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AutoTrader.com Agrees to Buy HomeNet Automotive

That's funny Rob :)

The word on the street is that all these purchases are being done for an IPO. Cox is leveraging AutoTrader.com to make up for some of their other medias that aren't doing too well.

What this means to the auto industry is anyone's guess. I prefer to think with passionate people remaining at the helms, like Dale Pollak, innovation won't decrease too much. But only time, non-compete clauses, and management changes will tell. It also depends on what Cox's end goal is. You don't want to be too risky when shooting for an IPO.

It will be interesting to see if a major product offering/integration occurs. With the right innovative minds there can be some extremely powerful data integrations between all the Cox automotive properties (don't forget Manheim is in there too).

The future of relationships between automotive dealers and the AutoTrader.com products is either going to be dark/stagnant or bright. It is really too early to tell, and it could be years before we know.
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AutoTrader.com Agrees to Buy HomeNet Automotive

Imagine just one cable company to order your TV from? It's going to be VERY expensive, just like it WILL become for car dealers to have a web presence. If you are a budding programmer and are building your own platform that can complete with Auto trader to keep prices down and competitive, this is your time to shine. How much should a dealership really have to payout monthly between all the different vendors before it's really not a profitable venture any more?
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kia.ebay.com - Kia Dealer Inventory on eBay

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KIA MOTORS AND EBAY MOTORS ROLLOUT FIRST NATIONWIDE DEALER ONLINE NEW CAR SHOPPING EXPERIENCE



IRVINE, Calif. November 22, 2010 – Kia Motors America (KMA) and eBay Motors have created a nationwide new vehicle online shopping experience, the first for a major OEM brand on eBay, with a unique online store front – www.kia.ebay.com – to market new Kia vehicles.  Through the program, more than 345 Kia dealers have signed up to list their entire stock of new Kia vehicle inventory online.  From the comfort of their own home environment, consumers can search and shop new Kia vehicle inventory across all participating dealers and make offers online through eBay’s “Best Offer” option.

“eBay Motors’ large, multi-dimensional marketplace aligns perfectly with Kia’s rapidly expanding brand and offers consumers a comprehensive and convenient shopping experience for our entire new vehicle lineup,” said Tom Loveless, vice president of sales, KMA.  “The program already has proven to be popular with our dealers with nearly 50 percent of Kia dealerships signing on for the program in just two weeks’ time, and more and more signing on every day.  Attracting vast online audiences to Kia through a pleasant online purchasing experience furthers Kia Motors’ sales and marketing strategies.”
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According to J.D. Power and Associates, Inc., Internet auto shoppers are up 17 percent in 2010 year to date, and 79 percent of all auto shoppers source third-party websites such as eBay Motors before making a purchase[1]. The partnership between eBay Motors and KMA seeks to further take advantage of the online channel as a heavily sourced medium for auto shoppers.

“The Kia Motors partnership is a natural evolution of our new vehicle strategy, showcasing the versatility of eBay Motors as a marketplace for all things automotive, including new and used vehicles, parts, accessories and services,” said Nicolas Franchet, senior director of U.S. vehicles, eBay Motors. “Kia is one of the most innovative OEM brands in the market, and we’re happy to work with them to extend dealers’ new vehicle inventory to a national, online marketplace welcoming more than 14 million visitors each month.”
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Design-Led Transformation and Product Line
Kia Motors is in the midst of a dramatic, design-led transformation, which has been delivering dynamically styled vehicles in several important segments at exactly the right time, contributing to the brand’s continued gains in U.S. market share.  Kia is poised to continue its momentum and will continue to build the brand through design innovation, quality, value, safety features and new technology such as the soon-to-come UVO powered by Microsoft®[2] in-car hands-free entertainment system. The launches of the 2011 Sorento CUV, the first vehicle to be assembled* at Kia’s first U.S.-based manufacturing facilities in West Point, Georgia, the dynamic 2011 Sportage compact CUV, sophisticated 2011 Optima midsize sedan and versatile Forte 5-door hatchback further enhance the lineup.

Kia’s model year 2011 vehicle line includes the Sorento CUV, Sportage compact CUV, Optima midsize sedan, Soul urban passenger vehicle, Forte compact sedan, Forte 5-door compact hatchback, Forte Koup two-door coupe, Rio sub-compact sedan, Rio5 sub-compact hatchback and Sedona minivan.



About Kia Motors America

Kia Motors America (KMA) is the marketing and distribution arm of Kia Motors Corporation based in Seoul, South Korea.  KMA offers a complete line of vehicles through more than 725 dealers throughout the United States.  For 2009, KMA recorded its 15th consecutive year of increased U.S. market share and recently achieved its best quarter of sales ever in 2010.  Kia Motors subscribes to a philosophy of building high value, high quality, safe and dynamic vehicles.  Kia Motors prides itself on producing vehicles that are exciting and enabling and evoke the Kia tagline “The Power to Surprise.”

