Saturday 31st October marked the arrival of a new chapter in G&M Motors association with Honda. The UK’s first shopping centre based dealership opened for business at 11am from a 2,500 sq ft showroom in prime position at the entrance to the Dockside shopping centre at Chatham Maritime. The dealership will sell Honda Car, Marine, Energy and Power Equipment ranges.

Paul Cook of Insight Bridge’s G&M’s dealer marketing agency) commented “this totally new environment will provide us with the opportunity to interact with the lucrative commuter and family focussed profile which frequents the centre and will perfectly complement the older blue collar profile that we service through our Gravesend dealership”.

He adds “the project is the culmination of 18 months work analysing and monitoring the surrounding area by running a series of test campaigns and events to ensure that there was sufficient demand in the area to support a new site”.

The opening is just another success story for G&M Motors in 2009 who celebrated their 40th year of trading in May and were finalists in 7 industry awards categories including 2 for their highly successful marketing program which helped them achieve over 40 sales during a single 48 hour event in August this year.

Commenting on the launch Ian Gay the Dealer Principal said, ‘It is extremely impressive that in the current financial climate we have increased our presence locally and we have achieved more this year than any single year in our history. Many of the most recent successes have been a consequence of an increased focus on customer needs and investment in a data driven and customer centric advertising strategy.

G&M Motors was established in 1969 and is still very much a family owned and operated business, overseen by father and son team Colin and Ian Gay. Honda and G&M Motors have been an unbeatable partnership in the North Kent area for 40 years, G&M holding the Honda franchise for Dartford and Gravesham in Kent since 1972 and being the longest serving Honda dealer in Kent.

Insight Bridge which was established in 2006 are a Kent Based relationship marketing agency specialising in Dealership Marketing. Owed and run by Paul Cook whose automotive experience includes CRM work with Honda, Suzuki plus dealership marketing projects covering almost 20 motoring marques. In September of this year they launched Realconnexions a Dealer Marketing service proven to improve campaign performance reduce marketing costs. Prior to establishing Insight Bridge Paul Cook was involved in the development of Honda UK’s customer segmentation, CRM and dealer marketing programs.