These are tumultuous times for the auto industry – dealers and suppliers are closing up shop, vehicle production is being cut, entire product lines are being eliminated and public scrutiny is at an all time high. With consumer demand rapidly falling, automakers are facing their worst sales figures in decades and rather than throw up their hands in hopelessness,
Courtesy ultimatecarblogs.blogs.com
innovators like Ford and GM are tapping into the power of “social” to deepend conversations with their customers, increase loyalty and improve overall customer retention.
So come join experts Scott Monty of Ford, Sylvia Marino of Edmunds.com and Christopher Barger of GM on Monday, February 9th, as they discuss the impact social marketing has had on their respective companies and share lessons learned that you can apply to your business.
Here’s the bonus. Leave your questions in the comments below. I promise to ask the first five (granted they aren’t obscene) with attribution to you and your organization.
UPDATED on 3/6: Listen to the webinar here (no registration required).
Filed under: Social Marketing, Social Media | Tagged: auto industry, edmunds.com, ford, gm
Good for you for selecting a company-neutral Plymouth as the image!
Looking forward to what I’m sure will be an interesting discussion.
Scott – you know, I’m good like that. Didn’t want to you OR Chris to think that I was favoring one of you over the other.
I guess “if it’s broke, fix it” should be the new mantra. I’ve got to think that engaging their customer base via social marketing could only help, and solidify, brand loyalty for the automakers.
Manufacturing a high quality vehicle would be a fine idea as well.
Good idea OPR Guy – why didn’t we think of that? If you take a look at third party assessments of Ford’s quality – arbiters like J.D. Power & Associates and Consumer Reports – you’ll find that Ford is now neck-and-neck with industry leaders in quality measures.
Nice post Aaron. Definitely seeing a trend in auto makers/dealers in trying new forms of marketing. In the last few months we’ve built several auto themed widgets and are in talks about doing some more. The general theme of the marketing message is trying to extend and retain relationships much more than just acquiring new customers. Been an interesting shift to watch…
Greg Rau
StepChange Group
Greg- Thanks for the comment. It’s amazing to see the auto industry changing before our very eyes!
I believe adopting social media as a marketing/pr tool is one of several things that can “save” the auto (and any) industry. I also feel it’s important to look at this from multiple perspectives and understand it will take several things coming together at the right time to measure up to a successful turnaround. I also think it will happen, just a matter of time.
Thanks.
Stephanie – well said. Not sure if you got to hear what Scott, Christopher and Sylvia (our webinar panelists) had to say but it’s worth a listen if you have a chance. I’ve just added the link to the archived webcast in this post.
Best,
Aaron