DCX Employee Discounts Not Generating Much Sales

[Clocker]

What a relief!

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll...607080357/1148

The revival of employee discounts for all by DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler Group isn't shaping up to be quite the megahit it was last year, when Chrysler, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. sparked a frenzy of summer car and truck sales by offering employee prices to everybody.

Chrysler dealers say it's too soon to call the campaign a hit or a miss, but note that consumer response has been mixed compared with last summer, when buyers flooded showrooms to take advantage of what appeared to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

"Most people are inquiring about employee pricing," said Hamlet Andreasyan, sales manager at La Brea Chrysler Jeep in Los Angeles. "But it's nothing like last year."

Chrysler spokesman Kevin McCormick said the program, which was launched July 1 and runs through July 31, had to compete with the July Fourth holiday weekend and consumers may have chosen to head out on road trips rather than into showrooms.

"As we go further along into this, we'll have a better sense of the strength of the program and the strength of the awareness as customers are making their purchasing decision for cars and trucks," McCormick said. "Sales figures at the end of the month will be the telling metric."

It wouldn't be a surprise if the promotion doesn't turn out to be the phenomenon it was last year, said Tim Calkins, a professor at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill.

Employee pricing, introduced last year by GM and quickly copied by Ford and Chrysler, was "totally new and stunningly big," Calkins said. "Now it doesn't have that feel."

[sigma]

May this encourage the rest of Detroit not to jump in on the insanity.

[Bravada]

Do they also have to include photographs that fature people who make you not want to own a Chrysler Group vehicle? I guess GM or Ford greased some DetNews palms to get Mr. Breitenbucher's photo published with this article.

[mbukukanyau]

Originally Posted by Bravada

Do they also have to include photographs that fature people who make you not want to own a Chrysler Group vehicle? I guess GM or Ford greased some DetNews palms to get Mr. Breitenbucher's photo published with this article.

That's Sad.. Such a guy needs to go Vegan...
Anyways good luck fitting such an American in your typical Asian sedan

[Garmar]

Maybe it's Dr.Z's arrogant-Germans are the best-ads.

Their ad agency needs to go back and re-think (toss) those ads.

Deiter is not a warm fuzzball!

[SUPERBADD75]

all this does, IMO, is make people expect it yearly now. employee pricing and 0% APR are things that should have never been introduced. now people will wait to buy their cars until they see incredible deals like these pop up. it all goes toward bolstering my theory that a lot of people worry that if they buy a car today that there will be a better deal on it next week and they'll miss out. it's sad that Detroit has resorted to these measures to sell cars.

[civilzues]

good. working now in downtown d-town, i see TONS of DCX's cars n fields. they have so many its crazy.

[triadecho]

Originally Posted by Garmar

Maybe it's Dr.Z's arrogant-Germans are the best-ads.

Their ad agency needs to go back and re-think (toss) those ads.

Deiter is not a warm fuzzball!

They need to give Dieter the Dunkarini and move in Towbin Dodge's Chop from The King of Cars along with the Blue Genie. Those guys would be deal'in, moving cars and hitting the Gong in no time.

[Shotgun]

Ford and GM sales probobly won't see huge gains, either. With GM's new pricing and rebates, I doubt the employee pricing will save anyone much on anything.

Of course when it's time to trade, the resale will be lower because of deals like these, I think.

[plane]

I'm glad GM is taking a lower profile approach this year which will hopefully be much more successful this time around.

[plane]

Originally Posted by Bravada

Do they also have to include photographs that fature people who make you not want to own a Chrysler Group vehicle? I guess GM or Ford greased some DetNews palms to get Mr. Breitenbucher's photo published with this article.

[Image deleted for the good of humanity]

Bravada!
No. Just say no.
Please do not ever do this again?
Ok?
Some things are just too graphic, too much information.

[xPUMPx]

the actual prices arent very good this time it seems.....

[paul8488]

Well good. Might be a reality check... the US auto industry can't build up huge inventories and dump the cars later at fire-sale prices, and maybe now DCX will figure out how to tailor production to demand. Bodes well for GM and Ford this summer, whereas huge DCX sales might have forced their hands.

[mkaresh]

I'm not seeing much of a bump in interest. Ford's free gas plus 0% also hasn't been generating much interest.

They need to find a new vein. This one's played out. Kind of like a junkie that ends up having to shoot up between the toes and such.

[Kheiron]

Lets not judge gentlemen. From an automotive standpoint, a sale is a sale is a sale, whether the person looks like Jessica Alba or not is irrelevant. People use their pockets to demonstrate their liking or disapproval of a product, in this case, an automobile. Great product=higher sales and vice versa. I highly doubt Rick Waggoner and Co. care who is purchasing their cars as long as the consumer is satisfied or beyond expectations and as long as the consumer makes the payments on the GM vehicle.

Secondly, for all we know, each and everyone of us could be overweight/obese on this site (this kind of reminds me of those without sin cast the first stone, no?) There are alot of things we do not know about a person's background, culture, life experiences, or home life where eating habits (or lack of) are developed. I'm not attacking you Bravada, as I perceive that you are poking fun at DCX and saying GM/Ford paid for an "unattractive" (which depends on an individuals tastes) person in the photo, but I just don't want people to start slamming obese people on GMI. I take no offense as my size/height/weight is normal for my age, but others may. Just looking out for the other guy

But it is a sigh of relief that DCX isn't gaining the projected sales from us that they had probably planned on making. Unfortunately, cut-rate pricing and not have inventory in line with capacity and consumer demand (the way Toyota and Honda do) is seen here. Hopefully Ford and GM are learning from their past mistakes and DCX doesn't do this again. If you consistantly change the "deals" people have become accustomed to having, then people will wait for these types of sales and you will just "pull ahead" from future sales months which results in rise and fall sales on a monthly basis which, as we have seen, is bad business, or at least I believe so.

Consistantly providing value in attractive reliable products while "upcontenting" them and maintaining the price or lowering the MRSP price or allowing for "incentives used to upcontent the car yourself" are fiscally responsible ways to sell a car, not the only way, but astute ways of getting traffic (and sales) into showrooms.

Again, sorry for the long post.

Originally Posted by Bravada

Do they also have to include photographs that fature people who make you not want to own a Chrysler Group vehicle? I guess GM or Ford greased some DetNews palms to get Mr. Breitenbucher's photo published with this article.