What’s the rationale behind irrational marketing decisions?
It continues to baffle my mind why so many RV dealers opt out of actively participating in the Go RVing campaign.
The most conservative industry estimate shows there are 3,500 RV dealers in America, yet less than one in four cough up the $225 annual fee to become an “official” Go RVing dealer. For just 62 cents per day, those dealers who do invest in the campaign receive a complete set of Go RVing posters and access to a professional ad builder website that creates messages for local dealerships that feed off the national campaign. They get to tap into the resources of one of the nation’s most brilliant and expensive marketing agencies. The also get access to professional lifestyle photography and B-roll footage to augment their local advertising efforts. More importantly, these dealers get access to more than 250,000 leads – names, addresses and phone numbers of people actively investigating the RV lifestyle.
Pretending that only one in 50 leads were located anywhere near the dealership’s primary market, that still means Go RVing dealers have access to 5,000 potential buyers. Pretending that only one in 10 leads turns out to be a legitimate prospect, the dealership still has access to 500 solid leads.
The 2007 Go RVing campaign kicks off on Valentine’s Day with a high-profile spot on American Idol – television’s juggernaut franchise. Ads will also appear during horseracing’s Triple Crown series, professional bowling’s championship series, and ESPN’s NASCAR coverage.
In fact, ads will appear on more than 30 major cable channels, 29 national or regional magazines, and 25 of the most popular websites and search engines.
I doubt the average RV dealer could afford to have a significant presence on any one of these high-profile media venues. Yet, millions of consumers will see the Go RVing ads and thousands more will be intrigued enough to visit a local RV dealer or RV show.
Walk into most dealerships and you’d hardly tell a massive, expensive national advertising campaign was underway. There are no posters, no brochures, no local tie-ins, no banners, no buttons, no flyers – nothing – that ties the local dealership to the national campaign.
This is an incredibly short sighted approach to business marketing. Can you imagine McDonald’s Corporation investing millions in advertising the latest Disney movie to entice families into the restaurants – only to find no posters, banners, buttons, counter displays, cups, Happy Meals or tray liners that didn’t tie into that campaign?
At $1.5 million, the average McDonald’s restaurant isn’t nearly as capitalized as the average RV dealership. Yet, they make a fortune selling $4 Happy Meals, not $25,000 travel trailers and $100,000 motorhomes. How? By leveraging the power of a national marketing campaign at the local level.
As a former professional photographer, I never turned down an opportunity to participate in a national marketing campaign orchestrated by my film processing lab. By doing so, my firm was recognized as the fastest growing event photography firm in the nation in 1988.
Dealers who scoff at spending $225 a year to actively participate in the Go RVing campaign wouldn’t bat an eye at spending $2,250 for a single advertisement in the local Sunday paper to generate far fewer than 500 hot leads.
Dealers aren’t the only businesses at fault here. Unless I’m living in a vacuum, I don’t see many advertisements from RV manufacturers that tie into Go RVing themes, other than a logo on the back of a sales brochure.
I’m hoping someone can explain the rationale behind what appears to be irrational marketing decisions.
January 29th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Bob,
In response to your comments … from the beginning my intent was only to highlight caution on thinking that signing up for GoRVing was going to produce a ton of Hot Leads.
In my previous statement ‘So, would I encourage a dealer to join for the leads, probably not. However, I do encourage them to do it. There is little doubt the campaign has had a very positive impact overall. Every dealer should be part of it and reap the benefits.’
Let me change my statment to say ‘So, would I encourage a dealer to join for the HOT leads, probably not…’
As you elude to in your comments and both Steve and Tom have expressed … a consistent follow-up process is a must and if done correctly will, over time, add customers and long-term relationships.
Your question about the advice we offer to dealers?
The advice we offer is based on an analysis of what their individual goals are. Each dealer might have a slight twist on their goals, but it usually comes down to the bottom line and making a profit. We’ve been fortunate over the last 5 years to build dealer websites that provide a great customer experience and also support the goals of each dealer.
