The state motor vehicle franchise laws may have something to say about that It was reported last week that Mercedes Benz USA is taking over the distribution of smart vehicles from Penske Automotive. The problem, of course, is that Mercedes Benz USA h

Of the 20 books I’ve read on advertising in the past year, two stand out as must reads for anyone involved in dealership marketing. The first is “Cashvertising” by Drew Eric Whitman, published in 2009 by Career Press. Whitman has taught the psy

A little secret. For almost 20 years, some of America’s best dealers have been writing these advertising columns, letting me take the credit. I’ve developed an informal roundtable of some of the brightest young minds as well as seasoned legends i

As with nearly every New Year, I am looking forward to the challenges, successes and even failures that will come my way in 2011. These collective experiences are what define us both personally and professionally, and I welcome each of these with ope

The question I’m asked most often is “What advertising mediums should I use, and what percentage of my total ad spend should they be?” Unfortunately, there is no easy ‘one size fits all’ answer. We’ve had more media additions, deletions a

After speaking with a group of dealers on the benefits of incorporating social media into the marketing mix, one dealer posed this question: “From your perspective, what role does a web site play in advertising?” My response? “Your website is y

As I wrote last month, we all something we’re good at. Perhaps by now, you’ve figured out after all these years I’m not a very good writer (blame the editor) but I’m pretty good at taking the questions I hear most from dealers and helping the

As we head into the holiday season, this is the perfect time to get focused on creating a more effective advertising message and media plan. I’d like to suggest a two-pronged program that will help you define both: focus groups and message manageme

‘Tiny’ wrote me a great letter recently on the ABCs of common sense advertising. ‘Tiny’ is a lawyer-turned-car dealer who married into an ‘automotive’ family in 1985. His real name is Pete but most of the world knows him as ‘Tiny’ fro