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THINK OUTSIDE THE (BLACK) BOX
It seems to me that, as a community of Internet Retail Car Sales professionals, we devote a lot of discussion to the success or failure of the online software tools and services that we employ. However, very little is said about the success or failure of our dealer websites to successfully merchandize our products and services.
Yikes, was that a dry opening paragraph or what? OK, let me phrase it another way. I want to talk about the first thing prospective customers encounter when they seek to know us: the front end of our websites. The architecture, navigation, text content and graphic design. The part that does the selling.
I'll be blunt; I think (most) car dealer websites suck.
CONFORM TO THE NORM
When confronted with something new, original, uncharted and undefined (and does that not describe the Internet ten year ago?) early adopters revel in it, stand in awe of it, and then let their imaginations soar as they discover its unexplored opportunities and potential. Following this brief initial development period a second wave of people come onto the scene: those who find ways to harness this new and wonderful thing by putting it into identifiable boxes, categorizing it, defining it and setting recognizable parameters for it. This is a necessary second step for growth, unfortunately, it also has the unwanted aftereffect of pretty much snuffing out the newness and originality of the thing. Overnight, what was once amazing and new and unlimited becomes charted, prescribed and defined. Conformity sets in.
I don't know when or where the playbook was written, but sometime in the past 10 years, the industry collectively agreed that car dealer websites must pretty much follow a look-alike and behave-alike formula. Why? Who says a car dealer website has to look like A Car Dealer Website?
FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION
Any discussion of dealer websites' merchandising capabilities has to start with a discussion of the sites' pure functionality. The medium may be the message, but this medium must also deliver the retail goods.
By now pretty much everyone agrees that the mechanical features and qualities below are can't-live-without items for a car dealer website.
1). Easy to find merchandise.
2). Photos of the actual merchandise for sale (not renderings)
3). Features and specifications of each car, including any options/upgrades particular to that vehicle.
4). Prominently displayed dealership department phone number(s) and email addresses.
5). Easy to find dealership hours and directions
6). Some type of posted price for each vehicle (MSRP, "Suggested price," "Internet price", whatever)
What else makes for a good dealer website? IMHO the following additional items are also essential:
7). "Wish List" (car locator) feature
8). Live chat (for sales and service)
9). Online credit application
10). A panel or panels synched to the manufacturer's current month incentive programs. (New car dealers only, obviously).
11). Ability for customers to make service appointments online (and not just appointments for 2 weeks or more in the future - duh)
12). A robust "About Us" page. (This one item could be an entire essay in itself. See related Dealer Refresh story here: http://www.dealerrefresh.com/dealership-website-about-page/)
BUT FORM AND FUNCTION ARE OF EQUAL IMPORTANCE
Now that the agreed upon mechanical functions are in place we must turn our sights to the merchandizing aspects of the site. When people go to your site for the first time you've probably got 1, maybe 2 seconds at most to impact them with that all-important first impression. What emotional messages does the site deliver? What does it "say" about your store exclusive of the words on the page? What kind of car shopping experience is your site promising to deliver when it first greets their eyes?
In that regard I'm going to add what I feel is the all-important 13th item to the above list:
13). Bright, friendly and attractive color scheme and graphics.
Hey, I never said this piece wasn't subjective.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF COLOR
Let's go shopping online. What are you in the mood for? Clothing? Jewelry? Household items? Electronics? Discounted merchandise? OK, let's visit some sites. Try these for starters:
www.neimanmarcus.com,
www.dillards.com,
www.zales.com,
www.target.com,
www.bestbuy.com,
www.wal-mart.com,
www.macys.com,
www.nordstrom.com,
www.bedbathandbeyond.com.
That's nine major retailers' websites. What one thing did all these retail sites have in common? (Other than items 1 - 6 above). Anybody? OK, here's the answer: each site's page background color is white! Nice, clean, bright, cheerful, optimistic, easy-on-the-eyes white.
Now let's go car shopping:
http://www.napletonmercedesbenz.com/,
http://www.vwoncentral.net (my employer),
http://www.thinkewing.com/,
http://www.checkeredflag.com/index.htm (sorry, Alex),
http://buffwhelan.com/indexhome.html
to name but five selected at random.
What one thing did all these retail sites have in common? You got it: they are dark. Moribund. Somber. Some are almost funereal. Really gets you in an upbeat mood to go buy a car, eh?
Granted, not all dealership websites are dark and dreary like the examples above. And some of the sites above have commendable layout and functionality. And I know some of the younger guys in my office claim to prefer sites with dark color schemes. (The Goth or heavy metal band influence?) But it remains a basic principle of color psychology that extremely dark blues, grays and blacks suggest power, authority, humorlessness and conservatism. While bright colors (whites and pastels) suggest happiness, optimism and relaxation.
