Satterfield Group

About Satterfield Group:

2011-04-02T04:22:00.000-07:00

Satterfield Group is a company dedicated to the passions and vision of the Satterfield Family, a diverse company that is comprised of Apparel & Lifestyle Brands, New Media, and Marketing and Business Consulting.

Apparel & Lifestyle Brands:
Satterfield Group currently manages it own brands including Automotive and Motorsports lifestyle brand Morgan's & Phillip's, Western Lifestyle Brands Red Barn Ranch, and Original Cowgirl Company. In addition Satterfield Group produces private label clothing and accessories for clients such as Troy Lee Designs, IXOYE Clothing, as well as public and privet organizations.

Marketing and Business Consulting:
Satterfield Group is a trusted adviser to corporations and small businesses around the world. Heavily focused on business management, corporate identity, and brand awareness through traditional and social media marketing.

Media Brands:
TheGentlemanRacer.com
TheGentlemanExplorer.com
MyVespaParts.com
RanchoRestaurantReview.com
CreepyVanGuy.com

2010-12-24T12:48:00.000-08:00

Three Keys to "Cultural" Change in your Organization

2010-09-01T15:38:00.000-07:00

By Michael Satterfield

Much has been written about Company Culture, every consultant in the world has the training program, book you need to read, or DVD you need to watch so you can shift the culture of your company to yield amazing results. However, the term “Corporate Culture” is an ambiguous one at best and will be different in every organization. The way to effect change in organizations is more about making changes to key personnel and procedures and less about having weekend team building sessions in the wilderness. Changing a company’s "culture" requires making changes to leadership or the way the company functions as a unit.

Check out this case below based on a real company:

We will call the company Precision Manufacturing. John was head hunted to work for a company in decline. They were a manufacturer of a diverse group of products and an established nationwide and international dealer network, despite these facts the company had not seen growth in years. John was facing a monumental task; firstly, the situation of the company was far worse than management had made it out to be. The fact of the matter was that the company had been in a state of rapid decline for over four years.

Precision Manufacturing was on the brink of bankruptcy, overstaffed, overspending, and under the direction of vision-less leader. The company was in need of major restructuring so it can move into the 21^st century in terms of best practice, pricing, and technology. John spends his first few weeks finding out where the company is and begins to formulate a plan of attack. John looks at addressing Leadership within the company, Company Culture, and Job Descriptions.

Leadership:

John’s assessment of Precision Manufacturing shows a major gap in leadership and vision. The company has several layers of management, however, since the departure of the previous sales and general managers. No qualified replacement had been found and the company had consolidated those positions into a single job. The owner of Precision Manufacturing had little interest in the structure of the family business and was oblivious to the costs and profits the company operated under. In his mind the lights were on, he had an army of employees, and a group of managers that simply told him what he wanted to hear. John approached the situation lightly, “Hey Rob, I was just going over these numbers and I just wanted to know if the Mr. Jones was aware that our budget is way out of whack” John said. “Shhhh…we know that things are tight, but if Mr. Jones gets stressed he flips out, we don’t need him all worked up. Besides that’s why we have you, you’re supposed to turn it around,” said Rob. This troubled John how could the company move forward when it could not pay its vendors, had to float massive personal projects for the owner, and none of the senior staff would address it frankly.

John started to look at the reason behind this strange corporate culture. The answer would be found in the break room where the owner had posted discouraging signs that promoted the culture of mediocrity. Even with the ambivalence of the owner, he could seldom be found in the office, the yoke of leadership rested on the shoulders of the General Manager. Rob the GM had incredible flexibility in his position and held the final say if Mr. Jones was out of the office. Rob was in over his head, the former shipping clerk had worked his way up through the company, but had little experience running multimillion dollar companies. Looking at the historical data (something that had not been done in over 5 years), the decline in sales and revenue under his leadership was staggering.

The chart above shows the point where the new General Manager took over and the actual sales from 2003-2008 with the projected sales based on the average rate of decline through 2015. The company had seen amazing growth before shift in power, growing as much as 22% in sales from year to year, however, the leadership behind that explosive growth had been lured away to a competitor. Acting in response to this Mr. Jones decided to look inward and find a leader that would work with the culture and would remain loyal to the company. He found a perfect fit in an inexperienced but amenable employee that was willing to take the reins and tell Mr. Jones what he wanted to hear.

The problem with finding a mediocre person to lead a company of the size of Precision Manufacturing is that they produce mediocre results. The first year under the new leadership sales only grew by 4%, 14% less than the yearly average for the previous 5 years. Over the 4 years that followed, the company’s sales would decline on average 16% a year. Dumbfounded by this Mr. Jones and Rob sought to find the cause of the decline. Their answer would be found not in their policy, but they concluded that their sales department was indolent. While the company had taken a massive cut in revenue the Rob had not adjusted staffing to reflect the decline in volume, instead he had hired people. John entered at this point in the story to find that the companies purchasing department had not updated costs of goods in over two years, while wholesale prices had been increased as much as 300% without consideration for the cost, market, or sales history. It was no wonder that the company had profit issues. John had to find a way to work around the situation, attempting to change the culture head on would only put the current leadership in a defensive position. John needed to be the force behind the change, but he could not act as the change agent himself.

Understanding The Culture:

John attempted to learn more about the company culture. Many things, Mission Statements, Vision Statements, Directives, or Goals can form the culture of a company. All of those things are great and should be the force behind a company culture. However, the people within the organization will have the biggest impact on culture. No Book-on-Tape can magically fix a company’s broken culture. If the warehouse is a mess, inventory is off, and employees only get sick on Fridays and Mondays, it is not because that behavior is in the company Mission Statement.

Precision Manufacturing had an incredible mission statement, it spoke of pride, customer service, vision, and always doing what is right by the customer. However, most of the staff had never read it, so how could they abide by it? The culture that formed over the years was one of protectionism where each employee was more concerned about protecting his or her position, power, or self-importance within the organization, to the point that it spilled over to the customers.

Going through the records and assessing the business, John discovered that one of the largest customers in the industry had not signed up to be a dealer and there was no answer as to why. John decided to visit the customer at their business and see why they had were not a Precision Manufacturing dealer. The answer? Customer service. John assured the customer he would personally oversee their account. Orders were flowing in from and many times they were large, and one day they just stopped. John picked up the phone and was told that the sales rep that would have been assigned to that account, but had failed to earn their business had called. The salesperson told the dealer "You’re my account and you have to only place orders through me". The dealer explained this was the reason he did not deal with the company last time, and he has already shifted his business elsewhere. John was in shock; the salesperson had never discussed the account with him, and ended up costing the company thousands of dollars in business. Just to be clear these sales people are not on commission. This came from the protectionist culture within the company where the employees were more interested in their own numbers than the overall health of the company.

This is a great time to look at your company. Does your company’s culture create a place where employees feel they are part of the team or are they only focused on protecting their own job at all costs?

Job Descriptions:

Job descriptions can be one of the leading factors in poor company culture. John discovered that his sales team would spend a large portion of the day working on other tasks. Rob the general manager became obsessed with the concept of "cross-training" after the loss of a few employees. He required that sales people "cross-train" in accounting, that the graphic designers bring the purchasing department "up to speed" in graphic design software, and so on. Once the team had finished their cross training, Rob decided the sales people would take over accounts payable. The janitor would spend part of the day pulling and packing orders, a shipping clerk would work part time in purchasing, and the purchasing manager would serve as the delivery driver. His rationale behind the structure of this was that if someone in one department quit, someone else would already know how to perform their position. In concept, it sounds like a good idea, in practice it created mass confusion. The entire team was so busy doing so many different jobs, that none of them were being done well.

Changing the "culture" of an organization requires that people know what is expected of them, what they are to do, and how they are to do it. Again, we are not seeking to change the actual core values of the employee, as that takes years of careful grooming, leadership, and being willing to cut loose employees that are not willing to work within the framework of a company. John began to submit job descriptions for each employee to Rob, once approved employees with job descriptions began increase their productivity. New marketing programs and a focused and energized team began to produce results. The company had gone from a project decline of 14% to an increase of 4% in sales over the previous year, in less than 9 months. The culture can be modified a company does not need to continue down the road of destruction.

Three Keys:

Leadership
Understanding The Culture
Job Descriptions

Michael Satterfield has worked in the automotive aftermarket for over 10 years, with a focus on internet sales and marketing. Michael holds a degree in Organizational Management with minors in Political Science and History. He also holds certifications in Internet Sales and Marketing from Ford Motor Company, Kia Motors North America, and Nichols, Campbell & Marrow. Michael founded Satterfield Group to help small businesses better brand themselves and build their corporate identities using both traditional and internet marketing. Michael is also a regular contributor to many automotive and marketing publications, a published photographer, and directs several popular websites.

Logo Concepts for Client

2010-07-01T11:05:00.000-07:00

Happy Fathers Day From: Satterfield Group

2010-06-20T09:54:00.001-07:00

Dad's in general our the ones who get us hooked on cars when we are young. My dad had me driving on his lap in at 6, learning stick in a 65 Mustang Fastback at 10, and approved of my buying my first car at 14 with my lawn mowing money. Growing up with a driveway that had Mach-1 Mustang's, classic Trucks, and Harley Davidson's, has left its mark on me. So be sure to thank your dad today, or that special man that was like a dad, and look for opportunities to be a father figure to the young-men of today so the next generation will carry on the passion for all things on wheels....

Original Cowgirl Clothing Company

2010-06-13T11:45:00.000-07:00

Rancho Cucamonga, CA: Designer Michael Satterfield announces new line of woman's western apparel under the brand Original Cowgirl Clothing Co. like his past projects apparel will focus on causal lifestyle with a mix of contemporary and vintage designs. A website will be up shortly offering the complete range of apparel and accessories. For more information please contact Michael@satterfieldgroup.com

Morgan's & Phillip's Automtoive Clothing New Ad In College Gentleman

2010-06-13T11:43:00.000-07:00

Congratulations Mike Morrell

2010-06-09T07:25:00.000-07:00

Mike Morrell has won the Republican Primary for the 63rd Assembly District here in California! As someone that has worked with Mike's campaign I could not be prouder to see someone like Mike make it. It gives us all hope that California may not be completely lost!

New Logo for M&P

2010-05-11T18:44:00.000-07:00

Morgan's and Phillip's has been revamped with a new logo and look for its website, visit www.morgansandphillips.com for more information on becoming an M&P dealer.

Press Releases and SEO

2010-04-26T10:41:00.000-07:00

Short Term Strategy

Press releases are one of the few things for SEO that you can do quickly to get links. For example, press releases can be implemented in a crisis or for a news announcement or product release. You can optimize a press release and get it out in literally hours! Some of the links generated will last for 30 days only, but some will last forever in archives, even high quality links.

Long-Term Strategy

A long-term strategy for links from press releases is to build a series of press releases -- every month or quarterly. These new releases replace links that have fallen off and build an enduring body of links to your site.

Free press release services don't help much at all, since spammers began to use them and they were devalued by Google and other news services. Press release services Jarboe uses -- depending on the client -- include Business Wire, PRWeb, and Globe News Wire (owned by NASDAQ).

By Greg Jarboe

Social Media & E-Mail Marketing

2010-04-20T07:58:00.000-07:00

Satterfield Group has been working with both social media and e-mail marketing for years, and we have been advising our clients to use the power of both forms of customer engagement to create a conversation with your customers.

Here are a few statistics on how social media and email will be integrated by marketers and why they think it's important.

You can find the full report, Maximizing the Email/Social Media Connection, on eMarketer's site.

[Source: E-Marketer]

Consumers Follow Facebook Fan Referrals

2010-04-14T07:56:00.000-07:00

Facebook continues to be a major source of business referrals and brand awareness according to a new study by Morpace. Fan pages are used by 41% of respondents to show their friends what products and services they support. In line with other researchers, Morpace found that coupons and discounts were also key reasons to join a fan page, cited by 37% of Facebook users, incentives such as coupons are also a leading factor in suggesting a page to friends. On average, users were fans of nine pages.

Facebook fan pages do take some time to become organic growing entities of their own. Our Fan Page for TheGentlemanRacer.com is growing by about 5-10 fans per-day. But it took about six months to get to the point that fans were suggesting the page to their, over that 180 days the page grew on average by 27 new fans a day. What business would not want consumers opting into to see they message at a rate of almost 30 a day. This is why soft sell and content driven pages are so important. I looked at a fan page of a major automotive retailer, who after over a year online has only 380 fans, but they have not updated their fan page in seven months.

Facebook is not the answer to all marketing needs, but it is a valuable tool for effectively marketing, using the insights feature will give you valuable data on the demographics that are following your fan page, this data can be used to explore new markets. A good example is my own apparel brand M&P our fan page was found by a French car club and they started to become fans suddenly fans from France started joining quickly and so did the orders. We had no exposure in France other than Facebook and other Social Media sites, however, so now we have joined some French pages on Facebook, brushed up on our French and are becoming more active in that community.

Michael Satterfield has worked in the automotive aftermarket for over 10 years, with a focus on internet sales and marketing. Michael holds a degree in Organizational Leadership with minors in Political Science and History. He also holds certifications in Internet Sales and Marketing from Ford Motor Company, Kia Motors North America, and Nichols, Campbell & Marrow. Michael founded Satterfield Group to help small businesses in the automotive aftermarket better brand themselves and build their corporate identities using both traditional and internet marketing. Michael is also a regular contributor to many automotive and marketing publications.

