Where is Automotive Marketing headed?

First, a note from your local newspaper...

Hi Mr. Dealer,

It's your old pal here, the local daily paper. I feel like we don't spend as much time together as we used to. In fact, I feel that way about a lot of my old friends. Many homes have cancelled their subscriptions to me in the past year or so--something about the economy and they get their news from other sources. Others still pick me up off the driveway but I lay unopened on their kitchen table until they eventually throw me away. But, as we both know, you have to advertise in the local paper-what else will help keep your name in the public eye?

Sincerely,

Your Town Daily

Daily and Sunday Circulation Declines Percent declines in circulation by six-month period

See the complete story with this graphic here.

In all sincerity I do believe there is a place for ALL marketing-the big media stuff, the more targeted messages, online, on the air and in the mailbox...heck even to your phone. However, it's time to move past the 1980's in many cases.

Every day I talk to someone who let's me know how many years longer than me they've been in the business and how in the glory days all a successful sale needed was 100,000 newspaper inserts. They didn't even need prizes to get 1000 people to the lot. We are so far from the glory days that this type of advertising is an antique.

So where is Automotive Marketing headed? In the future it's going to be about personalized specific messages & relationships. As someone who has built a career off of saturation type-flood the market mail-it's a weird thing to say but it's the truth.

Over the next few days I'll be going through a few of these new ideas & technologies. Some, I hope you will have at least heard of--maybe you're already using them, and hopefully there will be one or new idea for you to check out.

In the meantime...

What is one change you've made this year with your marketing that has increased your response?