Zag Challenges Current State of Online Auto Retail in Three Industry White Papers Published Today, Available on New Zag.com

Zag today launched the first two initiatives in a thought leadership campaign pushing for necessary change in the way both consumers and dealers think about buying and selling new cars.

Zag published three white papers, the first in an ongoing series, issuing a clarion call to the auto retail industry – saying the process of shopping for a car online has evolved into a model that fails both parties, and calling on the industry to embrace total pricing transparency in new-car sales.

As part of the initiative, the company today launched a new website at http://www.zag.com. The site is designed to give dealers, potential partners and industry watchers a place where they can dive deep into the issues affecting auto retailing today – the role of the Internet, the salesperson’s relationship with buyers, and dealers’ struggle with margin compression, to name a few.

To help define and package its perspective on the industry, Zag enlisted advertising agency Donat/Wald, a leader in helping companies identify the core of what they offer and sharing that truth with their audiences.

“Car buying is broken,” said Scott Painter, Zag founder and CEO. “It’s arguably the most contentious and dreaded retail transaction people face. But several trends are converging right now to force a fundamental change in way things are done. That change is a movement toward total transparency in new-car pricing. It’s simply non-negotiable in an environment defined by net margin compression, anonymous access to robust product information for consumers via the Internet, and the commoditization of the car.

“There’s an urgency – the number of dealerships nationwide is declining,” said Painter. “Those who understand how to reach today’s consumer will be the ones to survive. The key is transparency.”

“As a critical part of Zag’s thought leadership campaign, the website is dramatically different from a typical corporate site,” said Lucas Donat, Donat/Wald founding partner and CEO. “And that’s perfect for what Zag wants to accomplish – which is to get people thinking and talking about the big changes that need to happen in auto retail. These are guys with a lot of experience in this industry, and lot of ideas about where it needs to go. They want both consumers and dealers to think differently about the new-car transaction.