Baxter Auto Group
Car buying on your terms.
Position a 61 year-old brand to compete with category disruptors.
As experiences go, most people liken car buying to getting a root canal. It’s no surprise then that category disruptors like Carvana and others have jumped in to appeal to frustrated consumers and quickly evolve their expectations. It’s happened to such an alarming degree that analysts predicted a future for brick and mortar dealerships that was anything but rosy. Baxter knew they needed to evolve, but how far? And was it even possible with 19 dealerships across three states representing 9 different OEMs?
Doing the right thing.
The challenge for us was to help a family-owned brand of 61 years evolve not only their messaging, but more importantly their behavior, such that it changes the way people feel about the car buying experience.
It began with a four-month long process of data gathering, stake-holder interviews and consumer research culminating in a multi-day workshop to hammer out a new and energizing brand promise: a commitment to radical service. This new promise was something that mattered immensely to today’s customer and that the brand could not only rally around, but passionately deliver on. More importantly, Baxter understood that it wasn’t something you just come out and say to car buyers- they’ve heard it all and words are cheap. Instead, Baxter was determined to prove it through actions one sale at a time.
Spreading the word.
Our first major initiative communicating our new-found commitment is called “Car Buying on Your Terms.” It brings together fresh and evolving dealership operations which we researched and recommended, and combined them with some things Baxter was already doing but not getting credit for. We wrapped them up into a much bigger idea and packaged it in a way that makes it very clearly ownable by Baxter. So, from a customer perspective, we get the benefit of introducing a new, industry-leading program, while the brand charts a path to a future defined by radical service.
Keeping the promise.
When we set the KPIs for launching this new positioning and campaign, we had no way of knowing the COVID-19 pandemic would soon turn the automotive sector on its head. Luckily, the new offerings set Baxter up perfectly to continue to do business remotely, insulating them from some of the catastrophic impacts of the pandemic, and from a sales plummet like those seen by competitors (automotive sales were down 16% YOY in 2020).
At a high level, we exceeded our customer sentiment goals, raising already high customer satisfaction scores by +3 percentage points, proving our new customer experience resonated with shoppers.
We also achieved an all-time low cost-per-vehicle sold of $78, a 48% decrease compared to 2019. This represented a savings to the group of $2.87 million, due in large part to the cost-effective, digital-first media strategy we employed.
Finally, we sold 39,977 vehicles. During. A. Pandemic. While slightly shy of our pre-pandemic goal (an 8% decrease vs. 2019, which was a record year for the company), it represented a 9% increase vs. 2018 sales and was an incredible win when compared to national dealership sales, which were down 16%.
That’s the power of keeping your promise.
-48%
Decrease in cost-per-vehicle sold
39,977
Vehicles sold
+8%
Outperformed industry average during pandemic