Ebay and Autonation Promotion - Essay Example

The main brand of the marketing promotions campaign is AutoNation Direct which is the online extension of AutoNation designed to promote its presencein one of the largest web-based auction sites, eBay. The product is merchandising which involves the sale of motor vehicles online as the central thrust of the brand. This is because the products being sold are cars which the company has made available to people in the market to buy. It is more in a manner of a distributorship though not in the conventional sense since the vehicles are sold online.

This is not a convenience nor a specialty product because cars are end-products sold to the general market. AutoNation is not a service type business since there is nothing of such nature offered as the product itself. The target audience of the sales promotion are car buyers who are in the market for brand new vehicles and who would particularly like to grab hold of popular models released by Chevrolet, Nissan and General Motors from 2011 to 2013 at half its suggested retail price. There were 29 cars up for grabs which included a Chevy Camaro, Chevy Sonic, Ford Mustang and Ford Focus among others and one Corvette to cap off its last day of promotion.

The program was an alternative way to attract buyers who may not have been necessarily in the process of buying a car but had been enticed by AutoNation Direct because of the relatively discounted price. In a general perspective, though the sales promotion program lasted for only a week, the objective was to establish the presence of AutoNation as a viable seller in eBay Motors that extends beyond its half price special offer. This is consistent with its goal to attract eBay users who would like to purchase cars by establishing a strong presence in the auction site.

AutoNation facilitated the development of the sales promotion under AutoNation Direct for its nationwide launch. The promotional campaign ran from March 23 to March 30 of this year. The market implementation of the promotional program was conducted with the direct cooperation of eBay in its website, particularly its eBay Motors arm that precisely correlates to AutoNation as a brand and to AutoNation Direct as its new venture into online sale distributorship. The website facilitated the random offers throughout the span of the campaign with its ‘Buy It Now’ option in its listing.

More advertising and communications campaign must be conducted to attract prospective buyers that do not limit to existing eBay users. Public awareness of the promotional activity needs to be broadened since there is a large market in vehicle sales. This will be beneficial not only for AutoNation but also for eBay as a viable venue as a marketplace for vehicle consumers. The company should consider implementing a successional campaign similar to what it had already done but on a more regular basis at specified intervals.

The week-long sales promotion, though it is a good start, is not enough if there are no persistent ensuing campaigns to back it up. For example, they may conduct half price offers on cars once a month on a given date as part of its overall marketing agenda. This could help in instituting its presence online and stimulating buyers to brand association which would benefit AutoNation in the process. Bibliography Woodyard, Chris. "AutoNation Promo Sells New Cars at Half Price on EBay." USA Today. 24 Mar. 2012. Web. 12 Apr. 2012.