Gibson Truck World Dealership

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Gibson Truck World Featured in Auto Dealer Monthly Magazine

Gibson Truck World was Featured in the August issue of Auto Dealer Monthly Magazine!

"Every truck has a name and is considered an individual at Gibson Truck

World.Even the owner, Yves Belanger, has a special name. He is called

the King of Trucks, and he has earned his title as the largest used

truck dealer in Florida. His 14-acre dealership sells about 150 units

per month using a variety of advertising strategies— including naming

and giving personalities to trucks. About 15 years ago, Belanger

started selling vehicles in Canada and later moved to Florida to begin

wholesaling vehicles in Orlando. Six months later, he moved to

Longwood, Fla. and began selling 35 units per month from a small

retail lot. He has worked his way up to maintaining his current

$7-million facility in Sanford, Fla., which opened in 1995. The

dealership has 65 employees, about half of whom work in service and

parts. “It runs like a truck factory,” Belanger said. The dealership

was recognized as a Top 50 AutoTrader.com Dealer in 2009 and 2010, and

this year, it ranked 18th in the Auto Dealer Monthly Independent

Retailer Awards. The marketing department of such a large sales

operation consists of just two people, with much involvement from

Belanger and a rather large monthly advertising budget. Belanger,

along with Marketing Director Angela Stockman, uses social media,

radio, television, magazines, a website, billboards and good old

word-of-mouth to advertise the dealership. Even with new media

opportunities, Belanger said, “You can’t reinvent the wheel,” and

credits 50 percent of his business to customers referred by word of

mouth. Belanger is proud to advertise his company, saying, “It’s

beautiful the way we operate.” Advertising content usually promotes

their one-year bumper-to-bumper warranty and 15-day return policy. “If

you take a truck home and then you’re scared you’re going to scrape

the sides of the drive-through, you can bring it right back,” he said.

“Some dealers are afraid to do this, but I am the warranty company

here. I take from my own pocket when

something goes wrong.” The dealership also promotes their one-year

free maintenance policy and boasts the lowest prices around. If a

customer can find the same vehicle at a better price, they will

receive $1,000. “I tell customers to show me a truck that’s cheaper. I

haven’t paid [a customer] the $1,000 in 10 years,” Belanger said. The

message is consistent in their advertising—the lowest prices with

great quality. “We don’t give away free trips to Hawaii, and we don’t

have sales,” he said. Stockman has worked at the dealership for two

years and helped revolutionize the website and online presence, among

other tasks. “The website wasn’t nearly what it is now. We redid it

all. Before [I came to work here], they were still doing mostly print

ads,” she said. She works daily on new media and more traditional

advertising efforts, and Belanger approves daily updates and changes

to the dealership’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Posts from the

dealership include information on unique vehicles on the lot,

testimonials from new buyers and promotional information related to

the dealership’s sponsored animal rescue group, Save Our Florida Pets.

The dealership also builds rapport through general posts to the

community, such as this post on Memorial Day weekend: “A hero is

someone who has given his or her life to something bigger than

oneself. To the brave men and women who have fought to keep our

country free, we thank you from the bottom of our hearts! We are proud

to be American!” Stockman said this community building is “just normal

practice for me.” She explained that when people become Facebook fans

of a business, they don’t do it to be bombarded by product promotions.

“We try to keep people engaged on the Facebook page and interested in

what we’re saying. It’s not really [an] advertising tool for me, with

the exception of [posting] really nice units; it’s more to keep people

thinking about Gibson and keep in back of their mind.” Comedian Larry

the Cable Guy, who did all of the dealership’s promotions in the late

1990s, was recently in town filming his television show “Only in

America” when he decided to participate in a dealership-sponsored

mud-racing event on camera. The event, which was in May 2011, was held

at Bandit Mud Racing in New Smyrna Beach, Fla. Stockman said, “It’s a

fun community event, and we do similar, smaller events throughout the

year.” Recently, when a customer bought a truck, he said he learned

about the dealership by Larry the Cable Guy’s radio advertising. The

50 percent of sales that are not referrals come from a combination of

traditional and digital media. The dealership advertises on two area

radio stations, one country music station and one rock music station.

A local radio personality at the rock station hosts a talk show in the

mornings in which he reviews trucks he drives from the dealership. “He

switches trucks out every couple weeks, and talks about the current

monster truck he’s driving. He also talks about us throughout the show

and records 60-second spots that change every two weeks,” Stockman

said. “They discuss a lot of events. He has contests, and he brought a

truck to the lot and listeners brought things to run over.” Stockman

said that the ads they play on the country music channel are much

different in their phrasing. “It’s geared more toward country

listeners. They have a sense of community and are very family-based,”

she said. This translates into advertisements promoting safety and the

best deals for your family. In addition to radio ads, the dealership

has an infomercial running on two area television stations. Stockman

said, “A lot of people watched it. It played for nearly four years,

and we just took it down and are in the process of making a new one.”

