Monday, March 03, 2008

I want to buy a Toyota Yaris. An experiment in VRM and word of mouth

I want to buy a Toyota Yaris... really, I do.

After reading the previous post, there may be some who a conclude from the supermarket analogy that it makes life easy for me to show up at one place where the prices are good and I can get 'all I need'. And therefore I'll back the jack-of-all-trades model.
(Worth noting, however, that you're getting all 'everyone' needs at the supermarket - you are being served as part of a mass, the lowest common denominator...)

I get where you are coming from. Who needs the hassle of chasing round the internet?
Doc Searls' Vendor Relationship Management project at Harvard has a response.
Brief description: "(providing)... customers with tools for engaging with vendors in ways that work for both parties."

This should mean that if I mention that I want to buy something in a blogpost, facebook status update, twitter feed etc - then that is the right time for the supplier to reach out to me.

Yes, if I had google adsense on this page a supplier would be reaching out right now (and they may well be where this post appears as an rss feed elsewhere). Trouble is the google adsense advertiser would 'reach out' with a 'broadcast' advert - one which didn't answer the particular questions I will raise. They wouldn't start a conversation with me. It would be down to me to click-thru and trawl through options, likely as a result of some bland white lie such as 'best price'.
No one would have recommended the click receipient to me, either. Trust?

What else could we expect our vendors to do? Well, clued-up service and product suppliers need not wait for the VRM project to do everything for them. They have proto-tools available now, if only they look around them.
They have google alerts, rss feeds, rss aggregators, etc etc. How many are actually using them?
So I'm going to test to see how well and if any are using them.

There's a prize at stake, of sorts. The winner gets to sell me a car.

I want to buy a Toyota Yaris - and I'm going to blog about this fact (and twitter a bit) to see if this simple piece of disaggregated content gets picked up by someone savvy enough to sell me one.
It's also a test of word of mouth because it's possible that the dealer (owner?) with the car I want isn't clued up... but he might know a friend, or a friend-of-a-friend who is.

So let's begin.
I'm in the UK.
I want a low mileage Toyota Yaris in either T3 or TR spec, registered late 2006 onwards (new shape one). Must have aircon of some form. Ideally 1.3 petrol but will consider 1.0. Probably go for the five door. My wife prefers silver (and it will be her car). Ex-demo would be ideal. Will consider new if you can do the kind of deal that makes me accept the ludicrous VAT costs involved.
Don't need to do part-ex.

Over to you.

5 comments:

  1. no chance. having worked on car accounts for most of my time in the game, the best laid plans...and we have laid them for both the flet and the private market turn to mush in the fcae of THE DEALER. Still (mentally) in the camel coat they have not got beyond bastardising the global ad capaign in the local rag. we've tried to put all sorts of technology in there for lead managment..and they dont care

    jon williams
    adman

    ReplyDelete
  2. I do youth marketing for Toyota in the US and I found your post! But I don't actually sell the things, so you are still on your own. Just thought you'd like to know that as part of my job includes Google searching for Yaris, I saw your post.

    Here's some of what I work on:
    FreeYrRadio.com
    HEYA.toyota.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey Shredder - that's half the job done!
    But isn't the next link in the chain that you find a relevant dealer for me and get them to contact me?
    Forgive me if this sounds rude, but if you're doing marketing of any kind for Toyota surely you do believe you are selling them?
    Perhaps you could work out a way to complete the loop of mutual benefit to brand and customer?

    ReplyDelete
  4. We would be able to get you the Yaris you want, and it looks like you want used so we could title it to you int he UK. If you have any other questions feel free to conact me. My name is Mike Ciganek.

    Have a good one,

    Mike Ciganek
    Internet Specialist
    2106 Georgetown Rd
    Tilton, IL 61833
    (217) 442-8474 Office
    (217) 260-2898 Directly
    www.toyotaofdanville.com

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think the issue you are trying to accomplish will well reward you.
    There is a new task I try to get done: I`m in Peru and here there is no Yaris 1.0 I want to import 12 of these hatchbacks jewels (with conditioned air) cause they seem to be a really good choice to drive.
    I mean it 12 of them, if you are out there and think you can help me, please contact me:

    renzo199@hotmail.com
    (511) 998435562

    ReplyDelete

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The rate of change is so rapid it's difficult for one person to keep up to speed. Let's pool our thoughts, share our reactions and, who knows, even reach some shared conclusions worth arriving at?