1. 2011 M ARKETING
P ROPOSAL
Who Is DMEautomotive? Reinforcing the
DMEautomotive brand within the automotive
industry.
While the Marketing Department has focused on the development of the
corporate website and online presence, it has come to our attention that the
Marketing Department has a gap when it comes to DMEa‟s published
presence. This proposal will focus on increasing the automotive public‟s
awareness of DMEa through increased participation in print, online,
conferences and targeted events.
Amanda Lang and Ruthie Gelber
11/30/2010

2. 11/30/2010
2011 Marketing Proposal
Who Is DMEautomotive? Reinforcing the DMEautomotive brand within
the automotive industry.
The Marketing team has prepared a marketing proposal which focuses on creating visibility
and brand reinforcement within the automotive industry and local community. The goal
behind the „DMEa Publishing Plan‟ is to heighten the awareness of the company as well as
the company‟s purpose – to increase our customers‟ ROI through various direct mail
communications. This Publishing Plan is not a proposal that will aim at increasing sales
within any specific division; however, this Plan will raise DMEautomotive‟s brand value
within the industry and to our current customers.
In order to obtain both a heightened awareness and brand value, there are very specific
areas that must be improved within DMEa‟scurrent Marketing Department approach. These
areas to be discussed are:
1. Online Presence
a. Social Media
b. Automotive Websites
c. Blogs
2. Print and Publications
a. Automotive Publications
b. Local Newspapers Putting DMEautomotive on the
c. Ad Campaigns Automotive Industry Map
3. Events and Conferences
a. Customer Relations
Events
b. DMEa Hosted Conferences
c. Conferences
4. Public Relations
ONLINE PRESENCE
Social Media
Currently, DMEautomotive has a presence on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. While
postings are high on quantity as well as quality, the strategy needs to be re-focused to pull in
dealers/customers to our sites to increase interaction with members of the automotive
community. DMEautomotive needs people to want to visit (and contribute to) all websites.
One of the most positive attributes of social media is the relationships that are formed
through regular interactions. If there is no relationship present with „followers,‟ „friends‟ or
group members, we, as a company, are not taking advantage of the tool.
A new strategic approach to our social sites needs to be developed. This approach should
provide dealers (customers, potential customers) with helpful information that is useful to
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their business, their customer relationship and their bottom line. While helpful information
should always be present, an element of fun and entertainment should also be present. The
online world is an endless vat of humorous videos, stories, jokes and games. People visit
websites that provide an element of entertainment throughout the business day as a mini
escape from the work day.
DMEautomotive provides the information that is useful to clients; however, our social media
sites are dull. They do not pull participants in through games, contests or humor. This can
be easily addressed.
- Videos
o Humorous videos
o „Awe‟ inspiring videos - think stunt men/daredevil clips – a lot of things will
be done when new cars are released…DMEa can repost
o NASCAR event posts – DMEa videos/pictures – re-post video/pictures of
race/winners
- Polls
- Facebook Quizzes – “What Kind of Car Are You?” etc.
- Contests/Games/Giveaways
o Contests can include easy scavenger hunts leading customers to our websites
and blogs (giveaway iPod Shuffles)
o Giveaways – first 10 Facebook friends who work at a dealership to post an
article on DMEa‟s page about „fill-in-the-blank‟ wins a DMEauto prize pack
Automotive Websites
Many automotive industry websites have solution providers highlighted on their website. For
example, Automotive Digest posts videos of executives from companies such as AutoUSA
discussing industry pertinent information (marketing, parts and services, web based etc) and
discusses everything on their site. DMEautomotive needs to find a way to become involved in
this site and others like it.
DMEautomotive should submit the following to these sites:
- Articles/Columns – industry specific
o Dealers and Aftermarket focused
- Useful industry specific statistics
o Dealers and Aftermarket focused
- Case Studies
- Press Releases/Press Kit
- Become a member of the Supplier Directory (Automotive News, WardsAuto, etc)
DMEautomotive should also increase the websites they invest time in; for example, „Going
Green‟ websites for dealers that sell only battery powered, hybrid or smart cars and
thenfocusing on DMEautomotive‟s wonderful email, text and web-based portal and reports.
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Blogs
Like with the social media strategy, DMEautomotive blogs need to increase followers and
add entertaining elements. This strategy also includes making video blogs a bigger part of
the picture. DMEautomotive can also create blogs for our customers to repost on their
websites; topics that will drive traffic for our customers, such as, “Importance of Regular
Maintenance and Service of Your Vehicle.” These columns/video blogs can be sent out to all of
our customers where they have the option to post a link or embed the video onto their site.
This will increase our website traffic and will also link DMEautomotive to the online world in
terms of the relationship we have with our customers.
By sending columns/video blogs to our customers for their website, they may come back to us
for answers. This will help keep DMEautomotive top of mind and drive our customers to our
websites and social media pages.
