Edmunds.com pulls ‘haggling’ ads after car dealer backlash

By {/%BYLINE%} {%AUTHOR%}Kevin Allen{/%AUTHOR%} {%TITLE%}Edmunds.com pulls 'haggling' ads after car dealer backlash{/%TITLE%} {%ALTERNATIVEURL%}{/%ALTERNATIVEURL%} {%IMAGE%}/Uploads/Public/EdmundsHaggleAd.png{/%IMAGE%} {%ROLE%}87d65c27-6e78-4e5c-b423-78d47d4f2768{/%ROLE%} {%KICKER%}Media Relations{/%KICKER%} {%CATEGORIESID%}9b04de1d-f7bc-4de7-842e-c9c833ff24e9, 5b5f5480-7a63-458a-90a4-0b98007ec3f7{/%CATEGORIESID%} {%CAPTION%}After dealers started cancelling their subscriptions, the president of the car shopping site admitted the ads may have "missed the mark." {/%CAPTION%} {%BODYCOPY%} I bought a car last month and, at the risk of sounding overdramatic, it was among the top 10 most unpleasant experiences of my life. I have trouble sitting through any bad performance,, the Aykroyd-ian theatrics that the dealership dorks were pulling infuriated me. Six hours after meeting everyone in the building, going back, forth on pricing, phantom fees,, falsely bloated interest rates, my wife, I drove away (now needing showers) with an SUV that I’ve affectionately nicknamed, “The Quiet Desperation Express.” I can understand exactly where Edmunds is coming from with its latest ad campaign. “You wouldn’t haggle with your groceries,” the tag line reads at the end of this video, “so why do it when buying a car?” The answer is pretty simple: Dealers want to make more money,, they do so on the backs of unskilled negotiators (unlike me?) Car dealers were so furious at these ads that some dealers are publicly cancelling their Edmunds subscriptions. For example, Jeff Wyler, CEO of the Cincinnati-based Wyler group of dealerships, told AdAge he was insulted by the ads. "For 41 years, the Jeff Wyler Automotive Family has been committed to practicing business at the highest levels of integrity," he said. "Negotiating prices on cars has always been expected by the consumer, having it referred to as 'haggling' by a company that I am a customer of is insulting." Sadly, it worked. An Edmunds statement reads: Our digital videos illustrating the 'Absurdity of Haggling' missed the mark. Some of our partners were deeply insulted, expressing that our attempt at humor reinforced outdated stereotypes. That was obviously never our intent. It has created a distraction from our business of helping to make car shopping easier. We are terminating the videos, getting back to working with our dealer partners to improve the car buying process for car shoppers around the country. Boo. (That’s the disapproving kind, not the spooky kind that’s so popular this time of year.) AdAge explained why the videos were created in the first place: Edmunds.com has been marketing a no-haggle approach to shopping on its site for more than a year through a program called Price Promise. Through it, an Edmunds shopper can get a guaranteed price from an Edmunds-participating dealer on a specific new vehicle. The service also provides prices of similar vehicles in the area. Edmunds believes so strongly in the no-haggle approach that it wants all of its 10,000 participating dealers to offer Price Promise over the coming months. Well, they were fun while they lasted. [RELATED: Be the kind of brand journalist whose stories always hit the mark for your audience with this whitepaper.]{/%BODYCOPY%} {%ID%}17502{/%ID%} {%DATAID%}603a945d-25dd-4a19-822f-59de96b0db4f{/%DATAID%} {%CanonicalUrl%}{/%CanonicalUrl%} {%PUBLISHDATE%}10/27/2014 1:53:54 PM{/%PUBLISHDATE%} {%LINK%}https://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/17502.aspx{/%LINK%} {%BYLINE%}Ayaz Nanji
Oct. 28, 2014