Design Facelift
for Auto Dealers
Initial Explorations

HoloCosmos recently developed these concepts as part of its "DesignFacelift" series of Web Services intended toimages/Drew dramatically upscale the design and marketing impact of websites in different industrial categories.

Here is a single design approach for templated "Facelifting" for Auto Dealers. We'll be developing additional ideas and greater detail in other kinds of screens throughout the template system.

Problems and Proposed Solutions of Existing Sites

Many current auto dealer sites have been assembled with a minimal budgets by hard-working in-house communicators with multiple responsibilities. The following observations typical of Auto Dealer sites are intended to provide a constructive basis for a given redesign.

Navigation and Design - Many unnecessary clicks required to get to needed information, somewhat confusing and cluttered layout, lacking the emotion conveyed by great car ads. You wouldn’t think to let your showroom floor get cluttered or dated, or make your signs too confusing for customers to find the parking lot. Same principle applies here.

Solution: We will make your website feel Modern, Clean, Sharp – emphasizing the same emotional qualities which lead customers to return and buy from you again and again. We will make judicious use of great car photos supplied by manufacturers, but integrate them into a design that is dealer exclusive.

Branding - The accumulated strength and experience of the company’s years should be expressed in the look and feel of the site. Sites needs to express the solidity and longevity of the business, and should be in step with the visual state of the art in online car marketing).

Solution: We’ll do justice to the long and accomplished history of the Dealer by accurately depicting the company as a strong, trustworthy leader in the business. We'll devise a consistent typographic treatment of the Dealer's brand, working if desired with the Ad Agency. We’ll support the advertising messages by featuring the best TV and Radio messages in appropriate online form. We will emphasize the uniqueness of the showroom as a stick-in-the-mind branding element by depicting the building in spacious design. And we’ll make the online experience the best-in-class, on par with the finest Auto Dealership sites in the World, but with a uniqueness derived fom HoloCosmos' experience in web and media design for brand-name companies in other industries.

Human Touch - needs the friendly, customer-comes-first relationship value that the company is clearly famous for. Neither the principals nor the employees are depicted, just small blurry pictures and lots of text. Key service promises are hidden in blocks of type.

Solution: We will create a striking, emotional appeal which emphasizes the people, the history, and the commitment to customer satisfaction which sets Dealer apart. We’ll elevate the staff to star status by depicting them in striking, professional photographs which capture every individual’s warmth and joy in customer service. If desired, we'll also depict customers in their state of bliss after they're ready to drive away in their new vehicle.

Involvement – Virtual Showrooms are described but the motionless pages deliver none of the excitement of a showroom filled with the latest Cars and Trucks. The only motion on the pages is of the clipart variety.

Solution: The salesmanship and follow through of the Dealer staff is animated, engaging and professionally top-notch... So should be the creative involvement of every aspect of the website. We will take advantage of the many emotion-laden marketing assets made available by the manufacturers in our reccommended "Dealer Cars in Motion" section; we will also explore the integration of state-of-the-art car model comparison media including 360 degree virtual cars, color comparers etc. A working example demonstrating Izmo technology can be seen here: CarsinMotion-Izmo

Relationship Marketing – The whole point of the website is to create an ongoing relationship with customers and potential customers that continually drives customers into the showroom where actual car sales can take place. No matter what the current level of "conversion" of site visitors to on-site prospects is, we can improve this in quantifiable, measurable ways.

Solution: HoloCosmos can help Dealers encourage return visits to the site and to the center with Relationship Marketing tools such as with rich media newsletters and our NewsFlash dynamic selling application (here's a recent example we did for the $95 Billion GE Consumer Finance). We can help Dealers improve the quality and effectiveness of its email contact list and make judicious use of it with proven online marketing programs. Finally, by establishing a baseline and going forward with detailed tracking information on site usage, we'll help Dealers monitor how people are using the website, permitting ongoing test and experiment to drive continual refinement of the selling power of the site.

Summary

HoloCosmos can assist Dealer Auto Center primarily by:

· Re-inventing the online persona with a new look & feel, strong branding, modern auto marketing imagery and revitalized messaging
· Recommend and integrate best of breed technology providers (eg Izmo) to enhance dynamic portions of the website
· Incorporate Carbuilders, Inventory searches, finance calculators, car presentations (images and videos) and other support media to motivate a trip to Dealer
· Focus on maintaining the online persona by tightly integrating 3rd party technologies (theming/skinning/customizing)
· Provide the user with a seamless experience on a single website
· Provide detailed tracking information to see how people are using the website and to allow test and experiment to drive continual refinement of the selling power of the site
· Provide rich media automated responses to customer inquiries
· Encourage return visits to the site and to the center with Relationship Marketing tools such as rich media newsletters and our NewsFlash dynamic selling application

Proposed Team

Creative Director/Producer/Animator: Brooks Cole
Lead Engineer: Bernhard Kotzenberg

Contact:

Brooks Cole
CEO/Creative Director
(415) 415-663-5486
brooks@holocosmos.com

Example Page Designs
Click on images to see full-page versions

Dealer Auto Center Home 01

Dealer Cars in Motion - Izmo

Dealer Auto Center Home 01 with Employee


Dealer Auto Center Home 02

Dealer Cars in Motion 01

Dealer Auto Center Home 03

Dealer Auto Center Home 04

Dealer Cars in Motion - F150 Flash

Dealer Auto Center Home 05

HoloCosmos is developing screen designs intended to present highly spacious, "Show Room" style for cars to inhabit -- in stark contrast to the cluttered "Refrigerator Magnet School of Design" quality of many Dealer sites.