Blog contributors and topics should also be reevaluated. Regular contributors should be
chosen and it is imperative that these contributors understand that this is a responsibility
that has been added to their position, not an optional contribution. There also needs to be
representation from our some of our main divisions in the blog postings. The following
divisions should each have 1-2 assigned blog contributors: Red Rocket, Aftermarket, FCS and
Call Center/vBDC. Topics also need to introduce new, challenging and innovative thoughts.
These topics should align with content DMEautomotive is submitting to print publications.
Please see the following section for more specifications on content requirements.
PRINT AND PUBLICATIONS
Automotive Publications
It is essential that DMEautomotive establishes and maintains a strong presence in the
automotive magazines that our customers and competition refer to for information, direction
and industry news and trends.
This effort will include ad campaigns (to be addressed later in this Proposal) but will be led
by an initiative to position DMEa as an industry leader. DMEautomotive can refer to itself
as an expert, but this title is only solidified when given by a third party. In order to achieve
this, DMEautomotive must prove itself to these publications through submission of well
developed, forward thinking columns that offer something new to the industry or challenges
the norm. These articles need to come from the executive level of the company. Assistance
with the writing of the columns is doable; however, ideas, thoughts and direction should
begin with executives such as: Mike Walther, Tom Leonard, JoAnn Bedenbaugh and Tom
Dickman. The company leaders should be known in the industry as innovators and reliable
contributors of pertinent industry information.
DMEautomotive should avoid submitting articles that are superficial or that discuss topics
that have been thoroughly digested within the industry. These articles should inspire
thought and discussion from outside readers. Case studies will also be a focus within these
articles/columns.
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Another area that DMEautomotive needs to be more responsible for is submitting
DMEautomotive-focused press releases to these publications. Linking terms like SET,
AutoNation, TMS and Heartland with DMEautomotive will force the magazines as well as
the readers to take notice. More on press releases to come.
Local Newspapers
DMEautomotive needs to pay more attention to the local publications. While this connection
will not necessarily increase DMEautomotive‟s reputation in the automotive industry, it will
increase the times our name is in print. It will increase the number of times our name
appears online in entities other than our own giving the brand DMEautomotive more
credibility. This is also an important avenue in creating DMEautomotive as an established,
important company within Volusia County and throughout Florida.
Ad Campaigns
It is the Marketing Department‟s recommendation that a new strategy behind the ad
campaigns be developed. The specific products, technologies and communication strategies of
DMEautomotive cannot be sold through one advertisement. Therefore, no advertisement
should attempt to sell a specific product. Instead, the advertisement should sell an idea, a
thought of success and high ROI that is linked to our company. These advertisements should
increase traffic to our websites, spread the word of DMEautomotive and help keep the
company name top of mind to our customers. They will be important for brand recognition
and awareness, rather than specific sales.
The range of ads within the campaign will focus on:
- High level view of what DMEautomotive does and who DMEautomotive is
- Reveal major customer relationships
- Sell the dealer/customer relationship idea, and others
- Driving people to websites/social media sites
The ads in the campaign will avoid:
- Content heavy ad displays
- Selling specific products
- Non-DMEautomotive branding – i.e. there will not be a „Full Circle Solutions‟ ad
EVENTS AND CONFERENCES
Customer Relations Events
The success of the NASCAR Daytona 500 and Coke Zero 400 events has shown that a
customer goodwill event increase the personal relationship between DMEautomotive and the
clientele, which can then lead to expanded client business. The Product Division has shown
an interest in making the Daytona 500 an annual eventwhere our top customers and top
prospects are invited to enjoy the races from a special view point (Pit Stop Patio). It is the
hope of the Marketing Department that the interaction between signed clients and top
prospects combined with the product pitch before the event and the relationships formed
during the event will lead to future signed contracts.
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This approach can also be applied to the aftermarket and Strategic divisions. An annual
customer goodwill event similarly build current relationships and help DMEautomotive
retain and up-sell current customers, while also winning over prospects. For Aftermarket –
being so new – it could be a great opportunity to appeal to prospective customers and build
the new relationships we have with existing customers. For the Strategic division could
invite major players from each account to participate in one large event, or create smaller
events for each individual account.
DMEa Hosted Conferences
In an effort to increase our reputation as a resource for our customers, the Marketing team
proposes that DMEautomotive host a variety of 1-day Webinar Conferences as well as a
DMEautomotive Learning Convention.
The 1-Day Webinars will include a full day of 6-8 industry focused topics (not to be used as a
sales pitch) that our customers would find beneficial. These webinars would operate on two
different schedules so that our customers and invited guests have two different opportunities
to attend each webinar. These will be informative, Q&A formats that will be geared toward
our customers‟ best interests. Again, this will allow DMEautomotive to be considered experts
and reliable by others beyond DMEautomotive.
