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Be careful! FTC bans dealer automotive marketing company

Wednesday, February 2nd, 2022

We haven’t seen something like this in a while.  The headline is somewhat of a misnomer.  Regardless of how long this company has been in business, let’s not get carried away with calling what they do “marketing”.

Let’s just use the adjectives that the FTC did; deceptive and unlawful.  Illegal direct mail programs and traveling staffed events isn’t anywhere near the discipline of marketing.  It’s more like marketing malpractice.

As seasoned automotive marketing veterans, we take serious offense to this type of behavior.  Simply put, companies like this gives our industry and trade a bad name.  Clients over the years have asked if we can do “prize” mailers or other things that are clearly deceptive. Our answer is always the same, “We don’t do stuff like that.  But there’s plenty of companies who do”.  We prefer not to get phone calls from the state AG office, and certainly not the feds.

Our direct mail pieces start and end with high quality and honest messaging to a dealer’s most treasured low hanging fruit, their own customers.  Smart owner base mailers once a quarter are more effective than trying to lure prospects into a store to “win” every month.  We have the metrics and data to prove it.  Redemption rates and sales matches clearly demonstrate that reaching out to existing customers who have done business with you leads to success. 

Companies like this one in his FTC ruling have based their pitch to dealers on one thing, TRAFFIC!  The magic word that dealers coast-to-coast drool over.  Be careful what you ask for.  Many times, traffic come with warts.   Especially when traffic is artificially driven and not qualified.   That can be a real big problem.

Want to send a mail piece to the masses so they have a chance to “win”?  It’ll drive traffic.  It will also monopolize your sales people’s time. 

Interested in a staffed event and sharing your gross with a band of misfit traveling salesmen?  Terrific.  You’re handing over potential future customers to people you don’t know.  They’re gone and down the road to the next dealer event before you know it.

But at the end of the day, it’s your brand!  You can implement a long-term and smart marketing strategy to enhance it, or questionable tactics to deteriorate it.  Your choice.

Good luck out there, and be careful.

Auto Marketing Company Banned from Industry Under FTC Order | Federal Trade Commission