will set up 'Tupperware Party' type events for 2013 Ford Escape
San Antonio is one of several test markets where Ford will experiment with a new way of selling cars, which owes more to Tupperware and Mary Kay than it does to the traditional car dealership, 1200 WOAI news reports.
Jason Sprawka, who is the brand manager for the 2013 Ford Escape, say the company will encourage people to have 'Escape Parties' at their homes where neighbors and friends can test drive the SUV there, rather than going into the dealership to do it.
"Events like this really give us the opportunity to put the product in customers hands are really experience and feel it," he said.
Sprawka said many customers today are too busy to drive to a dealership to check out cars. Others are intimidated by dealerships or don't want to deal with the hard sell that frequently comes with checking out cars at a dealership. And the main target, he says, is people who don't even know they're in the market for a new vehicle, but happen to see the Escape parked in their neighbor's lot, check it out, and decide that can't live without it.
Successful car dealers say if they sold vehicles only to people who need a new car and are desperately looking for one, they'd be out of business.
Sprawka says in this era of social media, people are more likely to seek out a car model if they've experienced it like this rather than simply after 'seeing a TV ad.'
"We do all the distribution for you, you just basically put in the people you want to invite, and you can invite them via Facebook, e-mail," he said.
In addition, for each guest attending the Escape Party, Ford will donate enough money for forty meals to Feeding America, a network of food banks and charity institutions that feed some 37 million people each week. Sprawka says Ford hopes to donate enough money to provide 1.2 million meals through the Escape Parties, which start next week and will run through the summer.
The 2013 Escape is already on showroom floors.
Sprawka says the Escapes won't be sold at the parties. You'll still have to go to the dealership to buy one, he says Ford has an excellent and very supportive dealer network and doesn't want the parties to bypass them.
