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Case Study: Bruce Auto Group

Paul Jobson, Director of Marketing & Strategy, Bruce Auto Group

“Within a week of implementation of the digital marketing tool we were able to see which campaigns were working and which campaigns were effectively grave diggers. We were able to reduce spend and re-allocate funds to performing campaigns. This allowed us to cut our advertising spend by over 20% while growing leads year over year.”

- Paul Jobson, Director of Marketing & Strategy, Bruce Auto Group

Business Need

Running a franchised auto dealership business is complex. There are many areas where money can quickly leak out of the business and opportunities can be missed if they are not carefully managed. Automotive consultants have created a large industry out of documenting the many financial KPIs that a dealership needs to attain to maximise their business, but their tools and insights are costly. For most stores, the reporting is infrequent and the consulting can leads to an unhealthy dependence on external expertise rather then empowering employees.

Consolidating information is also a challenge. Marketing spend is distributed amongst a number of digital and traditional medias. The amount spent per vehicle is significant and dynamic as demand and inventory levels fluctuate. This can make tracking performance difficult and hard to contain. The head of marketing felt a large portion of their marketing spend was underperforming and could be re-allocated or eliminated completely. The challenge was how to stitch together the significant marketing data available – in a meaningful way. The senior management team began to seek out a business intelligence solution.

In conclusion, reporting today is more often an autopsy. Reporting problems and identifying them only when it is too late.

Solution

When Bruce Auto Group scanned the market (for business intelligence providers) - they identified Real World Analytics (RWA) a company based in Dublin Ireland as a world leader in Business Intelligence. Their solutions seemed to offer a solution to BAG’s challenging data needs. The timing was perfect, as RWA was in the process of expanding it’s intelligence solutions – which had been operating in Ireland and the UK for years – overseas to Canada. A partnership was formed!

RWA’s data analytics solution runs in the cloud which means it is cost effective and quick to implement. To meet the needs for constant and freshly updated data, the RWA technical team set up automated daily data transfers from their PBS Dealer Management (DMS) and other third-party applications and then blended these with BAG’s budgets and targets. These are presented back to BAG in easy to absorb dashboards that allow the executive team to drill down on the information – to better understand what is happening. The CEO, CFO, Brand Managers and VP of Sales and VP of Fixed Operations receive additional schedule reports that are automatically delivered to their email. They in turn can request and schedule the reports for their teams - including the Daily Operating Controls (DOCs) for Sales, and Fixed Operations. By looking at the same information – everyone is on the same page and have a clearer understanding of activities that are on track or off track. The RWA dashboards and reports are essentially the workflow documents that identify what needs to be done in the dealership to achieve the company goals or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

The marketing team was able to consolidate their digital data and enhance their tracking to measure engagements. This meant advertising spend could now be evaluated by more than just clicks, as not all clicks are the same. With the RWA solution, Bruce Auto Group are given graduated metrics of engagement to identify casual browsers from buyers who are at an advanced stage. With a daily snapshot, Bruce is able to see performance of all campaigns and the vehicles that are attracting the most interest, helping them price vehicles more effectively. The daily snapshot allowed Bruce to spend more resources on campaigns that generated engaged shoppers – increasing conversion and reducing costs by eliminating campaigns that didn’t lead to conversion.

Justin Barker, President, Bruce Automotive Group

“The clarity RWA’s reports give us have been invaluable in these times of great change in our business. We get more done in less time. This solution has not been a cost to us, it has contributed value well in excess of its cost.”

- Justin Barker, President, Bruce Automotive Group

Benefits

Operational benefits include:

  • All their main KPIs are summarised for all stores into one dashboard so that exceptions can be identified in real time.
  • The detailed information is available to manage by exceptions.
  • Pre-packaged reports including DOCs are automatically delivered to the level of management when they need them.

Just two examples of financial benefits came from:

  • Higher profits on vehicles. Vehicle prices are now adjusted based on online engagements signals. By reporting consumer interest back to the inventory specialist, Bruce’s inventory managers fine tune vehicle pricing to sell cars quickly - at higher profits.
  • Bruce was able to reduce their overall marketing spending by over 20% while increasing leads.
  • Buyers now get data back telling them where to place inventory for quicker sale.

Background

The Bruce Auto Group (BAG) is an award-winning family business that has been in business since 1927. It operates 8 dealerships in Nova Scotia, Canada, representing 12 brands: Hyundai, Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Honda, Ford, Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, Ram, Mazda and Nissan. The Bruce culture is family oriented with strong roots in the local communities.

www.bruceautogroup.com

Real World Analytics

Real World Analytics (RWA) is based in Dublin, Ireland and was founded in 2013. They develop a data analytics Decision Support Solution which is securely offered in the Cloud to auto retailers around the world. It takes the DMS and other third party data such as Showroom, CRM and VHC and provides head office decision making support to drive better cash management and profitability. Their customers get everything that’s important at their fingertips in an easy, visual and actionable way.

www.realworldanalytics.com

Contact

Unit C3, The Exchange,
Calmount Park, Calmount Avenue,
D12 ET20, Ireland

IRL: +353 1 693 1433
UK: 0808 1890 617

hello@realworldanalytics.com