Daihatsu will be holding a three-day test drive promotional event in 60 Tesco stores across the UK to coincide with a national TV campaign dubbed ‘Crazy Not To’.

Dealers on Daihatsu’s centre of excellence programme will display two cars at their local Tesco on a stand manned by sales staff. They will be expected to sign up customers for test drives.

The campaign, which will run in the first week in July, mirrors an event the company ran last year in 80 Morrisons stores. Over three days sales staff booked 411 test drives resulting in 117 sales – a 28.4% conversion rate.

Paul Tunnicliffe, Daihatsu UK managing director, claimed the campaign will help put dealers in touch with prospective buyers.

“Many of our 125 dealers are not in large conurbations, so we have to seek out customers,” he said. “The deal with Tesco means we can have two cars at 60 stores and we can have adverts on their in-store TV. Customers get £10 off their next Tesco shop if they take a test drive.”

Daihatsu has 64 dealers on its centre of excellence programme. They make a contribution into a central pot which is added to by Daihatsu. As part of the scheme, sales trainers visit the dealerships to provide on the job coaching on prospecting, qualifying, booking test drives and closing deals.

Marketing initiatives such as the Morrisons and Tesco campaigns are also part of the agreement. Dealers will show Sirion and Terios models under a canopy sited next to the store entrance. The display and promotional materials will be provided by Daihatsu. Interestingly, the campaign will run during the week, not at the weekend.

“We profiled our customer database against the Tesco Club Card database which told us that our customers tend to shop during the week not at weekends because many of them are retired,” said Tunnicliffe.

“Anyone booking a test drive will be followed up by our customer call centre to find out their views on the car and dealer and whether they want to buy a car. We expect it to sell us cars.”

Centre of excellence dealers without a local Tesco will be offered an alternative, which might involve displaying cars at garden centres.

  • Daihatsu has added six dealers to its network this year and is in talks with another 15-20. It hopes to expand to 140 dealers by the end of the year.