Advertising FAQs
How does the program work?
Dealers who are determined to grow their business need a professional marketing strategy to achieve their goal. Gregory Welteroth Advertising (GWA) wants to help you take charge of your local market with a co-op advertising program that has shown consistent results for participating dealers. Our goal is to increase our client’s sales volume, customer base, and achieve a dominant presence in their market(s).
Why should I sign up?
Successful dealers realize that they do not always have the time, available staff or buying power to maintain a consistent advertising presence within their local media. GWA allows dealers to run their businesses at maximum productivity, while reaping the benefits of professional, coordinated advertising campaigns. We handle all aspects of your advertising so that you are free to focus your energy on the most important part of your business: your customers.
How much input will I have in my advertising?
Our experienced team of region managers maintains close contact with dealer participants to ensure that their specific ad material needs are met. We encourage our dealers to help us customize the appearance of their individual ads so that each one not only represents the brand, but also distinguishes the individual dealer from their competition. GWA realizes that every dealer is different, and we will do our best to ensure that your ads represent your business positively and accurately. You will also have the opportunity to approve your individual ads before they are sent to the media. The GWA team makes sure you know everything that you need to know in your advertising market! Let GWA show you how.
What do I have to gain from group advertising?
Along with individual dealership ads, GWA is a strong proponent of regional group advertising – an ideal way to stretch budgets and increase visibility. GWA obtains a group consensus of products and promotions to ensure that the group ads are fair representations of each individual dealer. Dealers in group advertising are not just sharing advertising space; they are promoting a brand awareness that can only serve to strengthen their place in the minds of the consumer. When dealers join together for group advertising, they pool their resources to achieve an advertising presence that would be virtually impossible to achieve alone.
What will GWA’s program do for me?
Advertising is not just a business expenditure – it is an investment. GWA is committed to getting you a return on your investment! Our goal for your business is to place you in the most visible, high-impact and cost-effective advertising media available. These factors will provide your business with the strong media presence, heightened brand awareness and increased consumer recognition needed to take your business to the next level. You have the power to dominate your local advertising market! Let GWA show you how.
How is GWA better than my current agency?
If you are currently working with an agency we cannot presume to know their capabilities or what they have done for you in the past. But what we ask every advertiser we meet is what have you received for your investment with that agency? More often than not agencies do not deliver what their clients truly want, sales and results. Agencies across the country can WOW their clients with complex matrices and reach and frequency numbers that are achieved in relation to a sample audience and so on. Yet, we always come back to basics on how did you grow from those variables.
The men and women at GWA focus on results and little else. We are able to do this because we are involved in practically every market in America, feeling the pulse of the American consumer and their needs on the national, regional, or local level. When it comes to media we have relationships that few agencies have been able to achieve and we pride ourselves on knowing the value of a dollar and continually negoitating for the best rates available. Our programs do all this, achieving manufacturer support that often eludes local agencies and dealers alike; because we are a team focused on growing our clients and doing whatever it takes to make that happen.
Essentially, we are the bridge between the media, the manufacturer, and the dealer. We do not claim that we are perfect, but when we discover what is wrong we are quick to fix it. We are confident that few companies work as hard or intelligently as we do on a daily basis and are able to achieve consistent results for their clients year after year.
What is the minimum size account you handle?
To us size truly does not matter. We handle clients of every size every day, from a $500 budget in Joliette, IL to multimillion dollar campaigns across America. We pride ourselves on taking one dollar and stretching it as far as it can go.
Why should I advertise?
Advertising is of the few means you have to educate consumers about your product or service, prior to them walking through your door. And no matter how great your product, location, staff, or offer is, if people don’t know about it, you are going to have a hard time selling it to them. People can’t buy what they don’t know about and it is proven that companies that advertise are three times more profitable than those that don’t. We recommend you are on the other side of that relationship.
Why do I need help?
We believe that as a business owner your time is best spent running your business and not worrying about advertising. Business owners who take time away from their primary responsibilities to focus on advertising are never as effective as those who can oversee what they want from their investments and are not bogged down in the process of media negotiation, buying, placement, verification and so on. One example of this is the many independent retailers we have encountered over the years with manufacturer relationships that brand the products they sell rather than themselves. These companies are often too distracted to think about their own brand name and what positive benefits come from it; because as product lines come and go. If you have a brand name that people trust, your business is sure to stay no matter what lines you carry.
Also, if your relationship with the media includes creative services, eventually you may find it challenging to be distinguished from the pack. As your business grows, you will require customized messages, you will need someone to devote a significant amount of time and effort to ensuring your advertising program is done right. We have entire divisions focused on building messages, brand names, and advertising programs that will work for you. We are involved in every industry from outdoor power to luxury goods and are confident in our ability to make a difference in your company and your future.
Why shouldn’t I cut back on advertising?
It has been proven that during a recession, businesses that continue to advertise are far better off during and after the downturn than those who do not. That being said, it is obvious that when everyone around you is cutting back, any advertiser who maintains a consistent presence is that much more in the mind of the consumers when they do make purchases. This model works because advertising is about momentum and the more momentum you can maintain, the farther you can go when others pull back.
For example, if you compare advertising to pushing a car it would go like this. You get behind the car, and start pushing and it just sits there, so you duck down and really put your back into it, it starts rocking and you get a little bit of motion. So you continue pushing, and you are getting tired of course, but it actually begins to pick up momentum, GREAT. If at some point you stop pushing that vehicle you lose all the momentum and it stops. Once it has stopped and you have practically exhausted yourself and your assets it takes superhuman strength to get it started again. It does not take too many of these situations to realize that you never want to stop pushing, if you can help it. The same goes for advertising.
If you are a dealer or manufacturer the situation is similar. Let us continue with our example of advertising during a recession. Manufacturers spend countless millions of dollars branding themselves and then a downturn hits and they start cutting overhead such as SG&A, thus advertising and general administrative costs decrease in the short run to curb a decrease in sales. Eventually things pick back up and they start to see things turning around. So they decide to start advertising again, and at that point they have to spend at a higher level than if they just continued to advertise through the problem, and then they make possibly the worst mistake of the cycle and start discounting to drive sales. This in turn completely throws off any value you have accrued over the years.
These examples show the trend plain and simple. If you have a product or service that you invest in advertising for, why spend any money on convincing consumers your product has a certain value, when you are just going to turn around when things look bad and destroy that perception and your potential for profit.