When polled, most Americans admit that they love cars but dread going into a dealership to buy one. As an industry we have a public image comparable to that of personal injury attorneys, bill collectors and Bernie Madoff cohorts. So why do we publish dark, authoritative websites when our goal should be to cheerfully entice people into our stores? I'm flummoxed.
My personal theory is that most dealership websites (those not provided or forced upon the dealer by the manufacturer) look the way they do because they personally please the eye of the dealership principles. Little thought is given to what message (apparent and subliminal, surface and subtext) the site delivers and whether the general public will respond favorably to it!
COLOR IS BUT THE BEGINNING
Obviously, simply painting a website white or in a cheerful pastel does not alone make it a great site. But once you agree that upbeat, positive color schemes are essential to creating a great dealership website first impression, then we can examine how graphics, text and ease of navigation combine with color to deliver the total website message.
To be continued....
Yikes, was that a dry opening paragraph or what? OK, let me phrase it another way. I want to talk about the first thing prospective customers encounter when they seek to know us: the front end of our websites. The architecture, navigation, text content and graphic design. The part that does the selling.
I'll be blunt; I think (most) car dealer websites suck.
CONFORM TO THE NORM
When confronted with something new, original, uncharted and undefined (and does that not describe the Internet ten year ago?) early adopters revel in it, stand in awe of it, and then let their imaginations soar as they discover its unexplored opportunities and potential. Following this brief initial development period a second wave of people come onto the scene: those who find ways to harness this new and wonderful thing by putting it into identifiable boxes, categorizing it, defining it and setting recognizable parameters for it. This is a necessary second step for growth, unfortunately, it also has the unwanted aftereffect of pretty much snuffing out the newness and originality of the thing. Overnight, what was once amazing and new and unlimited becomes charted, prescribed and defined. Conformity sets in.
I don't know when or where the playbook was written, but sometime in the past 10 years, the industry collectively agreed that car dealer websites must pretty much follow a look-alike and behave-alike formula. Why? Who says a car dealer website has to look like A Car Dealer Website?
FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION
Any discussion of dealer websites' merchandising capabilities has to start with a discussion of the sites' pure functionality. The medium may be the message, but this medium must also deliver the retail goods.
By now pretty much everyone agrees that the mechanical features and qualities below are can't-live-without items for a car dealer website.
1). Easy to find merchandise.
2). Photos of the actual merchandise for sale (not renderings)
3). Features and specifications of each car, including any options/upgrades particular to that vehicle.
4). Prominently displayed dealership department phone number(s) and email addresses.
5). Easy to find dealership hours and directions
6). Some type of posted price for each vehicle (MSRP, "Suggested price," "Internet price", whatever)
What else makes for a good dealer website? IMHO the following additional items are also essential:
7). "Wish List" (car locator) feature
8). Live chat (for sales and service)
9). Online credit application
10). A panel or panels synched to the manufacturer's current month incentive programs. (New car dealers only, obviously).
11). Ability for customers to make service appointments online (and not just appointments for 2 weeks or more in the future - duh)
12). A robust "About Us" page. (This one item could be an entire essay in itself. See related Dealer Refresh story here: http://www.dealerrefresh.com/dealership-website-about-page/)
BUT FORM AND FUNCTION ARE OF EQUAL IMPORTANCE
Now that the agreed upon mechanical functions are in place we must turn our sights to the merchandizing aspects of the site. When people go to your site for the first time you've probably got 1, maybe 2 seconds at most to impact them with that all-important first impression. What emotional messages does the site deliver? What does it "say" about your store exclusive of the words on the page? What kind of car shopping experience is your site promising to deliver when it first greets their eyes?
In that regard I'm going to add what I feel is the all-important 13th item to the above list:
13). Bright, friendly and attractive color scheme and graphics.
Hey, I never said this piece wasn't subjective.
THE PSYCHOLOGY OF COLOR
Let's go shopping online. What are you in the mood for? Clothing? Jewelry? Household items? Electronics? Discounted merchandise? OK, let's visit some sites. Try these for starters:
www.neimanmarcus.com,
www.dillards.com,
www.zales.com,
www.target.com,
www.bestbuy.com,
www.wal-mart.com,
www.macys.com,
www.nordstrom.com,
www.bedbathandbeyond.com.
That's nine major retailers' websites. What one thing did all these retail sites have in common? (Other than items 1 - 6 above). Anybody? OK, here's the answer: each site's page background color is white! Nice, clean, bright, cheerful, optimistic, easy-on-the-eyes white.
