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bpulseadmin · Jun 6, 2009

Kbb.com New and Used Car Inventory Listings Program Provides Confidence to Consumers, Efficiencies to Dealers

IRVINE, Calif., May 29 /PRNewswire/ -- On July 17, 2009, Kelley Blue Book will launch The Trusted Marketplace(SM), a new online car shopping experience on its top-rated Web site www.kbb.com. Through a unique technology platform, The Trusted Marketplace's search engine will present vehicles that match consumers' desired characteristics. With The Trusted Marketplace's revolutionary pay-for-performance business model, dealers will realize efficient sales at a fraction of the cost incurred with traditional, subscription-based classified listing models.

The Trusted Marketplace will provide consumers an unparalleled experience in finding their next new or used car. The Trusted Marketplace's search function will reveal the 'Best Match' - a list of cars that most closely reflect a shopper's search criteria and applied intelligence gained from millions of customer queries and transactions. Additionally, Kelley Blue Book will integrate its best-in-class online vehicle research with dealers' inventory listings, making kbb.com a one-stop-resource for new- and used-car research and purchases. This integration will allow consumers to confidently find specific vehicles of interest and help dealers to efficiently sell those selected vehicles to serious, in-market shoppers. The execution of the new program rewards local dealers' high-quality, competitively-priced listings rather than dealers who pay premium prices for placement. As The Trusted Resource(R) for vehicle values and information, the company will also integrate Kelley Blue Book(R) Suggested Retail Values into used-car classified listings to assist dealers in selling their vehicles.

Current and new Kelley Blue Book / KBB.com Dealer Showcase customers can take advantage of an early-bird program offering special advantages and savings at the launch of the new classifieds program, including a feature-rich Dealer Storefront page within The Trusted Marketplace on kbb.com, providing consumers with detailed information about the dealership, as well as new lead opportunities, special messaging and merchandising opportunities.

With more than 12 million visits to kbb.com each month, Kelley Blue Book is in a unique position to engage a large majority of these highly qualified, in-market vehicle buyers in The Trusted Marketplace.

"The Trusted Marketplace will allow dealers to directly engage with serious buyers, and drive both new- and used- car shoppers to submit leads, to a dealer's storefront page and their inventory," said Paul Johnson, president and CEO, Kelley Blue Book and kbb.com. "Kbb.com is the first place millions of Americans visit each month to begin their vehicle research process, making it the ideal place to continue their shopping process all on one Web site."

During the fourth quarter of 2009, The Trusted Marketplace program will make a revolutionary move to a pay-for-performance model, allowing dealers to better manage their vehicle marketing costs. Paying only for leads dealers receive from kbb.com ensures that dealer costs are limited to the value of each high-quality, consumer-interest lead. Dealers can still sign up before September 30 to become a Kelley Blue Book Showcase Dealer and participate in The Trusted Marketplace program for a nominal fee.

"The scale of kbb.com's pay-for-performance model is a game-changer in the online classifieds business," said Johnson. "We expect that this program will be successful in not only matching consumers with cars that they want to buy, but also in helping the industry sell more vehicles at lower per-vehicle advertising costs. That's a win-win situation we strive for every day - helping consumers and the industry to achieve their respective goals with confidence."

Kelley Blue Book is working closely with technology provider Vast.com Inc., a search technology company providing an unrivaled experience in vehicle research and shopping to shoppers within The Trusted Marketplace on kbb.com.

Dealers wishing to obtain additional information on The Trusted Marketplace or become a Showcase Dealer can call 1-866-561-3559.

About Kelley Blue Book (www.kbb.com)
Since 1926, Kelley Blue Book, The Trusted Resource(R), has provided vehicle buyers and sellers with the new and used vehicle information they need to accomplish their goals with confidence. The company's top-rated Web site, www.kbb.com, provides the most up-to-date pricing and values, including the New Car Blue Book(R) Value, which reveals what people actually are paying for new cars. The company also reports vehicle pricing and values via products and services, including software products and the famous Blue Book(R) Official Guide. According to the C.A. Walker Research Solutions, Inc. - 2008 Spring Automotive Web Site Usefulness Study, kbb.com is the most useful automotive information Web site among new and used vehicle shoppers, and half of online vehicle shoppers visit kbb.com. Kbb.com is a leading provider of new car prices, car reviews and news, used car blue book values, auto classifieds and car dealer locations. No other medium reaches more in-market vehicle shoppers than kbb.com.

