Fleet-ing Thoughts

Vol. 3 No. 17

A Personal Thanks to the International Automotive Remarketers Alliance (IARA)

It’s things like that are remembered the most…


I was debating on whether to make a blog entry on this, because I don’t want it to sound like self aggrandizement (although it kind of does, and in truth probably, kind of is…), but I am very proud of the fact that upon the expiration of my term as Director, the International Automotive Remarketers Alliance (IARA) recently presented me with a plaque to recognize my contribution to the group. As you can probably guess from reading just about anything I’ve written about the industry, things like this mean a lot to me, as does participation in the group itself. The thing I like best about the car business is interacting with the people in it, and, as I've become more focused on the remarketing area of the industry over the last half dozen years or so, I’ve become continually more enthusiastic about this rapidly developing and advancing sector of the business, no better evidenced than in the membership and activities of the IARA.



Even a few short years ago, if I had predicted that the “best and brightest” in the broadly defined automotive business would create and participate in a group focused on vehicle remarketing, most would think I was a bit off (most usually do anyway, but that’s another story). If I would have said that in just a few short years after its launch, this remarketing focused alliance would launch the industry’s first full scale Automotive Remarketer Certification Program, with a sophisticated curriculum that includes 25 courses divided into five units (Remarketing Channels, Pre-sale Activities, Actual-sale Activities, Post-sale Activities, and Legal, Ethics and Terminology), I can say most everyone in the industry would have said that was beyond wishful thinking. But it is true, an organization like IARA in just a few short years has moved the needle so far in concentration of vehicle remarketing that it is in reality helping to transform what used to be the least advanced and least sophisticated area of the car business, and is propelling it to the forefront in education, best practices and in advancing technology.

This organization truly is living up to its mission statement, to be the primary source providing education, ethics, operational standards and best practices governing the automotive remarketing industry. I’m proud to have been recognized for having served as a member of the Board of Directors, and hope to contribute as a member for many years to come. Thanks to you all, “car guys.”

Labels: Automotive Fleet, Automotive Remarketer Certification, International Automotive Remarketers Alliance, Vehicle Remarketing

Vol. 3 No. 16

Social Networks and Web are Changing Everything: Part II

When My Favorite Author on Entrepreneurship and Finance Topics Writes a book on Social Networks and Communities You Know its Hot…


This is a quick follow-up on my last entry on social networks. Not only has there been quite a few articles since then in the Wall Street Journal featuring various companies or aspects in the field of social networks, but I recently found out that, David Silver, my favorite author on entrepreneurship, finance and VC topics just wrote and published a book on the topic, entitled, Smart Start-Ups: How Entrepreneurs and Corporations Can Profit by Starting Online Communities



Silver has been writing about entrepreneurship, business, venture capital and finance for over three decades, and has published over 30 books on these topics. In addition, he has his own angel capital firm Sante Fe Capital Group. I don’t think there is a more experienced, up to the minute, knowledgeable person on how to successfully identify and build a business around a market need or upcoming disruptive trend. So, of course as soon as I found out about the book, I bought it, and as is typical with one of Silver’s books, I’m about half way through and can’t put it down… [I can’t say I have every book Silver ever authored, but there is almost an entire shelf in a bookcase devoted to his publications and this one brings my collection to numbering in the middle “double digits”]

Silver’s insights on the phenomena of the impact and future growth and effect of social networking online and mobile communities are very enlightening, and help to crystallize in a much better and more researched way, the point I was trying to make in my last blog entry, as exemplified in the Marie Digby/YouTube ruse; indeed, that social networking is here to say, and the new paradigm changes everything.

Why does all this belong in a “Fleet-ing Thoughts focused blog? Because if the changes wrought by online and mobile communities are as broad and vast as I’m now sure they will be, they should in no small way affect all aspects of the automotive business as well, including fleet and remarketing.

