By Steve Bender, CEO, Fleet Street Remarketing
Heading into 2021, everyone here at Fleet Street – and most likely many of you reading this – was feeling the unfortunate effects of the Covid pandemic. From devastating business interruptions to uncertainty about the well-being of friends and family, 2020 was a roller coaster full of wild ups and downs. Perhaps worst of all, most of us were forced to go without the vital human connections we all covet as important industry gatherings and trade shows were canceled, business travel curtailed, and the world hunkered down in hopes of staying safe, healthy and Covid free.
And while a year that started out with so much promise ultimately turned out to be an incredible challenge, it appears as though we’ve turned the corner and life is returning to normal. Hopefully this finds you all on the road to recovery and enlightenment. As the world moves ahead, Fleet Street firmly believes there are some important things we can all do to embrace this new dawn.
For starters, our team has spent the first half of the year checking in with our customers, partners and associates to make sure they have come through the pandemic healthy and unscathed. Second, we took the time to make certain our friends in the fleet world knew our team was intact, ready to assist, and prepared to hit the ground running. And third, we wanted the industry to know that we were anxious to re-forge the human bonds – and personal connections – that make the people who work in fleet uncommonly close.
As we quickly found ourselves immersed in projects, we decided to undertake an integrated marketing campaign that would effectively communicate our aggressive efforts going forward, while highlighting Fleet Street’s unique brand of vehicle remarketing services and legacy as a top provider for over three decades.
That said, settling on a single over-arching theme for our new campaign was not easy. So much had happened in 2020 that we knew we had to highlight a wide range of topics to tell our story. That eventually led to our new “word on the street” campaign. It’s a flexible initiative that gives us the opportunity to focus on hot topics affecting the industry – essentially highlighting the current “word on the street.” At the same time, it also allows us to promote “the word” on Fleet Street, and the various benefits that make us the premiere independent remarketing service in the industry.
Since debuting early this year, the “word” campaign has been the perfect platform to talk about our best in class offering by featuring a single word each month that is not only relevant to the way we do business, but top of mind within the industry. Most important, we realize that too often “words” without action are meaningless, and that’s why we’ve been focused on doing everything in our power to bring them to life, and to engrain them into our company culture. Thus far, we have highlighted some pretty impressive words, including:
CONNECTION
The first “word” in our campaign, and perhaps the most important. As we’ve all experienced, the pandemic challenged our ability to gather together. At Fleet Street, we have been hard at work re-establishing these important human connections and look forward to seeing all of our old friends at much-loved industry events, and once business travel resumes in earnest.
CARING
Let’s face it, when people “care” great things happen, and no one cares more than we do about your fleet’s success. As the industry reawakens, doubling down on how we treat people – and the lengths we’ll go to help them – will be an even bigger part of the way we do business.
SPIRIT
In our view, “spirit” is contagious, and moves people to do great things. Our goal is to always maintain a high-level of “spirit” for the work we do, and to pass that spirit along to others as a way of nurturing and maintaining the human connection that means so much to all of us.
INNOVATION
An easy word to throw around, but a hard word to bring to fruition. At Fleet Street, we do it through programs like CarVantedge, our innovative direct to consumer retail solution that sells end of lease fleet assets before you even take them out of service.
TRUST
A small word with huge meaning, and perhaps the most important word thus far in the campaign. Earning our customer’s – and the industry’s – trust has been central to our work at Fleet Street and will remain that way as long as we’re in business.
FRUITION
Fruition is a word that speaks of accomplishment – and commitment. That’s because great things don’t come to “fruition” on their own – bringing things to fruition takes meaningful action and a lot of hard work, two things we’re dedicated to at Fleet Street.
Now that we’ve spent the first half of the year talking about the important “words” that represent the way we do business, everyone at Fleet Street is focused on bringing these words to life. And to strengthening the bonds of human connection. It’s something we can’t wait for our customers to experience, and with great events like AFLA and NAFA right around the corner, we look forward to sharing our enthusiasm for these great “words on the street,” with you all soon!
About the author
Steve Bender is CEO of Fleet Street Remarketing of Largo, Fl, and a member of the board of the Association of Fleet Leasing Association. A leading vehicle remarketer for more than 30 years, Fleet Street is a trusted fleet partner to fleets looking for a hassle-free way to sell their end of lease vehicles quickly and easily. And its online solution CarvantEdge is fleet’s only direct to consumer solution for remarketing vehicles before they even come off lease. To find out more, call us at 1 (800) 539 – 2277, follow us on social media, or log on to www.fleetstreetremarketing.com
