Should Dealerships Be More Like Fast-Food Restaurants?

Should dealerships act more like a fast-food restaurant? A marketing firm thinks they should to effectively up-sell their current customer traffic.

While consumers can't eat a car, they still have a hunger for information. And every time they set foot in a dealership, it is a chance to feed them important decision-making information, according to Catapult Marketing.

With Catapult's help, fast-food chain Subway revamped its in-store marketing to include new posters and menus to help in customer up-selling and cross-selling. Subway sales increased by 20%, store traffic by 15%.

“Our Touchpoint Zone Merchandising approach enables any retail establishment to guide consumers within the store through key decision points, with messages relevant to their state of mind,” says Matthew Jonas, a Catapult executive.

He believes the same approach could work for auto dealers. “If you control the environment, then you can also control the messages,” says Jonas, offering these tips to dealers:

“Consumers want to be entertained wherever they go, even when making big decisions,” says Jonas.