Changing News Coverage at the Grass Roots Level
If there was ever a time when America needed to get away from it all, forget the TV news, leave the newspaper unread, get outdoors and just relax, it is now. I continue to see stories about how the national economy is crushing our industry – housing and oil are the epicenter and forecasts predict that those two will continue to spiral for some time to come. On the other side of the coin, we see stories about how consumers are using their RVs and going camping. If fact, camping has never been more popular.
National RV rentals are booming, campgrounds are full and yet RV sales are sluggish. Since the people who own RVs are using them, the key is convincing people to take the plunge and buy an RV. Once they do, we all know they won’t regret it. So how do we convince them? I see time and again how companies are focusing on directly advertising to the consumer. While we have seen unbelievable success with this in the past, it doesn’t seem to be working so well of late. The fact is you can’t out-advertise the media. The people who decide what “news” is and what the “facts” are have the upper hand when it comes to reaching the consumer.
I think our entire industry should make a concentrated grass roots effort to change the type of coverage we are seeing in the national press. Call it a “Sponsor a Reporter Day.” What would be the impact if every dealership in the nation made an effort to send a local reporter (with his/her spouse) out camping? Send them to a nearby campsite with a refrigerator full of food and a full tank of gas. When they return, give them an itemized list of what it cost to get them there. Groceries and necessities $75, travel distance 90 miles round trip (equating to $48 in gas), camp site fee $36. Let them write about the real cost of camping coupled with the awesome time they had. Heck, getting them away from the doom and gloom of a newsroom would probably do loads for their overall disposition, the type of news stories we see about RVing and ultimately our national economy. Target the news “decision maker” is what I say.
When you consider the price to reach the consumer through advertising, the cost of implementing this would be fairly small. Heck, dealers could do this for weeks on end until the entire local newsroom had gone RVing and it would still equate to less than a couple of consumer-targeted ads. The free coverage would undoubtedly be positive and could be priceless. While national advertising campaigns are great (and who can dispute the impact of GO RVing?), let’s take it to a new level and target a whole different demographic.
July 19th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
Dana
It is good to hear that someone other than me is preaching about the bad press in the world today. I keep telling people that if the new media says things are good, they are. If they say they are bad, guess what, they are. This is a wonderful way to try and influence these people to provide good news instead of just bad. It is also a way to show the public that RV dealers are still here, camping is still a viable option, and our industry is here for the long haul. I also agree with Gary Ketelsen that it might be time for RVDA and RVIA to help with this issue. Maybe one RVIA member could partner with a RV dealer to get one of the NATIONAL news media outlets to do the same idea. It would have a much larger effect if 20/20 or Dateline were to be able to take a RV and go camping and tell all the country how fun and economical it was. This would be a easier sale coming from a large manufacturer rather than a local dealer. And as stated by other people, maybe Go RVing should look at quoting some numbers in their advertising to show people how valuable our products and services can be.
Thank you for bring up this issue and giving the RVing industry a chance to try some new things. I will be talking to all the RV dealers I deal with about pushing this idea. Now is the time for our industry to pull together and fight the negative media perception that is being presented.
June 13th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
I totally agree with the idea that Go RVing needs to change their message. It is an amazing way to promote our business, but right now we need to sell camping as a way to vacation without having to go far or spending an exorbant amount of money. I love the media idea. I agree that all of the doom and gloom on the news is really hurting us. It’s to the point that I am considering not scheduling TV commercials in news spots as we always have. How effective is a commercial that is preceeded with a news story of gas prices anticipated reaching 5.00 a gallon?
June 13th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Dana,
Thanks for the good idea. Insurance is a problem. When I had my dealership I wanted to do such promos with various prospects who could have done us some good, but insurance prohibited that. As the dealer principle, I thought if I drove, it would work. But then the one time I thought it would, they backed out. The January 2008 Pittsburgh, PA RV show had normally good attendance and exhibitors were pleased with sales then and immediately after. It has softened since, but these are good business people and they will make the necessary adjustments. As mentioned above, owners are and will be using them (me included). One of my former customers told me he didn’t care if gas went to $5.00/gal, they were going west this summer.
June 13th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Why isn’t go rving promoting something with more impact in these times instead of ONLY the warm and fuzzy go rving stuff.
People don’t drive their RV to work every day!
Typical use is what . . . 5k miles in a year? Do the math . . .at 10mpg that’s 500 gallons consumed for the year and even at $5/gallon that’s $2500 for the year! Just try to take your family on more than one vacation a year for $2500 in travel expenses!!!! Let alone savings on hotels and meals.
There is still the option to stay closer to home and cut that $2500 in half by only going 2500 miles.
June 13th, 2008 at 10:48 am
Let’s also urge some news coverage of the fall RV shows. If the crowds are as good as they were last winter, it should impress a few people who otherwise may think RVing is going by the wayside.
I like a quote I got from a customer: “I’ve made the decision not to participate in the bad economy.” He bought a hitch, of course.
June 5th, 2008 at 3:49 pm
The insurance is certainly a problem but surely one that can be overcome. Maybe a little pressure on some of the sales guys who solicit at our dealerships looking for some insurance business to come up with a program of some kind that is affordable. Sure would help them make points with the dealership.
June 5th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Dana, This reminds me of the early 70’s when we as RV dealers promoted “Turn off your house, turn on your RV! RVDA and RVIA need to join together with a campaign and rally the troups!
June 5th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
Dana, this sounds like a great idea and regardless of however many other RV dealers did it I think it would be great for our local market. Certainly having the media all over the country buzzing about RVing and it’s bennies would be great too. One thing though, we are having some trouble getting insurance companies to insure RV’s we let someone use unless we are a rental dealer and use rental insurance. Our own insurance company won’t insure a customer(or news media)using our RV and the customer, employee or in this case news media insurance companies won’t insure it because it isn’t titles to them. Have you heard of this before? based on our experience with insurance this idea might not get off the ground. by the way, this all seems to be the case since 911.
June 5th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
What a fantastic idea. Sheer genius. It’s peanuts as far as cost is concerned and free press at that. Just think if every dealer in the country did that and every reporter who received the free camper would write about it we could actually out shine the bad news even if for just one day. You could have a different reporter from a different publication or even tv reporter for that matter each weekend for a period of time. It beats the heck out of spending thousands of dollard in the same media and not getting any reaction to it whatsoever. Go for it. It might take a little massaging to get the full benefit but we have some sharp dealers out there who could make that happen.