Content Marketing

2010-04-06T11:42:00.000-07:00

April, 6th, 2010
By Michael Satterfield

If your internet advertising only generates results through banner ads, paid search, or pay-per-click then you’re not getting everything you can from Internet marketing. Not that those are not valuable tools, but in general once you stop spending people stop clicking.

Content unlike pay-per-click, banner ads, etc... stays online and is constantly being reassessed by search engines and cataloged, it can be discovered and rediscovered constantly creating a trickle of leads to your sites. Content be it a blog post, a YouTube video, or photo can link customers back to your site indefinitely if it fits into their active search.

Creating thoughtful and useful content is key, bombarding the internet with promotional messages will yield little in results. When a marketer takes the time to contribute useful information to a blog, forum, how-to articles, adding insights to existing content, this all becomes part of the living internet. Building that content history that can be found by consumers searching for years to come. It must always be done out in the open, always clearly identified as either sponsored or from the organization, trying to hide it will just backfire.

Think of it this way, instead of simply posting a copy of your latest press release on your social media network, blog, and forums. Create video showing how the product works, is installed, or can be used. That kind of content that is relevant to users searching for product information, and is often posted, linked to, and used as a reference by enthusiasts.

Most site or forum owners will not let companies simply begin posting messages, no matter how open and helpful you are. Contact the site admin may have to become an official sponsor before being allowed to participate on any level. In any online marketing effort don’t try to be sneaky. Building a content history online only works if you’re transparent and genuine:

Never disguise your identity, users don’t mind encountering companies online unless you attempt to hide it.

Target your approach, narrow down the places where you want to be, and contribute great content, inconsistent content spread across 50 sites will not yield results like strong focused content on a few sites.

Offer something useful to the community. Be a source of useful information or offer consumers something of value.

Michael Satterfield has worked in the automotive aftermarket for over 10 years, with a focus on internet sales and marketing. Michael holds a degree in Organizational Leadership with minors in Political Science and History. He also holds certifications in Internet Sales and Marketing from Ford Motor Company, Kia Motors North America, and Nichols, Campbell & Marrow. Michael founded Satterfield Group to help small businesses in the automotive aftermarket better brand themselves and build their corporate identities using both traditional and internet marketing. Michael is also a regular contributor to many automotive and marketing publications.

California Pony Cars has Ford Mustang owners make videos

2010-04-01T15:30:00.000-07:00

Ford Mustang devotees throughout the nation are signing up to win a YouTube video contest - a marketing effort by a custom car part manufacturer based in Ontario.

California Pony Cars of Ontario is among the many businesses nationwide that are utilizing the new social networking and viral video marketing trends that have picked up steam in the past couple of years.

Each month, contest finalists are expected to send a video with a different theme. Themes include car show interviews, testimonials on what the Mustang car means to them, and trips to national monuments.
Related Results

* Ontario car restoration business in fast lane

The contest was devised by marketing director Michael Satterfield for California Pony Cars, a factory wholesaler specializing in making and selling custom parts for classic and modern Ford Mustangs. Mustang owners are tasked with creating a video a month for the next six months, with each video on a different theme.

"This is something we've never done before, and it basically came out of the need to create a bigger impact with no dollars," Satterfield said. "Everyone is watching ad dollars like crazy."

Satterfield said more and more businesses are drawn to Internet marketing because of the appeal of customer interaction.

"It's all about the interaction and feedback from clients," said Satterfield, whose background is Internet marketing. "This supplements the traditional marketing, and it's all part of the overall strategy."

Troy Witt is the owner of Tustin-based Take One Productions, which helps create Internet videos for businesses and civic agencies who want to capitalize on the burgeoning trend of marketing on social Web sites and YouTube.

Among Witt's clients is the University of Southern California, which has started to use a video from school deans in place of acceptance letters.

"I wouldn't say you're trying to capture more people, but you capture people differently," Witt said. "You're capturing a different demographic. Everybody's talking about the coveted 13- to 40-year-olds who are watching less TV and consuming less traditional media. So advertisers are struggling with how to reach them and are finding that demographic increasingly going online, so therefore if you want to advertise to that demographic, that's where you want to be reaching them."

Witt said the marketing trend has skyrocketed in the last two years.

"Primarily it's skyrocketed because social media is the talk of media right now, so businesses and business people can't help but ask how would this affect my business."

The public will vote for the winners.

The cutoff date for applications, available at www.ultimatemustangmakeover.com, is March 15. Satterfield said there will be 10 finalists who will be able to submit videos, and the first videos are expected to be uploaded to the Web site in April.

The grand prize winner will receive a full-body set of custom parts for the winner's Mustang.
Copyright c 2010 Los Angeles Newspaper Group. All Rights Reserved.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.

Social Media in 2010

2010-03-22T11:03:00.000-07:00

Everyone has a a friend of a friend that is a social media marketing expert. Bring up the subject and get ready to hear just about every opinion on how to maximize social media marketing programs. In general most people end up with far more questions than answers: Should I spend money on banner ads on popular forums? Does Facebook really grow my business? How do I track any of it?

The problem with social media is that when you go to find answers what you more than not find is a social media guru with a print at home credential, finding real meaningful information is getting harder and harder. Not claiming to be a guru and with no print at home "E-Marketing" degree from a non-existing institute here are a few tips that have worked for my own company and for many of our clients.

There is traffic and than there is traffic. On average under 4% off all site visitors are responsible for driving total site traffic. Anywhere from 20-50% of all site traffic comes from this small demographic of dedicated users, if you want traffic you need to find incentives to motivate these guests that influence so much traffic. On one of the blogs we run we have started to have monthly contests and giveaways, while only a small percentage of the users are active in the contest they residual information they spread about the contest has resulted in increased traffic and user signing up as fans, followers, or for e-mail updates.

This is important as consumers are more likely to respond to a peer posting of a contest, promotion, website, or other link than if you post it. What others are doing with your content be it from your blog, Facebook, or company website will draw much more traffic than any posting you make. What they say about your brand is more important than what you say about your brand. Content spread via word-of-mouth is far more powerful when driving brand awareness on and off line. (i.e. If you post a new product on your company fan page, it will have less impact than if a influential customer posted it on their Facebook page.)

This is also key in understanding the use of social sites like YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook, they are more about brand awareness and hardly ever high conversion centers. For a brand awareness campaign there is nothing more important than making sure that your content is available to your customers. Consumers love to share useful, entertaining, and relevant content with their friends, over 90% of web pages have less than 10 links pointing to them, this makes them invisible, get your content out there. Many companies will simply post advertisement on their Facebook fan page or purchase ad space on popular social media sites. Remember if you don't have anything interesting to spark a consumers interest they more than likely won't pass along your content and you have just spent lots of money on pay-per-click ads.

Social media is about interacting with your customer, if you have a minimum wage part time high school student who is not excited about your product doing your social media postings for you should strongly reconsider what your goals are. Consumers expect professional and passionate people on the other side of their screen, not just someone posting web site promo-codes over and over again.

Social media is not magic, it does not require a guru, it requires an enthusiast and brand Evangelist that is willing to spend the time it takes to generate interesting content that will work its way across the web. If you can so that well your audience will spread the word for you. There is only one real rule to social media.... content is king.

Michael Satterfield Featured in Inland Valley Daily Bulletin Business Section

2010-03-08T15:39:00.000-08:00

Inland Valley Daily Bulletin

California Pony Cars has Ford Mustang owners make videos

Neil Nisperos, Staff Writer
Created: 03/07/2010 06:39:22 PM PST

Ford Mustang devotees throughout the nation are signing up to win a YouTube video contest - a marketing effort by a custom car part manufacturer based in Ontario.
California Pony Cars of Ontario is among the many businesses nationwide that are utilizing the new social networking and viral video marketing trends that have picked up steam in the past couple of years.

Each month, contest finalists are expected to send a video with a different theme. Themes include car show interviews, testimonials on what the Mustang car means to them, and trips to national monuments.

The contest was devised by marketing director Michael Satterfield of California Pony Cars, a factory wholesaler specializing in making and selling custom parts for classic and modern Ford Mustangs. Mustang owners are tasked with creating a video a month for the next six months, with each video on a different theme.

"This is something we've never done before, and it basically came out of the need to create a bigger impact with no dollars," Satterfield said. "Everyone is watching ad dollars like crazy."

Satterfield said more and more businesses are drawn to Internet marketing because of the appeal of customer interaction.

"It's all about the interaction and feedback from clients," said Satterfield, whose background is Internet marketing. "This supplements the traditional marketing, and it's all part of the overall strategy."

Troy Witt is the owner of Tustin-based Take One Productions, which helps create Internet videos for businesses and civic agencies who want to capitalize on the burgeoning trend of marketing on social Web sites and YouTube. Among Witt's clients is the University of Southern California, which has started to use a video from school deans in place of acceptance letters.

"I wouldn't say you're trying to capture more people, but you capture people differently," Witt said. "You're capturing a different demographic. Everybody's talking about the coveted 13- to 40-year-olds who are watching less TV and consuming less traditional media. So advertisers are struggling with how to reach them and are finding that demographic increasingly going online, so therefore if you want to advertise to that demographic, that's where you want to be reaching them."

Witt said the marketing trend has skyrocketed in the last two years. "Primarily it's skyrocketed because social media is the talk of media right now, so businesses and business people can't help but ask how would this affect my business."

The public will vote for the winners.

The cutoff date for applications, available at www.ultimatemustangmakeover.com, is March 15. Satterfield said there will be 10 finalists who will be able to submit videos, and the first videos are expected to be uploaded to the Web site in April.

The grand prize winner will receive a full-body set of custom parts for the winner's Mustang.

Blogging for Impact

2010-03-03T10:25:00.000-08:00

Blogging has been fully embraced by the business world as a "must have" for any business. However, many business owners fall into the trap of building a blog and not being able to keep the content fresh, start visiting company websites and when you click on the blog link sometimes you find that they have not been updated in weeks, months or years. While business news or update blogs are important, they help with the search engines, etc... they are not the only way to use blogging as a platform for getting your message out.

We are going to focus on other aspects of blogging... Contributing, PR distribution, and Enthusiast Blogging. Most businesses are members of a trade organization like SEMA or ASD and the supply you with a list of press contacts for the industry. While that is a great list to have, it is not the whole picture when you factor in the power of the internet. Lets break it out and look at each tool and the benefits of each.

Contributing:

Many bloggers blog because they are passionate about a subject be it Travel, Cars, Sports, Clothing, or any other subject. Regardless of what kind of business you are in, there is a blog or web-magazine (some have started to call themselves that) that reaches your target demographic. Find these blogs, find the ones that are most active, and contact the blog administrator to see if they would be interested in having you contribute to their blog. Most of them will be excited about the opportunity to have an industry insider or expert write a story for their blog. If not offer to make your business available for an article and offer a tour if they are local. Most bloggers will be excited to work with you as it validates them as a actual news or information source, industry functions are starting to recognize the power of blogging and have extended press credentials to major blog authors.

PR Distribution:

Bloggers are often overlooked when it comes to sending out press releases, many will dig up that information from a publication that has received your press release and post it on their site if it is relevant industry news. Why not make it easy on them and send them the press release directly, most likely you will see a major increase in your footprint on the web right away. Find as many blogs as you can, if you are using a bulk mailing service anyways it does not take any more time to send a press release to the bloggers who will likely post the story with a link to your website.

Enthusiast Blogging:

If you are a true enthusiast about a subject that relates to your business start your own blog that talks about the industry you are passionate about. I love everything on wheels so about 10 months ago I started a blog called TheGentlemanRacer.com TM that is dedicated to the news and stories I find interesting in the automotive, motorcycle, and transportation world. The first few months required a lot of writing to get all the stories I wanted to tell and I back dated them to the time that they took place. This gave the blog a more establish appearance. The site also has space for advertisers that more than cover the operating costs, however, it also gives me a forum to place ads for the companies I am involved with, post press releases, and do feature stories on the businesses I work with.

So How does Enthusiast Blogging work? Well in 10 Months TheGentlemanRacer.com TM went from zero traffic to on average 3,000 people a day visiting the site for one reason or another, people from over 93 countries have visited the site. In the last 5 months the Facebook Fan Page has grown from just a handful of fans to over 2,600 with more joining each day. The blog is not dedicated to any one company, product, style of car or motorcycle, it is just a carguy site. Linking a your blog into a good social media strategy will only amplify the reach, to give you an example the very popular site AutoBlog.com has just over 375 fans.

Now let me remind you that under new Federal Laws you have to disclose any relationship you may have with a product or service you are promoting.

So get out there and start looking for some blogs that have impact or just create one of your own, now remember content is king so don't dive in unless you are willing to really work at it. The rewards are there if you are willing to work the blog-o-sphere...

