Takuya Hikichi

What’s In It For Me?

I have been living in Phoenix for over three months now and even began getting used to the morning commute to my office.

Every morning, I listen to the radio like all other drivers on the road.

Then I noticed something what I’ve always known. It doesn’t matter what city I live, all car dealers blast the same radio ads.

It can’t be truer. They all sound the same and want to be number dealership in ____ state. But what does “being a No. 1 car dealership” mean to a consumer?

Nothing.

It doesn’t mean when I visit that dealership, I know I am going to get the fairest deal. It doesn’t mean I am going to be treated fairly. It doesn’t mean that I am going to experience anything different than when I visit other dealerships (with the exception of dealership like CarMax).

In fact, all I am getting is the name of that dealership and by so doing, hopefully I will make a visit there instead of the one next to it.

Car dealerships do this for a few reasons. Mainly, this is why — they look at what others do in their industry. When you have been in the same line of business so long, it’s hard to change the way things you do in one industry.

But, there is a problem — if all you’re doing is the same as what everybody else is doing in the same industry, it’s going to be difficult to always achieve the “No. 1″ market share.

Pretty soon, the market will sort out the irrelevant ads from the superior brands.

What’s the solution there?

You can borrow ideas from outside your industry. In fact, you can bring different, unique, superior concepts from other industries and innovate to suit your industry.

This way, you can be the first one to introduce that concept to your industry and become the authority figure when it comes to that particular concept — how refreshing would it be?

Then if that concept is truly consumer centric, if it clearly articulates “What’s in it for me”? It will outperform “We are number one dealership in ____ state” ads by 100 times.

What’s In It For Me?

Copyright by Takuya Hikichi © 2008-2009