The impact OEM national websites have on dealer groups

On the latest episode of Auto Marketing Now, host Brian Pasch, Founder of PCG Companies, talks about the growing trend of OEMs building national sales websites for new cars and the impact it will have on dealer groups.

The public automotive groups have been having a banner year, especially since the turnaround post-Covid. Many of the national chains are gobbling up smaller stores at a record pace. They’ve also been implementing their scalable leadership style and sales process.

Today, technology, data, and a clear management process is a way to increase profitability at dealerships. Pasch poses the question, what will dealer websites look like if more OEMs demand national-level features? Dealer marketing campaigns that would drive traffic to their website for new cars, would lose the click attribution. Pasch says you would lose to what’s happening on the third-party digital retailing sites owned by the OEMs. Your websites would then have a divided experience.

Pasch is calling on dealers to push back and have a more reasonable conversation with their OEM partners. An advantage of a subdomain is that dealers can see click actions between their main website and the subdomain. Pasch says dealers need to understand that the larger dealer groups are trying to create a brand experience.

Pasch says now is the time for dealer groups to unite. If every OEM is going to require new car purchase transactions and calculations on a national site, then the face of retail changes forever.

To learn more about cutting-edge and innovating automotive marketing strategies, consider attending the upcoming Automotive Analytics and Attribution Summit this November. Click here to read the details.

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