Automakers and dealers are beginning to experiment more with different ways and different places for consumers to interact with and experience new vehicles.
Shopping mall mini-locations and on-street experiential marketing campaigns present diverse touch points where consumers can familiarize themselves with the array of automotive technology advances from the last dozen years. If they give consumers a chance to see, drive and even arrange purchases, they are welcome — so long as they do not run afoul of state franchise laws.
Indeed, given the pandemic-accelerated changes that automotive retailing has undergone during the last three years and the vows by automakers and dealers to maintain inventory discipline, it may be time for a broader rethink of what it really takes to properly — and profitably — represent a manufacturer.
It was not that long ago that fights over factory-mandated facility requirements were common between automakers and their dealership networks, often causing huge rows over trivial matters such as tile size or paint colors.
Those troubling situations — in which far-removed automakers would attempt to dictate how a local dealer should present their business under the guise of “protecting the brand” — still occur, of course, but both their frequency and ferocity have thankfully moderated.
