Dealership Choice And The Death Of The Mainstream Auto Media

As surveys go, the Morpace Omnibus Study [ full results in PDF here] isn’t perfect. But even though it’s based on only 1,000 online respondents, it’s chock full of provocative insights. Of course Automotive News [sub] misses the best one, in its haste to trumpet the headline

Buyers usually don’t consider loyalty when choosing dealershipsFine, that pulls uniques out of the dealership bullpen. The real news: when asked to rate how “influential” different media sources are on their “likelihood to visit a dealership,” respondents gave the category “magazines” the weakest scores. A mere three percent rated magazines as the top rating “high influence,” the lowest such number in the survey. A whopping 32 percent gave it the lowest “low influence” rating, the highest result in the test. And all this from a sample in which only six in one thousand rated “an effective marketing/advertising campaign” as the most influential factor in their dealership selection process, while giving top marks to “best deal offerings” (40%), “positive prior experience” (20%) and “referrals from family and friends (10%). But here’s the twist: respondents were asked to assume they already had a brand and model in mind. The plot thickens…So, what does this have to do with the Buff Books? After all, if a consumer’s mind is made up about the car they want to buy, this survey is focused on the influence of dealer rather than brand or model advertising. Dealer advertising tends to be local, so the national glossies have never gone after their business. In fact, the Buff Books are merely the lowest point of a mainstream automotive media that’s going down hard. In a surprising twist, “the internet” came out with the most “10” and “9” scores in the media comparison, barely edging out “television” 12% to 11%. Even the dread “special advertising sections” that make up most newspaper automotive “coverage” received a mere eight percent of “9” and “10” scores, while bargain-basement radio advertising took only 6%.And the effectiveness of online advertising isn’t surprising. Effective ads are ads that reach consumers as close to their active decision-making processes as possible, and for most consumers, deciding on a car means doing research online. Whether the conscious decision-making process takes place while reading reviews at a site like TTAC or doing more in-depth research and comparison at sites like Edmunds, Autoguide or TrueDelta, the ability to match imminent buyers with local advertising options is giving the online media opportunities that Buff Books have never had access to. And because decisions come in groups, former buff book advertisers like automakers, insurers and aftermarket firms are also flocking to where decisions are made, namely the internet.Obviously, a lot of this sounds like self-congratulation at the expense of a struggling industry, but it’s actually a warning. Large amounts of advertising dollars are what brought about “special advertising sections,” and the internet already has plenty of online equivalents of those newsprint “pimpatorials.” What this survey doesn’t address is whether the growing influence of online advertising is a product of sheer convenience for the consumer, or if a sharper contrast between content and advertising plays a role as well. Because only .6% of respondents thought advertising consciously made a difference for them, it seems safe to assume there’s something to that possibility. More than even the ability to put connect local ads with a global audience, the ability to allow readers to conduct valuable independent research and then click ads based on the decision they came to independently (or at least the decision they think they made independently) is the “killer app” of the new automotive media. For up-and-coming online auto media outlets, providing independent content of the highest integrity isn’t just a question of principle… it’s the pragmatic thing to do.