Car selling, so 1900’s by Loida Rosario

Posted on by lrosari

 

Sunset picture taken from iPhone by Loida Rosario

Amazing sunset from Michigan shores. Great weekend at beautiful cottage.

Thank you Becky Quick, anchor of CNBC’s SquawkBox for writing your Opinion article:  It Drives me Crazy! A short screed on the stupidity of car salesmen, published in FORTUNE’ February 27, 2012 issue.

It turns out that car selling has not changed much in the last century. As Becky Quick experienced, many car salesmen still treat women as the side-kick of the main male buyer, if at all acknowledged and hardly ever taken seriously.  In her article she recalls how she was ignored and indirectly insulted with comments in response to questions for gathering information, such as “Obviously, you don’t have a work phone”.  She also recalls the story of another woman, Anne Mulcahy, the former chairman and CEO of Xerox, who ready to buy a luxurious 911 Cabriolet, the salesmen paused and asked “Don’t you have to talk to someone about that first” followed by the finance officer asking is she needed a co-signer on her lease.

At a recent all girls weekend in beautiful Michigan, a group of friends were discussing the same topic.  One of my friends had just walked out of a dealer when the male manager had insisted in only offering a car that she did not want and actually selling the car she wanted to another client after he had assured her that she could come by that day and buy the car she had chosen earlier.  In line with social behaviors, my friend was determined to tell every single person that she knew about the episode.  Being a connector, I estimate that the story was shared and re-shared by approximately 2,000 people or over 2% of the population in our community in the first year.  Stories like this also tend to have long lives, so I would give it another 5 years or a potential of 10,000 people or 7%-10% of the community who one way or the other will get to know about the episode about a local car dealer. And she does not blog! Consumers, especially female consumers, know how to use their voice.

As a woman and a Latina, I had similar experiences.   I do not want to sound 1970’s using the ‘discrimination’ word, but I would go as far as saying that sex and ethnic background both played a role.   When I was negotiating the price of a car ten years ago, I needed to literally walk out of the room before the ‘manager boss’ was ready to sit down with me and treat me as a real customer.  Fast forward to the present, not much has changed.  I went to buy a relatively more expensive car than my previous one about two months ago.  I was confident that things would be different now.  Checkbook in purse, on a busy Saturday, I had made a previous appointment and after seeing/driving the car a couple of times, I was ready to deal.  The salesman/manager made me wait unnecessarily, and on top of that went back on the promise about the car availability and insisted on directing me to a lower-priced car.  This time around I did not waste any more time. “No, thanks.”   I smiled, turned around, and walked away. There is an old Spanish saying:  “Para buen entendedor, pocas palabras bastan”, which poorly translated means for those who want/have the ability to understand,  you do not have to say much.  Never returned, even after multiple calls directly from the ‘manager boss’ and every female salesperson they could find.

The week after, I went to another dealer.  I immediately was greeted by a knowledgeable and friendly salesman, who happened to be Puerto Rican (I recognized the accent and cultural cues), and I bought the car immediately.  I told him and his manager that I bought the car because the salesman was nice to me.  I then went to deal with the finance manager; after directing the first two questions to my husband, he got the message to also address me. Good thing, my face was starting to contour.

For the record, approximately 33% of the U.S. population today is of a diverse background with a large and growing purchasing power of over $2 trillion dollars out of about $11 trillion dollars overall (Selig Center). According to an article by Chiqui Cartagena at AdAge in 2011,” based on to data from Polk research, Hispanics were projected to spend $18 billion on new vehicles. Even though that figure represents only 9% of total new-vehicle sales in the United States, Hispanic auto buyers will account for 24% of the growth in new-vehicle sales. That’s mucho dinero”.   Similarly, according to CNW Research women were the primary buyers of more than 44% of all vehicles last year and they influenced almost 80% of all auto sales, quoted Becky.

Becky stated that “it doesn’t take an MBA to recognize bad business practices on display” and added ”to treat every customer with respect because you never know who is going to pay the bill”.  Ditto.  I would add, though, that smart marketers, go beyond this principle and try to understand what influences the consumer decision-making process, looking through a new set of cultural lenses.   This deep intelligence about what resonates with different types of consumers/audiences should be the foundation of marketing and customer relations programs today.  Companies must do both:   treat all customers/audiences with respect, but also resonate with their individuals needs as influenced by cultural nuances.

It is just Marketing 101, looked through the multi-dimension set of lenses.

 

Loida Rosario

Upscale Latino Households Double From 1.3 million To 2.9 million

Posted on by lrosari

Reblogged from multicultural insights:

Do you think marketers and advertisers are paying attention to this exploding market?  I think the answer is yes but they’re not executing successfully against it.

There are 8.2 million Latino adults living in households with an income of $75,000 or more in United States. Highlighting the opportunities generated by this segment, Packaged Facts’ new report on upscale latino market of Consumers calls for a shift in strategic thinking about the Hispanic market.

Read more… 138 more words

I've preaching for some time about the 'new' rich in the U.S. and how it now includes over 30% of Asian origin, and an increasing number of mobile Latinos and African Americans. Progress yes. Much work yet to be done, especially since the recession hit these two groups harder than the rest (as documented in various joblessness and income reports).

Chartreuse green or hot chilli peppers?

Posted on by lrosari

I shouldn’t have done this. But I did. I had 20 free minutes  before a meeting in downtown Chicago when I was attracted to a sale at one of my favorite stores.  So I went  in to ‘browse’, and I ended up buying one of those impossible-to-find pairs of jeans that actually fit me. Now, of course, I needed a new top to go with it.

After deciding on a clean and simple top, the toughest choice was the color.  I was immediately attracted to the bright red version of the top.  I love reds.  But I resisted for a few minutes while I evaluated other modern and more subdued colors.  The sales assistant suggested that I take a look at the top in their new chartreuse green color and told me that the red  color I was considering was named hot chilli peppers.   Meanwhile, it was getting late.

I quickly bought the top in hot chilli pepper color.  As a consumer, my decision was not based on the fact that I like red.  I really did not need another red top. But how could I not buy a top in a color named ’hot chilli peppers’?   At the mention of the name images of meals, parties and family immediately popped into my head. Cultural experiences influenced my decision.  The stealth Latino cultural influence in the America mainstream made me smile.

The store was smart. It did not force me choose from a color palette that would not resonate with me.  The store had an assortment that  allowed me to choose whether I wanted to feel more Latina with a modern twist, or just be a little bit more traditional and conservative.

The analogy in this shopping vignette relates to a core business decision that marketing executives face today:  Should we invest in  communicating with Hispanics as Latinos or as Americans?  Should we be spending monies in Spanish advertising and promotion or just use general or total market approaches?  If today the majority of Hispanics speak English and are born in the U.S. why bother with anything that is ethnic specific? By the same token and with language as a non-issue, should we invest in marketing programs that better resonate with diverse segment’s needs and cultural nuances?  What about LGBT, African-Americans, Asians and other segments whose cultural experiences, a little different from the traditional mainstream, may influence their decision-making process?

The above reasoning frames the issue as an ‘either or’ quandary. It is not.  It is a matter of investment allocation. Keep it simple, let consumers choose.  And then measure ROI holistically.

But first, as any good marketer will do, understand and acknowledge your consumer…all consumers in your target.

Loida

For more in-depth business discussion and background, refer to articles:

Multicultural Marketing:  A Misunderstood Concept and Untapped Business Strategy

Seamlessly Hispanic – Seamlessly American

Women buy clothes if models look like them