[thelist] Cookies for Two Sites

[Luther, Ron]

Norman Bunn asked:

>>I have a client that has two auto dealerships, one GM, one Ford.


Hi Norman,

Nice problem to have!


>>The idea I have is to create an index page with links to the home pages of both stores.
>>Each store's home page will have a link back to the other

Which, depending on which direction the consultant's combover is facing that morning, either increases or dilutes "brand".  Heh.

Yeah.  Seen that.  Here is a boat dealer with a combined landing page with links to individual locations at the bottom:
http://www.texasmarine.com/

Carmax kind of ignores the location issue and folds it into the search parameters so a customer can't get anywhere without providing a zip code:
http://www2.carmax.com/

I think I've also seen this cat skinned using subdomains but I couldn't find any quick examples like 'Maserati.RonL-Motors.Com' & 'Aston-Martin.RonL-Motors.Com' or anything.

Client's call on which way they want to go I guess.  I'm not aware of any significant technical/market advantage of one solution over the others.


Other Considerations:
- Are there any 'co-marketing' dollars or other support being kicked in by the manufacturers?  You may want to run a very quick check and make sure that the Ford dollars don't dry up because you put a link to a Chevy dealer on a 'Ford' website.  That kind of stuff.


>>I am looking for a simple and elegant solution.

Which may not exist because the client does not have complete control of the situation.  Example: You could start 'BunnAuto.com' and 'BunnAutoFord.com' to advertise your dealerships in Boston and Philly.  Someone else could start 'BunnAutoJaguar.com' to promote their dealership in Dallas and there isn't much you could do about it.  Probably more likely with a more generic name like 'Star Motors' or something.

[I googled "Star Toyota" and turned up dealerships in League City, Texas .. Bayside, New York .. Baton Rouge, Louisiana .. and Alexandria, Louisiana ... on the 1st page of results.  They may or may not all be related.]

I'm kinda thinking this is more of a promotional/educational problem than a technical issue.


HTH,
RonL.