bpulseadmin · Jun 6, 2009

SEATTLE, June 2, 2009 — Cobalt (www.cobalt.com), the leading provider of digital marketing services for the automotive industry, today announced the launch of its second-generation mobile web interface optimized specifically for the in-market automotive shopper. The design focuses on what a consumer is doing and where, encouraging active in-market shoppers to call the dealership or access point-to-point directions. In fact, Cobalt Mobile users are nearly three times more likely to click-through to an Hours and Directions page than Internet shoppers using a standard dealer website. As a result, Cobalt Mobile steers shoppers in the final stages of their shopping process to nearby dealerships.

While some dealer website providers simply shrink a dealer’s standard website to fit a smaller screen, Cobalt Mobile was designed as a native mobile interface. Leveraging industry research and best practices, Cobalt Mobile is focused on the conversion of shoppers to sales through clear, one-click calls-to-action: easy-to-browse inventory, one-click-to-call and point-to-point directions. Cobalt created its mobile solution to be a powerful tool for the multi-tasking mobile consumer.

“We have had great success with Cobalt Mobile. Cobalt Mobile puts the most important calls to action upfront for the shopper,” said James Quinn, Internet Manager at Les Stanford Chevrolet-Cadillac in Dearborn, MI. “This is definitely the future of mobile websites. I am excited to see what it does for our business platform!”

Cobalt Mobile is a seamless extension of a dealer’s Cobalt website. Dealers can now offer an easy-to-use mobile experience with no additional effort on the dealer’s part.

The Benefits of Cobalt Mobile

Cobalt Mobile websites focus on a mobile consumer’s goals: browse live inventory, locate a dealership or contact dealer sales & service
Inventory presentation is optimized for mobile devices; search results and inventory listings are simple to scroll through, and it's a one-touch click into a vehicle's photos and details
Dealer inventory, pricing and specials are updated in real-time
Fast loading, easy to navigate, point and click interface requires absolutely no typing
Best-of-breed mapping capabilities:
- Leverages the power of Google® maps for mobile devices
- Point-to-point directions with no typing

Same URL for both traditional and mobile access
Offers dealers an onsite tool for quickly accessing inventory on their car lot

“Cobalt invested heavily in industry research and design to create a best-in-breed mobile website solution that offers consumers a seamless website experience” said Paul Nagy, Cobalt’s Vice President of Core Products. “With Cobalt Mobile our dealer customers will be well positioned to exploit the explosive growth of mobile computing and serve the car shoppers that depend upon it.”

“We know that Infiniti customers are very tech savvy and active on the Internet. Our Cobalt Mobile website is clear cut; it drills right down to what the customer wants, making it easier for consumers to find what they are looking for and contact us from their mobile devices,” said George Grubbs III, Executive Manager of Grubbs Infiniti, a Dallas/Ft. Worth dealer. “I also have sales staff using the new Cobalt Mobile website as a portable inventory sales tool. It allows them to access inventory very easily from anywhere.”

Over the last year, the usage of mobile devices doubled (comScore, 2009) and mobile Internet browsing is expected to increase ten times over the next five years (ABI Research/Elektronista, 2008). Given the growing importance of mobile internet, it is imperative that dealers provide their online shoppers with inventory, specials and contact information that are optimized for display on mobile devices, enabling the consumer to easily shop from the dealer’s website at any time.

To learn more about Cobalt Mobile please call 800-909-8244 or visit www.cobalt.com/mobile.

About Cobalt
Cobalt is North America's leading provider of digital marketing services for the automotive industry. For over fourteen years, Cobalt's mission has been to help automobile dealers and manufacturers increase their retailing effectiveness and profitability. Cobalt provides marketing services to half of the automotive dealerships in the United States, as well as automotive dealers in Canada and Mexico. Cobalt’s marketing services are endorsed by approximately two-thirds of the world's major automotive

Jun 6, 2009

Exciting news. I just helped a very nice lady who works for Autotrader own a 2006 Lexus GX 470 (Bobbi N.). This is one idea of many good ones to improve a long-standing powerhouse.

