Ecount News & Press Releases
Mazda Runs With Gift Cards
An online, gift card-based incentive program helps Mazda ensure its channel sales force doesn't forget the core models
August 1, 2006 by Leo Jakobson - Potentials
AUGUST 01, 2006 - There are plenty of incentives offered by automobile manufacturers, both to their customers and the independent salespeople working at dealerships. Many of them go to push the newest, hottest model, or to help move old models off the lot in time for the next year's crop.
Mazda USA does all this, but like most automakers, the Irvine, California based division of the Japanese automaker also spends time, effort and money making sure that salespeople always pay attention to the less sexy, core vehicles. In Mazda's case, one of these is the Mazda6. "We always keep a focus on them, despite what our [current] marketing is focused on," says Thomas Cook, manager of contests and incentives for Mazda USA. "They really are key to our business. We sell them month in and month out."
To keep the thousands upon thousands of channel salespeople and sales managers focused on the Mazda6, Cook has turned to stored-value card program specialist Ecount, which offers a soup-to-nuts solution ranging from providing salespeople with reloadable, branded cards to building and managing the back-end system to creating the Web site salespeople visit when they register a sale.
The Ecount program that Cook uses is not just an interface to report a sale. It is a game, usually with a slot-machine interface. Each Mazda6 sold is good for one spin, which will award a spiff ranging from $100 to $500. "There's usually some version running every month," Cook says. "Usually it's a slot [machine], but a few times a year we insert national messages. This year, we are running sports-themed contests." In March, it was Mazda HooplaÐIn the Zone, with the Web site's slot machine replaced by a basketball-themed contest with payouts of $100 to $300 based on shooting a basket. This summer, it's baseball, with a single equal to $100, and a home run $400. Dealerships' sales managers are included in the program, usually getting $25 per $100 paid out to salespeople.
There are several reasons Mazda turned to Ecount's online program, starting with speed. "In the past, we used a check-request program that could take weeks to months to get paid," Cook says. "Now they get the payout while the program is in the top of their mind. And feedback is available to us much more quickly. We know how much the program will cost us within days of its close."
Beyond that, the Web-based program allows Mazda to put up internal advertising directed at the salespeople, each of whom has his or her own account page.
Still, putting a dollar amount on the return-on-investment is tricky, he says. While measuring the number of salespeople who complete Mazda trainingÑa prerequisite for participationÑoffers a form of ROI, these spiffs are part of a much larger program that runs the gamut from advertising campaigns to the consumer-based incentives that take up 90 percent of Cook's time. "If we didn't hit our numbers, it's rarely because the spiff didn't work," Cook says. "This is the sweetener to close. If a vehicle that is not the focus of a national [marketing] program hits its numbers anyway, without [spiffs] the needle would move down."