Sconda

Scott Honda's 2nd Annual Pen Amnesty Day

Dog's chew on them, children write on walls with them and adults horde them.  You've used them at local restaurants, doctor's office's and even other car dealerships.  They are Scott Honda pens and they are all over the Delaware Valley, but once a year when we run a little low on our own supply we need to have Pen Amnesty Day.

"Basically it means I submitted our pen order too late and we're about to run out," admits Marketing Manager, Douglas P. Scott. "But I know employees collect these pens, either by accident or on purpose and this special day was created to allow those folks to bring them back without apology."

Within 10 minutes of the company-wide voice mail announcing Pen Amnesty Day, 473 pens had already been handed back in with a smile.

"Here you go Doug," said Internet Sales Consultant, Kim Meissner, with a sheepish grin as she handed over a rainbow collection of pen colors in two large rubber band wads.  "These are my favorites, but I didn't even realize I had so many."

It appears to be the endless color combinations and the Bic quality that makes these pens such a fan favorite.  Whenever the boxes of the new pens arrive employees can't wait to see what colors will be inside.

Some wives have been known to be hand Ziploc baggies to their husbands, filled to brim with our pens saying things like "Get these darn pens out of my house."

"I am part of the problem," Doug admits.  "I give them away to anyone I meet.  I leave them at restaurants, at Home Depot, at the movie theater, literally any time I sign a check or see a stash of pens, I leave one of ours.  I see it as guerrilla marketing.  Getting Scott Honda's name anywhere I can."

One employee is even getting a custom color combination done for his wedding at his wife's request, that's how popular they've become.

"I have pondered creating a Sconda Pen of the Month Club," Doug revealed to Sconda Blog.  "I have even thought about letting people win the ability to pick the colors."

Stay tuned to hear more about the potential for the Sconda Pen of the Month Club.

Sconda Hoodies Across America - Utah

There's one more player and one less state in Sconda Hoodies Across America (SHAA).  Introducing Max "The Ice Man" Kelly, the newest contestant in the hooded cotton craze that's sweeping America.  Max grabbed Utah, the largest state to fall in SHAA.

While snowboarding in Park City, Utah at the appropriately named Park City Mountain Resort Max and his brother, Wade Kelly took a little time from doing their best Shaun White impersonations to take this snowy picture and some great video proof as well.

Max's brother and mother, Sue Kelly both work at Scott Honda, but with dedication like this we may have to find a nice corner office for Max in the near future.

Some fast facts about the 45th state in the union and more importantly the 10th state in Sconda Hoodies Across America; Utah is home to the largest salt water lake in the western hemisphere, the Great Salt Lake.  Up to 72% of the population belongs to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Utah had the fastest growing population in 2008 according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Liam Wins 2010's First Artist of the Month

Our first budding artist for 2010 is Liam, with his beautiful boat named "Rain Bow".  This boat really caught our eye for multiple reasons.  The first being the really neat vertical stripes on the sails and the horizontal stripes on the hull.  He managed to make four colors look like more with his consistent color patterns.

The other aspect we loved was the way he colored SCOTT by outlining the interior with read, yellow, then green and coloring the rest in with blue.  It just really stood out amongst the over 30 sailboats that were colored during the Holiday vacation when the dealership was filled with kids.

Way to go Liam and congratulations for being the Sconda Artist of the Month for January!

While you and your kids are in for sales or service, make sure they grab one of the free coloring books and crayon 4-packs at the receptionist desk or in the Scott Kids Spot.  It will help them pass the time and they could win the much sought after Sconda Artist of the Month Award.

Sconda Hoodies Across America - NY

The Empire State falls to our leader in Sconda Hoodies Across America, Ken Barker who came back from a four states to one deficit to take the lead over Zach "ZZ" Zimmerman.  Barker took the lead in style too, posing for numerous pictures at the famous Coney Island.

"I had never been to Coney Island before, but my Pilot's navigation system took me right to the boardwalk...love that thing!" Barker told Sconda Blog.  "I can see why Coney Island has such a special place in the hearts of New Yorkers.  It must be great growing up there or being able to take the subway to the beach."

Photo 1: Barker stands in the shadow of the famous "Wonder Wheel", which according to the highly paid research staff at Wikipiedia was built in 1918 and opened in 1920, this steel framed Ferris wheel has both stationary cars and rocking cars that slide along a track. It holds 144 riders, stands 150 feet tall, and weighs over 2,000 tons. At night the Wonder Wheel's steel frame is outlined and illuminated by neon tubes.