Kia Motors America is the “Official Automotive Partner of the NBA.”  Information about Kia Motors America and its full vehicle line-up is available at its Web site – www.kia.com.  For media information, including photography, visit www.kiamedia.com.

About eBay Motors

eBay Motors [www.ebaymotors.com], a part of eBay Inc., is the Internet's largest marketplace for buying and selling all things automotive.  The site offers everyday cars for everyday drivers, as well as collector cars, motorcycles, auto parts and accessories. eBay Motors is consistently ranked the No. 1 automotive site on the Web by comScore.
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Using PPC against the dealership. Edmunds and Tier 2's are still at it.

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Dealers reading this post here a are a couple of things you can do:

1. If you have a somewhat unique dealership name (not one associated with your town or area) if you haven't already trademarked your name do so then submit to google and google will not allow your name to be bought as a keyword. Trade marking your name is about a $1000 onetime thing.

2. Ask your attorney to draw up a from letter from him that you can fill in the name of the entity buying your name and send these letters to the companies doing so. In many cases just the letter will make them stop for a while. This is more work than one but both are inexpensive ways to keep people off your name.

Finally how big is that leak really? Before you spending any money on any type of reputation management or protecting your name like this look at the cost benefit and understand how this is going to help in relationship to the money you're being asked to spend. In most cases particularly the cases above the likelihood is that the leak isn't worth the spend.

When someone types in your name their intent is to find your store it isn't likely that Edmunds or anyone else is going to write a compelling enough ad to get them to click and even less likely they will convert when they get there.
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Using PPC against the dealership. Edmunds and Tier 2's are still at it.

Brian,
I'll certainly give you that. I guess my point is that they were more lazy than evil. They certainly could have entered 350 (the approximate number of BMW dealers in America) negative phrases and didn't.

And while I'm guessing the number of clicks on the Tier 2 PPC ad - when a search is done for a dealer name - is extraordinarily small, I agree there shouldn't be any.
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Using PPC against the dealership. Edmunds and Tier 2's are still at it.

I'm glad you put this article together Brian. It has been a while since we last visited Tier 2 Pay Per Click advertising campaigns on dealership names. I originally came across this with Pivec buying "Checkered Flag Toyota" years ago. Checkered Flag was buying the term "Checkered Flag Toyota" so there was some competition there. We asked Pivec to stop, and they did.

Today, I think many of the OEM's ask Tier 2 agencies to conduct this practice (if they are still in fact buying the dealership name) because so many dealers are still not engaged in Paid Search advertising. In those cases I would prefer to see education and co-op programs, but it still seems the digital advertising legs of the OEM dealership programs haven't received the same authority the traditional media side has.

As for Edmunds....well....my old article still stands as long as they're still taking business from their clients on those clients' own names. It is complete theft. The last time this came up Edmunds said they would only do this if the dealer's name contained a regional keyword in it. I haven't looked yet, but is McDonald a place? If so, why is Edmunds spelling it MC Donald? I'd like to give Edmunds the benefit of the doubt (since we are talking about robbery) and believe that they are sticking to their mended terms, from the last DealerRefresh article, and just have a technical glitch today.

And yes Brian, a process for watching these things is needed in every dealership. It isn't that hard and only needs to be done once a week for maybe 10 minutes. Here are some things to help in that effort: http://www.dealerrefresh.com/reputation-managemen...
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Using PPC against the dealership. Edmunds and Tier 2's are still at it.

Brian, Don't get me wrong, I can't stick up for any vendor, manufacturer, ad association or partner buying a dealer's name, but I have to question if that is the case with the Tri-State BMW agency.

When I run the same search from my office (in Massachusetts) the ad in the same page location is for the Massachusetts BMW ad association. It's keying off my IP, not the dealer name. Could the Tier 2 agency simply be bidding on 'BMW' rather than the dealer name?

I sure won't make any excuses for Edmunds.
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Using PPC against the dealership. Edmunds and Tier 2's are still at it.

I encourage dealers to create a process, in your dealership, to conduct a search on your dealership name each week to see if anyone is purchasing your business name in a Google Adwords competitive attack. Adwords (also known as PPC, Paid Search, or SEM) is a fast and efficient way for competitors and third parties to prey on the brand equity and awareness that dealers have created through traditional media investments. We have discussed this before in regards to POD Score and Google Page One Management.

I'd like to show two examples that I found this week that just defy logic and good business sense. The first example is Tier 2 advertising groups that buy the dealership name as part of their Adwords campaign. I am against having your regional ad group use your name in an Adwords campaign because those leads can go to another store.

Now if the agency that is operating the Adwords campaign is sloppy, they are buying any search phrases that contain the word "Toyota". It is a simple task to add a "negative keyword" to their list which would be your name. So if you see your regional OEM ad group (tier 2) ask them to omit your business name from their campaign.



