Auto-dealer group crafts instructive p.r. campaign

There's no doubt about it. The days of a GM and Chrysler dealer in every major town are over. The elimination of 1,000 GM and 789 Chrysler dealerships over the past week is just the beginning, as many more cuts are expected.

There are lots of good reasons why moving quickly to change the business model is a good idea and necessary to strategically make the viable dealerships stronger. What's more, most experts agree the manufacturers are within their rights to terminate the relationships — although I'm sure it will play out in a lot of courtrooms. Even most auto dealers acknowledge that Detroit has been broken and bloated for too long and that consolidation and a change of the existing model is a must.

But many stakeholders, including NADA, the National Automobile Dealers Association (www.nada.org), believe Obama's Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry has had a lead foot on the accelerator, pressuring Detroit to shed dealers from their networks too quickly.
NADA, an organization boasting close to 20,000 new car and truck dealers in its membership, has launched a high-profile public relations and advocacy campaign against these cuts.
NADA understands two simple, yet critical, elements to a public relations campaign: know your audience and craft compelling messages to get their attention.

NADA knows its audience

NADA certainly knows its audience. While GM and Chrysler are putting pen to paper and making the tough decisions on what dealerships to cut, NADA is going for the purse strings. If members of the Obama administration are pushing an aggressive timetable for dealer cuts, NADA is smart to focus its campaign on the task force members' boss. Elected officials, even President Obama, who is enjoying popularity levels rarely seen in our country, are not immune to public opinion.

Recent ads in newspapers around the country clearly identify NADA's campaign target. The ads, which feature a photo of the president, contain the headline, "Mr. President, you said you would stand with America's auto dealers."

The ads give reasons why dealer cuts are a bad idea: the loss of over 100,000 jobs and less convenience and price competition for consumers. Additionally, the ads say fewer dealers mean deeper financial losses for auto makers and less tax revenue for state and local governments.

These ads, and media interviews with car dealers across the country, are hitting the target. President Obama needs to deliver with an economic turnaround, and these messages raise rational discussion points of the dealership cuts being counterproductive. At a time when every job counts, NADA's refusal to sit silently will make the next set of dealership cuts much more difficult.

Huge rally might be impressive

With many more dealerships on the chopping block, this public relations campaign is just ramping up.

Some public relations advice for NADA: Imagine all the dealerships that were closed, plus all the other auto dealerships across the country whose fate is unknown, plus the hundreds of thousands of employees and their families of the dealerships, plus all the businesses and vendors that benefit from the dealerships, banding together in Washington, D.C. for a rally to save Main Street jobs at America's car dealerships.

Now, that might get some attention.

Josh Sommers is president and CEO of Focus Media, a marketing and public relations firm serving the Hudson Valley. He can be reached at josh@advertisingandpr.com.