Great to see some dealers getting involved in the commenting!!!
January 28th, 2007 at 9:06 pm
Bog Z,
Really bud, get yourself a real job. YOu remind me of a fan in the stands who screams at the players, refs, coaches etc on why they do it wrong. Please do us all a favor get yourself a real job. I am sure camping world is hiring, you mentioned they are opening a bunch of stores.
Have you ever owned a business or done sales. IF so, go back.
monster.com
January 27th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Greg,
You are truly right on it like Gary said. We have been using the leads for years. we give them to our salespeople, they write letters and follow up. Most of these leads are from young people who have no experience with RV’s and they are wanting to learn about our industry, and our products.What a blessing! What an opportunity to gain a brand new customer. If we depend ONLY on the repeat customer, we stop growing. Where else, and what other venue can you get the attention of the person who has never experienced your product? The RV shows? It will cost more, I speak from 56 years of experience. I say we imbrace the leads, count our blessings, and nuture this new customer. If he buys from us, there are odds if we do our job correct, we will keep him for another purchase, or even life! $225.00 I just spent more than that in the time it took to write this.(I am exagerting some I know)I say what a deal. Does anyone have a better idea? If so I would love to hear it, because depending on the aged customer, and the baby boomers will someday run out. We must advertise, and market, and merchandise our industry. There is so much competition for everyones time today, if the RV industry don’t speak up, we die a slow death. So your right Greg, why don’t dealers get it. Maybe it’s because they are flooded with so much information, and they don’t see the big picture, and like all our society, everyone wants instant grattification, they are missing it. The message to the dealer should be more redundant to get it across. The latest studies show that a customer must see something four or more times to get their attention. Do you realize we do more, and experience more in one day than our ancestors did in a lifetme! It’s been studied and proven, and only a few hundreds years ago. Can you name one person you saw driving their car to work as you drove in? We see so much, so does our customer, and every industry is after him. I say we pick up the TV adds to more frequency, and I think the adds are great! What we really need to focus on, is dealers being more professional, and do the complete RV dealership correctly so the word of mouth (which is stll the best adverstising) will get more posittive, and more frequent, or else. Go RVing gets the new ones interested, service before, during, and after the sale keeps them coming back, and telling their friends about how great the RV lifestyle is. Not to mention the campground is probably the safest place on earth. Sorry to be so long with this, I got carried away.
Steve
January 27th, 2007 at 7:46 am
Kevin,
I’m still confused by your message with respect to your advise to the dealers you have been working with. In your last paragraph you say: “So, would I encourage a dealer to join for the leads, probably not. However, I do encourage them to do it. There is little doubt the campaign has had a very positive impact overall. Every dealer should be part of it and reap the benefits.”
If you have no confidence in the quality of the leads generated by the Go RVing campaign, then what other benefits do you feel the dealers will receive from paying the $225 a year. My contention is that the dealers probably don’t use all the information and materials that the campaign makes available to them and probably have not set up an Internet strategy or an effecive lead follow-up system if they actually do take the time to download the leads everyday.
In your anlaysis that you mention in your post, what makes a lead “very poor overall?” Did your company actually do the followup or were you observing a dealer’s sales rep following up on the lead? Did you provide a script for the rep or were they saying something different to each prospect? Was there a level of qualification established for each lead that allowed you to come to the conclusion of “very poor overall?”
I often test the system to see how dealers actually do follow-up and in most cases the problem is the dealer response, not the quality of the lead. In some cases I get a simple phone call and they only identify themselves as a rep at the dealership and leave their number. There is never any additional phone follow-up or communication via regular mail or e-mail, even though in most cases they do receive an e-mail from the prospect.
There are some dealers who have developed an entire system around the lead generation from Go RVing and have been very successful in bringing new business to their dealerships. However, overall I would say that most dealers do reflect your own findings and are unwilling to invest addtional time, money and resources to complete their strategy.
January 26th, 2007 at 7:10 pm
My hat’s off to you Tom, a dealer that actually “gets it.” Congratulations on your great programs.