In New Jersey, the competition is very strong for BMW sales and in the example above, the Tri-State BMW ad group is running ads on Open Road BMW's business name. I can guarantee you that this brand attack is generating leads for other BMW dealers in the state that are just 25 miles away. This is sloppy digital marketing from the Tier 2 agency and of course this lowers their direct website leads.

I think we all can agree that since the dealers name is the #1 organic search phrase that drives traffic to their website, this dealer does NOT need their Tier 2 ad agency to get in the middle of the consumer and their website. This is in reference to using their multi-million dollar brand name. The Tier 2 agency can buy all generic keywords they want to generate additional leads.

Edmunds.com Lacks Good Judgment

Is Edmunds at it again?

The DealerRefesh community has called Edmunds out in the past about buying car dealers franchise names. Edmunds is once again running Google Adwords campaigns that drive consumers to lead capture pages using a dealer's name. These leads are then sold to the dealer (if they are buying leads) and their nearest competitors.

Is Edmunds dealer centric or are they poaching on car dealer's brand equity? You decide.

Would you like Edmunds to be using your trade name to generate leads for your competitors like in these examples below?



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Contact At Once! and Motortrak Partner

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Contact At Once! and Motortrak Partner to Embed Dealer Chat in Automotive Websites for Mercedes-Benz Dealers

Atlanta, GA and Saddle River, NJ – November 16th, 2010 – Contact At Once!, LLC, the leading provider of dealer chat software that moves online lookers into live conversations with car dealerships, announced today a partnership with digital retail marketing specialist Motortrak. Motortrak is a leader in the provision of online automotive marketing systems across the globe and will now offer an integrated version of the ContactAtOnce! dealer chat software with their website solutions for Mercedes-Benz dealers. Dealers with Motortrak powered websites may now quickly and easily add the ContactAtOnce! chat solution to their website, to provide am discrete and convenient new way for busy online shoppers to contact the dealership.

Using real photos of the dealership’s sales people, the ContactAtOnce! dealer chat software personalizes a dealer’s website and helps online visitors overcome anxiety that can be associated with the vehicle sales process. The solution is easy for dealer sales personnel to use, and through the use of “presence aware” smart technology, it knows when dealership personnel are ready and able to chat.

“Dealers expect their websites to drive additional inquiries and sales by leveraging the latest technology to communicate with customers. Our approach is to integrate with best-in-class providers to ensure seamless integration and a strong ROI for dealers as well as a consistent network-wide and brand compliant approach that is so important for OEM website programs,” said David Cox, Chief Operating Officer of Motortrak. “Contact At Once! and Motortrak invested considerable time and resources to do just that and, as a result, Mercedes-Benz dealers no longer have to deal with the superficial integration and branding mismatch that typically exists when third party software is added to dealer websites.”
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“We’re thrilled that a global leader like Motortrak recognized the advanced capabilities of Contact At Once! and chose us as their chat solutions partner,” said John Hanger, President and CEO of Contact At Once!.

The integrated ContactatOnce! chat solution is available immediately. Motortrak customers should contact the US support team for more information.

About Dealer Chat Software Provider Contact At Once!, LLC:
Contact At Once! is the leading provider of industry-specific live chat software and presence- aware networks for the automotive, apartment, and real estate industries with over 10,000 active users. Adding ContactAtOnce! live chat software to a website typically improves the conversion of website lookers into conversations and appointments by at least 25%. The presence-aware networks powered by ContactAtOnce! connect businesses to the media websites on which they advertise, increasing the effectiveness of online ads while providing consumers with a better online experience. Contact At Once! is headquartered in Atlanta and more information can be found at Contactatonce.com.

About Motortrak
Motortrak is a specialist provider of online retail marketing systems to manufacturers and dealers world-wide. Founded in 1995, Motortrak has over 15 years sector expertise in the provision of highly customizable online marketing services and applications ranging from inventory management systems and B2B remarketing platforms to B2C services including dealer and OEM content management websites, used vehicle locators, social and mobile solutions.

Motortrak currently provides services in over 60 markets and 25 languages and has offices in London, New York and Melbourne. Clients include Ferrari, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, Maybach, Penske Automotive Group and smart. For further information please visit www.motortrak.com.
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The life of a Dealership Internet Manager

I love this video. I was on an interview the other day and was justifying why I command a certain amount of money for the Internet Director position. The dealership had not ever really had someone of high value. However, they compete with my previous store and know my capabilities. So I used this example of all of the things that the department needs and why I am worth what I command. Well needless to say they were impressed and are working out the detail on the pay plan they want to offer me. To Joe, I say that not only is this video funny and true but it is great leverage to negotiate the right money for your next gig as a director.
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