Print magazine and billboard advertising accounts for about 10 sales

per month of the 150 units sold and takes about $10,000 of the

$100,000 budget. “AutoTrader.com gets a huge part of the budget, and

the rest is spread out between television, radio and Google’s

pay-per-click campaign,” Stockman said. The print advertising efforts

include magazines such as Commercial Truck, Trailer and Equipment

Trader; Horse ‘N Tack; and Sport Horse. People who own horses need

trucks, making those niche magazines a great place for the dealership

to advertise. Much of Stockman’s daily efforts go toward maintaining

the dealership website, which Belanger designed. It remains successful

with 90,000 visits per month. The dealership posts 30 or more photos

per vehicle and video walk-arounds of each vehicle, which are also

posted on YouTube. Stockman estimated about 35 percent of her Web

traffic is organic, 15 percent is direct (meaning people typed the

site’s URL into the Web browser), 15 percent is pay-per-click, and 35

percent is referred from other sites such as AutoTrader.com, Cars.com,

Facebook, and radio websites. All vehicles are also posted on

Craigslist, which has led to 30 sales since January 2011. Gibson Truck

World has sold internationally to over 15 countries, including Sweden,

France, Italy, the Virgin Islands, Greece, New Zealand, and more.

Fifty units monthly are sent out-of-state and 20 of those are to

customers who have never set foot in the dealership, thanks to a

strong online presence. The website also has a chat feature, which

Stockman says works well for a widespread audience because “the

third-party company that we hire to do it chats until midnight.” The

dealership management gets a copy of every single chat, which usually

involves finance questions, or customers looking for a specific

vehicle. The dealership’s website has more than the typical

cookie-cutter dealer site. It does offer much of the same information

on things like inventory, financing, directions, etc., but it is also

meant to educate customers through a “Disaster Prevention” section.

This includes truck-buying tips as well as a “Rejected Trucks” page

showing pictures and explanations of vehicles that Belanger purchased

at auction that were later rejected due to failing the required

135-point inspection and sent back to the auction. This educational

portion of the website is part of what he calls “drawing the line

between right and wrong” to build trust with customers. It’s important

to sell them quality vehicles. “The last thing I need is someone

coming in on a busy Saturday and yelling ‘You never told me…’ in the

showroom.” As the website states under each listed vehicle, “An

educated consumer is our best customer.” The website also incorporates

a little personality in online vehicle descriptions. Vehicles are

sometimes named (beyond their make and model), and their “personality

traits” are identified. “My wife [named] one of our 50 monster trucks

Berta,” Belanger said. Vehicle descriptions are sometimes written as

if the vehicle is speaking to the customer. For example, the

description of a 2008 Ford F350 Lariat Crew Cab Dually Powerstroke

Diesel 4-by-4 read: “I am over $6,000 BELOW Blue Book value so you

won’t have to worry about money management problems with me, riding on

six brand new tires we can bolster each others’ egos with my power

moon roof and your razor-shap driving maneuvers, my dual power heated

leather seating will give you complete and utter comfort, together we

can have many adventures …” Of these unique descriptions, Stockman

said, “It helps us stand out a little bit and we really treat every

single truck as an individual … Considering we have over 50 monster

trucks, you can’t help but get a little creative sometimes.”To track

advertising success, every truck buyer fills out a sheet that explains

how they heard about the dealership. “Nine out of 10 have been on our

website,” Belanger said. He said honesty is the best policy when

creating advertising. “People are educated nowadays. You click on a

button and go to another dealer… you can see easily if one is $2,000

more expensive. It’s the easiest thing in the world … You cannot fool

people.” Stockman said that having upper management involved in the

advertising process is helpful. “Everyone is very involved in others’

positions.” She added, “We all have each other’s backs. It makes sense

to have everyone go over each others’ work.” Belanger, who works seven

days a week, approves every advertisement. In the end, he said

word-ofmouth advertising is the most productive, so much so that all

his employees always have “a ton of business cards in their pockets.”

Like the owner, they are “extremely proud” of the business." Written by Alexandra Barlow

Gibson Truck World Buys Trucks!

We at Gibson Truck World will buy your truck even if you don't buy ours!! Call 407-321-0660 or fill out our form online!

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