These 1-Day Webinar Conferences can be held 2-3 times per year with each conference
focusing on a different area of the industry and potentially bringing back „favorite‟ segments
from past conferences. These will require limited DMEa resources and will get
DMEautomotive content out into the industry. The conferences can be advertised by email
blast, through our social websites as well as included in our advertisements.
A DMEautomotive Learning Convention will occur in Daytona Beach by invitation to all
customers in the surrounding area or any customer who has shown interest in getting an in-
depth tutorial and instruction based lesson. This convention will span over no more than 2
business days and will be of no charge to our customers, although customers will be expected
to pay for their own expenses. DMEautomotive could provide a light breakfast and lunch.
This will give clients the opportunity to get to know their account managers on a personal
basis and become more knowledgeable in the product and everything that is available at
through the portal. This will help establish DMEautomotive as more than just another
company to do business with - but rather a company that is sincerely invested in their
customers‟ successes.
If the Learning Conventions prove successful and worthwhile for our clients, the convention
offering will be expanded and offered in regions which are highly populated with
DMEautomotive clients.
Conferences
The Marketing Department would like to see DMEautomotive expand the level of
participation within the auto industry conferences, with emphasis on the major conferences,
such as NADA.
The industry conferences bring in dealers from across the country, from the small dealer
groups to large regional distributors. Conferences like NADA offer an abundance of
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exposureand will spread the DMEautomotive brand like few other entities can -- if
approached correctly and with a strategy that is planned well in advance. Before expanding
to new conferences, DMEautomotive should establish themselves as strong participants in
the current conferences as to not spread resources too thin. Once a strong and developed
approach has been established, other conferences can be introduced.
The conferences that should be focused on are: 2012 NADA, 2011 Digital Dealer Conference,
transitioning the Chrysler conferences to be handled by the FCS/Product Division and the
Aftermarket conferences.
For tradeshows that are on a smaller scale then the above mentioned conferences, the
Marketing team is proposing that a „Booth in a Box‟ recommendation. Please refer to
Appendix A.
Another area that needs to grow is our speaker presence at conferences. The first step is
establishing who has the ability to host a session at a conference. It is recommended that 1-2
speakers from the following divisions be named:
- FCS
- VBDC& Call Center
- Aftermarket
- Red Rocket Technologies
PRESS RELEASES
All major contracts should go through a review to establish if it is „press release-worthy.‟ This
same process will be for internal upgrades, innovations and renovations. Press releases
pertinent to the automotive industry will be released to media contacts at all automotive
magazines and websites. Press releases pertinent to internal staff, growth or community
work will be released to local new outlets including but not limited to newspapers and news
channels.
The Marketing Department also believes that a Media Kit should be designed and
distributed. This media kit will include:
- Company History
- Executive Team and brief bios/contributions to DMEa/Auto Industry
- Past Press Releases announcing major news (ex, the future TMS press release would
be included)
- Divisional breakdown
- Product/Capabilities description
- Community Outreach/Stakeholder information
- Q & A sheet
- Contact Information
- Items TBD
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The Media Kit should be distributed to any and all pre-determined publications. The Media
Kit should come in a high quality hardcopy version as well as a web format that has an easy
click-through format that works like an online catalogue.
This concludes the high view of the 2011 Marketing Proposal. The next step of this process
includes focusing on selected areas that rank as highest priority. Once the priorities have
been selected, strategies will be developed for review so the process can continue. The final
step will be implementation to begin January of 2011.
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APPENDIX A
“BOOTH IN A BOX” RECOMMENDATIONS
2 different pop-up backdrop displays
One specific to Customer Journey, etc
One more general DMEautomotive
1 computer kiosk
2 table covers
2 brochure racks
2 pop-up/pull-up white banners for portal demos (unless we can get funding for 2-3 really nice
computer monitors, which would be preferable)
2 flags
Pop Up Displays
8’ x 8’ pop-up display (Everything Displays - $895.95)
Graphics on one full sheet, remains over aluminum frame when packing
Carry bag included
55 lbs
Computer Kiosk
Pedestal (Tradeshow Mall - $575)
23”W x 23” D x 36”H
Open back
Laminate countertop
Includes graphics
Slide out keyboard, shelf & supports, door with lock (all optional)
Table Cover
6’ Custom trade show table cover with logo (Custom Banner Lab - $125)
6-foot Trade Show table cover – 2 colors (Display It - $258)
For 2, $254 each; for 3, $202 each
Brochure Rack
1’x4’ Trade Show literature brochure display (Triple Discount Displays - $49)
54” tall x 11” wide with 15” deep foot stand
3 lbs
Carry bag
Projector Screen
Presenter Screen (Impact Displays - $298)
40” diagonal
5 lbs
Display Flag
Indoor Display Flag (Poster Garden - $239)
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