1. Where do you work and what is the URL for your dealership(s).  Feel free to list multiple URL’s.

Swope Toyota in world famous Elizabethtown Ky. I say world famous because they filmed the movie “Elizabethtown” here. I was busy that day so they had Orlando Bloom fill in for me

The site I am responsible for is http://www.swopetoyota.com

Our affiliate sites include: swopeauto.com and swope.com

2.  How did you get into the Automotive Business?

After finishing my enlistment in the U.S. Army as a Combat Engineer (can you believe they let me play with explosives?) I was working for a local construction company and I noticed that the guys having all the fun and making all the money worked in the sales department <for that construction company>. I applied for a job in the sales department and I was told I needed to have some sales experience. I thought that the Automotive industry would be a great place to get some sales experience and help build my resume for that particular job. That was three Dealerships and eleven years ago!

What are you currently driving, and if you could have any other car what would that be?

I sold my Celica and my suv doesn’t start worth a T, so I will have to plead the 5th on this one… However a better question for me would be what do I ride? I currently have a Trek 2300 road bike, KHS XC 604, Trek 6700 hardtail mountain bike and parts from many others including a snapped frame from my Giant NRS made out of carbon fiber that you see in the pics below (if anyone reading this has some connections at Giant shoot me an email, I can’t seem to get any help on the warranty side of things). If I had my pick of any car and not have to worry about money constraints I would probably go with a tricked out Supra similar to the one pictured.

4.  What are you currently working on?  What’s your big push?

On the business side of things I would like to expand my auto actions in my current ILM with some compelling home brewed videos and take our email campaigns to the next level. So much to do so little time!

On the personal side of things I would like to finish remodeling my new home and get it ready for my wedding at the end of September. Yes after being single for 33 years I am making the plunge.

5. How would you rate the relationship between your Internet efforts and the traditional dealership departments on a scale of 1 to 10?  If you answered anything less than 10, what would you like to do to improve those relationships?

In the car business you can never rate yourself a ten because there is always room to improve and challenges to overcome. The area I would like to see more improvement, or awareness, would be in utilizing our tools and technology throughout the dealership to help close deals. Our website has a ton of information that can be accessed with a few clicks of the mouse, we have software that can help educate consumers on our very competitive market pricing and we have a ILM that can send out E brochures, videos and customer surveys. Many of our salespeople find these tools very valuable and recognize the ease of use, others not so
much.

6. If you had a limitless budget, how would you structure your department?

I would hire Christine Robertson to star in my videos! You’re doing a great job Christine! I told Alex the processing fees video is excellent.

7. What is your favorite thing about the Internet side of this industry?

Before I explain my favorite thing I would like to explain how I ended up in this particular side of the industry. In 2003 I became the GM Buypower Manager at the GM Dealership I worked for, they decided they had to have someone deal with those pesky Internet shoppers. So I acquired a PC for my desk and a shiny new plaque that said Buypower Manager. Our effort was minimal in those days and we all hoped this Internet fad would end before we went crazy. I recently cleaned out my Yahoo! account that I used back then (yes I said Yahoo) and looked over some of the old emails. To make a long story short I wouldn’t have purchased a car from myself back in my Buypower days. When I came to work at the Swope Family of Dealerships, they got wind of my previous position and decided to get serious about Digital Shoppers. The old website was axed to get on-board with Dealer.com and I got an Internet Lead Management tool. I have no idea how I survived without an ILM tool to track my contacts and leads. I am sure many of you remember the days of tracking down quotes in outlook and bcc’ing with mail merge codes..let me tell you that is not fun.

My favorite thing about this side of the industry is the technology that moves business along at quantum speeds, I like to look at E-Comm as the “special ops” of the industry, we get to play with all the latest and greatest technology not unlike special ops units in the military. I enjoy watching this thing grow, not everything can be measured by sold units, I love tracking the growth of our unique visitors to the site and seeing what campaign draws attention.

