What makes a great daily deal with an auto dealership

501 details later at Brimmel Toyota

Key executive: Tim Corcoran, Regional Director of Advertising
Media: Toronto Community news
Owner: Metroland Media

Challenge:  The Toronto Community News wanted to involve automotive dealerships in a group deal program, but was having trouble figuring out the right deal to recommend.

"If they want to run an oil change or service, they don't do very well, since people are afraid of the potential upsell and also dealerships often have proprietary parts, which means they get back people who would have come in for service anyway," Corcoran says.

One dealer also tried $500 off a car, and had lukewarm results. So, the key marketing challenge was figuring out what woulid accomplish the goals of the dealership, and also drive revenues.

Strategy:  Partnering with auto dealerships involved educating the dealers on the best way to use daily deals.

"We went back and said that if you want to get new people into the dealership you need to provide something that's universal. People don't feel they are sudenly going need new breaks."

However, there was one side service that dealers offered that did, in fact, have pent up demand, was price sensitive and would bring more people into the dealership: Auto detailing. The deal would act like a radio promotion to bring customers in.

So one Nissan dealer offered a $150 auto detail including hand wax and car shampooing for $50.

Results: The deal received more than 400 certificate sales in the first two days. "There were so many people, they had to turn it off, which was fine."  Brimmel Toyota (see images to the right) is  now a regular deal partner.

Lessons learned:

1. "The biggest challenge is that car dealers would prefer to have people who are buying a car."  To convert people who come in for the detail, some dealers are offering a discount should somebody buy a car. But the key is to  talk to dealerships about the value of having more new people in the door, with time on their hands to look over the inventory and dream about their next car.

"Doing something nuetral" like a group deal brings them into the shop, then its up to the car dealer to get them into the car," Corcoran says.

2. Auto detailing is also very seasonal. "Coming off winter everyone want to get their car detailed and (this is Canada) desalted," so detailing is a huge businesses in the spring, but falls off towards mid-summer.  On the other hand, anything related to making tires snow ready is a big ticket towards the winter months.

Many thanks to Tim Corcoran for sharing his best deals and expertise with us.

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