By Rick Stanton
My dad sold cars for a large chunk of his life. He enjoyed it and he was good at it—both which I found incomprehensible at the time, because he sold Dodges.
During the time he sold them, Dodge made some of the most butt-ugly rides on the planet. They all looked like they were made up of parts from four different cars. The hot cars back then were Chevys and muscle cars, like the Pontiac GTO and the Ford Mustang.
To his credit—and my enlightenment—I remember my old man saying, “You just have to assume if they’re on our lot, they’re Dodge people.” Which leads me to the article I’ve linked to this column.
Cars.com has unleashed a really smart campaign that mimics dating sites. Only, instead of finding your soul mate, you get help finding your soul sedan. The comparisons between potential-owner traits and the traits of cars or trucks in the campaign are wonderfully done.
They show why a certain person might align with a certain vehicle because of shared “features.” Which, I guess, makes some sense, given their business—they just want to sell you a car. But the campaign does miss a really good point: people love their car brand beyond features, like a convertible top for instance.
I worked on the Barrier Motors account for nearly 20 years. Barrier had four dealerships: Mercedes-Benz, Volvo, Audi and Porsche.
I quickly applied my dad’s understanding to help identify what kinds of people identified with each dealership. While there was some cross-over, mostly between Audi and Porsche, brand loyalists shared a lot of the same psychographic and demographic “features.”
If someone was on the Mercedes lot, they were there to buy a Mercedes. Their next trip wasn’t to a Ford store. This, in no small way, underscores why I have had five Porsches in my lifetime.
When I would meet with the Porsche team, we used to talk a lot about an interesting observation: that the dealership felt more like a club than a showroom. You didn’t get that same passion in the other stores. I drove a CLK series Mercedes for a little while and I hated it. The driving experience wasn’t there. It was a nice car, but it felt like I was steering a sofa.
But I digress…
The “We met on Cars.com” effort has captured a visceral understanding that cars and romance are joined at the hip (or bumper) for many buyers; in fact, I would say most buyers.
Even my wife, who is about as far away from being a car aficionado as you can get, has a name for her car. Now that’s true love.
http://adage.com/article/cmo-strategy/cars-borrows-dating-site-playbook/314496/