Now let's go car shopping:
http://www.napletonmercedesbenz.com/,
http://www.vwoncentral.net (my employer),
http://www.thinkewing.com/,
http://www.checkeredflag.com/index.htm (sorry, Alex),
http://buffwhelan.com/indexhome.html
to name but five selected at random.
What one thing did all these retail sites have in common? You got it: they are dark. Moribund. Somber. Some are almost funereal. Really gets you in an upbeat mood to go buy a car, eh?
Granted, not all dealership websites are dark and dreary like the examples above. And some of the sites above have commendable layout and functionality. And I know some of the younger guys in my office claim to prefer sites with dark color schemes. (The Goth or heavy metal band influence?) But it remains a basic principle of color psychology that extremely dark blues, grays and blacks suggest power, authority, humorlessness and conservatism. While bright colors (whites and pastels) suggest happiness, optimism and relaxation.
When polled, most Americans admit that they love cars but dread going into a dealership to buy one. As an industry we have a public image comparable to that of personal injury attorneys, bill collectors and Bernie Madoff cohorts. So why do we publish dark, authoritative websites when our goal should be to cheerfully entice people into our stores? I'm flummoxed.
My personal theory is that most dealership websites (those not provided or forced upon the dealer by the manufacturer) look the way they do because they personally please the eye of the dealership principles. Little thought is given to what message (apparent and subliminal, surface and subtext) the site delivers and whether the general public will respond favorably to it!
COLOR IS BUT THE BEGINNING
Obviously, simply painting a website white or in a cheerful pastel does not alone make it a great site. But once you agree that upbeat, positive color schemes are essential to creating a great dealership website first impression, then we can examine how graphics, text and ease of navigation combine with color to deliver the total website message.
To be continued....
Comment
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Comment by Trace Ordiway on December 4, 2009 at 5:52pm -
"Patty" was designed to be an icon depicting a savvy automotive expert women - An automotive super-hero women for women to come to for help. What men prefer to be depicted on how to visualize powerful women really misses the point that AskPatty.com is designed to reach women and help them get more "empowered" in their knowledge of automotive topics."
As I've thought about it more I see what you are saying; if the character doesn't appear feminine or appealing to men who cares? It's how she looks to women that's important, and if women see her as being knowledgeable and powerful and in control of the situation then you achieved your goal.
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Comment by Trace Ordiway on December 4, 2009 at 2:29pm
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"The very first version of Patty created was created by a male graphic designer who works in automotive and this version looked much like a blond Barbie Doll holding a cup of coffee even though I went over carefully with him what I was looking for...."
LOL - ain't it the truth!
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Comment by Jody DeVere on December 4, 2009 at 1:59pm -
Wow great and somewhat heated comments here. I wanted to share that the color scheme, navigation and general appearance of the AskPatty.com brand/website as it is today was put to the test by several panels of consumer women of different age groups, different areas of the county and economic backgrounds prior to the launch of the look you see today in spring of 2009.
Great suggestion to include women to review dealer websites for input as the statistics on women shoppers based on the study from BlogHer.com and Partners on what women are doing in social media, online and the power of blogs in women's purchasing decisions make the point pretty clear that women are the majority of online shoppers and making or influencing the majority of purchasing decisions :
READ MORE HERE:
http://www.blogher.com/files/BlogHer.CompassPartners.Social%20Media...
"Patty" was designed to be an icon depicting a savvy automotive expert women - An automotive super-hero women for women to come to for help. What men prefer to be depicted on how to visualize powerful women really misses the point that AskPatty.com is designed to reach women and help them get more "empowered" in their knowledge of automotive topics.
The entire story of how Patty was designed is one I would love to share with Trace as it really tells it all on how men prefer to visualize women period. The very first version of Patty created was created by a male graphic designer who works in automotive and this version looked much like a blond Barbie Doll holding a cup of coffee even though I went over carefully with him what I was looking for ie; the Patty you see now as the final version.
Since I teach automotive retailers to communicate better with women and much of this training includes "non-verbal" communication; websites make a statement to women on many fronts from the colors, navigation, how women are depicted and the content presented.
AskPatty is a trusted and respected brand by women,( and many guys too) - So for the most part I think we are getting right with women here at AskPatty.com.
(Thank you Ralph for jumping in as your comments are pretty right on).
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Comment by Ralph Paglia on November 17, 2009 at 6:06pm -
@ Trace - LOL... It is funny when I look at something like my comment below after a few hours and meetings have gone by. Sometimes thinking out loud is dangerous for people like me! Of course you are right on, and I am guilty of preaching without a license!
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Comment by Trace Ordiway on November 17, 2009 at 4:53pm
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No offense taken. And really, all I meant was, to my eyes the character has a scowl. I wasn't making any pointed commentary on the Ask Patty company, Jody DeVere, feminism in America or the role of women in the automobile business. I just thought the cartoon character looked rather harsh!
