Kooks are everywhere, and you do not want to be one.

When it comes to surfing, kooks are easy to spot.  They wear the branded board shorts, know all the buzz words and call everyone dude.  No harm yet.

When they enter the water, it’s a different story.  Kooks can single-handedly turn a picture perfect day into every surfers worst nightmare.  They drop in on the guy who clearly is on the wave.  They have no sense of etiquette and totally ruin the lineup.  They’ll block your takeoff keeping you from what could have been the wave of the day.  Worse yet – they’ll ding your one-of-a-kind custom made board and then disappear.

We’ve all encountered kooks in everyday life.  The driver who lays on the horn the second the light goes green.  The person behind you at the checkout counter who thinks shoving the cart into your backside will help speed things up.  The colleague in your staff meeting who has all the good ideas and dominates the entire conversation.  

And when it comes to automotive advertising, the kooks are the ones who make a public spectacle of themselves and ruin the reputation of the industry for the rest of us.

You know who you are Mr. Giant Pickle Guy who guarantees credit acceptance for everyone even if you just filed bankruptcy yesterday.

Or how about Miss I’m So Overstocked I’ll give you 4 thousands dollars more than your crappy car is worth so I can lose a ton of money but get you into a car.  I’m that overstocked!

And the person I’m convinced caused the fall out from local radio listenership:  Mr. I Have To Yell At The Top Of My Lungs so you can hear my completely asinine offer of 2,000% trade in allowances with absolutely NO MONEY DOWN!  Did you hear me?  NO MONEY DOWN!  And 2000% more for your trade in….

These are the kooks of the automotive marketing landscape.

I’ve heard the arguments and read the books from the so-called automotive marketing guru’s who strongly encourage this behavior.  Main reason they claim – you need to be different.  True enough.

But you can be different and stand out from the crowd without damaging your (and the entire industry’s) reputation.  Hard work finding that place of uniqueness?  Yes.  Worth the effort?  Absolutely.

My final word on this subject  –  whatever you do (in life, at your dealership & especially when at the beach), don’t be a kook.