What would you do if you were losing half of your potential client base? What if your local competitors were, too?
Car dealerships in Licking County have faced this exact situation, and they’ve banded together to catch the attention of customers who are taking their business across county lines.
Newark-based Park National Bank, which helps finance some of the new car purchases in Licking County, initiated a five-month “Buy Local” campaign four years ago. In October 1999, the bank headed up another three-month campaign, which the dealers found so successful they’ve continued it on their own.
“Our concern, I think, arose from looking at some statistics that roughly half of the new cars that are purchased by Licking County residents are purchased from new car dealers outside of Licking County,” says Jerry Nethers, Park National’s vice president and director of marketing.
“It’s not good for us for a number of reasons. The tax base is improved if we have more people selling cars, making money, getting cars serviced here,” Nethers explains. “And while it doesn’t directly affect the school taxes, if indeed we got a whole lot of that [business] back, we’d probably have more investment in new dealerships,” which could lead to more tax funding for schools.
“If we could get some of the people buying from the huge Franklin County dealers that advertise so heavily in Licking County to buy from Licking County dealers,” Nethers says, “then there’s the potential for significant growth.”
Of course, Park National stands to gain something from the campaign, too. “We get a much better percentage from financing of cars purchased locally than out of town,” Nethers says.
Park National paid for the marketing of the campaign originally; now the dealers share the cost of print, radio, television and cable advertising.
The Advocate newspaper in Newark did research for the dealers and gave them some ammunition in their fight: Licking County dealers offered better prices than those in Franklin County. For example, the average price of a new car in Franklin County was $22,254; in Licking County, it was $20,943.
“We did notice a significant measurable increase over the five-month period of time [the campaign first ran] — a several percentage point improvement in retention of business by local car dealers,” Nethers says.
The campaign’s revival in 1999 has lasted more than a year.
“All participants are very community oriented, and because of those commitments and the cooperation within the group, the campaign has been successful,” says Michael Sexton, president of Indian Mount Pontiac/Mazda.
Customers are even telling Licking County dealers — via surveys — that a desire to buy locally influenced their decision to purchase from them.
To add an incentive for customers, the dealerships were, at one point, donating $10 to the local school of the buyer’s choice. If the car was financed through Park National, the bank added another $10.
“It doesn’t sound like a lot,” Nethers says, “but we’ve ended up distributing close to $20,000 to our schools — undesignated, so they could do what they wanted with it.” How to reach: Jerry Nethers, Park National Bank, (740) 349-8451; Michael Sexton, Indian Mound Pontiac/Mazda, (740) 522-5100
Joan Slattery Wall ([email protected]) is associate editor of SBN Columbus.
