ORDERLY MARKETING, WHAT DOES IT MEAN? Challenges in an on-line world
I still find it extraordinary that when I launched Service Dealer in 1988, that the www community was barely a gleam in Tim Berners-Lee’s eye. It was not until five years later that the web really became a commercial proposition.
It took televsion almost 30 years to gain 60 million users, it has taken half that time for the web to engage over 2 billion users. Today, the web is an integral part of the business community. it must be embraced rather than ignored.
Yet our industry, like so many others, is at sixes and sevens when it comes to trying to really understand the impact and importance of integrating our business stategy with the online community. There has been much talk about 'cartels' and 'pricing-fixing' this week, but all the politicians and commentators skirt round the issue with platitudes and veiled suggestions, stopping short of the 'C' word or the 'p-f' phrase.
What I do see however is certain retail sectors where 'agreements' appear to be in place. I was trying to buy a new camera recently, and couldn't find a 'ha-porth' of difference in the pricing of specific models, no matter what the source of supply. Of course, there are 'value-added deals' to make one offering more attractive than another, but the basic price was virtually the same everywhere.
We see customers in our showrooms looking at a machine, looking at the price, then going online with their mobile to see how that stacks up on a price comparision site. (. . . and I used to be worried when I was a dealer about an Army major coming through the door of our showroom with a rolled up copy of Which? under his arm . . !)
Today we live in changed times, and suppliers have different ways of dealing with online sales. Stihl has a very clear policy when it comes to internet sales (with good reason given the potential risk when their products are sold by people who don’t know what they are doing). GGP have firmly gone down the online sales route, trying to balance online prices with those displayed on the same product in the showroom.
Both companies say they have a responsibility to orderly marketing.
But what about other suppliers, what about the industry as a whole? Who is going to be the voice of reason, the advice centre, the benchmark provider for the dealer network as a whole when it comes to online sales.? It could be, should be, BAGMA who used to have a Code of Practice of which little is known now.
Today, rather like the AA, it is heavy into selling insurance, finance, legal services and a host of add-ons. (Nothing wrong with that, we live in a commercial world). I for one would like to see it return to its roots of being a champion for dealers as a whole, coming out with relevant responses to industry-specific issues. The important LTA scheme of which BAGMA leading stake-holder hardly gets a mention on its website.
I realise that there is probably a lot of swan-like paddling going on under the surface, but the dealer trade needs that visible 'champion' more than ever in these challenging times.