[by Michael Satterfield]

Personal Brands: Don’t Pack More Than You Can Carry

2010-02-24T15:26:00.000-08:00

Personal Brands: Don’t Pack More Than You Can Carry
by Nance Rosen

According to Sunday’s New York Times, the new CEO at Xerox does her own grocery shopping and most of her own household chores. Ursula Burns flies on the corporate jet, but she parks her car in the parking lot and carries her own bags.
This is an extraordinary person. Reared by a single mother, along with her brother and sister, CEO Burns reports there was a lot of life learning to be had in their home.
Her mom took in laundry to pay the rent and cleaned doctors’ offices to barter for their medical care. Ms Burns recalls that her mother had many sayings; mostly blunt ones that she repeated over and over to ingrain their refrain in her children’s brains.
“Where you are is not who you are. Don’t act like you’re from the gutter, because you live in a place that’s really close to the gutter.” Wow.
Personal brands, answer these questions:
So what baggage are you carrying around?
Where does your behavior say you’re from?
Have you gracefully risen above the shortcomings and scarcity, or indulgence and extravagance, of your childhood?
When is the expiration date on the claim you’re a victim of whatever bad, even really bad happened, that you survived?

Finish this story by Clicking Here

Consumers Demand Engagement

2010-02-04T11:44:00.000-08:00

All reports point to the fact that marketers will continue to shift dollars from traditional to digital media in 2010. According to the Alterian “Annual Survey 2009” report, the maturity of digital and social media requires integration of marketing strategies. Marketers must move from a focus on siloed campaigns to an emphasis on listening to and communicating with consumers across channels. More than one-half of marketers worldwide reported directing at least “a fair amount” of effort toward integrating their communication strategies to emphasize multichannel consumer engagement.

“The age of sending out silo campaigns is long gone,” according to the report. “The only communications tolerated by consumers are those that are appropriate, timely and relevant—regardless of channel.” The majority of marketers surveyed recognized social media as increasingly important to the marketing mix, while 14% went as far as to call it critical for success. It is yet another channel to be incorporated into an integrated communication strategy, rather than addressed on its own. And it can provide unique insights into the consumers who can now use earned media to build brands alongside marketers.

Most marketers say they are at least “prepared enough” to take advantage of new techniques in digital and social media, but more than one-third felt minimally prepared. Staff education and training was a substantial concern. The largest group of respondents said some of their marketing staff had the skills to implement new customer engagement strategies, but that knowledge was generally restricted to personnel in digital roles. Only 17% said most or all of their staff was prepared, although 37% planned further investments in the area.
“Engaging with customers is becoming paramount and the yardstick by which we measure those brands that survive and those that don’t,” said David Eldridge, CEO of Alterian, in a statement. “Marketers now need to appeal to the individual and engage with customers on a one-to-one basis.”

[Source: Emarketer]

Coca-Cola and Social Media

2010-01-13T13:41:00.000-08:00

Social Media is one of the most missunderstood forms of advertising out there, and a number of people have said it is a fad. However, many large companies are investing in Social Media and have long term plans for this new channel of interactive communication. Prinz Pinakatt, the Coca-Cola's interactive marketing manager for Europe, said, “In some cases, some of our campaigns won’t need a coke.com-hosted site. In most cases these will still exist as it’s the most obvious destination for a consumer, but it might only be a page linking to YouTube encouraging people to join the community there. We would like to place our activities and brands where people are, rather than dragging them to our platform.”

Investing in YouTube, Facebook, MySpace, and other forms of Social Media are in large companies marketing playbook, is it in yours?

iPhone Top Social Media Index for 2009

2010-01-04T15:21:00.000-08:00

Virtue’s Social Media Index (SMI) assigns brands and products a score based on overall buzz from status updates, videos, photos and blog posts. They just released the results for 2009 and released the top 100 social brands based on their index score. The iPhone takes home top honors once again. The index focuses on consumer mentions and reactions not brand engagement via social media.

Check out the top 100 below:

iPhone
Disney
CNN
MTV
NBA
iTunes
WiiA
Apple
Xbox
Nike
Starbucks
NFL
PlayStation
Adidas
BlackBerry
Sony
Mercedes
Microsoft
Samsung
BMW
Nintendo
Best Buy
ESPN
Ford
Honda
Ferrari
Gucci
Nokia
Major League Baseball
Dell
Coca-Cola
CBS
ABC
iPod
Mac
Turner
Nissan
Toyota
eBay
Amazon
Victoria’s Secret
Nutella
NASCAR
Disneyland
Audi
NHL
Red Bull
Verizon
Intel
Subway
Hewlett-Packard
Puma
Kia
Fox News
Porsche
Jeep
Dodge
Pandora
Walmart
Zappos
Suzuki
McDonald’s
Krystal
T-Mobile
Skittles
KFC
Volkswagen
NBC
Sprint
Pixar
Motorola
IKEA
Pepsi
Cisco
REI
LG
AT&T
Converse
The Gap
Chevrolet
Luis Vuitton
Toys”R”Us
H&M
Philips
General Motors
Pringles
Visa
Prada
Panasonic
IBM
VH1
Hulu
Oracle
Burberry
SEGA
Sears
Avon
Jet Blue
Lacoste
Comcast

10 for 2010

2010-01-04T14:50:00.000-08:00

January is here again and with it lots of resolutions, more people are at the gym, starting hobbies, and swearing off the dreaded trans-fats. But many of you I am sure are also planing big things for 2010 and your Social Media. This will be the year that you focus on your Social Media and make your business the next darling of the internet... Unfortunately many of you said the same thing last year and after a few months of focus and intent the passion died down and aside from the occasional tweet or blog post you fell off the wagon after a few months. Ahhh resolutions... To help keep you on the straight and narrow this year I have put together a few points that should help.

Learn how to use all the features of the Social Media sites you are working with. Look at the demographic information and use it to better focus on the core people that are interacting with your brand online.

Stop worrying about the numbers, Follower and Fans are not baseball cards and the value is not in having thousands of followers that ignore the content you post. Twitter is notorious for having people with 200,000 followers that are following 400,000. Sure it looks impressive, but focus on the community that is really interested in your brand.

Set some goals and target for growth within your target demographic and map out a plan on how you are going to get there.

Make Social Media a part of your Business and Marketing Plan. If you do Media Planning for your business integrate Social Media into it.

Think Long Term and Set Long Term Goals.

Social Media is not going to fix or save a bad business...if your business has problems, address them first.

Remember you are an expert in your field...so write like it.

Understand that part of Social Media is Socializing...Not Selling.

Don't hold your breath for the right moment to start your Social Media Campaign...there is not a Social Media Season.

Don't be afraid of the negatives of Social Media and have a plan to address them. Someone, Somewhere, is not going to be a happy customer no matter what you do, and they sometimes find their way online.

Social Media simply creates access for your customers to interact with you and your company. That's what they want...so in 2010 give it to them.

Effective Communication in an Organization

2009-12-31T07:39:00.001-08:00

by Michael Satterfield

Leadership is a word that is thrown around quite a bit with little regard; however, true leaders have always been men and women that were effective at generating buy-in through communication, mainly using stories. Be it buy-in to an ideal, concept, or action. When looking back at history many of us can recall instantly recall some of our most notable leaders quotes be it Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream” or F.D.R.’s famous quote “The only thing we have to fear, is fear itself.” Effective leaders use communication to create hope and dreams, and they weave stories that will trigger a response in the targeted audience, humans think in stories, memories, and images. Great orators since the dawn of civilization have known that if you can create a story your audience can relate to they are more likely to buy-in to whatever the speaker is selling. “It is impossible even to think without a mental picture” (Aristotle). Every leader tells a story to generate buy-in by strategically designing, targeting, and delivering a story that projects a positive future (Walton, 2004).

While creating buy-in can often lead to very good things such as civil rights, great leaders have also manipulated the masses to commit horrible crimes. “Adolf Hitler's strength as a leader is that he almost always works through the power of his persuasion; rarely does he command” (Hess, 1934). Hitler was a monster; however, he using the power of storytelling convinced a nation to follow him down some very dark roads, always promising for a better tomorrow over the next horizon. His interpersonal skills allowed him to rise from virtual obscurity to control an entire nation. Using his knowledge of human behavior and group processes, he was able to use his skills as a storyteller to appeal to the motives, attitudes, and feelings of the people. With his well practiced oral communication he was able to successfully influence large groups of people (Yukl, 2006).

Stories inspire action and give the listener a context for the message; they engage the listener and allow them to see themselves involved. People by their nature are storytellers, in my line of work (automotive sales) stories are what sells to the majority of buyers, and they are not looking for a car many are looking for an image, a lifestyle, or ego boost. Guiding the conversation a good salesperson can integrate the story of the car and the consumer until the consumer is convinced that they are sitting in absolute happiness on the test drive. “Telling a story, whether it be where the dealership came from, or what its purpose or vision is, can be a powerful and emotional hook for potential consumers that simply shouldn’t be ignored, especially as consumers have more options than ever before” (topdealerseo.com, 2008).

When I was on the sales floor I would start with a story right from my introduction to meeting customers on the lot, by starting with “Welcome to ABC Motors, my name is Michael what sales person are you here to see?” The customer (if they were not there to see someone) would look at me strangely, and generally state that they were not there to see someone. If they asked me why I asked, I would parlay right into my next part of their story, if they did not ask I would just jump into it anyways. “I asked because 75% of our business comes from our repeat and referral customers, and since we are not on commission, I always ask to make sure that if you have shopped with us before you will get back to your original sales person you know and trust.” Thanks to that line I could then roll right in to finding their wants and needs, building my story as a go, “this Ford Explorer will be great for family vacations” or “this Lincoln will be the most impressive car in the parking lot at your office.” Be it leading a customer down the path to a sale, or motivating a sales staff that is fighting for every deal, storytelling is the most effective way of relaying a message, and creating buy-in.

It is easy to see how leaders like Dr. King used stories to motivate and lead people, but how does a leader of a small business use stories? It is more common than many of of us realize, leadership experts have been teaching the art of storytelling to managers and business leaders for years. “When a manager or leader tries to communicate, whether in a one-on-one meeting or a formal speech to a large auditorium of people, they have two choices. Either they can lecture the audience with dry, dull data, or they can ensure their interest with a story whose characters and message come to life, right before their eyes. If you’re like most people, option two is probably more appealing” (Bates, 2005).

With new technology, the art of storytelling has changed only in the way stories can be told. With the internet, digital video, instant messages, and mobile technology leaders have more choices in how to communicate with their audience. Leaders today can use technology to help tell their story to a broader audience. By creating their own stories and legends to support values they want to share and develop within their organization. Steve Jobs co-found of Apple Computer used stories based on the conflict of “good and evil” in order to motivate his team, using the film ‘Star Wars’ as a frame of reference. IBM was the evil empire and they were a small rebel force seeking to bring freedom to the world of personal and business computing. He even was quoted as saying “If we do not succeed, IBM will be the master of the world. If we do not succeed in being competitive with superior products, with better performance than theirs, then they will take everything. They will have the largest monopoly of all time… other than us, no one can stop IBM” (Sadowsky, 2004).

Stories inspire, convince, educate, and motivate and these powerful tools for leaders can be used to promote the vision and mission of the organization. But a leader must also build in to his/her company a culture that values that are centrally relevant. A recent example of leadership through storytelling is the last presidential election here in the United States, all of the candidates used many different mediums to reach the voting population. From Ron Paul to John McCain. However, President Elect Obama had won the hearts and minds of many Americans by telling stories; and telling them in an effective manner. He told stories about his life, their lives, and how together they could create a better future. He did this using everything from television to myspace.com and he would tailor his stories to each audience. It is my belief that he will go down in history as one of the most effective presidents in the arena of connecting and communicating with the people. Some people see this cult like following that Obama has created and made parallels to Hitler and other dictators, and in many cases they are right. But Obama is simply using the most effective tools in order to lead and to win elections. “In reality, there’s nothing mysterious or devious or platitudinous or cult-like about what Obama is doing at all: he is using well-known principles of the language of leadership to reach people’s hearts and change people’s minds through the skillful use of narrative. His mastery of storytelling was on display at the Jefferson-Jackson dinner in Richmond, Virginia on February 9, where he wove four basic narratives into a speech that inspired widespread enthusiasm, and led to a decisive victory in the primary the following Tuesday. He began with the story of who he is, telling the story of the disadvantages he faced as a presidential candidate, turning handicaps into badges of honor. This story seamlessly merged into a story of who we are: we are a people who are tired of the divisive politics of the past. This story then slid into the story of who we are going to be: we are a people who are going to write a new chapter in the history of American politics and get beyond partisan politics with a different kind of president, i.e. Obama. This was interwoven with the story of who we have been: we are the party of Jefferson, Jackson, FDR, and JFK—a party that has successfully tackled great challenges, proud inheritors of a grand tradition” (Denning, 2008).

Countless leaders both currently and throughout history have understood the power that stories offer and have build their companies, governments, and success on such stories and legends. The symbolism in stories directly affects the mood, minds, and motivation of an entire organization. Mastering the art of storytelling is to master the true art of effective communication and leadership, be it a shift leader at a fast food restaurant, a CEO, or the next President of the United States.

Artical was originally published 04/18/2009, by Michael Satterfield.
References:
Aristotle. (1930). On Memory and Reminiscence (350 B.C.). The works of Aristotle , 3 . (J. I. Beare, Trans.) Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Bates, S. (2005). Successful Leadership Through Storytelling. Article Archive .
Denning, S. (2008). Obama's Storytelling: the Language of Leadership? by Stephen Denning. . Op-Ed News .
Hess, R. (1934, February 25). Der Eid auf Adolf Hitler. 10-14. (R. Bytwerk, Trans.) Munich, Germany: Zentralverlag der NSDAP.
Sadowsky, L. R. (2004). Stories and Storytelling: An Example of Best Practice of Leadership in a High-Tech Environment. Association of MBAs , 3-8.
topdealerseo.com. (2008, August 19). Topdealerseo.com. Retrieved December 13, 2008, from Topdealerseo.com: http://www.topdealerseo.com/storyteller-marketing-ses-san-jose-day-1/
Walton, M. S. (2004). Generating Buy-In: Mastering the Language of Leadership. New York: AMACOM.
Yukl, G. (2006). Leadership in Organizations (Six ed.). Albany: Pearson Prentice Hall.

