The Germain Motor Co. has been in business since 1947. Today, the company has 19 stores representing 20 brands. The dealer group operates in Arizona, Montana, Michigan, Ohio, and Florida, with sales exceeding $1 billion.
On the latest episode of Kain and Co., host David Kain, president of Kain Automotive, is joined by Shaun Kniffin, marketing and technology director at Germain Motors, to discuss how his dealership is transforming the centralized data platform (CDP) experience.
Key Takeaways:
1. Eight years ago, Kniffin and Kain started a digital marketing 20 Group, which offers full-service marketing agency strategies through thoughtful and collaborative approaches to understand dealers’ goals and develop digital marketing plans to meet them.
2. One thing Kniffin admires about the 20 Group is that he forms connections and bonds across the country and Canada. The created relationships are based on shared beliefs, core values, and strategies.
3. Kniffin notes, “Whether it’s a single point or multi-point store, like Germain, there lie commonalities. However, through collaboration, they can share ideas, build strategies, and develop solutions from different perspectives around the country.
4. Instead of starting as a marketing or data strategy, Germain Motors began its “centralized data platform,” or CDP, journey as a communication strategy. Since they could now define the usable and unusable data simultaneously, it was essential to change the conventional CDP style.
5. For example, Germain transitioned from sending the customary 40,000 emails daily to directly having conversations with the customers, which aided their customer’s ownership experience.
“The difference between us and our competitors is that they are focused on CDPs, which are data-driven, whereas we have implemented CXPs, which are experience-driven.” – Shaun Kniffin
