I am at the TLS Automotive Summit in Marina del Rey. Today’s focus is social media and innovative technology. As always, I am zeroing in on how the information conveyed here relates to dealers. Rachel Nguyen, executive director of Nissan’s Future Lab just spoke. Here are some comments that stood out: “Now it is all different,” and “You gotta get in and start things.”
Let me contextualize those comments for you. Nissan is looking at how people use cars now, the “new context of use,” as Nguyen put it. In the past, it was easy to predict five years out what people would be doing with their mode of transportation. It would be a car and it would be used in predictable, traditional ways. “Now it is all different,” she said.
As for the second comment, in the question period, I asked her what dealers should be doing now to prepare for the future. They need to try out different approaches on a trial basis, said Nguyen. People are getting used to being beta users, she said. Especially younger consumers are all about trying new things. It is good for the brand image to be innovative.
What does that mean for dealerships? I leave that up to dealers. But they need to realize that their business is already changing. You can’t know how it will develop. So try new things, innovate, and don’t be afraid to fail. More on trying new things in a story next week. Just listened to a great talk from Tony Rimas of Red McCombs Automotive Team. The Red McCombs group has been a poster child for trying new things.
The dealership group I profile in this week’s issue tried a new thing in 2011 – retail sales. The Beyer Family Automotive Group is rooted in fleet sales, but expanded by acquiring two retail dealerships. The Beyer family not only survived in the new environment, it is thriving.
Dealerships are jackpots of consumer information. What happens to all that information when a dealership is sold? Often, the customer information also sold. If all of the information hasn’t been obtained in a legally-compliant manner, the seller could be in trouble. In this issue frequent contributor The Scali Law Firm addresses that question.
And of course we have Transaction News.
Enjoy!