California Pony Cars Launches "Ultimate Mustang Makeover" Program

2009-12-30T07:42:00.000-08:00

California Pony Cars has been offering parts for classic and contemporary Mustangs for nearly 30 years. Now you have the chance to take home The “Ultimate Mustang Makeover” for your 2005+ Ford Mustang.

UltimateMustangMakeover.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

PR Log (Press Release) – Dec 30, 2009 – California Pony Cars has announced an interesting program that will run from January 1st-October 31st 2010. Stangers will have the opportunity to take home a grand prize of products that will completely makeover any 2005+ Ford Mustang GT or V6. How the program works is simple Mustang fans visit www.ultimatemustangmakeover.com and fill out the application to become one of ten Stangers that will then produce a series of videos and other content over a 6 month period. The final winners will be decided by the online voting public. “We wanted to create a event, not just the usual product give away, we hope that Mustang community will really embrace the Ultimate Mustang Makeover, and they will follow along with the missions” said Michael Satterfield. The “Missions” will include adventures such as visiting a local motorsport event, volunteering with a local charity, and much more. The videos will be featured on CPC-TV California Pony Cars YouTube Channel. Once finalists are selected for the program, the public will be able to vote online for the personality they like the best. The Stanger with the most votes will receive a wide assortment of parts including 20” Wheels by CPC, Under hood Accessories, CGS Performance Exhaust, Volant Cold Air Intake, TMI Classic Soft Trim Pony Upholstery kit, and more.

For more information and to submit your application for the program please visit www.ultimatemustangmakeover.com

# # #

California Pony Cars has been building products for the Classic and Late Model Mustang Market for over 25 years. Based in Ontario, California CPC is proud to build products here in the USA. For more information please visit www.calponycars.com

Merry Christmas: From Satterfield Group

2009-12-23T10:21:00.000-08:00

We will be out of the office from December 23rd-January 4th

Building your Brand and Corporate Personality

2009-12-23T09:02:00.000-08:00

by Michael Satterfield

Photo Above: Is She Your Target Demographic?

As a designer I see it all the time, in print, stores, and on websites. The web is one of the number one ways a company can project its brand image and far too many are not taking that outlet seriously. I ran across one today that was for a furniture company that sells high quality bespoke furniture with an average price of $14,000 per-piece. Their site was one page, with poor photography and zero style. You would think a company that sold products for interior design would have spent some time developing a brand personality and persona that reflected the creativity needed to build great furniture. But more importantly, the persona of the customer that is looking for that type of product. It goes to the core of the brand development of the company... A number of companies hire someone like myself to build their brand identity for them, but if that is not in your budget here are some tips to help your company put its best foot forward both on and offline.

Brand Personality:

Look at the users of your products and services, or if you are just starting up, the target demographic. Ask what they like, what issues resonate with them, what products they currently use. If your company or product was a person does it look like your customers? Ask your friends, family, and employees, what they think of when they hear your company name, what it reflects. Look at your current products and advertisement; do they look like your target customers? Write out key words that you feel are associated with your business. They could be: Service, Quality, Value, Cool, Hip, etc... Taking all of that in sit down and write out your brand personality and that is where you start building your brand. Name (if you have not chosen one), style, advertising, marketing, web site, and other aspects of the brand.

Brand Personas:

Personas are the movie script your target customer should be reading from. Instead of thinking of your demographic as generic groups of men 18-35, write a narrative for each demographic, by creating a fictional person that represents that group. Personas are used by all major ad agencies to give the creative team a tangible person to develop materials for.

Developing an advertisement for 30-40 year old housewives is a lot harder than developing an ad for "Rebecca" a busy mom on the go, who has three kids, a dog, and her own home based business. If your target is "Rebecca", your ads and company should reflect that. Lets say your company sells a cleaning product that will cut cleaning time in half, is "Rebecca" going to respond to an ad that shows a woman just cleaning a house, or a photo of your product? She may... But she is more likely to respond to an ad that features a busy mom perhaps sitting at a desk in her den/home office, answering a phone while kids are running amok. A mom like her who needs every extra second she can get, so cutting her cleaning time in half is important. Had the ad agency just been handed a product and a age group and sex, they could have produced any number of ads. But if they are handed "Rebecca" and told to create an ad just for her... they will.

Developing Personas is easy here is an example:

John is a 28 year old college graduate that works in the financial services industry, he lives in California. When he is not working he is enjoying his classic car, watching football, and spending time with friends. He is single, rents a town home in an upscale area and is a member of the local gym. John has to dress in a suit for work, so when he is off comfortable jeans and a t-shirt is what he is generally found in. Some of his favorite brands are Banana Republic, Abercrombie and Fitch, and Express. He drives a F150, but his classic car is a 1965 Ford Mustang and he has been considering a purchase of a new Motorcycle but is torn between a Triumph and Motoguzzi. His home is well maintained, but his furniture reflects that fact that he single. John does not like to cook and eats most meals out or orders in.

You need to visualize what your personas look like physically. You want to know what makes them tick. What do they like? Hate? What do they do in their free time? Create a back story? You will find this will make your branding job so much easier. It will allow you to focus your PR, advertising, web design, and print towards the target audience. Create a fictional bio for each persona that represents your demographic group. Dive in deep and write as much as you can, and use your intuition to fill in the blanks. What are their needs and wants? Where do they want to be in five years? What kind of watch do they wear?

Building the Brand:

Now that you have your personas, start building your brand from there. What would they like to see in an ad? Take a trip down to the local book store and look at publication your personas would read. Look at publications that are outside of your industry, if you are a clothing company, and "John" is a persona you have developed, pick up a few classic car, motorcycle, and sports publications you think that "John" would read. After pulling a few ads from those publications, and start your internal development. Create your marketing message, designs, and content that will appeal to "John", and be focused on satisfying that demographic. If you try to appeal to everyone, you will appeal to no one. Develop the campaign around those specific, yet fictional, people.

Top Social Media Networks for Online Retailers

2009-12-08T10:02:00.000-08:00

2010 is going to be an interesting year, as companies have slashed Ad budgets, many are turning to New Media as a way to develop their brand for minimal dollars. Here are the stats from the top 500 internet retailers of 2009 and what social media sites they were using.

Top Ten Mistakes Companies Make With Social Media

2009-12-04T09:40:00.000-08:00

Top Ten mistakes in Implementation:

1. Attempting to Measure ROI in the same way as Traditional Advertising.
2. Not integrating Social Media into the overall marketing plan causing brand Identity confusion.
3. Not staying on top of the social media content.
4. Not utilizing the demographic information that is available from many Social Media sites to tailor their marketing both on and offline.
5. Not Linking Applications Facebook, Twitter, MySpace….etc creating more work than needed.
6. Not Creating Content of Value but simply posting “BUY MY PRODUCT” over and over again.
7. Forgetting that Social Media is about Socializing not Selling.
8. Launching into promoting before becoming a part of the community (message boards).
9. Thinking that their minimum wage employee should be (effectively) their Spokesperson Online.
10. Not Cross Promoting Content (i.e. linking blog posts to Facebook Fan Pages).

In 2009 Social Media is a Winner

2009-12-02T10:30:00.000-08:00

Social Media Marketing has always been wrapped in an enigma, but the results of a new survey from The Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, showed a major increase in the level of activity since 2007. The number of companies using Social Media has increased from just 27% in 2007 to over 80% in 2009. While some segments have diminished like Online Videos, but that may be due to the cost of creating real content for the internet. Wikipieda has also seen a decline in use by business, but that could also be due to the Nazi like control that the hardcore editors have been exercising in 2009.

What Social Media is really creating response for businesses in 2009? Blogging and Traditional Social Media networks rank in at the top, but surprisingly Podcasting has had a steady increase since 2007. Companies were also monitoring mentions of their brands in the social media space, at 68% this year. That figure was up from 60% in 2008 and 50% in 2007. Respondents overwhelmingly believed it was. The companies polled were mostly measuring hits, comments, leads or sales as primary indicators.

So what is your company doing to prepare for 2010???

Anonymity of Social Media

2009-11-30T08:31:00.001-08:00

Social Media has allowed people to connect, discover new products, and has created a new form of marketing. But Social Media has also created a new outlet for consumers to lash out against brands they feel have wronged them. 20% of people surveyed in the US felt empowered to lash out at companies online because of the anonymity provided on the internet. These are not the same customers that would walk into a store and make a stink. Unlike that one customer that may make a scene at the counter, these attacks are directed to thousands of users and can be found online for years. While this number is scary, it is manageable, with a comprehensive Social Media strategy.

What numbers we should be focused on is the 31% that feel empowered to try something new they have been wanting to do and the 48% of users surveyed are looking to meet new people (that does not mean dating). Why shouldn't they be meeting you (your brand) online? Remember that Social Media is about Socializing, far to many companies fall into the trap of posting ad after ad on their Social Media sites, consumers are not looking for ads, they are looking for interaction. Using Social Media to capture new business requires engaging the consumer through content that is fresh and calls them to action. Creating content that is specific to one site gives those users a feeling of having a inside track to your brand.

Check out a site that SGI created www.thegentlemanracer.com this is a young brand that we created just a few months ago, we gave it a depth that goes back for years, uploaded lots of content, and keep it directly tied its own Social Media pages as well as others.

Happy Thanksgiving from Satterfield Group

2009-11-26T11:13:00.000-08:00

Social Media and Analytics

2009-11-11T11:01:00.000-08:00

Most companies are failing to maximize their footprint on the web, because they fail to take advantage of the analytics that are available today. Without a firm grasp on who their market really is many businesses are simply using the wrong content to create the response they are looking for. In a recent survey, almost 50% of companies are spending less than 5 hours a week focused on Content and Social Media, and about 70% are spending around 10 hours a week working on landing page content, blog content, e-mail marketing, social media, and photo content. 80% of the companies surveyed did not personalize the content to the demographic most using the site based upon analytics provided, and none of the companies were using the free analytic tools built into most Social Media applications to compare that data with their main web page analytics so they could target the content on each page.

Understanding these numbers is key to constructing both Traditional and Social Media marketing plans. Many business owners do not know that sites like Facebook, Youtube, and others, not only provide a great outlet for content and inbound links, but also have a wealth of demographic information. Check out just a small sample of the information available from Social Media Sites.

Facebook:

Notice how Facebook not only provides the Male to Female Ratio, but also ages, country, city and language.

YouTube:

YouTube does much the same listing the sex and age ratios, as well as a interactive map highlighting countries were the videos are being viewed. Click on a country like the USA and it will also show popularity by state.

Veterans Day

2009-11-11T08:19:00.001-08:00

Veterans Day is by far one of our most imporant holidays here in the USA. If you have a chance be sure to thank someone for their service to this great nation. This being a car site we decided to post Ford's 2005 commerical that really is one of the best ones any car company has ever produced.

E-Mail Marketing for the Automotive Aftermarket

2009-11-09T10:59:00.000-08:00

By Michael Satterfield

According to a Emarketer.com survey 46% of North American businesses are currently using a E-mail Marketing Strategy and 36% are planning, meaning that by the end of 2010 over 80% of businesses in the North America will have a E-Mail marketing program in place. How will your business maximize this tool and stand out of from the rest of the e-mails in your customers inbox is a key question.

Every E-mail your company sends should be a branding opportunity, many companies fail to understand how much of an impact a well constructed E-mail can mean to the number of impressions that e-mail will get. Below is a sales E-mail I get at least 100 times a week promoting a product or service, the names have been removed to protect the innocent.

This e-mail while short and to the point, does not engage the user, it does not provide a reason for the contact not to click delete, remember it, forward it, or take action on it. The issue most people in e-mail marketing face is that they are sending the same basic message every week. "BUY MY PRODUCT". That is not the message that will resonate with contacts, E-mail marketing like Social Media Marketing is about a relationship and a connection. People protect their inbox and are quick to block E-mails that look like SPAM.

Building a brand with e-mail marketing take more than just sending a e-mail every two weeks with same message over and over, the key is providing real content that is of interest to your readers. Now while content is king, the wrong content can be worse than sending three lines of text. Having content that will appeal to your readers while promoting your message is important. Many E-mailers will simply overload the E-mail with random content gleaned from the web. While it may get views and they can show high open rates, the action generated from the message will not be directed to your business, but to the random stories used to fill space.

Below is a sample e-mail I generated using one of my favorite companies XKS Unlimited as a example, it is in a News Letter Format that was custom designed from the background up. The E-mail focused on brand identity from the top banner, the colors, and format. Notice that it also has a mix of product promotions, news, and events. This format gives the reader more than just a "BUY MY PRODUCT" message. Sure it is promoting products and services throughout, but because the promotions are set up in a article style layout the readers are more likely to read the content, and if it applies to them take action. With photo heavy E-Mails also be sure to put Text Under each image so that users know what they are downloading, this will greatly increase the open rate by users who's E-Mail client automatically blocks images.
Links are also important, each photo is linked to a page on XKS Unlimited Site, so a user who shows interest in the September Wheel Sale, can simply click on the story or photo and be redirected to XKS web store to facilitate a purchase. Events and News gives the reader the feeling that they are not reading an advertisement, but they are reading news and events about the cars they love.