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Comment by Ralph Paglia on November 17, 2009 at 1:33pm
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Trace - Have you met Jody DeVere? I have had the good fortune of meeting her several times and chatting with the founder of "Ask Patty", along with one particular dinner with her courtesy of Phil Zelinger, and the Ask Patty logo reminds me a lot of Jody... Severe? Would you say that if it were a man? Direct and to the point? Definitely! On a mission and knows exactly what her strategy and objectives are? That's Jody... I was born into a family with a history closely tied to the Woman's movements that won the right to vote in 1920, my cousin Camille Paglia is an outspoken, uh, well... "Feminist" is probably not the right term (see Google) and my wife is a noted author and professor of Women's Studies at Arizona State University (ASU)... So, not that any of that background makes me qualified, but I have been exposed to a ton of information in regards to Feminist issues and women in American culture, plus i have tow grown daughters that i raised as a single parent with sole custody... When you comment that the Ask Patty logo looks "Severe" in appearance, what I see is the impact of our culturally induced predisposition and popular media bias towards the positioning of "Feminine" as being "sweet", "pretty'", "soft", "nurturing", "welcoming", "warm", "friendly" and other adjectives that make most of surprised when a woman is aggressive, forceful, decisive or assertive in her mannerisms... For me, especially after watching my daughters grow up around car dealerships and become strong in personality to the point of being "not very feminine" when described by other people, my perception has evolved to where I believe that the whole concept of what is "Feminine" needs to be recaptured by women and no longer left in the hands of a predominantly male controlled advertising, popular media and publishing industry... I don't pretend to think i know what "Feminine" should be, but when we look at the stern and dour look of so many presidents and CEO's of major corporations and see them as appearing "strong" and "leader-like", while images of women in the same age and role, and not smiling (just like the men) are perceived by many men and described negatively using words and comments such as "severe", "needs to get laid" or "looks like a bitch"... Well, I just think that women in both business and popular culture have their work cut out for them! Why? Because as a society, we still have too many of us who would describe a man as "Assertive" while a women of the same age and demeanor, speaking the same words is described as "cold", "confrontational", "not very nice" or simply "a bitch", while the man is described as a "strong leader".
Uh... sorry about getting on the soap box, but every once in awhile i like to simply express my opinions, but please do not take offense or think I want to force these opinions on other people... Just "Digital Ralph" venting while I wait for a file to finish uploading in another window.
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Comment by Trace Ordiway on November 17, 2009 at 10:55am
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"Many dealer websites are designed by men but many online shoppers are women. It would be great to create a round-table of women who redesign a dealer website with a new look that appeals to their sense of style, navigational clarity and ease of use."
I think you are absolutely on the mark with that. Curious, then, as to why the www.askpatty.com people don't get more involved in this? (BTW - am I the only one who thinks "Patty" the logo character looks a bit, ahem, "severe"?)
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Comment by Donna Ransdell on November 17, 2009 at 6:14am -
Your article is very timely for us, we are in the process of changing our website. Although our current site is bright and cheerful the ease of navigation is not intuitive. After attending DD7 with the exception of a few vendors I still saw a lot of flash, slow loading elements, sound effects. Our peak hours for visitors on our site are during the week days, business computers, lots of restrictions,... that can destroy your message, your visitors experience. In choosing a website provider it came down to several key areas: SEO, custom look, function, inventory detail, mobile elements and an open platform to build content.
I look forward to your follow-up article on graphics, text and ease of navigation.
My favorite website? www.amazon.com - they provide a great informative shopping experience that converts
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Comment by Brian Pasch on November 16, 2009 at 8:07pm -
Trace
Your post came at a good time because I have been feeling the same way about our company blogs. Black was getting a bit sobering but practically, when you cut-in screen shots or images that you don't have control of, the layout starts to look choppy.
We have justed started the redesign discussions.
White backgrounds allow the most flexibility for dropping in e-commerce photos so that is why major retailers stick with white. Imagine the cost to make sure product backgrounds were some other color than white. It would cost retailers millions of dollars. Since photos can "white-balance" backgrounds, its the defacto standard for retailers.
BMW does a good job of sticking with whites and grays which they keep consistent in their offline media. It all comes down to knowing your customer and branding.
Many dealer websites are designed by men but many online shoppers are women. It would be great to create a round-table of women who redesign a dealer website with a new look that appeals to their sense of style, navigational clarity and ease of use.
This is a great reminder that a consumers initial drive-by impression of your website is important.
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Comment by Trace Ordiway on November 16, 2009 at 8:33am
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Thanks, Ralph. I'm gonna take some time and visit the site again and mull it over before I post any comments or pose some questions. Later.
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