January 26th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
We have been taking advantage of those leads since the program began. We hired a full time BDM 8 years ago. Every Lead gets a Letter to bring awareness to our store. They also get invited to all of our rallys where they can see campers in action. We did follow up for a couple of years by phone but found that a waste of time but the mail does a great job.I have also many times used the footage in my tv spots it works.One thing our dealership has no lack of is leads. But like everyone else sometimes we have a lack of buyers.
We also require all new sales people to go camping in a company supplied rv.For at least 3 weekends the first year. By the time they are done with that they keep bothering me for a free coach all the time.
I am lucky i get to spend @ 3 weeks per. year travelling by motorhome and have my whole career. I don’t have a customer that can experince a problem or situation that I hav’nt incountered.
I agree all rv dealers should participate in the program
Tom Enyeart
Shabbona Creek RV
January 25th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
Bob,
I appreciate your thoughts and maybe you’ve taken my comments out of context … I was referring to the statment that Greg made in his original post…
‘Dealers who scoff at spending $225 a year to actively participate in the Go RVing campaign wouldn’t bat an eye at spending $2,250 for a single advertisement in the local Sunday paper to generate far fewer than 500 hot leads.’
Can the leads coming from GoRving be beneficial and build relationships? Sure they can. Will they add a direct bottom line noticeable increase? Not to say it can’t happen, but we’ve yet to experience it working with over 25 dealers big, small, and in-between.
Based on Greg’s orignal comment I thought it prudent to share our research. As you mention in your comment the GoRving campaign isn’t about ‘hot leads’ and we share your opinion.
January 24th, 2007 at 9:27 am
Just a question, the local MB shop charges $85. per hr service
The BMW shop charges $85. per hour also, they have a lot invested in certified training & Parts inventory.
The local rv dealership has a 2 bay to 10 bay and charges $120. per hr, no matter a motorhome, tent trailer, camper, etc. and not all help is certified, but! whats wrong with this picture. I think Mr. dealer needs to take another look at this picture
January 22nd, 2007 at 12:34 pm
I can understand your comment on technicians that may be working on RV’s not having camping experience but they really don’t need it. They are fixing something and we assume they have been professional trained to do so. This highlights the problem of owners, sales managers and sales rep not having experienced the RV lifestyle yet try to sell it to someone else.
I wouldn’t send a sales rep out to a prospect to sell a sophisticated software product (my real world job) if they were not proficient on the product and presentation skills.
You wouldn’t take your RV to an inexperience technician that had not been trained on solutions for the problem you may be experiencing.
And you wouldn’t go to a doctor or lawyer that barely got through school and did nothing to retain a high skill level in their profession.
Why should we expect anything less from the sales people that market RVs to consumers. If you can not relate to your prospect, they will never become a customer … not at your dealership anyway. They will continue to explore the lifestyle until the meet a professional sales rep at a professional dealership.
The problem is that they might give up before the find the needle in a haystack!
Every RV sales rep should experience what their prospects and customers love about our industry. You just can’t sell something you are not passionate about.
January 22nd, 2007 at 12:19 pm
As an RV service shop and aftermarket (parts and accessories) shop, I would love to have referrals from GoRVing, however, the referrals are only for those who may be purchasing a unit. I do, however, use GoRVing alot in my marketing, and refer new RV’ers to the site for a video.
As for Rob Engman’s point, I agree, and in an ideal world, our employees would have that experience. I have some 34 years of RVing experience myself, the last 9 years being a fulltimer.. I also write articles, and now a book about the lifestyle and technical subjects. But, I think there should be certain groups of individuals in the industry who ideally would have RVing experience. Unfortunately, they are few and far between. RVing just doesn’t have the consumer exposure that other industries have, like the auto industry. Just about everyone has a car. So, someone who builds, sells, or repairs cars has at least some understanding of the use of a car. RV’s, many being higher in cost, aren’t for everyone. So, a technician who is working on a C/A motorcoach, hasn’t likely owned one, and may not have that opportunity, unfortunately. And, after working 40+ hours a week on them, may not want anything to do with them after that. … Something for thought and discussion.