Tobias. 303-827-4785

bpulseadmin · Jun 6, 2009

AutoTrader.com will double its media exposure this year by adding ESPN/ABC to its broadcast media advertising mix.

The buy, which begins in July, will give AutoTrader.com advertising real estate and in-program integration on Monday Night Football on ESPN; college football broadcasts on ESPN and ABC; NASCAR Sprint Cup broadcasts on ESPN and ABC; and Major League Baseball broadcasts on ESPN and on ESPN SportsCenter airings on Saturday nights, per the Atlanta-based auto classifieds marketplace and consumer information Web site.

AutoTrader.com's current ad buy -- both ad units and brand integration -- includes the NBA on TNT; MTV, Vh1, Comedy Central and Spike TV. AutoTrader also advertises during NFL games, and advertised on the Daytona 500 broadcast and Major League Baseball events, including the All-Star game, the playoffs and the World Series.

AutoTrader ended 2008 with an average of 13 million unique monthly visitors, and this year is racking up 15 million unique monthly visitors. The company says that about 70% of visitors arrive at the site by typing the name into their browser. Visitors to AutoTrader.com spend on average more than 30 minutes on the site, researching makes and models, searching inventory, comparing prices and searching dealer specials.

"We knew we were going to look at broadcast for another element of our campaign this year," says John Kovac, senior director of advertising at AutoTrader.com. "We have had so much success to date with our sports sponsorship we did early this year and continue to do with Fox that it made a lot of sense to go back into sports and round out our Fox and TNT buy. We had been looking into it and really decided we wanted to give a strong ad push in addition to what we had planned in the second half of year to help our dealer customers."

He says the high-profile buys double AutoTrader's media exposure in the second half. "We are getting back into NASCAR, NFL, expanding Major League Baseball, and college football. So I would say it's a very significant addition," he says.

What the company will not have this year is new creative. AutoTrader.com will stick with its two current spots, one that features a Paul Bunyanesque auto shopper and another showing a huge armada of cars. Southfield, Mich.-based Doner has handled ad duties for AutoTrader.com since the company's inception a decade ago.

Kovac adds that the male sports focus with the expanded buy augments the current media plan. "We are trying to keep a balance between male and female focus."

Original article found here.. Media Post

Jul 17, 2009

regrettably I am an ISM for one of "those" dealerships. I have to say it is an unending battle and YES we were blacklisted! Cars.com pulled our prices and ATC pulled our listings entirely!!! I have to say when they put their foot down I was ecstatic. I am a true believer that as far as the net goes the days of having 4-5 pounders is over. I would rather price the cars to move and have more shots at the back end money. Unfortunatly Im not in charge of pricing and since we lost the battle with cars/at we have pulled prices altogether.

Jul 1, 2009

I was the local cars.com rep for the Columbia, SC area, now I'm the ISM for a Toyota Dealership here, and I will tell you that Cars.com WILL NEVER BLACKLIST A DEALER! Like AD HUSTLER said, they need the dealers way too much and every dealer is looking for a way to cut costs and many GM's don't care what the ISM says ( Thank God I don't have that problem) and are looking for ways to cut money.
Not to mention most Cars.com reps work for the local newspaper anyway and cutting a dealer out of Cars.com is also going to make what few dealers still advertise in the papers, pull out and the Newspaper can not afford that at all!
This is an animal that we are just goign to have to deal with and hope it pisses the customer off so much that they come to me!

Jun 22, 2009

I am the Director of Fraud Prevention Strategies and in my world "abuse" is considered fraud and I thought it would be important to weigh in and let the audience here know that AutoTrader.com is aware of these practices and we do care about our car shoppers and their experience. We know that without buyers there are no sellers and its in our best interest to maintain a trustworthy marketplace. We are not turning a blind eye to these practices, we ask our consumers to flag listings that they feel are misleading or fraudulent and we follow up on these reports. The link is at the top of our vehicle detail page and it is labeled “Suspect Fraud”. Please use this tool when you’re on our site and let us know when you find abuse.
Thank you

Jun 20, 2009

Matt Watson said:

"I also see dealers list their inventory for like 1,000,000 dollars so they have the highest price and come up first. It’s silly but it works. We have ex Internet sales guys on staff that used to over price used cars all the time."

