by Matthew Jones

You’re driving down the road in your GM vehicle, and the "check engine" light comes on.  What do you do?  Take it in to the dealer, to an independent mechanic, or over to your friend’s cousin’s boyfriend’s buddy, who tinkers around with cars in his spare time?

Geraldine Ford-Brown, General Motor’s director of diversity marketing for the automaker’s Service Parts Operations (GM SPO), certainly has some advice for anyone caught in that situation: Go back to the dealer.

It is advice she is eager to give to a broad and diverse audience.  As director of diversity marketing for GM SPO, one responsibility Ford-Brown has is convincing GM owners to bring their cars back to dealerships for servicing.  Another responsibility is tailoring that messages specifically to African-American, Hispanic, Asian and women consumers.  It is an enormous task with significant monetary implications given the considerable and growing purchasing power of each minority segment, not to mention their collective market power.

To truly understand what Ford-Brown does, it is useful to understand how GM has structured its service and parts operations and brands.

GM owners who have their vehicles serviced by GM dealerships are no-doubt familiar GM Goodwrench - GM's brand name for dealership parts and services.  GM Goodwrench is GM's private label for any part a consumer might order through the dealership.  For GM vehicle owners who are wary of dealer services, or simply prefer to do the work themselves (enthusiasts and gear-heads), GM has another solution.  ACDelco is the leading brand for GM parts ordered through independent mechanics and the do-it-yourself retail stores.

“Our job is to get people to take their cars back to the dealers for Goodwrench service,” said Ford-Brown.  “The dealers are our focus.  GM is more than 100 years old.  Most repair facilities know how to fix GM cars.  We have to find a way to become the first consideration for consumers when it’s time to service their vehicles."  

Reaching Out to a Broad Audience

“There have been several significant population shifts,” explained Ford-Brown.  “There has been an influx of Hispanics – and over the years they have become more financially prosperous, with more disposable income.  There is also the expanded wealth of African-Americans.”

Another important market sector for the automotive industry is women.  Depending on the source, women account for anywhere from 48- to 52-percent of new car purchases, and women influence over 80-percent of all sales.

“In a lot households, women are the ones who actually bring the car back in for service,” said Ford-Brown.  That trend is another reason why automakers need to understand the preferences of women.

But what exactly makes each of these groups different from the general market?  That was among the very first questions the GM SPO division had to answer in order to define their marketing strategy.  To come up with an effective answer, Ford-Brown talked to a broad range of ethnically diverse consumers, and she has used her findings to help define how GM SPO should move forward.

According to the findings, similarities between the groups were generally greater than the differences.  In every case, each group expected the job to be done right the first time and they wanted to be treated with respect.  The differences, however, were also very important, and in some cases, offered up some surprises.

“Among the groups we talked to, Hispanics need the option to express themselves in Spanish,” said Ford-Brown.  “Not that they don’t speak English – they do.  They just want the option.  Some Asian groups need similar language services.”

African-American and women respondents had similarities in some of their concerns.  “Women often feel talked-down to at the dealerships – like they didn’t understand,” continued Ford-Brown.  “African-Americans felt disrespected, too. (They reported) racial overtones in their interaction.” But in a complicated world, where dealerships already carry the extra burden of being mistrusted, not every impression and interaction at the dealership level can be taken at face value.  

Some would argue that when people walk into a dealership expecting to be ripped off and/or disrespected, that expectation often feeds into a perception of things that might not be occurring. “Part of our job is to figure out how much is real and imagined,” concluded Ford-Brown.  “But it needs to be investigated.”

Rolling out Change

After gathering all of the findings, Ford-Brown and GM SPO had to determine what to do with them.  They decided to modify a component of SPO's training program involving a regiment that helps identify different diversity needs and specifies how to best meet those needs.  In contrast to past efforts, training will now include all employees across the service spectrum.  That means the service writer (who has the most interaction with the customers), the technicians, and even the cashiers will participate in the training going forward.  In short, everyone who has interaction with the customers will go through the training.

“The sales people have already (been through training like this),” said Ford-Brown.  “Now, we’re bringing that (training) to the service level.  And we’re going to roll out the training to the 7,000 GM dealerships around the country.”

The training program will be rolled out between March and May of this year.  The program will be updated and improved annually, based on feedback and findings.  To save costs and increase participation, the new diversity modules will be inserted into the existing annual training program, which is mandatory.

“The big test will be what they do with it – (the training),” said Ford-Brown.  “When it comes down to the porter, or the service writer, what will they do with what they’ve learned?  Habits are hard to change.  So, (after the rollout), we’ll have to follow up.”

SPO has also begun to look at how it communicates with customers, and how those communications can better reflect consumer wants and preferences.

“For instance, we looked at the different service reminder bulletins,” said Ford-Brown.  “Why not print it in Spanish?  Or Chinese?  We’ve re-examined the tactics we use to develop programs; why not change (the service reminders), too?  We hadn’t thought to do things like that before.”

A current project of the SPO involves developing a tire service kiosk to be featured in dealerships.  Those kiosks, when completed, will likely also feature Spanish language options across the country.

Gauging Success at GM

As GM SPO moves forward with its mission, GM is keeping a watchful eye on its progress.  Although Diversity Marketing at GM SPO has existed for only nine months, a lot of learning and activity has taken place.  Ford-Brown credits GM SPO’s initial success to GM’s confidence in its diversity mission.  

“(We’ve gotten) good support from GM senior leadership," said Ford-Brown.  “We made the business case, justifying what we needed for programs and promotions.”

But as time goes on, GM SPO will need to continue to make that case, which according to Ford-Brown, will not necessarily get easier as time goes on.  

“Over time, it’s a different – not easier – sell,” she explained.  “It’s not a philanthropic activity; it’s a business decision.  However, as the different ethnic groups become more viable, the business case gets a little easier.”

Ford-Brown admits that there is still much to figure out regarding the future activities and focus of the GM SPO diversity program.  To date, much of the time has been spent establishing the foundation and requirements of the group.  Looking ahead, they will begin looking at the national advertising opportunities – piggybacking on existing campaign efforts.  After that, they will move on to work with the different regional dealer co-op advertising groups, exploring different pockets of opportunity there.

“By this time next year, we’ll have more numbers on the impact of our work,” said Ford-Brown.

Sounding the Trumpet in the Community

The SPO’s approach to reaching various ethnic communities also incorporates some grassroots community-based activities.  One example of GM SPO’s community focus is GM’s involvement with the Trumpet Awards – a community-based award program that recognizes companies and individuals for outstanding community service. GM SPO first got involved in the Trumpet Awards nine years ago. “It started out as an opportunity to sponsor a small community event for the brand, and then it grew into this major program,” said Ford-Brown.

Involvement with the Trumpet Awards has enabled GM SPO to increase exposure of its Mr. Goodwrench and ACDelco brands to African-Americans.