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.
Which of the following can be the best title of the passage?
A、Ads on the Internet.
B、The Sales Volume of Top Ten Automotive Websites.
C、Automakers'New Ways of Advertising.
D、Ford Motor Co.and the Internet Advertising.
【正确答案】：C
【名师解析】:选项C "Automakers' New Ways of Advertising" 是最佳标题，因为它全面概括了文章的主要内容。文章讨论了汽车制造商如何将广告预算从传统的杂志和报纸转移到互联网上，以适应消费者在互联网上寻找汽车的趋势。同时，文章还提到了法律限制和制造商在零售领域的局限性，以及他们如何利用互联网来加强与消费者的联系，提供个性化的购车信息，并最终将潜在买家引导到经销商那里完成购车。这个标题反映了汽车制造商在广告和营销策略上的创新和转变。