Labels: david silver, entrepreneurship, social networks

Vol. 3 No. 15

Social Networks on the Web are Changing Everything…

....When the Best Way a High Powered Music Label can Think of to Launch the Career of One of its Signed Artists is to have her Masquerade as an Unsigned Unknown on YouTube.com


Although this entry is unique in that it has almost nothing to do directly with the car business or or automotive conventions. A Wall Street Journal front page article caught my eye last week that clearly identifies a major paradigm shift in marketing and promotion, which, of course will effect how the car business (one of the largest media advertisers in the country) will be conducted in the future.

The article that amazed me was written by Ethan Smith and Peter Lattman, and appeared as the center feature article on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, last Thursday, September 6, 2007, entitled, “Download This: YouTube Phenom Has a Big Secret” Singer Marie Digby Isn’t Quite What She Appears: ‘Make People Like Me’


So What’s the Big Deal?

Twenty four year old singer Marie Digby’s simple, homemade music video on YouTube has been viewed over 2.3 million times, and according to what viewers where supposed to believe, bootstrapped her into fame and fortune and a major record contract almost overnight. As Hollywoods Records label declared last week: “Break through YouTube Phenomenon Marie Digby Signs With Hollywood Records.”

Only problem is, it appears that Ms. Digby signed with Hollywood Records over 18 months ago, back in December of 2005, and the whole “rags to riches” YouTube launch, according to the WSJ article, was cleverly manufactured by the record label itself.


So What’s the Point?

I think this represents a monumental paradigm shift in commerce and promotion that is in most circles, still being discounted right now (the WSJ doesn’t under rate its significance though as it did make this story a front page center feature…above the fold), but will greatly effect all large consumer industries in how their “products” are promoted and sold, including, of course, the auto industry.

To me the music and entertainment business for the last 50 years is similar to the car industry, in that it has always been the epitome of the theory that you need to spend huge amounts of money for promotion as the only successful entry ticket to widespread sales success. Hollywood has for a long time been the capital for “over the top” spending to promote talent. Indeed, I don’t know much about that business but don’t music labels justify taking the high percentage of music sales revenue (as opposed to giving it to the artist) precisely because of their finance driven promotional model?

So given this history, all of sudden the best way these folks could figure out how to promote a new artists is to mask their financial clout backing her and produce a home grown YouTube video, and then cleverly, through brains not money, stack the deck in clever online search methods (the article highlighted how the initial video recording engineered search traffic by “posting covers of hits by Nelly Furtado and Maroon 5, among others, so that users searching for those artists’ songs would stumble on hers instead”) so she was “discovered.”


My Observation

Where success in the game used to be predicated on who had the greatest financial resources, with some "brain power" added, the Internet networking phenomena now has changed the paradigm so that success is proportional to the "brain power" available and now cash is the secondary requirement. Now this doesn’t mean that everything now is fair and egalitarian all of a sudden - as evidenced below, as always, those with a whole bunch of money can buy enough "brain power." However what it does mean is that if you just have "brain power," right this minute while the whole old system is in the process of disruption, you can have equal to or better results than those who have access to the “system” and a whole lot of orthodox backing (as evidenced below, the institutions are using the non-capital requirement means to effectively promote, even though they have access to every means at their disposal). As the WSJ article said, “traditional media conglomerates are going to new lengths to take advantage of the Internet’s ability to generate word-of-mouth buzz.”

It occurs to me that Hollywood Records didn't do a lot more than what a clever Ms. Digby could have done on her own, which is exactly how they could so easily sell the fabricated "rags to riches" story with some believability.


A Final Note

As mercenary soldiers are never quite as good as those fighting for themselves, for a while, at least, those folks working for themselves as entrepreneurs may have the ability, under this new networking paradigm, to “out think” or at least “match” the established competition to gain leverage. The entry ticket now depends as much on clever ingenuity as it does capitalization, even in traditionally capital intensive marketing budget industries. I think that’s why social networking is one of the hottest models for VC’s right now, its why the youtube.com folks are rich, and its why Google has a cap value worth more than the all of the US auto companies combined, yet they have very few tangible assets. This phenomena must greatly effect the auto industry of the future, and, is just now in the beginning stages of being recognized for the impact it will have in years to come.