I guess that explains why they are ex Internet sales guys!

Jun 19, 2009

This is kind of like white hat vs. black hat SEO in my opinion. Black hat will work for a short time but end up costing you everything eventually. White hat SEO might start slow, but it continues to build indefinitely.

You need to educate your customers so that they can identify malicious practices.

Most of my customers appreciate that I am 100% transparent. In fact, I have even won over customers with a higher price because of my honest and straight-forward attitude. They know what to expect from me and they are willing to pay for the honest.

In the long run, the people that use these tactics will lose.

Alan Bechler · Jun 18, 2009

Is it really up to the classified site (or any advertising venue) to police these dealers? I sold newspaper advertising to dealers and this was standard practice for years to put the real deal in the fine print. ("Used cars at $49","Double rebates", "Guaranteed $$ for your trade") Classified sites host dealers listings. What dealers say reflects on them and state and federal laws regulating automotive advertising. Car buying is, and always has been a "negotiated purchase" like buying a house. It IS fair to try and clean up these practices when the dealer does it--but it shouldn't be up to the advertising medium to police these practices. Buy Here/Pay Here customers know their credit situation and know it costs them more to do business in most financed purchases: credit cards, housing,and car buying. Yes, these shady dealers will always do it and, as usual, it will reflect on the overall reputation of car dealers in the eyes of the public.

Jun 8, 2009

Honesty and openness is the best policy. Misleading pricing may result in more calls for some dealers, however in the long run those who conduct business in an ethical way win.

May 29, 2009

It is amazing that although the number of truly transparent customer-centric dealerships has increased over the last few years, the number of gold chain wearing, fast talking, shell game playing salespeople and more importantly sales management seems not be going away quick enough. There is a reason the latest automotive industry buzzword is “Reputation Management” instead of “Reputation Creation.” It’s too bad for those of us that love being in the car business, but hate the reputation created by the likes of those with shady advertising practices. With the combination of truly forward thinking internet sales managers that now ALMOST have the ball in their hands, but are still subject to a one way thinking “how can I trick a customer today” boss pulling the strings I think we will see more of these tactics. Until the people responsible for leading a store understand that you can only “Reputation Manage” your way out of poor reputation creation for a short time before customers see right through it.

May 29, 2009

To Toby's point earlier, there are still all kinds of games being played. I wonder what percentage of dealers still keep stale inventory on-line trying to generate leads only to respond, "that car was just sold, but come on down... " when they don't have anything very similar to that vehicle?

May 29, 2009

William is right on. We do attempt to police this kind of stuff, but the reason why may surprise you.

The dealerships that use classified sites in this manner are usually the first ones to cancel. The buying cycle is at 90 days and the consumer trend is to utilize classified sites throughout the entire cycle( see the NYC Google Summit post). By the time the consumer is ready to buy the dealership has marketed themselves right out of contention. The consumer doesn't want to play the old school games, otherwise they would have gone straight to the showroom with "red" being their only qualification. I know we still switch people, but you are far more likely to hear a stock number at the greeting than ever before. The consumer is better educated than ever. They see through the gimmick on one listing and don't click through any other listings returned in search from that dealer.

Point is that the dealerships that use these tactics eventually don't get the same kind of results that an upfront dealer will get and they cancel. We police this in order to retain customers.

William Bryant · May 29, 2009

Silly... my old used car manager used to want me to do that stuff.

But I'm almost glad they're still around, because when those customers get burned they come to me!

May 29, 2009

I don't have ATC's make-up, but when I go on the site I sure do see a whole lot of BHPH stuff. If it is less than 2% they're sure getting a lot more than 2% for their money!

Cargurrl · May 29, 2009

Alex BHPH is less that 2% of Autotrader.com's business so I am not sure where you get your information from.