8. What is your favorite thing about Dealer Refresh?

My favorite thing about Dealer Refresh lies in the name; a place to refresh when technology goes bad. Yes, this business can get quite stressful at times, and not very many folks around the dealership have experience in dealing with the frustration that comes with trying to build rapport via emails when the consumer won’t pick up the darn phone or your pics won’t batch image upload correctly. Dealer Refresh is a place to refresh your thinking with new ideas that have worked for other Dealers or maybe someone sees a flaw in your process that you might have overlooked, and sometimes it feels good to just have a laugh or two about something that happened in the Ecomm world and refresh your train of thought. Dealer Refresh is a place that the new school ideology of the auto biz shines and the many contributors of Dealer Refresh realize that by sharing and improving the overall Ecomm experience for web shoppers that we will all prosper.

9.  Brian, you’re in the process of building a full studio for used car photographs – how did
that get started and how tough has it been getting it done?

Well I guess at this point in the game it has reached the unclassified level so I can go ahead and unveil operation IPIG (Internet Pictures Initiative Group)

We’re located in Elizabethtown Ky. (population 24,000) not exactly a huge metro area and we have folks that visit our store because of our marketing efforts online. We always strive to accommodate and serve our customers the best way possible and decided it was unfair for folks driving from a 100 miles away or more to make that decision without great high quality images. We had a strong need and desire to upgrade our photos so we could represent our vehicles online without any distractions or shadows. Our goal was not for brochure quality images but for images with great pictorial information that a web shopper can use to decide to visit our location or even purchase the car without a visit to our physical location.

IPIG was a group formed by Carl Swope our President and included many key individuals of our Auto Group; Susan Gifford our Marketing Director, Steve Phillips, Terry Constance, Andrew Sunkel, Ryan Callison, Ryan Hodges and myself did much of the research in house. The actual renovation of the old dusty garage that had been used for much of nothing except collecting junk into a magnificent photo studio to serve our customers was completed by Steve Phillips and Terry Constance. We had some issues that we had to overcome such as limited space to maneuver the vehicles that we were photographing, correct lighting with low ceilings, building inspectors (not fun) and the list goes on. In the end I think we could have improved in some areas but I have been very impressed with the test images we have shot so far. The pic below is not the finished product, we still have some lighting issues to work out but we should be shooting full time by mid-September.

10. What do you do outside of work?

In case you haven’t figured it out I like cycling and outdoor activities.

Start of Wild on Waverly mountain bike race 2007.  Yes Waverly Hills has a mountain bike trail, just don’t get lost!

This is at the end of the race, notice the pale look to my skin and the confusion in my eyes? In the cycling world that is known as blowing up, the fuel tanks are empty.

Dealer Refresh wants to thank Brian for his support and contributions.  That’s one hell of an undertaking you’ve got going on with that photo studio – we can’t wait to see the final results!  Good luck with wedding too.

I just wanted to bring it to everyone’s attention that those retail fanatics at Checkered Flag have a book written about them now.  Aside from learning more about that organization, and where Alex Snyder came from, all the proceeds from the book’s sale go to charity:  the United Way to be exact.

James D. Power (JD Power and Associates), Jim Lentz (President of Toyota USA), Tom Purves (President of BMW North America), and Edward Lapham (Executive Editor of Automotive News) have all written praise about it.  Not bad for a group of dealerships down in Southern Virginia!

“We All Win” tells the story of a 12 year old boy who had the courage to leave his family in Poland to search for a better life in the United States.  He began the tradition of excellence in customer service, for the Snyder family, in 1894 when he opened a department store in downtown Norfolk, VA.  Three generations of Snyders ran the store, until 1969.  While running Snyder’s department store, Ed Snyder was also running Checkered Flag; which he founded in 1964.  Ed started Checkered Flag with British automobiles and introduced lines such as Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, MINI, Scion, and smart to the Southern Virginia market.  Today,
we think of Toyota as a sure thing, but it wasn’t when Ed was awarded the franchise.  You’ll have to read the book to learn more about that, and the ridicule that came with it!

