Tandem Conferences Take on Hot Topics
Auto marketers and dealers to discuss customer-centricity and social-media effectiveness.
The Larry H. Miller Automotive Group’s 53 dealerships retailed nearly 100,000 vehicles last year. It didn’t achieve that level of sales by letting digital leads get lost in cyberspace.
The company, No.10 on the WardsAuto Megadealer 100, relies on technology to
keep track of prospects and stay in touch with existing customers, says Jerry Winder, vice president-digital operations.
Higher sales volumes and increasingly sophisticated shoppers mean dealerships need more than just a functioning customer-relationship management system.
Also required are a CRM strategy and culture, says Winder who will discuss both at the annual Automotive Customer Centricity Summit June 16 at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Marina del Rey, CA.
The conference is in tandem with the June 17 Automotive Social Media Summit, which focuses on how automakers and dealers are integrating social media into traditional areas of operations.
It’s the sixth year for the social-media conference, and a lot has happened since then, says Jon Munzel, founder of Thought Leadership Summits which puts on both events.
“Social media was such a new topic five years ago,” he tells WardsAuto. “We’ve evolved from ‘What’s it all about?’ to “Of course we integrate and do social, even if there isn’t a clearly defined return on investment.’”
The first conference’s speaker lineup includes Andrew DiFeo, dealer principal of Hyundai of St. Augustine (FL) and an early practitioner of digital marketing.
He’ll discuss his store’s marketing strategy and what types of online consumer behavior show the highest sales probabilities.
Other Automotive Customer Centricity Summit speakers include auto analyst Thilo Koslowski; Kevin Frye, e-commerce director at Jeff Wyler Auto Family dealership group; and Charles Kim, Volkswagen’s general manager-sales operations.
The speaker lineup for the Automotive Social Media Summit includes:
Shaun Del Grande, president of the Del Grande Dealer Group who will discuss a “P3” strategy of people, process and performance.
Anna Russell, Audi of America’s general manager-brand marketing, who will tell what the automaker has done to become more innovative in social channels.
Alicia Jones, American Honda’s national manager of Honda and Acura social marketing. She’ll describe how the automaker used social media to tap into consumer holiday nostalgia.
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