What does “meaningful” mean anyway? How do you know if your automotive dealership brand is meaningful, or at least, more meaningful than the dealership down the street? What does it all “mean”? Being in automotive sales and marketing for most of my life, I think I know what makes automotive brands meaningful. It isn’t cars. It isn’t quality. It isn’t service. It’s not those new sexy features or the rollout of new models that we car people like to talk about. All of those are nice and they are expected — but it’s not the magic. The magic . . . The magic is the people. It’s your customers. It’s the visitors who walk through your showroom or visit your website. Think about any interesting brand. Who uses that brand? People, interesting people. Brands become interesting to us once interesting people start using them and talking about them. It doesn’t happen the other way around. Your automotive dealership brand is made meaningful by the human interaction around it, not by the cars or service itself. Everything comes down to people, in the end. By getting more genuinely interested in people, interested in their story and their true selves, your brand will get more meaningful and profitable. A good place to start . . .

1. Invest in customer retention.
2. Connect with your customers.
3. Create an interactive relationship that turns strangers into friends, and friends into customers, and customers into loyal customers.