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
