What a week for news. First, Jan Thompson, Nissan’s VP of Marketing for North America sets the trades ablaze with her assertions that manufacturers are over spending per new vehicle retailed and that their timidity in embracing new media is partly to blame.In the same week, the Harbor report, the industry standard for vehicle manufacturing efficiency, announced in its annual report that Nissan is the most efficient vehicle manufacturer, followed by Toyota, Honda, GM, DCX and then Ford. While quality is not part of this report, manufacturer profitability is. While the domestics did well with individual plants (landing 6 of the top 10 spots), the overall picture is what counts. The report goes on to assign corporate losses per vehicle manufactured to each of the these brands. Ford and GM showed significant losses per vehicle manufactured, while the others were profitable.The trades didn’t link these two stories together, but perhaps they should have. Thompson points out that advertising per new vehicle retailed has grown 1378% in the last 20 years while the average sticker price of a new car hasn’t grown nearly at that rate. Certainly competition plays a major role. 20 years ago Toyota and Honda were just gaining respect while Hyundai and Kia non-issues. Lexus, Acura and Infiniti didn’t yet exist either, leaving most of the pie for the domestics. When competition grows significantly in a highly profitable and prestigious industry, a fight is bound to break out. In this instance, it broke out in the form of markeitng spending.So how can the industry get this under control? Surely Ford and GM can’t save their way to a profit, so doesn’t reducing the marketing budget sound counter-productive? Well, that depends on how you’re spending the marketing budget. This is where Thompson hits a home run.Just as things have changed in the auto industry in the last 20 years, the media landscape is equally different. See my first-ever blog (below) about the staggering declines in mass media efficiency and also the growth of more efficient marketing channels and you’ll see that way people think about marketing budgets has to change. TV is great if you need to talk to 75% or more of the U.S. population. But who needs to do that? Cadillac with its less than 2.0% retail share? Acura with less than 2.0% retail share? Even Dodge with its less than 7% retail share? Hardly.The solutions are simple, but-oh-so painful as they require a change in the way we think. First, in planning for 2007, I urge marketers and their agencies to plan their media the way the consumer plans its media consumption. For Buick that may mean starting with the 4pm TV news. For Dodge Caliber, that may mean starting with Podcasting and RSS-fed banners. Then, continue to augment and improve the plan the way to consumer further engages themselves in media. To start a media plan by dropping 200 GRPs into 36 weeks and seeing what’s left is outdated, inefficient, and frankly, doing yourself and your brand a real injustice.Second, know the facts about new media channels. When incremental funding gets approved to bolster a lagging vehicle, the challenge is to get sales up fast. So agencies think to themselves, “To place and produce TV is about a week with existing footage, Newspaper can be bought and trafficked in four days…” etc. The fact is that new media channels can be bought and produced as fast or faster than the traditional channels. Such as:A highly targeted web campaign with flash banners and a microsite can be bought and up in a week.
A full SMS/Mobile text campaign can be placed and ready in less than a week
Mobile ad banners can be produced, bought and served in 4 days
In-video game advertising can be produced, bought and up in a little over a weekThe list goes on. If marketers and agencies think about the most effective way to market their product and the most efficient media with which to do so, they’d find themselves using the channels Goodway 2.0 refers to as “precision marketing” channels far more often than they’d think.
Automotive Lighting Accessory – Buick HID Kit
Buick HID Kit is an upgraded headlight lighting for Buick cars which has gained popularity today. The Buick HID Kits are not available in their own models but the aftermarket is ensuring that it manufactures HID for all Buicks.The Buick kit comes in various sizes, so it is important to note the size that you require for your vehicle. Many suppliers will help you in selecting provided you give them the model and make of the car together with the year of manufacturer.The Buick Kit has a high sense of durability and increase the radiance of your car just as you need it to be. It comes in different colors such as white diamond, yellow blaze and factory sky line. They therefore give high illumination and distinctive coloring that is very attractive. The Buick HID has various bulb temperatures, these temperatures determine the color that the xenon bulb will emit. For instance, a temperature of 8000 Kelvin will emit a crystal white color while a temperature of 4300 will emit a bright with color. The kit has improved clarity and vision on the road thereby increasing road safety amongst drivers and passersby.Such Kit is water proof meaning it can work in wet weather conditions; it can function well even after being submerged in water. It is one of the best accessory lighting in the world market today.It increases the headlight brightness because of the available HID which utilizes the xenon gas bulbs. The Buick xenon bulbs are charged and electrified with self-regulating ballast which gives a constant current supply resulting too bright light. This kit is easy to install and it is available in low watts like; 3000 Kelvin and 6000 Kelvin (Kelvin is the standard measurement for color of HID light color output) the Buick xenon light is very effective at night because its headlights out wins any light that might be coming on the way while on the road as it occupies a bigger space making driving easy without having any worry of knocking anyone or anything because of poor lighting. The HID Kit is very strong as it uses the xenon HID gas for their beams.If you want to get a durable and original Buick HID Kit, it is advisable that you do an online request through the different available websites. This product is rendered at a lower price and a great discount. You will have to try finding them from the best source so that you can get the best output.
