As part of its Ride and Drive program, Chrysler Group is looking to expand its marketing efforts beyond the traditional realms of advertising banners and TV ads. The latest push is to market products via new avenues such as malls, schools; even music concerts.
The company believes that by promoting its products via such channels, as well as social media portals, it can bring people into dealerships with a greater probability of vehicle purchase.
According to George Neill, who heads up Chrysler Group’s marketing strategy and operations, “we’re trying to look at this as a physical-to-virtual experience. You connect with them in person and they take that online. We don’t look at Ride & Drive as an isolated experience. We want to link it to our other marketing activities, social included.”
By offering test drive experiences outside traditional channels (namely the dealership), Chrysler is betting that such an approach will help it cultivate new customers, by offering ride and drives in a setting outside the perceived high pressure environment of a dealership.
“Where would you rather take a test drive?” remarked Jay Lenstrom, chief marketing officer for Marketing Werks; a company that has offered experiential marketing for automakers for over a decade. “Go to the dealer and have an ugly experience, or do it at your kid’s soccer game for five or 10 minutes?”
Some of the “unique” test drive experiences already conducted by Chrysler, include setting up Ram trucks for evaluation during the Academy of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas, as at “Camp Jeep,” events and even schools. Where the latter is concerned, Dodge has offered a $20 donation for each test drive that goes directly to the school’s booster club.