About Michael Satterfield: Michael has been working with the automotive aftermarket since before he could drive, a year before he bought his first car at the age of 14, he had gotten his first computer. Understanding how the Internet can be used to connect people in the automotive hobby became a passion for Michael, as a result he launched the popular web magazine www.thegentlemanracer.com, as well as over 10 other automotive sites. A contributor to All Small Car, Driverfair, Mustang Blog, Allen's Newsletter, Muscle Car Place, and many others, Michael attends events around the country, and is always seeking new adventures on wheels. A published and seasoned photographer, Michael has traveled to over 20 countries seeking adventure and the perfect shot. Michael's degree in Organizational Leadership, with a Minor in Political Science has given him the foundation take SGI to the forefront of Marketing for the Automotive Aftermarket. For more info on SGI please visit www.satterfieldgroup.com

Social Media and the Automotive Aftermarket

2009-11-06T13:08:00.000-08:00

I just returned from SEMA and just about everyone I spoke to had a million questions about Social Media Marketing, Email Marketing, and what they really needed to focus on.

Social Media and the Automotive Aftermarket are perfect for each other, but most of the trainers and speakers failed to connect the dots with many at the show. Here is why Social Media should be a priority for your automotive business.

Your Customers Are Online: Social Media Sites such as Facebook, MySpace, HubGarage.com are extensions of real communities, on Facebook alone there are thousands of pages for real car clubs. A Facebook page search for "Mustang Club" yields over 41 pages, some with as many as 10,000 fans, and just because your company specializes in a less common car does not mean there is not a virtual community for you. A Facebook search for "Fiat Club" turned up over 20 pages. I will have another post coming up on how you can link your Facebook to Twitter so that both update at the same time, saving you time and getting more posts in front of more people.

Brand Identity and Search Engine Optimization (SEO): Many trainers will throw a lot of abbreviated buzz words at the audience hoping to dazzle or confuse them into signing up for blanket packages. Social Media and E-Mail marketing are some of the most cost effective ways to build your brand awareness. Developing a comprehensive action plan that will tie all of your media together should be your main focus. Make sure it is easy to join your e-mail contact list, be sure that your website has links to your social media pages and that they all link back to your main web page. Organic SEO comes from inbound links to your page from other websites, if you have a complete Social Media Marketing plan your already working on SEO.

Message Boards and Forums: If you have been reading my blog at all you know I am a big fan of Message Boards and Forums. If you are in the automotive aftermarket you need to identify the main community forums for your target market and be on them. You can pay to have banner ads and I am all for that. But being involved in the conversation direct with the consumer will earn the respect and increase your reputation. Consumers love the idea of direct interaction with manufactures, installers, suppliers, remember that while you may think your just a small business owner trying to make a buck, but you just designed a car or product that someone somewhere loves. This is why people line up to meet Chip Foose at SEMA, believe it or not you have fans that will tell everyone they know that "John Doe, from XYZ performance answered my tech question on that header install."

Email Marketing: This has become the new post card and mass mailer, however, while many companies have signed up with one of the many services such as IContact, or Constant Contact they are not maximizing the mailing list. The average open rate on a email marketing campaign is only between 9-12%. However, making a few small changes can increase that to around 30-40%. Again there is no secret magic to this, just taking the time to create thoughtful titles that not only identify who the e-mail is from, but also why they should open it. I will be covering e-mail marketing in depth over the next month.

About Michael Satterfield: Michael has been working with the automotive aftermarket since before he could drive, a year before he bought his first car at the age of 14, he had gotten his first computer. Understanding how the Internet can be used to connect people in the automotive hobby became a passion for Michael, as a result he launched the popular web magazine www.thegentlemanracer.com, as well as over 10 other automotive sites. A contributor to All Small Car, Driverfair, Mustang Blog, Allen's Newsletter, Muscle Car Place, and many others, Michael attends events around the country, and is always seeking new adventures on wheels. A published and seasoned photographer, Michael has traveled to over 20 countries seeking adventure and the perfect shot. Michael's degree in Organizational Leadership, with a Minor in Political Science has given him the foundation take SGI to the forefront of Marketing for the Automotive Aftermarket. For more info on SGI please visit www.satterfieldgroup.com

Getting Friends and Followers

2009-10-28T15:16:00.001-07:00

Social Media requires that you have people opting in for your message, and since they opt in they are more likely to read your message, but how do you grow a friends list on your Facebook or get more followers on Twitter that are interested in your product. It is easy to simply go out and add everyone you see, but if they are not your target demographic your not going to gain the results you are looking for. Here are a few tips to help you grow your target demographic on your friends list.

Create a Fan Page for your business and invite all your existing friends. Use the "Insights" feature to see who is visiting your site. (See Chart Below)In the chart for thegentlemanracer.com you can see that the largest group of fans are Men between 25-34 who speak English. The largest group of women are 45-54.
Knowing this information allows me to target the friends of people on my fan page. Sending inventions to connect to a mutual friend will result in about 60% acceptance rate.
After they have accepted your friend request visit your Fan Page again and suggest it to people on your friends list.
Paid ad option: Facebook will give you the option of paying for ads, if you are going to do this be sure to study your insights and tailor your ad to only show up on the Facebook pages of people that fit your target demographic.
How does all this work with Twitter? Link your Fan Page to your Twitter account and all your updates to that fan page will be published on your Twitter. The more Tweets the more people will find you on Twitter and start to follow.

User Friendly??? Simple is always Better!

2009-10-23T13:06:00.001-07:00

How user friendly is your website? Your contact form? In social media marketing, simple is better. If the goal is to collect e-mail address from interested parties, your form should reflect that, do you need their address, name, date of birth, job title, etc... that information will only cause your target audience to turn away from your form. Below is the E-mail News Letter Sign up form we use at Satterfield Group. It is clean, simple, and it works...

[Picture: stuffthathappens.com]

Where to start with your Social Media Campaign

2009-09-08T10:29:00.000-07:00

For many people the prospect of Social Media Marketing can be confusing, frustrating, and overwhelming. I was at a clients business this week, and he asked me what he was doing wrong with the his Social Media Marketing program. I started to review some of his accounts, Facebook, MySpace, etc... and they did not have a single photo of himself, his staff, his building, anything. All the photos and content was advertising. The clients problem was that he has a very successful business, but has not really used the computer in any aspect of his life. He simply did not understand what Social Media was. It made me think about the evolution of Social Media on the internet.

My parents saw that the computer and the internet were going to change the world early on, and that having at least some computer skills would be required. I was about 10 or so they came home with a brand new Tandy computer and I have been on a computer ever since. Having spent about 18 years glued to a computer screen (or under a car), I grew up with Social Media as it came into being, I remember when ICQ launched and lead the way for socializing on the web instantly. However today there are thousands of messengers, social media sites, forums, message boards, etc...it can all be very confusing.

That fact alone makes it difficult for me to tell you where you should start for your business- do you use Facaebook? How about Myspace? Do you use both? It depends on what your goals are for your social media campaign. Remember that Social Media sites are just tools that facilitate a conversation with your targeted consumer. I have written about in the past that Geeks are not the only people using the web anymore, understanding where your consumers are is key. With sites like Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Ustream, Bebo, and many more, anyone can log in and start a conversation and with mobile technology it is even more accessible. Many businesses use Twitter or Facebook, because they know that it is an important tool in reaching their consumers or fans, but they don't use it correctly. They need to send a message that not only gives the consumer information, but calls them to action (link), you won't make sales with Twitter, but you can build brand awareness. It is all about creating an interaction.

In the Automotive Aftermarket the largest segment of my business, I find it amazing that many companies are not involved in the online communities that are focused directly on the cars they build parts for. Sure they may have a banner ads on the site, but they are not interacting. Think to yourself out of the thousands of banner ads you have seen, how many have you clicked on? Not many I am sure. But if you are involved, answering tech questions, replying to the people that love the product you sell, when you post a link it will get clicked on.

No matter what you type of car you sell parts for there is an online community for it out there. Take a look at the site http://www.allfordmustangs.com/ I just logged on, it's a Tuesday 10:47 in the morning and there are over 1075 people on that forum right now interacting. Could your business use an additional 1075 impressions on a Tuesday Morning? These are the customers your business needs to be in contact with, they are the ones that will be talking about your product online anyways.The key is not to just talk about your new product, a sale, or other advertising, it is to support what others within the community are doing. This interaction will result in people supporting you, and build value in your company image. Remember Social Media is not about the one sale, it is about a relationship with real people.

Michael Satterfield

Fore more information please visit http://www.satterfieldgroup.com/

Social Media Marketing Basics

2009-09-01T00:14:00.000-07:00

Social Media Marketing (SMM) using technologies like Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace is the new internet trend that everyone is talking about it use to be SEO now it is SMM. But like any trend there are those people that understand it and see explosive growth, and those who just can't seem to gain any traction. The reason that some companies just don't seem to get plugged in to the community is that they are not using a content driven approach, and they don't understand that you have to offer real value to the user.
If you are going to use SMM to promote your automotive aftermarket business or any business here are some of the types of content you should focus on offering in your SMM campaign

How-To
Webinars
E-books
White papers and Special Reports
Video
Articles
Podcasts
Blog postsGames or Quizzes

As more and more customers tune out to online ads, providing content that they want to experience is going to be more important. Many small business owners don't have the time to generate a lot of content, however, using sites like articlebase.com and others can help you fill in the blanks. To determine what kind of content you should be providing look at the demographic of your target audience. If you are a wholesale company content by industry leaders would be perfect, if you are targeting the end users installation videos, interviews, and games may be more effective. Once you have the content you can use SMM to share it. This is where SMM really can payoff

The Not To Do List

2009-08-18T14:53:00.000-07:00

Even with all of the of “time-saving” technological devices we have today we find ourselves feeling stressed and out of time. Many business owners think that they do not have the time for Social Media Marketing (SSM). However, they may have much more time then they think. Mastering the art of creating a Not To-Do list, and taking advantage of new technology can create more then enough time to work on SSM.

Consider cutting out the unnecessary time-wasters like reading your junk e-mail, I am sure some of you would like to “Increase your _______ Today” but taking the time to read the SPAM does nothing for your business. Think of it this way, if it does not accomplish anything, why do it? Take your annual projected income and divide it by 2,080 it will give you an approximate estimate of what an hour of your time is worth. Look at the tasks you do everyday and ask. Is it worth your time? If not you should delegate those things to someone less expensive. Now SSM can be something that can be delegated so long as the person you delegate it to is just as passionate about your business as you are.

Social Media Marketing and justifying it for your business

2009-08-11T11:26:00.001-07:00

Social Media Marketing and justifying it for your business
By Michael Satterfield

A number of small business owners do not see a benefit in active social media, they may even have a MySpace or a Facebook page already, but it has not been updated in months or in some cases years. You may be a manager or employee that has been trying to get your company on board with Social Media, but the boss just does not see the value in having an employee “playing” on the internet all day. The automotive aftermarket is full of enthusiasts and the majority of them on online.

The best way to show a brand or product manager the light of Social Media is to show them what is being said about the company online. Walking them through a few of the forums, message boards, and blogs that are talking about their product, and then ask them what are they doing to leverage this content. Type the company name in Google and see what comes up. A client of mine ran across an angry customer that started a xyzcompanysucks.com website dedicated to letting the world know how he felt he was cheated. The site is no longer updated; however, it is still up almost two years later. At that point most will see the value of directly interacting with the most passionate consumers in the industry. Positive conversations are not being maximized, while complaints are gaining support from other members of the community and not being addressed quickly.

Look at two postings from the same online automotive forum below (names of companies have been obscured) Click on each one to see in full size:

As can be expected the negative post had over 681 views and countless responses in a matter of days. A number of other members also posted their stories in the thread, about the bad service and poor product quality fanning the flames against the company.

While the positive story had about the same number of views, it was locked as a sticky on the thread (locked at the top of the discussion board so all members can see it). Being seen as a service to the community the post is still locked at the top of the page two months after the original post. Guess which company has a social media marking plan and is active on that message board?

What brand or product manager would not love to have that kind of direct feedback from the consumer, in the case of the postings above both companies are wholesale manufactures with little direct public interaction or feedback. The company with a social media marketing plan has not only seen their brand awareness among the general public rise, but they have done it with almost zero print advertising. Now I believe in traditional advertising in print and other media, but that Social Media should be a part of the marketing plan.

When developing your social media strategy you should begin first with understanding the audience. Spend a few weeks on online scouting, observing, and developing an understanding for the online communities. Spamming sites will have a major negative effect, however, if you contribute to the site and don’t hide who you are the communities are generally very receptive. Establishing yourself as the expert on the forum will add creditability to your products and company. Once you have all of this information, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, MySpace for marketing all fall into place.

Facebook buys social media start-up FriendFeed

2009-08-10T13:45:00.001-07:00

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook, the world's largest social networking site, said it will acquire FriendFeed, an up-and-coming social media startup.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Facebook said that FriendFeed would continue to operate normally for the time being as the teams determine long-term plans.

Friendfeed lets people share content online in real time across various social networks and blogs.FriendFeed's four founders, former Google Inc employees who started the company in 2007, will hold senior roles on Facebook's engineering and product teams.

