Internet marketing and SEO practices have been known to be the best way to market your business online and one testimony to that respect is that of the strategy being employed by Santa Fe Ford. One factor that can be trace to this is the fact that more people are turning to the web to find used cars and this seems to be the secret weapon of Greg Waitcus, Vice President, Santa Fe Ford.

As you are well aware, most car companies today are desperately hanging on to dear life, much brought about the recession. While the “Cash for Clunkers” deal is being seen as a catalyst to change all that, used cars may yet offer something better as far as trade-in value is concerned.

And should that be the case, it would not be surprising in some cases where some cars may be bought at higher prices compared to the trade-in value that was set by the government when it comes to the CARS rebate program.

(Source) Press

Tags: aggressive internet, auto dealer, business online, car companies, Cars, catalyst, dear life, Ford, program source, rebate program, recession, Santa Fe, secret weapon, seo, testimony, vice president

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Due to continued poor sales, General Motors has boldly announced that it will be closing down 1,100 dealers late next year, a move that all the more puts the car industry into deeper turmoil. GM’s announcement is more bad economic news for dealers, communities and businesses still reeling from Chrysler’s similar nationwide dealer cuts a day earlier. Both automakers are scrambling to reorganize and stay alive in a severe recession that has devastated sales of cars and trucks.

While GM doesn’t own the dealers, its network is too big, causing dealers to compete with each other and giving shoppers too much leverage to talk down prices and hurt the company’s future sales.

“Too many dealers, in actuality, are a problem,” Mark LaNeve, GM’s vice president of North American sales and marketing, said in a conference call with reporters.

GM declined to reveal which dealers will be eliminated and left it up to franchise owners to report the decision to customers.

The cuts are part of a larger GM plan to drop 2,600, or nearly 42 percent of its 6,200 dealerships as the automaker tries to restructure outside of bankruptcy court and become profitable again. Thousands of jobs will likely be lost and governments will lose untold dollars in tax revenue as dealerships are forced to close.

(Source) Memphis Daily

Tags: actuality, automaker, automakers, bankruptcy court, car industry, Chrysler, conference call, economic news, future sales, General Motors, GM, governments, leverage, mark laneve, memphis, recession, sales and marketing, shoppers, turmoil, vice president

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Effective May 1, Cooper Tire and Rubber company and Kenda Rubber Industrial will be ending their marketing and distribution arrangement for the United States and Canada. Kenda will resume responsibility for the sales and marketing, distribution and customer service for the Kenda brand.

Since November 2004, Cooper has been the exclusive marketer of Kenda radial passenger and light truck tires in the United States and Canada. That agreement granted Cooper exclusive rights to market, sell and distribute Kenda’s radial passenger and radial light truck tires.

“The decision to end our marketing and distribution relationship was a mutual decision between Cooper and Kenda,” said Phil Caris, Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Cooper. “And while the results of the joint venture were positive, it was agreed that a new approach would be beneficial in pursuing each company’s brand strategy. We have been very happy with our relationship with Kenda. As we begin to look into the future, we felt this strategy put both companies in a better position in this tough economic environment.”

(Source) Press

Tags: brand strategy, caris, cooper tire and rubber company, cooper tires, joint venture, kenda, light truck tires, marketer, sales and marketing, ties, vice president

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