The story is quite inspiring, and definitely worth picking-up.  There isn’t much about our side of the industry in it, but I think you’ll get a good idea of what fuels Checkered Flag to do the things they have done on our side of the industry.

You can buy “We All Win” on Checkered Flag.com or find it on Amazon -  We All Win (links to hardcover – there is a softcover edition as well).  The author is actually a reader of Dealer Refresh and has posted a few times – her name is Audrey Knoth, and she did a great job!  The photographer ain’t too shabby either.

iPhone Users Can Now Access KBB Pricing, Video Reviews, Dealer Price Quotes. IRVINE, Calif., August 26, 2008 /PRNewswire/

Kelley Blue Book’s www.kbb.com, the leading provider of new car and used car information, today announces the launch of its Web site optimized for iPhone users.  The free, feature-rich mobile site provides iPhone, iPhone 3G and iPod Touch users access to Kelley Blue Book’s top-rated Web site, www.kbb.com, to obtain new and used vehicle information.  In addition, with the new kbb.com Web application, iPhone users will have the ability to view kbb.com videos, images, new car reviews and submit free dealer price quotes.

“Utilizing the kbb.com iPhone mobile Web site gives car shoppers an opportunity to quickly view reliable and trusted vehicle information from just about anywhere,” said Andy Lapin, director of architecture for Kelley Blue Book’s kbb.com.  “Whether the shopper is sitting at home or standing on the dealership lot, they can easily locate Kelley Blue Book’s new and used car information with a few simple stokes to ensure they are making the right choice and getting a great deal.”

All iPhone 3G, first generation iPhone and iPod Touch users can access Kelley Blue Book’s kbb.com Web application.  By locating the application through the Safari Web browser, users have the ability to bookmark the site and save it to their home-screen, making new- and used-car information readily available.  If consumers would like to access the full kbb.com Web site, they also can do so by clicking a link available within the application.

iPhone users will be automatically directed to the optimized Web site when they access www.kbb.com from their iPhone.

About Kelley Blue Book
Since 1926, Kelley Blue Book, The Trusted Resource®, has provided vehicle buyers and sellers with the new and used vehicle information they need to accomplish their goals with confidence. The company’s top-rated Web site, www.kbb.com, provides the most up-to-date pricing and values, including the New Car Blue Book® Value, which reveals what people actually are paying for new cars. The company also reports vehicle pricing and values via products and services, including software products and the famous Blue Book® Official Guide. Kbb.com is rated the No. 1 automotive information Web site among both new and used vehicle shoppers, and half of online vehicle shoppers visit kbb.com.  Kbb.com is a leading provider of new car prices, car reviews and news, used car blue book values, auto classifieds and car dealer locations. No other medium reaches more in-market vehicle shoppers than kbb.com.

This video could be “slightly” offensive to some so watch at your own risk. It’s not really that bad but you never know. Either way, it’s freaking hilarious! I’m sure some of us can relate somewhat.

This years Jumpstart Automotive Think Digital Roundtable 08 was held at the beautiful
Silverado Resort in Napa, California.

The weather was perfect and the resort was a gorgeous place to hold a Roundtable session.

The agenda was packed tight with great discussions about contextual, display and behavioral advertising.

The morning started off with everyone’s favorite speechifier, the one and only Charlie Vogelheim of J.D. Power. As Charlie went through his slides and presentation, the one thing that stuck out was consumers are SLOWLY finding dealer websites to be more satisfying for their researching needs. Just think how effective we could be if the manufacturers would play nice and allow dealers to more easily use their content and model specific VIN decoding.

My favorite statistic and one that has not changed for over 3 years now; ONLY 20%  of online shoppers contact the dealer via online submission forms or by phone (give or take a few percentage points). Only 20%!