Facebook has more than 250 million registered users. In May, the social networking company announced a $200 million investment from Russian investor Digital Sky Technologies that pegged the value of its preferred shares at $10 billion.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing Bernard Orr)

© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
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The internet has made them stronger....

2009-08-07T13:24:00.000-07:00

So one thing that we all have to remember that there are odd balls in the world, and on the Internet they are much more comfortable in their weirdness. Below is an e-mail a client of mine received, he sells Dollar DVD's mind you, not $200,000 cars, this letter just goes to show you that no matter what you do they will find you and they are creepy. The DVD was a classic 70's B movie, the item was shipped via Media Mail as all the DVD's are, after it was shipped the customer demanded it be shipped via Priority Mail, he then called my client the day after the item was shipped to demand why it had not arrived... my client is in California and this customer was in New Jersey. After receiving the DVD he called again, upon picking up the phone my client was greeted with "Hello lire" my client replied "who is this?" to which the overly excited client replied "I AM THE GUY YOU SCREWED OVER". Apparently there were two kinds of packaging offered on this DVD one with a gold stripe and one with two gold stripes. Again this is over a $1.00 DVD.

Check out the letter below...

______________________________________________

I am not writing to vex you, however there are several questions on my mind concerning the PIRANHA DVD that I purchased from you online ( and for which the tracking number still states 3 days after the alleged May 31 shipping date: "no record found for this number".

First, I must confess that this is the most stressful internet transaction I have ever had in my life (and that's counting eBay, Amazon.com, half.com, and many other internet stores); never before have I had my questions brushed off as if I were a pest, called "crazy" by the seller in an email, and in general just received all-around bad, uncaring customer service. Virtually all sellers have been happy to accomodate me and to reply to my questions in a friendly manner and to revel in good communication between buyer and seller overall.

Now, since this is the most unusual order in recent memory, I would like to ask (politely) the following questions:

(A) Why in the world did you ship my PIRANHA DVD via Certified Mail instead of shipping it via Priority Mail with Delivery Confirmation tracking??? Not only is this an example of your not following my instructions and requests, but--as I have just found out--the recipient cannot track the scans on a Certified parcel the way they can on a package with Delivery Confirmation, leaving me in the dark with all sorts of racing thoughts: "Did he really ship out my package? There is no Acceptance Scan to tell me whether or not he did. Why is the tracking number still showing no record of the item's existence 3 days after it was supposedly shipped?"

(B)Could you please--digit by digit--DOUBLE, TRIPLE, QUADRUPLE check the tracking number to make sure you gave it to me right and did not leave off a digit or inadventently transpose digits? Every single postal employee with whom I have spoken has stated that I should CONTACT THE SENDER and VERIFY THAT THE TRACKING NUMBER IS CORRECT; when I told them that I had already done that, they have replied: THEN CONTACT THE SENDER AGAIN AND RE-VERIFY THE NUMBER BECAUSE THE NUMBER THE SENDER GAVE YOU SIMPLY DOES NOT EXIST.

In a nutshell, please send me another copy of the re-verified tracking number, a verification of my shipping address to make sure that you did not write the address wrong on the pacakage, and provide me with the EXACT SHIPPING TIME AND DATE (as in 10:00 AM Pacific Time on Saturday May 31, 2008 for example). All that info should be readily available on your postal receipt. (Now that I think about it, why not just make a copy of the postal receipt and then mail it to me so I can see that, yes, you did everything exactly as you said with no errors, proving that you are not at fault).

AS I can prove with my PayPal receipt, I kept my end of the bargain by PAYING WITHIN MINUTES OF PURCHASE: that was all I was required to do and I did it fast and efficiently. Now I ask for you to keep up your end of the tansaction by being kind enough to take a little time out of your day to answer my questions above.

Thank you for your time and attention to the matter.

Name removed to protect the crazy...

U.S. Marines Banned from Social Media

2009-08-04T08:13:00.000-07:00

The U.S. Marines issued an order on Monday that bans the use of all social media sites, including MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter on its network. According to the Department of Defence there is an increased risk of sensitive information leaking out. The ban is in effect for a year and blocks use of public social networks by Marines, unless a mission-critical need exists. The Department of Defence is still using social media in a office capacity, as it is a vital recruiting tool, the Marine Corps Facebook page has over 75,000 fans.

Volkswagen U.S. Market Assessment

2009-08-01T15:29:00.000-07:00

Volkswagen U.S. Market Assessment

Volkswagen North America is projecting tripling its sales in the United States (U.S.) market over the next five to eight years. This ambitious plan is the brainchild of the newly installed CEO Stefan Jacoby, who already made major waves by deciding to move Volkswagen North American headquarters away from the “Motor City” in state of Michigan to the more business friendly state of Virginia. With sales numbers already off pace for previous years is Volkswagens (VW) projected growth feasible, and if so what can VW do to reach this goal (Robinson, 2009, pp. 11-1)

Moving the company is a smart business move, many automotive and other businesses have had to leave Michigan for a number of reasons. Michigan’s poor economy is a major one; but attracting educated and skilled staff is another. Michigan’s poor economy and quality of life has been the main factor in causing over fifty percent of University of Michigan graduates seek opportunities elsewhere. They head for urban centers such as Chicago, New York, Washington D.C., and Seattle. Currently there are three times more Michigan State graduates living in Chicago, than in Detroit, many graduates citing quality of life as a major factor in leaving the Detroit metro area (French, 2009). However, for VW there is another major reason for the move, Virginia is offering VW six million dollars in economic incentives, a number that Michigan cannot match. As well as positioning the company in one of its historically strong markets along the east coast. Indicating that attracting qualified staff was another reason for the move, Jacoby said “he did not think it would be difficult to find qualified auto executives and senior staff in the Washington area, given the educational levels in the region” (Press, 2007). I know that when I was considering working for a major automaker, I did not consider any with offices in Dearborn, Detroit, or other parts of Michigan, as having lived in Michigan for a short time, and visited a number of times for business, that it is not a place I would consider moving to. I instead worked with companies with design centers in California, and even applied to the Audi division in Virginia before deciding to stay in California for a few more years.

Moving the company will result in the loss of about 400 jobs, and has been met with sharp criticism by the employees who feel that the German company has failed them by not offering products tailored to the American Market. Jacoby accepted this failure on the part of the company, and VW seems to have taken it to heart designing vehicles specifically for the U.S. market. Joe Ivers, of JD Power and Associates says VW suffers from a cultural divide between Germany and the USA. "VW is more apt to design a feature like a radio or a dashboard with cost and their own sense of taste in mind instead of what the consumer actually wants” (Kiley, 2004).

VW’s is also plagued with a reputation of poor quality that is emphasized when compared to Asian imports such as the automotive powerhouse Toyota (Robinson, 2009, pp. 11-2). In order to reach the lofty goal of 700,000 units a year VW overcome its reputation of poor quality that it has rightfully earned. As someone that has worked in the automotive industry, I have seen VW’s decline in quality over the years. VW in the 1990s was known for producing vehicle that suffered from a number of minor problems, from faulty wiring to interior panels detaching while driving. This is not just my opinion it is backed up by the automotive research firm J.D. Power and Associates. In the J.D. Power Initial Quality Study, based on complaints in the first three months of ownership, VW sank 15% to next-to-last among all brands, while the industry as a whole improved 11%. Over three years of ownership, in the survey by J.D. Power used to gauge reliability, VW ranked 33rd out of 37 brands and was still dropping. This is costing VW one of the automotive industries most prized consumers, repeat customers. One buyer who does not plan to re-up with VW is Sandy Goroff, a Boston book publicist and disgruntled owner of a 2004 Passat wagon. Her car often lurches as if it has been hit from behind after she exits a highway and drives slower on suburban streets. VW officials do not deny the issue exists but have not been able to fix it and at one point suggested, she was driving the car too conservatively. A former Audi owner, she has been negotiating for a replacement. "They've done about everything they can to negate my brand loyalty," Goroff says. Owners of more finicky front-drive Rabbits and Quantums reported electrical problems, blown engines and fragile window regulators and windshield wipers. That, combined with rising prices, almost forced VW to leave the U.S. market (Kiley, 2004).

Another criticism that VW North America has faced is that its advertising has been confusing and misdirected in the 2000s. Even with legendary advertising firm Crispin, Porter & Bogusky at the helm, the message as seemed unfocused. This did not escape the automotive press one writer said of VW “Sign THEN Drive” campaign that; “Neither of these commercials tells me anything about VW cars or why I would want one. The humor is crass, insulting, and juvenile. Along with VW’s recent spate of commercials that show VW drivers constantly getting into accidents, VW seems to have an extremely low opinion of its buyers. Then again, given VW’s poor reliability, high cost of maintenance and repair, and high price points, maybe VW knows exactly what it's doing” (Ferng, 2008). Jacoby admits that the ad agency should not have been tasked with creating the overall message for the company. “One thing I know is that the ad agency can’t be expected to guide the brand if we don’t know where we are going” (Robinson, 2009, pp. 11-3).

In review, newly appointed VW CEO Stefan Jacoby plans to move the company to a new state in hopes to gain a more competitive advantage in executive labor force, retool the U.S. vehicle lineup, focus on a new corporate message of VW, all with the hope of selling 700,000 vehicles in the USA annually in less than eight years. Implementation of this plan is going to be a monumental task, and the projection of tripling sales is a major commitment. VW may be able to achieve this if the plan of growth by following a strict yet flexible plan. Strict in the since that its goals are unchanging, flexible in that over time the product, processes, and message may be altered to fit the current market conditions.

Strengthens, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (S.W.O.T.) analysis is a common way to capture a snap shot of a proposed plan. I have applied this process to the VW plan for U.S. below:

Strengthens

6 Million Dollars in incentives
Cost Savings in staffing cut
U.S. control over U.S. Products

Weaknesses

Poor Quality Reputation
Lack of Brand Loyalty
Exchange Rate effects profits significantly

Opportunities

Connecting to consumers
Better Employee Pool
Development of U.S. Products

Threats

Economic Downturn
Continued Quality Issue
New Competition in the U.S. Market

While VW North America has a number of strengths within its restructuring plan including the financial incentives of moving its headquarters to Virginia, and taking more control over its U.S. product design and marketing. There are several other advantages to centralizing control in the U.S. instead of having to rely on governance from from Germany. Creating a more nimble organization that is better able to respond to the needs of the unique U.S. market.

This plan also shifts the overall organizational structure and creates a new chain of command that is more autonomous than the previous structure. The company has moved from being a multinational structure to a multidomestic structure. In place of management decisions coming from Germany, they are directed from the U.S. management team that reports to the parent company. VW was still attempting to push its original business model “of one car for all markets” that had been successful in the 1960s, but by the 1980s VW was in major trouble in the U.S. market. VW stumbled badly in the 1970s and '80s with products buyers could not relate to after decades of mechanically simple and durable rear-drive Beetles and Microbuses (Kiley, 2004). In 1987 VW was forced to shut down it’s only U.S. manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania, and moved all production back to Germany (Buchholz, 2009). Creating vehicles that were specifically tailored to the U.S. market such as the Tiguan crossover SUV, is a major step towards becoming competitive in the largest car market in the world; the 1980’s and 1990’s saw the departure a of a number of European automotive brands attempting to survive in the U.S. market. Companies like Peugeot, Alfa Romeo, Fiat, MG, Triumph, Renault, and several others pulled out of the U.S. market. VW builds cars that compete with those brands in Europe, South America, and Asia, and for many years, they have been attempting to complete again U.S. and Asian carmakers with the same product. VW has shifted to accept that the competition in each market is vastly different; other carmakers have realized this fact a number of years ago, such as Ford Motor Company that employed a multidomestic structure since the 1960’s. Ford created four regional companies, Ford North America, Ford South America, Ford Europe, and Ford Asia, each with its own leadership, vision, and vehicle line directed to their markets (Briscoe, 2004). This is likely to change in the future as the world continues to shrink and markets begin to converge, BMW has shown us that they build a product that is globally recognized be it the new MINI or a M3. There has even been talk at companies like Ford, Fiat, and others to combine global vehicle production on universal platforms that can be tailored to each companies exterior styling, while remaining mechanically identical, such as the new Ford KA, Mazda 1, and Fiat 500 sharing the majority of their parts creating collaborations that have never been done before.

Quality management is another vital determiner of VW’s short and long-term success in the U.S. market. VW has a program that they themselves describe as a quality management system known as “Volkswagen Excellence” that has lead to lower frequency of defects in their products. VW takes a holistic approach to quality management. Not only are the physical products a target of quality management, but also the consumer’s interaction with the company as a part of the quality management process. From creating supplier conventions to reinforce cooperation in development and supply chain; to launching, a quality assurance organization within to react faster to consumer concerns VW is focused on the consumer (Volkswagen AutoGroup, 2006).

