Ford Motor Co.jolted the advertising world in 2000 by announcing that up to $90 million of its advertising will be shifted from magazines and newsprint to Internet ads on sites such as www.carpoint.msn.com.Following this trend are General Motors, American Honda Motor Co.,and Toyota Motor Sales USA.The automakers are going to where customers are looking.As of 2000,some 40 percent of buyers were shopping the Internet for their next vehicle.In one month alone,the top 10 automotive websites tallied more than 7 million visits from potential buyers.The question that arises,then,is how far will Detroit go with its Internet sales initiative? Will automakers reduce the distribution channel by selling directly to new car buyers,eliminating the retail automobile dealership as wecurrently know it? Not likely,at least not in the near future.
At present,about 30 states in the United States have laws prohibiting automakers from owning dealership. In addition, laws in most states do not allow manufacturers to sell vehicles directly to consumers. The Internet,however,has introduced some new tests of the old regulations.So sensitive is this issue that in 2000, Ford had to shut down a website that sold lease vehicles (not new vehicles) after a ruling by a Texas regulatory commission.The closing was ordered even though Houston-area dealers participated in the transactions.The ruling indicates how sensitive regulators are to automakers' experiment in adapting the Internet to their distribution channels.
Aside from legal regulations,it isn't likely that automakers would make effective retailers.Nor do they necessarily want to get away from what they do best-make cars-by diverting their resources into retailing and customer service.Instead, the Net's role on the marketing side of the business involves cultivating closer relationships with customers.If you log on to automakers' websites-www.saturn.com,www.ford.com,www.toyota.com,www. gm.com-you will see tat they assist shoppers with information about new products, service,and pricing.Their main value is in helping buyers to select personalized packages of features on the cars they want.Ford CEO Jacques Nasser expects that the percentage of customers using the Internet to get pre-purchase information will rise to 83 percent in the year 2004.
Meanwhile,website visitors are referred to dealerships so that the retailing is left to those who know best how to do it. This is the area in which Internet new car sals are growing- namely,the use of the Web as a sales tool among dealers:Toyota reports that some dealers are selling up to 25 to 30 percent of their entire volume on the Net.
What's the author's attitude towards automakers' advertising on the Internet?
A、Negative.
B、Positive.
C、Neutral.
D、Indifferent.
【正确答案】：B
【名师解析】:作者对汽车制造商在互联网上的广告持积极态度。文章提到，福特汽车公司在2000年宣布将高达9000万美元的广告预算从杂志和报纸转移到互联网上，如www.carpoint.msn.com等网站。随后，通用汽车、美国本田汽车公司和丰田汽车销售美国公司也跟随这一趋势。这些汽车制造商正在转向客户正在寻找的地方。到2000年，约有40%的购车者在网上寻找他们的下一辆车。此外，文章还提到，尽管目前有法律限制，但汽车制造商不太可能成为有效的零售商，也不太可能从制造汽车这一核心业务中分散资源去从事零售和服务。相反，互联网在营销方面的作用是与客户建立更紧密的关系，通过网站提供关于新产品、服务和价格的信息，并帮助买家选择他们想要的汽车的个性化功能包。福特CEO Jacques Nasser还预计，到2004年，使用互联网获取购买前信息的客户比例将上升到83%。因此，作者认为互联网是汽车销售和营销的一个重要工具，对汽车制造商的在线广告持肯定态度。
