Bentley

DETROIT — Ford Motor Co. led the U.S. industry to a 13 percent sales gain in February while topping General Motors Co. in monthly sales for the first time in 12 years.

Ford’s 43 percent increase marked its fifth straight monthly advance in its home market.

Total industry sales climbed by 91,381 vehicles from February 2009, which was the weakest month in the market’s three-year slump. Last month’s seasonally adjusted annual rate was 10.36 million vehicles, down from January’s 10.54 million but well above 9.1 million a year earlier.

Read more.

The recent data taken from the New York DMA shows Hispanic new car buyers are more apt to travel than non-Hispanic Buyers.  This needs to be taken into account when using media selection for Hispanic media targeting.

More bad news for new-car dealers

In extolling the wonders of new cars, we sometimes forget about the importance of the role the dealership can play after the sale. Getting a quick service appointment, having the work done right and on time, with as little stress and as few surprises as possible — all are the hallmarks of a dealer worth keeping.

Every year, J.D. Power and Associates surveys owners about how happy they are with their dealership, and the results become the Customer Service Index. And in the 2010 survey, which polled 114,000 owners between October and December of last year, some bad news for dealers was sandwiched into the usual reports for owners: The big drop in new-car sales almost surely means fewer service visits to dealers, and service operations are even more the lifeblood of such operations when sales go bad. J.D. Power projects that parts-and-service revenues at dealers will fall 20 percent, bottoming out in 2013.

“It’s more fun and sexy to sell new cars, but the fixed service operations are critical to paying the bills,” said Jon Osborn, research director at J.D. Power.

You might think that people hanging onto cars longer means more repair work for dealers, but not so. As new-car warranties expire, owners tend to get more repairs done at aftermarket shops instead. If a dealer can’t replace those departing customers with a steady influx of new-car buyers with fresh warranties in hand, the service business plummets.

On the consumer front, Lexus was tops in the survey among all brands, which measures every aspect of the service experience, from flexible appointments to the quality of repair work.

Among luxury brands, Cadillac (second place behind Lexus) and Mercedes (seventh place) enjoyed the biggest single-year jumps in scores. (Mercedes, despite the bump, still ranks slightly below the luxury-brand average.)

A quartet of General Motors brands — Hummer, Saturn, Buick and Chevrolet — swept the top four spots among nonluxury brands. (Too bad the Hummer and Saturn stores are about to hang a permanent “Gone Fishing’” sign on their defunct brands.) And only two Asian mass-market brands — Japan’s Honda and South Korea’s Hyundai — managed to score above the industry average for customer service satisfaction. And in case you are wondering, the Toyota recall and its attendant firestorm came a bit too late to affect this year’s survey.

As for dealerships that bombed in the study, Volvo was in last place among luxury brands, with Infiniti second from the bottom. Suzuki brought up the rear among mass-marketers, with Mazda ranked just ahead.

“Exhaust Notes” Blog posted by Lawrence Ulrich on Monday, March 1, 2010 8:42 AM

There are two dealerships that are partners with STRONG, LLC who have seen a lift in used car traffic and sales since January 1^st of this year based on better inventory and pricing management. It is no surprise that both stores have recently started using vAuto as an online pricing and inventory tool and site that web traffic has picked up since they began using it.

In the advertising process, before any dollars ever need to be spent to promote “Used Cars,” there needs to be a proper inventory plan in place and the right priced units need to be “ready and steady” so a dealership is not advertising something that it doesn’t have and cannot sale.

If you are not using or have not heard of vAuto it is worth your time to review this for your Used Car Operation.

And the February Award for

Outstanding Dealership Website

goes to…

Toyota of Boerne!

Toyota of Boerne is the winner of February’s Outstanding Dealership Website. They say your website is a window into your dealership and Toyota of Boerne clearly sets the tone by the look and feel of their site. A complete video library of all new Toyotas in stock, specials posted from every department, professionally taken staff photos – appears more like a corporate roster than just standard mug shots of employees, special graphics, sales event information, recall updates – they even showcase their in dealership “boutique.” A special congratulations to Toyota of Boerne!

Direct Mail has been referred to in our advertising agency as “the silent killer” and with the results of December and January sales matches coming in, it continues to hold its title.

So what is new in the world of mail?

Variation in the size and content are the two biggest factors as of late:

Be Smart, Spend Less, Go Small – Postcards. Many people rationalize that Postcards are better than letters because they don’t have to get opened. There’s some truth and some false in that statement, but it is all how the piece and offer is positioned. Postcards used to display 4 monthly service offers are

proving very effective. Postcards with a “savings extension notice” or “bad weather delay” are also very effective as a quick attention getter. The CONS of a postcard – don’t try to say too much. Just like a TV spot, you only have a certain time for a certain amount of words. Trying to put too much into one place can make the whole effort not effective.

Go Big or Go Home – Newsletters. Multi-page, combination of sales, service, tips, and timely information can engage readers and further strengthen their loyalty to the dealership. If your brand does not have to separate service from sales advertising you can greatly benefit from using dollars out of each department to combine your message. If you are the guy who has too much news and content to be limited to a Postcard then something BIG can make a BIG impression. You will pay incrementally more for a larger size mailer and it will take more time to put together but your return on investment based off the number of impressions that you make will be greater as well.

One way that a couple of dealerships are finding to cultivate a more engaged following on FACEBOOK is by giving away gifts and services. Everything from “FREE OIL CHANGES” to “FREE TV’s” are being given to followers who participate in contest or games on FACEBOOK.

For all the hundreds of followers/fans that any given store may have, very few become actively engaged in the workings of a dealership unless something is being given away. Be sure as you have a plan for updating New Product Launches, Vehicle Awards, Press Releases and other newsworthy items that you are relevant to your dealership. Be sure to add a little human touch and offer people prizes for being “the first one to call” or the “first to email” an answer to a question or game.

Use your local media contacts for FREE tickets to concerts, games, events, etc. as a promotional tool as well. Let their freebies benefit the store while creating impressions via the social network.