Volkswagen will need to implement this plan and stick to it, the one major factor that is out of their control is the economy. At the time of this writing U.S. car sales are at their weakest in decades. This plan was put into place in 2007, and the move was made in April 2008. Jacoby upped the figure in an interview given at the 2008 North American Auto show in Detroit, by projecting that VW would sell 800,000 cars annually in the U.S. by 2018. When pressed on how the company would reach a goal such as this in such a short time, considering that in 2007 VW sold 230,000 vehicles Jacoby said, that they were setting up the target so that the whole organization knows what the mission is. It is also to drive the product planning, design and supplier constituencies. They want to pressure the whole system (Kiley D. , 2008). Now just over a year later the overall sales for VW North America decreased 3.2 percent a company spokes person said “Despite these economic conditions, 2008 was still a good year for Volkswagen. We relocated our North American headquarters to Herndon, Virginia bringing us closer to our customers, we announced an all-new North American production facility will be built in Chattanooga, TN vehicle that allowed Volkswagen to buck the economic downturn as our sales remained close to our 2007 totals. Volkswagen of America has a plan in place for a successful future here in the U.S.” (Volkswagen North America, 2009). It’s seems that VW has been implementing its plan without adjusting for the current economy, it will be interesting to see how it plays out over the next several years of the plan. With the current economic condition, federal regulations for gas mileage and green house gasses, and a globalizing of platforms, VW may find itself rethinking its plan sooner than expected.

Works Cited

Briscoe, D. &. (2004). International Human Resouce Management. New York: Routledge.

Buchholz, D. P. (2009). Case Study: Volkswagen: Pining For The Gentleman Caller. CFED .

Ferng, J. (2008, March 28). VW AD Campaign is a No-Brainer. Literally. The Truth About Cars .

French, R. (2009, April 3). Half of university grads flee Michigan. The Detroit News .

Kiley, D. (2004, May 11). Quality-control guru tackles VW problems. USA Today .

Kiley, D. (2008, January 17). VW's Sales Target: Bold or Bull? Business Week .

Press, A. (2007, September 6). Virginia, VW moving from Michigan to. Retrieved April 24, 2009, from MSNBC.Com: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20626252/

Robinson, P. &. (2009). Strategic Management. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Volkswagen AutoGroup. (2006). A strict, cooperative approach to quality. Retrieved April 25, 2009, from Volkswagen Autogroup: http://www.volkswagenag.com/vwag/vwcorp/content/en/sustainability_and_responsibility/Markt/Qualitaet.html

Volkswagen North America. (2009, January 5). Volkswagen Sales Declined 14.4 Percent In December 2008. Racing Daily .

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/automotive-articles/volkswagen-us-market-assessment-1089690.html

About the Author:

Michael Satterfield has worked in the automotive industry for over 10 years, the majority of that time focused on Internet Sales and Marketing, in 2007 Michael founded Satterfield Group Int. a consulting firm dedicated to helping small businesses in the automotive aftermarket affordably promote their company on the internet. Michael holds BA Organizational Leadership and holds certificates from Ford Motor Company, Kia Motors North America, and Nichols, Campbell & Morrow in Internet Sales and Marketing. Michael is also an avid automotive enthusiast and has traveled around the world mostly by car, having owned over 60 cars, motorcycles, and scooters, Michael understands the needs of the automotive market from classic restoration to retail automotive sales. E-mail Michael directly at michael@satterfieldgroup.com

White Paper: Life/ Work Blance Childcare and Family

2009-08-01T07:30:00.000-07:00

A major issue that is affecting many industries is the lack of affordable childcare options for working parents. Having worked in many different aspects of the automotive industry, most currently the retail automotive aspect I have seen this issue cause conflict in the lives of many of my coworkers and employees. While this may be more prevalent an issue in single parent families, due to the rising cost of living many two parent families are facing the fact that they must choose between making ends meet or working to pay for child care. An example of this is at my current place of employment where a colleague of mine was facing the choice of having his wife work so they had health benefits or having her not work so she could stay home and watch the kids, as they could not afford the cost of day care. I think that there are a number of issues contributing to this problem, all of them are not the fault of the employer, or could be solved by a government agency.

California (where I live and work) is one of the most expensive regions in the country to live. Currently families in California are paying an average of $375 per month out-of-pocket (that is an average of 10 percent of family earnings). Low-income families are affected even more dramatically with an average of 24 percent of their earnings being spent on childcare. Access to childcare programs varies by each family’s ethnicity and socioeconomic status. For example, Latino children are much less likely than white children to attend center-based programs in the year prior to kindergarten. In terms of access based on socioeconomic status, 49 percent of low-income children are enrolled in center-based childcare versus more than 80 percent of upper-middle class children. (Children Now, 2005)

In the case of my coworker, he ended up having to drive his kids over two hours out of the way at a family member’s home as he could not afford to lose his health coverage, or afford the almost $400 per month for day care for each of his two children. It was taking a toll on his professional and personal life. He would often be late to work, he would have a four-hour commute every day having to shuttle his kids to family and friends who could watch them while he and his wife worked. This is living only seven miles from work. This type of extra stress makes for employees that are less productive and dissatisfied with their work environment as they are torn between providing for the family, and being able to function. Some companies have taken notice of the affects on employees that are able to feel comfortable about their children security. "Alcott recognizes that its employees spend more time at work in a given week than they do at home. When employees cannot accomplish life's tasks because of their jobs, they become resentful and unmotivated" (Kitchen, 2008).

I contrast that company I had worked for to another company that I had been with in the past. They were a major retail outlet and had about the same number of employees as my current employer. They decided that the most effective way to attract and retain the best employees was by offering a childcare center on site. It served two proposes one it gave employees with young children a zero cost (to employee) place to have their kids taken care of, but it also would allow shoppers to drop their kids off while the shopped. The center was staffed by three people, and was outfitted with a mini movie theater, education center, and nap room. While the average employee was only making minimum wage the onsite childcare allowed them to keep more experienced employees, and created a true family environment. The cost of the center was minimal when compared to the cost associated with having higher turnover from employees leaving to seek new positions. Among parent employees in California, 31% report they have considered leaving their employers due to childcare issues. 85% percent of these employees report that a work-site center would affect their decision to stay, with more than 50% reporting it would have a significant impact. While 45% of parents miss, at least one day of work every six months and 65% of parents are late to work or are forced to leave work early due to childcare breakdowns. (City of Santa Barbara, 2002)

Major corporations like Intel have realized that the cost of having employees not performing at their peak is more costly than onsite childcare centers. “Childcare issues can cost millions of dollars each year in lost productivity and turnover when parents are disrupted at work because their childcare is unreliable or poor quality. Intel found through employee surveys that working parents are in need of childcare help, and traditional childcare solutions do not adequately address the needs of many employees. Intel has had a pretax childcare benefit and relationships with national childcare providers for some years, but is taking greater steps to provide more support for parents and guardian. To best address the unique childcare needs of our employees, Intel takes a site-based approach to childcare. For example, in Israel, Intel has partnered with the community to support childcare centers located near Intel facilities providing services that match the needs of our employees. In Ireland, Intel has implemented an on-site resource and referral service to help employees locate childcare. In Malaysia, Intel offers an on-site preschool (Intel , 2008).”

Many of these types of programs are considered perks by many, and are provided by what many would consider white-collar companies. However, some have put forth the idea that in today’s much more demanding world where people are working more hours than ever, it should be a basic benefit provided by most employers. Many European countries such as Sweden have very liberal policies supporting family and childcare. In Sweden, childcare is considered a necessity for the economic and social survival of the country, with a national regulatory agency overseeing the neighborhood childcare centers. The government even pays parents up to 80 per cent of their yearly salary for up to a year after the birth of the child, so that the parent may take the time off to bond with their child. The Swedish government has even made vacation pay mandatory “based on the concept that family recreation is very important” (Polk, 1997). It is not just Sweden, many other nations that have started to look at the affect a good work/life balance has on its citizens. Countries including, France, Holland, the Dominican Republic, Canada, and even Cuba have all received high marks for their level of childcare services from the International Child Resource Instituted (Polk, 1997).

But while many may believe that Universal Childcare should be offered by the United States (U.S.) government, for every successful program around the world, there are stunning failures. Canada’s program has been described as “woefully inadequate” and “an insult to working class mothers” according to a spokes person for a Vancouver based grassroots women’s movement. This was in response to the Canadian government’s budget announcement that would in effect would offer $100 a month for stay at home moms and women with children in a recognized childcare facility (Rosen, 2006). The state of Hawaii recently was forced to end its Universal Child Health Care system after only seven months. The program was started with the same ideal of providing a service to low income and immigrant families, however, once the program became available, families started to drop private coverage so their children would be eligible for the subsidized plan. While health care and childcare are slightly different, the same mentality would cause the same strain on a childcare system. While advocates for the program believe it should be spared at all costs, the cost is the very issue that caused the program to shut down, and until the state government can find a way out of its $900 million budget shortfall all social programs will be put on hold ( Associated Press, 2008).

Currently the U.S. department of labor does not require a company to provide for childcare, however in 1990 after considering over 100 bills with child-care components, the 101st Congress enacted laws intended to make child care more affordable. The focus of this legislation was targeted at low-income or single parent families. However, this only provides temporary childcare assistance during periods of unemployment. Once the subject is employed, this benefit is no longer offered and the strain and stress of balancing childcare and work is once again an onus placed upon the shoulders of our struggling citizens (Cattan, 1991).

There must be a solution that does not burden the taxpaying citizens, does not unfairly burden employers, and has built in protections to prevent abuse, all while not creating a monstrous bureaucracy. It is a tall order to attempt to please all sides, the parent, the taxpayers, the business owners, and the politicians. However, I believe with the amount of taxes being collected people would like to see their taxes going to better lives of U.S. citizens, instead of being poured into rebuilding foreign governments. In the U.S. we are working more hours per-year than ever before, in a sampling from my local region of California the average worker working more than 55 hours per-week rose by over 87% in less than two years. There was not a significant increase in the population sample to justify such a spike (U.S. Census Bureau, 2001). At my store the average sales person works over 2,400 hours per-year, and some work even more. With statistics like this, it is amazing that the people are not clamoring for a solution from our legislators.

There have been many solutions from creating a government agency and requiring pre-school to increasing tax refunds for parents. “One solution could be as simple as simplifying the process of getting already available benefits such as food stamps, low cost childcare, health care, and transportation so that the pore are both aware of and able to get the help they need” (Lauer, 2008).

The solution I would propose would involve a tax benefit from the federal government for corporations that offer childcare options for employees. Requiring companies to meet specific standards such as the number of employees to qualify and hiring licensed childcare providers for either on or off site childcare. This would allow for rapid growth, as both the employer and employee would have an instant benefit. However, for companies not able to put in place their own childcare system that would meet national standard; a system could be put in place to create a privet or government company that would offer childcare in the same way health insurance is offered. It would need some form of government subsidization with an employee and employer matching contribution. The main issue would be to make sure it was actionable and had some form of local control, as the needs of urban area workers would vary vastly from the needs of more rural workers. Centers would need to be put into the areas that are most accessible to the communities that need them. The quickest and most effective way to bring this form of childcare into reality would be to attach it to an existing agency that could administer it, perhaps the Department of Labor. A four-year review of JPMorgan Chase's back-up care program showed that 98% of parents who use the program would have taken unscheduled time off from work to care for their children had the back-up program not been available. In just one year, the back-up program generated more than a 100% return on investment (City of Santa Barbara, 2002). Adding a government tax benefit to companies would prompt more companies to perhaps follow the example of that offering childcare solutions to employees will in the long run save money, and increase productive.

Works Cited
Associated Press. (2008, October 17). FoxNews.com. Retrieved November 23, 2008, from FoxNews.com: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,439607,00.html
Cattan, P. (1991, October). Child-care problems: an obstacle to work. Monthly Labor Review Vol. 114, No. 10 .
Children Now. (2005). Child Care in California. Oakland: Children Now.
City of Santa Barbara. (2002). Child Care Impact on the Work Place. Santa Barbara: City of Santa Barbara.
Intel . (2008, November 13). Intel Work Life. Retrieved November 22, 2008, from Intel.com: http://www.intel.com/jobs/workplace/worklife/childcare.htm
Kitchen, P. (2008, November 10). Workplace Flexibility . McClatchy -Tribune Business News .
Lauer, R. &. (2008). Social problems and the quality of life 11th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill.
Polk, D. (1997). Check out the (International) Neighbors. Children's Advocate , 4-6.
Rosen, R. (2006). "Universal" Child Care Benefit is an Insult to Millions of Women in Canada. Grassroots Women Newsletter .
U.S. Census Bureau. (2001). Hours Worked per Week by Residence, Riverside CA. Washington D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau.

E-Mail Marketing:

2009-07-28T14:09:00.001-07:00

Today I got a call from a lady who wanted to talk to me about her PR firm and she wanted to e-mail me what she could do for my business. I don’t think she did much research before calling me, seeing as SGI is in the PR and Marketing field. But I gave her my e-mail address to see what she had to offer. Now one of the most important things that I do for my client is manage their e-mail marketing program, be it Newsletters, Sales Coupons, general contact, etc… so I am always interested in how other professionals do their e-mail marketing.

Firstly the e-mail subject line was in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, this is a very good way to get on the spam lists or just get deleted, and the e-mail itself was plain text with an attached photo. One great way to get your e-mail deleted is to make it look like SPAM with the subject that is in all caps and a file attachment. The other thing that stuck out like a sore thumb to me was the e-mail address it came from was a free server account (i.e. hotmail or gmail) so it does not really tell me who it is from. If you get an e-mail from John@XYZcompany.com you know it is from XYZ Company. The subject line and the e-mail it is from are two of the main factors when it comes to getting people to open your e-mail. The attachment is not going to get anyone very excited, and most people will never open it, but this attachment did not have a name that told me what it was. TXS123.jpg does not make me want to click on it; the attachment was a rate sheet for the advertising firm. 2010Ratesheet.jpg would have been a better choice, or XYZcompany09Rates.jpg would at least give the reader an idea on what they are clicking on.