Steve Wilhite, President of Jumpstart Automotive was next onboard with his “uplifting” informative presentation “Marketing in a Down Economy – the Perfect Storm“. After the first new minutes of Steve’s presentation I wanted to pierce a dagger through my heart as he went through all the negative points of the current economy. I understand though, he wanted to start off strong by getting his point across in order to transition into why dealers AND manufacturers need to focus now more then ever on their marketing mix. It’s not just about the ad but about the message, and how you follow through with your message. What is the experience you’re offering the consumer once they click on your display ad? Does it flow into the next step OR is there a huge disconnect? After I wiped away my tears from the initial 5-10 minutes I was really intrigued with his presentation.

The morning quickly moved on to a panel discussion with David Metter (MileOne), Jeff Searcy (Gulf States Toyota) and David Rollo (22squared). Lots of topics covered here and if I had taken better notes, I would have shared them with you. Most of the conversation surrounded around a dealers “Marketing Mix” and why dealers have been so reluctant to get into digital advertising or what we like to call ‘New Marketing”.

Before lunch we had a breakout roundtable discussion. Our table was very interesting to say the least. I think we covered over 10 different subjects in a fast 45 minutes. One large topic of discussion was Reputation Management for dealers; where it’s heading and how dealers are going to handle it. I know for myself this has been my cool-aid for the last 12-15 months.

QUOTE of the DAY “Consumer Reports is the single most largest influencer on todays shopper” – Jack Fitzgerald of Fitzgerald Auto Malls. Yes, he actually said that!

Lunch was good (sorry no photo, maybe next time).

After lunch we gathered back for a presentation with Brett Rubio from
EyeWonder. I had never heard of eyewonder until then. “EyeWonder was one of the original pioneers in video and rich media
advertising, and is now the definitive leading provider of Interactive
Digital Advertising products and services” – taken from the “Company” page of their website.

Together Brett and Eve Maindenberg (Senior Director of Creative for JumpStart) went on to show off some impressive display advertising. Eve talked about “Best Practices for Digital Creative” and how to use creative to support your campaign. One statistic that Eve mentioned that stuck out, “Online Video Ads achieve a greater branding impact with fewer impressions“.  I hope to have Eve do a guest post for us here in the near future.

After a quick break, we then went back into another roundtable breakout discussion. For some reason I kept staring out the window at the awesome blue sky and lost track of the discussion. I can be such a day dreamer! I did find my way back into the talks towards the end as everyone at the table was discussing how to track the true cost of display advertising. Tracking the effectiveness of display ads or “banner ads” is usually a touchy subject. The traditionalist looks at the CPM and how many people they can reach with the ad, where as the Internet marketer looks at the CPC and actual conversion. I’ve never tried to argue one over the other since I believe they both have validity. So I shared my thoughts of a 70/30 split; thirty percent of the banner ad cost going towards branding and consumer reach while the other 70% goes towards actual conversion and ultimately, conversion to sale. I have no idea where I got the percentages, so don’t ask. And if you want to argue about it, don’t waste your time because I have no reasoning behind it…but everyone thought it was an interesting approach to help track the cost/effectiveness of your dealers online display ads.

The day sorta came to a close with Keynote speaker; Todd Stainbrook – Digital Integration Manager for Ford Motor Company. Hummmm what do I say??  Well, it was quick and very very very general. Until the questions started rolling in..but then most of the questions he was unable or not allowed to answer. Someone asked about manufacturers scoring leads and if it should/would ever come into play. Then “someone” else slapped lead scoring in the face. Very interesting, at least to me. Ha!

That was the end of the Jumpstart Automotive Think Digital Rountable. Next Up..Dinner and Wine at
Pine Ridge Winery. Dinner was excellent and the jokes at the table were like no other. Sorry I had to cut my trip short and catch the red eye back to Bmore.

A big Props to the
Jumpstart Automotive crew (Steve, Rob, Jeff, Aaron, Dillon, Mitch, Eve, Lindsey and Laura and anyone else I missed) for putting on a great Think Digital Roundtable this year. As always, thanks for the invite!

Here are a
few more photos if you’re interested.