May 28, 2009

I've worked for both companies and they do enforce it when the dealer is caught. It's impossible to monitor all listings. Most are caught when dealers report their fellow dealers cheating. Customers are wise to this. The click percentages are significantly lower on "over priced" cars such as the ones dealers list for $99,999. Consumer behavior is to scroll down to the actual market price and start shopping. The click percentages are actually lower on the cheapest vehicles. 60% of all searches, customers enter a price range. Therefore, if you have a vehicle listed without a price it won't even show up 60% of the time. Also, if it is listed extremely high it also won't show up on 60% of the searches when the customer enters a price range.

May 28, 2009

The way the life style has changed, dealers need CARS.com and ATC more then Cars.com and ATC need dealers. When you go shopping for a vehicle do you go driving from state to state or move the mouse website to website? Which is easier?

This is why it is so important for these companies to enforce the policy. i know from buying 4 cars through cars.com they do a swell job.

May 28, 2009

There are 3 million vehicles listed on both ATC and Cars.com. It is policed and corrected when it is brought to their attention. Here's a novel idea...Dealers should start being honest with the consumer and we wouldn't be having this discussion.

May 28, 2009

Yea...ok...like cars.com is going to blacklist a dealer. They aren't google. They need the dealers probably more then the dealers need them.

May 28, 2009

Toby Albergotti - one thing I can gladly say I don't know much about is the buy-here pay-here game. There are a lot of them in my neck of the woods (because of all the military here), but I have not tried to understand that part of the business. Fortunately, Checkered Flag rarely ever competes against them - we're the opposite end of the spectrum. Your post is interesting and makes sense. If I had a hefty bank fee, I'd probably be getting "creative" in my pricing too.

At the end of the day it is up to the website that allows this kind of practice to police it. I wonder if Autotrader.com is paying attention? Buy-here Pay-here's are a huge part of their income, so I doubt they'll do anything about it. THANKS to Cars.com for heading in the right direction. At the end of the day - it is about the consumer - not the dealer.

May 28, 2009

I mentioned this to my Autotrader rep last week that I don't think it should be allowed by their site, while he agreed, it sounded like there wasn't much that could be done about it.

I think Vauto/Firstlook should lobby the classified listing sites, as this type of pricing drastically reduces the effectiveness their services provide.

May 27, 2009

This is a great point. I am not a dealer but, I run into this with many of our Dealer customers. The pricing of cars becomes a covert war or a “paradox of choice”. Both of these practices I urge customers not to participate in.
Buy Here Pay Here Dealers & Secondary Dealers fall into this “paradox of choice” category. Ultimately they aren't putting any price hoping to get a bite...then not focus on the cost but on the ability to get the person in a car. In order to comply with law they cannot price a car & add the finance company's fee to the price at the time of sale. So if they price a car say at $5,995 which may be market price & then a customer that has a 390 beacon score wants to purchase the car…they are in major dilemma. The only viable financing can be made with a company that charges the dealer a $2,000 fee & then charges the customer the interest. Legally the dealer cannot tell the customer the car is now $7,995 plus you will paying the finance company. So the dealer must now figure out how to post a price on the internet that a good credit customer finds competitive, but what do they do in the case of the credit challenged customer that saw the lower price? Hence the “paradox of choice”… should I stay in compliance and miss leads or should I play games and get burned. This adversely affects the consumers, because the information in the market place is not as pure as it should be. Because many cars are not priced & consumers typically skip over cars with no price….their choices may seem more limited than they really are in many cases.
Pricing covertly by hiding money in other areas creates exactly what you elude to… customer distrust & long term failure on honest perception from customers. As a heavy internet consumer myself… when any company plays these games with me… they lose my business forever. Camera stores on the internet are infamous for this game… you Google an expensive camera and presto you will see prices on the exact same brand new camera all over the board…usually the cheaper price means the camera is not made in the US, has No warranty in the US, & the customer support is dismal. Point blank I pay more money for the companies that don’t play games & that provide me with great information on the “ins & outs” of the merchandise.

andwrig · May 27, 2009

Jeff

I know cars.com has sent an email to its dealers (at least in my area) that misleading prices with down money in the fine print are not allowed and will lead to the listings being removed and possibly the dealer being blacklisted. IMO that is the best way to handle this situation so as to maintain credibility with the consumer. I don't know what Autotrader is doing but I am told they have a policy similar to cars.com.

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