The ideal concept would have been to use a system like Constant Contact and send the e-mail in html with the attached jpeg inserted into it. SGI we only use Constant Contact because of the low rate of bounced e-mail, the tracking ability, and the fact that they automatically create a webpage for each e-mail you send. Using Constant Contact some of our clients have seen open rates as high 35%.

One other little point that was nagging me about this established and professional PR firm’s e-mail, was the lack of a link to the company web site, I had to go on google.com and type the name of the company in to find out more about them. They had a very nice site, and it gave me much more information on the services that they provide and their references, in an e-mail that is meant to capture new business this information is invaluable.

Viral Video: Sometimes it takes the Bare Minimum

2009-07-20T13:16:00.000-07:00

A video has been making the rounds on YouTube that really shows how branding and social media sites can take existing content and make a major impact. Air New Zealand launched a new safety video for use on their domestic 737 flights, where the airplane staff is clad in nothing but body paint (don’t worry it is G rated) in the style of the actual Air New Zealand uniforms. This would generate a number of chuckles on the flights, and mimicked the “Nothing to Hide” ad campaign shown on local television; this is a perfect lesion in branding and the internet. The airline could have simply left this campaign on TV and on the flights, however, posting this already existing content on YouTube has expanded the reach of the campaign globally. Currently the videos posted on Air New Zealand’s YouTube channel have generated over 9.3 Million views. Now your company’s traditional commercial that you have had for years may not generate this kind of buzz, but it can be a great tool in creating online brand awareness. Using a service like YouTube to broadcast your message has been effective for many of the companies I have worked with, be it posting videos on how to install a product, to events, or even commercials.

If your business sells automotive exhaust systems for a Honda Civic, videos that feature how to install your system, or the sound and performance of your exhaust over the factory or competition can be invaluable. One client of mine has all of their instructions on YouTube. Before when a customer called in with a tech question they could only offer to talk them through an install over the phone, or send over instructions via fax or e-mail. Now they can ask the customer if they would like a full length, color, installation video e-mailed to them. It has been a major success.

Air New Zealand Safety Video Below:

Going Viral: The Ticket Heard Around the World

2009-07-14T17:18:00.000-07:00

I am always amazed when I get an e-mail or a call from a client who cannot grasp just how amazing the internet is in the world of marketing. A good example of how one small post on a website can have a world wide impact was a story that happened last week. When internet blogger and self proclaimed “media mogul” Phillip Odegard posted a fake speeding ticket on his Flickr account showing that he had been ticketed for doing 210 miles per hour in a Bugatti the online community went nuts. Within days thousands of blogs, message boards, and even legitimate media outlets began reporting on the story. The ticket as confirmed by the California Highway Patrol was real, but it was issued for Odegard’s 2004 Infinity G35, and he was clocked at 100 miles per hour. Through some photo editing Mr. Odegard was quickly becoming well known, Autoblog.com, Jalopnik.com, and even British Motoring T.V. Show Top Gear all ran the story about this “media mogul” and his lead foot, only to look a little foolish. Odegard has yet to commit.

Why I think that this story is so cool is that in a matter of days Phillip Odegard had hundreds of thousands of people looking at his story, and how many of them then went on to see his web site. From what I have found over 12,000 websites from Ferrarichat.com to individual MySpace pages that have posted this story, link, or photo of the fake ticket and almost all of them have a link on them back to one of Odegard sites. So when you wonder if the social media network can reach millions of people and get your company image or name out there, the answer is yes. Now if he had only had the wherewithal to have had a site that was selling t-shirts, stickers, or even fake ticket books he may have been able to make some real money off this buzz.

It is all about content, if you have content be it video, story, or photos, etc… that viral effect can be created and it can make a real impact on your web traffic and bottom line.

Just for good Mesure here is yet another posting of the fake ticket in this story, notice that water mark he added to the photo...

Understanding Facebook

2009-03-28T12:31:00.000-07:00

Many companies make the mistake of assuming that Facebook is a youth oriented site, like Myspace. While Facebook and Myspace do have a lot of things in common, Facebook as grown up and attracted a much broader audience. A recent report from Insidefacebook.com shows that the number of people over 35 has doubled in the last two months. This means that social networking sites are offering more demographics for your business to cater to. The same report showed that the fastest growing dempographic on Facebook as women over 55, with over 1.5 million of them active on Facebook each month. If you are not using Social Media because you think your demographic is not online you need to look at this report. Facebook Demographic Report

Retail Automotive Industry: Atomic Age meets the Information Age

2008-07-27T14:55:00.000-07:00

Retail Automotive Industry: Atomic Age meets the Information Age

A White Paper by Michael Satterfield

The retail automotive industry is an interesting and slowly evolving business, that fights change every step of the way. Few dealerships today understand how much the market has changed and how much it is going to change in the next few short years. Still clinging to old business practices, shady and misleading advertising, and an antiquated pricing system the rest of the civilized world has abandoned they continue to struggle with client retention and customer service index (CSI) scores.

The general environment of the retail automotive industry has been carefully created over the last fifty years here in the United States (U.S.). Customers have been slowly conditioned in this market to create an entitled consumer that is difficult to please, and more demanding over the years. Couple this to the confusion and too much choice your average consumer is overwhelmed by the endless options and combinations of vehicles, and payment options. In the U.S. today, consumers now must choose between 48 manufactures, each with multiple vehicles, and each vehicle with multiple trim levels and options. As more people have access to internet research, invoice price, costs, and incentives are in the hands of consumers, making it more difficult for dealerships to retain a viable profit margin on new vehicles. However, many dealers, professional training groups, managers and owners, attempt to address the customer in the same way they did before.

The retail automotive industry as a whole is going to be forced to follow the CarMax formula for doing business. As consumers have more control over the buying process with information and misinformation, it makes it harder to direct the sale. The demographics of consumers are different for every dealer as Ford of Beverly Hills has a different clientele then Sunland Ford in the high desert. However, the one key that stays the same is that fact that eight out of ten have been online doing some form of research.

The automotive manufactures are also going to have to become a part of the solution to the issues of consumer choice. Manufactures like Ford, Chevy, and Chrysler need to follow the lead of Saturn, Honda, and Toyota and simplify their overall selection. Saturn has even taken the confusion out of the buying process by offering a Manufactures Retail Price (MRP), in place of Manufactures Suggested Retail Price (MSRP), because the customer does not have as many options it makes selling the vehicle a much smoother process. The European Union requires all manufactures to have MRP only, in place of MSRP in order to keep local economies and businesses stable. This keeps local buyers local and creates more competition for customer service in place of price.

Staffing is also a major issue in the ever-changing car business but again is it is based upon each dealer’s demographic. Dealers in Southern California and Texas are starting to require bilingual staff to service the ever growing population of immigrants, however, with this demographic comes this challenges of dealing with low income customers. CarMax has discovered a way of dealing with the by offering the same product in every demographic, controlling the sales environment by requiring the customer to walk into the showroom before having access to the inventory, and by having set no hassle prices. This concept takes the car business into the realm of normal business, like a McDonalds, or Wal-Mart, it is a process that can be duplicated across the country. The fact of the manner is that auto sales should have always been like selling anything else, washing machines, clothes, or computers.

The major issue with the current structure of the automotive retail industry is that the culture of “the car business” is ingrained that it will be hard to wrest out. There is some truth to the concept that you cannot tell the customer everything in an automotive transaction, simply because the majority of people do not understand. These are the people that ask for the mathematically impossible, (i.e. $300 monthly payment for 60 months on a $50,000 Shelby) but there should also be a simpler way of doing business. The culture must change; people come in and scoff at the idea that a deal is making $500 over invoice on a $30,000 car, while they paid $2,500 for a mattress that cost $200 to make. There is an idea that because it is a high dollar item it is a high profit item. In order to change consumers thinking, owners and management have to change the way they do business and promote their products.

The top down transformation of the industry is going to require the attention of the entire industry. To break the culture and change consumer buying habits it would take time, but would allow the entire industry to follow the CarMax formula that cuts staffing costs, and focuses more on a process then individual personalities to generate sales, allowing fewer interruptions in service due to employee turnover. With the exception of the ultra highline automobiles, this type of business model would plug into any demographic and create a true retail environment like any other business. In this current economic down turn that is effecting the automotive industry a simpler way to process sales with greater predictability of profits and cost would make many owners happy.

Edmunds.com . (n.d.). Retrieved July 19, 2008, from Edumunds.com: http://www.edmunds.com/new/index.html?tid=edmunds.n.zipentry.new..1.*

Kane Automotive. (2008). Automotive Sales Internet Revolution. Kane Automotive Resources.

Why Social Media is Important for Your Business

2007-12-15T20:34:00.000-08:00

Getting clients to engage social media is can be difficult, most smaller businesses don't understand the commitment it takes to make social media work. Here are some examples of the roadblocks that many small business owners face in implementing a social media strategy.

Understanding that that a social media campaign, unlike an advertising campaign, doesn’t have an end date.
Looking at a social media campaign as traditional advertising, with a measured return on investment, not as a overall philosophy of building a brand.
Checking and rechecking all content before it is published..
They don't want to start social media marketing because they do not know how to respond once the public is engaged.
Most don't understand how that content is important, and believe that simply having a Facebook page, or a Twitter is the same as an actual social media effort.

If owners of small businesses can overcome these roadblocks, find the right agancy, or staff member to manage the campaign, and commit to long term social media efforts they will see the increased traffic and brand awarness they are looking for.

For more info on how Social Media can work for you e-mail Michael directly at michael@satterfieldgroup.com

6 Tips for Effective E-Mail Marketing in the Automotive Aftermarket

2007-03-26T10:19:00.000-07:00

The majority of the automotive aftermarket is made up small businesses, from manufacturers to installation shops and most owners are so invested in the everyday ebb and flow of the business that marketing is relegated to an afterthought. However, your company is sitting on a goldmine, but most small businesses in the industry struggle to use it effectively. Here are some tips to help your small business be it retail or wholesale reach out to your e-mail database.

One:

Stop sending bulk e-mails from outlook, hotmail, aol, or your standard e-mail program. This only flags your e-mail address as a spammer, and the majority of your contacts are not even getting those e-mails. Sending to 10 or more e-mails or sending a number of BCC e-mails are both major red flags to spam filters.

Two:

Subscribe to a web based bulk e-mail service, this will keep you off the spam lists, and they all have built in templates that include all the required legal information, and unsubscribe features. They also have great tracking tools that allow you to see how effective your e-mail campaign is, I recommend and use Constant Contact, however, there are many good programs out there. For as little as $15 a month these services will tell you who is reading and responding to your company’s e-mails.

Three:

Add a “Subscribe to our Newsletter” button to your website to help grow your e-mail list. Many bulk e-mail tools have a built in feature that will create this code for your website and add them directly to your database. Or just talk to your web site administrator about adding one.

Four:

Decide what kind of e-mail you are sending out and how often. I recommend at least a monthly newsletter, with additional featured product or special announcement e-mails twice a month. Be sure that these e-mail redirect people to your website to generate traffic and sales.

Five:

Get a professional e-mail address beerfreak72@fakemail.com is ok to invite your friends to a BBQ but it is not professional for e-mail marketing. If you have a web site talk to your site admin about creating an e-mail address as well. If you do not many sites like godaddy.com can set up web mail that can be set up to go to your e-mail program. Addresses like customerservice@ABCcompany.com or Info@ABCcompany.com if your company name incorporates the owners name or the owner is well known by the clients then dave@ABCcompany.com would be the most effective.

Six:

Keep it simple your e-mail has less then a few seconds to impress your message on someone, if you can capture their attention they may just read your e-mail and click on to your website.

Clear subjects are important:

Subject: SUPER SALE ON SATURDAY SURE TO SURPRISE SOME

Subject: Hyper Exhaust: All Performance Exhaust Systems 40% Off

The first one in all caps may capture your attention, but it will be seen as spam by many filters and your targeted group does not know who it is from, or what is on sale, giving them little reason to click on it. However, the second tells the reader in the subject who it is from, and what is on sale, if those customers are in a market for an exhaust system they will click on it, while the majority would have simply clicked delete without reading the first.

While it sounds like a lot of work, these direct promotions can have a major impact on developing your brand and driving sales. Also if your company does not have the staff, or if you simply do not wish to do it yourself, many marketing firms can handle your e-marketing needs for a nominal monthly fee. E-mail marketing has some of the highest return on investment, as it is low cost and high impact, and in any economy that makes sense.

About the Author:

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com - 6 Tips for Effective E-Mail Marketing in the Automotive Aftermarket

Apparel Design

2005-08-20T00:49:00.000-07:00

Featured Clients

2005-05-10T12:30:00.000-07:00

Custom Apparel Printing

Custom Apparel Printing

Custom Apparel Printing

Custom Apparel Printing
Social Media Marketing
Consulting

Data Management
Social Media Marketing
Custom Apparel Design

Web Design
Social Media Marketing
E-Mail Marketing

Branding
Design

Concept Creation
Web Design
Sponsor Coordination
Social Media Marketing
E-Mail Marketing

Photography

2004-08-20T01:12:00.000-07:00

Graphic Design

2004-08-20T00:58:00.000-07:00