In several STRONG stores with prominent Hispanic markets, our dealers and general managers are seeing exponential increases in Hispanic traffic. This has translated into more new and used sales through September and early October.
I’ve spoken in the past about the Hispanic market being recession proof, but seeing this level of Hispanic traffic in STRONG LLC dealerships in Florida, Virginia and New Jersey (all of which buy heavy Hispanic media schedules), is a promising harbinger of 4th quarter success. I can’t count the number of calls I have received over the last couple of weeks from dealership personnel in these markets noting that, “Hispanic buyers are coming in every day off the advertising.”
This is great news, but comes with a note of caution: from all indications we won’t have the normal flood of year end factory rebates and incentives. 2011 inventories continue to remain relatively light due to the disaster in Japan, and the factories won’t be placing tremendous incentives in the market to blow them out. Be sure your Hispanic sales staff is mindful of this and has a plan for making sure conversion rates on this traffic doesn’t suffer.
-JPS
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John Paul Strong
John Paul Strong combines his two decades of automotive marketing experience with a team of more than 150 professionals as owner and CEO of Strong Automotive.