10 Things WalMart Teaches About Affiliate Marketing
We already know about wal mart because of their ads in local papers, on billboards, on the radio and TV. So finding a local Wal Mart is easy, and
so should it also be easy to find your web site. Although you may not need to use radio and TV
advertisements, you should still use offline promotion such as business cards or direct mail. Naturally, you
want other web sites to put your billboard ad onto theirs. So that’s our first lesson on how Wal Mart
can teach us effective affiliate marketing. Now let’s visit a Wal Mart store.Once we arrive at Wal Mart, we enter a huge parking lot. Your web site must also enable a lot
of visitors. If your site is on a slow server, you may be losing customers. That’s lesson #2.As soon as we enter Wal Mart, we are welcomed by a Wal Mart greeter. This greeter not only welcomes us to the store, but
also offers help in pointing out where to find what you’re looking for. That’s lesson 3a and 3b. Your site
should welcome visitors and provide navigation to all the products and services you offer. You can do
this by simply including a graphic on your page that says “Welcome, Click Here to find what you’re looking
for” and have that link go to your site map.Beyond the greeter is a wide path that branches out to different areas of the store with banners overhead that tell you what
you can find in those areas. Your site map should consist of main links, as well as sub-links to
corresponding pages. Now we get to lesson 4, that each page of your site needs to have a
topic, a main header, that defines what each page is about, as well as provide links, pathways
to corresponding pages, because you’ll notice that Wal-Mart arranges their store to group
products that are similar. The hardware section is near the automotive center, housewares are
near food items, lawn and garden items are near the hardware and pet supply areas, etc. But
you can still get from one area to another.As you browse the shelves, you see more than one type of item. If you’re in the grocery section;
for example, you’ll see many different types of beans. Canned beans, dry beans, even beans
from different companies. That’s lesson #5. You should offer your site visitors more than one
choice. If your site offers auto loans, for example, offer your visitors new auto loans, used auto
loans, even auto refinancing loans. And, you may want to offer them more than one choice for
each type of auto loan. Afterall, visitors came to your site because they are shopping around…
so let them shop and choose from multiple options. Just remember not to stick
cheese products in your automotive section!Another thing you’ll notice as you browse the shelves, which leads us to lesson #6… although
the shelves are stocked full, it’s still easy to pick out your favorite can of beans. This is because
the shelves are stocked neatly and orderly. The ads you put onto your site should also be neat
and orderly. Mixing in tall banners with short banners and having banners for totally different
products and services can make shopping your site more difficult. For example, if you have a
page about auto loans, you wouldn’t want to put a tall auto loan banner right next to a
short casino banner. Instead, put a tall auto insurance banner next to the tall auto loan banner.As you roam the store, you frequently encounter employess who can help you find items. This goes
back to lessons 3a and 3b. Each page of your site should have a help link to your site map, or you
should have a site search.Since Wal Mart makes it easy to find an employee to ask for assistance, that leads us to another lesson:
Does you site offer customer service? Can visitors click on a button to ask you questions before they
make a decision? Or do they simply exit your site?Lesson #7: How many times have you heard announcements in Wal Mart? They frequently
announce specials over their public address system. We are not suggesting that you force visitors
to endure slow loading sound files. But you can make sound an option. To see how you can use
this marketing option, go to [http://www.geocities.com/pulsarmarketing]We have an example there on how you can offer your visitors the option to hear your audible promotion without forcing them to listen and making your pages load slow.
All you have to do is create a wav sound file, and launch it by using a graphic or text link
such as: “Click Here to listen to our promotion”.The personal touch of a person’s voice on your site can help increase your conversions. But
don’t force the loading of sound files. Instead, use the method we recommend at
the URL below:[http://www.geocities.com/pulsarmarketing]Another thing you can do to tell your site visitors about specials or new products and services your
site offers, is to offer them a free subscription to your newsletter. Now that we’ve toured Wal Mart and we’re ready to make our purchase, we know our way to the
checkout counter because Wal Mart makes it easy for us. That’s lesson #8. Your site needs to make
it easy for visitors to purchase. If you do not provide any of your own products or services and strictly
use affiliate programs, you need to make sure your relevant banners and text links are at the top of the page,
clearly and readily visible, to the people visiting that page.When we arrive at the checkout counter, besides asking us if we want paper or plastic and if we will
be purchasing with cash or credit, the cashier asks if we found everything we needed. That’s lesson
#9. Make sure you offer your site visitors more options when they checkout. And, once again, if you do not
directly sell your own products or services and you strictly use affiliate programs, you can offer your
site visitors two links to click on: One link that opens the offer into a new window so the person may continue
browsing your site after they are done applying or buying from your sponsor, and another link that simply
goes directly to the sponsor in the same window.Think we’re done learning from Wal Mart? No. After we make our purchase, and even after we go home,
there’s lesson #10… the return policy. If you sell your own products or services, you need to assure
your visitors that you stand behind what you sell, and make your return policy very clear. If you do
not sell your own products and services, does your site have a way for customers to resolve
problems, or to ask pre-sale questions? If not, you may lose customers to sites that do provide online customer service.