by John Sullivan
JGSullivan Interactive, Inc.
It’s amazing to watch lots of great brand names struggle with taking a consumer from their brand site to their dealer site and eventually into the store seamlessly.
I don’t know if it’s worse to see dealer locators offering nothing more than a street address and link to a map or is it worse to link to the dealer’s site that is loaded with competitor’s information and promotions? Both are bad for the consumer, the brand and the dealer.
The answer is to communicate with your retailers and post the most pertinent information to the consumer on the brand site. Now that may be a landing page from the dealer locator, it might even be a micro-site loaded with product and local promotions and service information.
Once you have that micro-site the brand can post national and regional promotions instantaneously.
Some dealers also link to the brand micro-site from their local site adding even more consumer views to the mix for the brand.
It takes a lot of planning but the benefits are well worth it.
Mazda took an innovative approach to solve channel conflict by transforming their business model by providing individual dealers with a co-branded e-commerce site that sells OEM accessories to consumers. The solution allows Mazda to “touch” the end consumer directly while enabling dealers to leverage Mazda accessories catalog and IT infrastructure. It’s a win-win situation!