Brand marketers are becoming increasingly more concerned with how their retailers think. These brands place a high value on knowing values, goals, and concerns of retailers to understand how those retail partners market themselves along with the brands they sell. Every effort made is to gain additional insights into how retailers are growing and strengthening relationships with customers. That’s because both brands and their retailers have something in common: everything starts with the consumer.
In the automotive industry, we all know how it works: Automotive brands market to shoppers, shoppers buy at dealerships, dealerships order more from their automotive manufacturing brands. It’s the circle of life. It’s why automotive brands are so concerned with helping their dealers more effectively forge strong relationships with consumers. Because ultimately, the dealerships control the shopping experience for the majority of national automotive manufacturing brands.
When it comes to automotive brand marketing, Volkswagen is a thought leader. This past October, Volkswagen of America took its dealer marketing programs to the next level by launching its first dealer-focused online marketing initiative. Dubbed “VW Stories,” this initiative allowed VW dealers to take national “Why VW” content, customize it, and share on their local online marketing channels via Facebook and Twitter – for free. All with the purpose of drawing new consumers into the Volkswagen experience.
To further leverage its “Why VW” program, VWoA is using Promoboxx to engage its dealerships across the United States by encouraging them to co-brand and share new VW multimedia content such VWoA commercials. VWoA even brought it’s dealers into the fold of its highly anticipated Super Bowl XLVII commercials via “Why VW Stories.” An example of one VW dealer, Coastal Volkswagen of Hanover, MA pictured below:
“Promoboxx gives our VW dealers a quick and easy way to market VWoA national content locally on Facebook and Twitter. We’ve always been dealer-focused, so this is just another way for us to support our local dealerships.” – Sara Devine, Manager, Brand Marketing, Volkswagen of America
Ben Carcio, CEO of Promoboxx adds, “The advertisements around Super Bowl always cause lots of excitement in the media, especially for a brand like Volkswagen. So, we were thrilled to work alongside its agency, Edelman, to help VWoA dealerships become more involved.”
In 2013, manufacturing brands like Volkswagen will need to focus on localizing marketing efforts to achieve goals and surpass competition in today’s digital world. With 85% of consumers searching for local businesses online, brands can’t afford to ignore how important it is to engage dealers in order to cater to local consumer audiences.
– Sonciary // Co-Founder, VP Client Marketing // @shonnoll // sonciary [at] promoboxx [dot] com
