Comfy Communicating

Service customers at Lundgren Honda can now help themselves at the well-stocked complimentary snack bar, settle into soft leather chairs in the new service lounge and watch 40-in. LCD screens featuring content that centers on the Auburn, MA dealership.

Renovating the lounge into sections and launching the “multimedia Dynamic Signage program” has offered “positive” results, says Barry Lundgren, dealer principal of the store that's been in his family since 1973.

He says, “Auto dealers are finally concentrating on marketing to their own customer base. Dynamic Signage has been a great way for us to inform, other than with static signage, the approximately 20,000 existing and potential customers who enter the dealership.”

Using the big screens and a remote content updating process, the system informs customers of product offerings, educates them on typical services their cars will need and challenges their trivia knowledge while they wait in comfort as their vehicles are serviced.

The screens also tell customers of special pricing and discount opportunities. The results? “A significant impact on sales of those items,” says Lundgren.

One screen is above the service, the other in the upgraded lounge.

It consists of three sections: a media room (with TV and magazines), a study (modeled after an upscale airport lounge) and a child's play area (also known as “the future customer zone”).

Barry Lundgren teamed up with Corporate Graphics Inc. to create the in-house media programming to promote the dealership.

He says, “We spend an enormous amount of money every month trying to attract new customers. We needed a tool to that would allow us to speak to the people we see in our dealership every six weeks for service.

“Dynamic Signage allows us the opportunity to communicate to our loyal customers in a unique and captivating way.”

David Kelleher, president of Corporate Graphics, Inc. in Westboro, MA, says Lundgren was searching for “the ability to provide innovative automotive dealerships with communications tools that allow the dealer to promote multiple products and services in a limited space.”

For a focused tire campaign, Corporate Graphics designed and developed two full-motion Lundgren ads featuring specials for tires and tire rotations. Those led to record sales for both offerings.

Future goals for the system include displaying names when customers' cars are ready and allowing dealerships to edit ads. Corporate Graphics monitors and maintains the systems remotely.

“We design and develop consistent branded messaging for sales, service and parts offerings and then schedule the content to run according to the dealership's or the manufacturer's promotional schedule,” says Kelleher.