Chris Dougherty
RV Medics
January 19th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
Mr. Zagami,
Great point! The Go RVing initiative IS designed to be an awareness campaign to introduce new people to the wonders of the RV lifestyle. If dealers truly embraced and supported the spirit of the campaign, they would see results. Maybe if more dealers hired salespeople who were actually RVers….. with a passion for the RV lifestyle, they would sell more RVs.
It never ceases to amaze me how many people make their living in an industry they have no practical experience in.
Want to undersatnd your customers? Get into one of your rigs and GO RVing!
Rob Engman
RVTV
January 18th, 2007 at 9:31 am
Execpt for Marty’s early response, I’m really surprised that we have not heard from more dealers on this topic!
January 17th, 2007 at 12:00 am
Kevin,
Maybe you should be more selective when working with dealers! The campaign was never designed to bring pre-qualified, ready-to-buy prospects to anybody’s dealership. This is a market awareness campaign designed to introduce more people to the enjoyment of the RV lifestyle. I know it is difficult for some dealers to understand, but it is actually THEIR responsibility to discuss the reasons why they took an action to request information or the DVD. The problem is that many dealers expect the Go RVing leads to walk into the showroom with a check in their hand.
A lead is nothing more than an opportunity to discuss our business with a prospect. We (the industry) must earn the right to sell them an RV by explaining the enjoyment the family will realize if they buy one.
I have visited many RV dealers and until they change the way they approach visitors,they will continue to complain about these leads and anything else they spend money on and never see results.
There is nothing wrong with the Go RVing leads, but there is a lot wrong with the expectations of the dealers that access this information and then do nothing with it.
The name that comes to a dealer from the Go RVing campaign may have been an RVer once and wants to get back to the things they enjoyed. They may know a neighbor or relative that RVs and would like to know more about the lifestyle. They may be approaching retirement and want to explore the country but must first learn about the industry and its products. They may have just hit the lottery and could buy the whole dealership if they wanted to.
They are an unknown that can become a real gem if handled appropriately or get thrown back into the dirt pile because the sales rep didn’t know how to clean off the dirt and find a jewel underneath.
January 16th, 2007 at 8:08 pm
Greg,
You are right on. I think sometimes dealers cannot see the forest for the trees. At McClain’s RV we have put together a business development center. When I asked the man who is heading that up if we were involved with Go RVing he did not know what I was talking about. I educated him quickly. We are now a part of that in the Denton store.
You are correct. The economics of $225.00 as Larry McClain taught me are a no brainer. Keep up the good work.
Gary
January 16th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Good thought provoking stuff. I have the opportunity to work with many dealers on their Internet Marketing Strategies and have GoRVing as one of the opportunities in every strategy.
I do agree that for $225 it’s a no brainer for the exposure and professional marketing promotion/materials access.
However, when it comes to justifying the $225 for the sake of the ‘hot leads’, I would encourage more research on that front. I assume you are referring to the form/email leads collected on the gorving.com website.
We’ve tested 3 separate dealerships in distinctly different markets during both the busy and slow season and have found the quality of the leads to be very poor overall. So much so, that it’s not worth the opportunity cost of a salesperson compared to other forms of lead generation.
So, would I encourage a dealer to join for the leads, probably not. However, I do encourage them to do it. There is little doubt the campaign has had a very positive impact overall. Every dealer should be part of it and reap the benefits.
January 16th, 2007 at 4:36 pm
You are absolutely correct in describing the value of the Go RVing campaign and the potential benefit through the dealers. We all need to do more to promote the campaign,including the manufacturers and suppliers in cross promoting.
I would encourage you to look at those parties that are participating and focus on the success they may be enjoying. There have always been those who were believers and those who are skeptics. We have the same challenge as we try to move the needle through the Committee on Excellence. As difficult as it may be, we must keep moving forward and try to convert those non-participants.
I applaud your efforts and encourage you to yell it from the highest mountain.