Photo 2: Our leader in SHAA stood beneath the "Eiffel Tower of Brooklyn" as it has been affectionately referred, but officially known as the Parachute Jump, was built in 1939 for the World's fair and moved to Coney Island in 1941.  Standing 262 feet tall and weighing 170 tons this ride stopped "pulling it's ripcord" in 1968 and in 1980 was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Photo 3: Working up an appiteit on his busy day of sight seeing, Baker parked outside Nathan's Famous for a hot dog.  According to their website "Nathan’s Famous was founded by a Polish immigrant, Nathan Handwerker, and his is truly an authentic 'only in America story.' He started his business in 1916 with a small hot dog stand in Coney Island, New York using a recipe developed by his wife, Ida.

Photo 4: For his final photo Barker stood beside the New York Aquarium, which is proud to hold the title of the America's Oldest Continually Operating Aquarium, now in it's 113th year.

We can only guess where Ken "Hoodie" Barker will end up next...but if you follow him on Twitter you may get some hints.

Congrats to 4th Qtr iPod Winner, Janet A.

Congratulations to Janet A. of Media, Pa for winning our 4th quarter iPod drawing. She was one of over 800 Scott Honda customers who entered themselves in the contest by completing a short questionnaire online or by mail regarding their experience at Scott Honda.

Janet, the proud owner of not one, but two Honda Civics, was the first customer to win the 5th generation iPod Nano 8gb.  She also got to chose her winning color, going with Silver because she thought it would look nice with her blue '09 Civic.

"I'm so excited, I never win anything," Janet told Sconda Blog upon receiving the news. "We have been so happy with our cars and with the service at Scott.  They have both been fabulous."

Janet was so busy working at Littman Jewelry at the Granite Run Mall that she almost didn't have a chance to call Scott Honda back to confirm her address as the winner and was hours away from losing the iPod she is now so excited to listen to.

To enter in our quarterly drawing just fill out the postcard you receive in the mail from Scott Honda, drop it back in the mail and you could be our next winner!  The next winner will be announced in April.

Sconda Hoodies Across America - NJ

"Only you can prevent forest fires" and only Ken Barker can prevent the rest of the world from claiming  New Jersey in Sconda Hoodies Across America, and that's just what he did.  In one of the most memorable photos of the contest Ken palled up with a famous bear in Cape May for this portrait.

While most folks refer to this fire fighting Black Bear as "Smokey the Bear", his official name is just Smokey Bear.  This is a misconception the United States Forest Service has been battling and losing ever since songwriters Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins wrote the hit "Smokey the Bear".  According to Wikipedia the duo said they added "the" to Smokey's name to "keep the song's rhythm".

Smokey Bear, the public educator, was born in 1944, but it wasn't until a real bear cub got caught up a tree and rescued during a New Mexico forest fire in 1950 that the now classic character really became an American icon.

Thanks to Ken we all know a little more about our furry friend Smokey and we know Ken is a sucker for the beach in winter...who can blame him, no crowds and no sunburn.  This state tied him with Zach Zimmerman at four states a piece, but Ken was in a New York state of mind after this pit stop.

5 New Movies for the Scott Kids Spot

New year, time for some fun new movies in the Scott Kids Spot Theater.  We tried to use a crowd pleasing cross-section of brand new digitally animated hits and old school cartoon classics for our youngest customers to enjoy.

Now when you and your child are in for sales or service you can watch family favorites like Bolt, The Little Mermaid, A Bug's Life, 101 Dalmatians and UP.

"We like to try to keep the movies fresh," says Douglas P. Scott, Manager of the Scott Kids Spot.  "We had a good run with our last batch of movies, but even we were ready to see something new.  We hope the kids love the new additions."

Sconda Hoodies Across America - MD

It was by stage coach and ferry that the first beach-front renters arrived in Ocean City, Maryland in 1869.  Now a days it's via Scott Honda Pilots, by men wearing Sconda Hoodies.  Ken Barker added the "Land of Mary" to his list, which was his third of five states racked up in two weekend road trips.

"My photographer caught me in front of the entrance to the boardwalk," Ken wrote to Sconda Blog.  "As you can see, there is still plenty of ice and snow on the street and for some reason the beach was not crowded," he wrote jokingly.

It was George Calvert who applied for Maryland's royal charter in 1629.  He had lived in Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland and after winter lasted until May he wrote to a friend, "There is a sad face of winter upon all this land."  When the seas thawed he sailed south, wisely planting himself in Maryland the next summer, a trend millions would emulate in the centuries to follow. 

I'm sure Calvert never envisioned anything like the Ocean City Boardwalk, which started in 1902 as a wooden walkway that was small enough to get rolled up during high tide and has evolved into 2.5 mile long food and fun extravaganza.

Coming up next, Barker's trips to the Garden and Empire States.  Want to join in the fun, click here to learn how.

Scott Buys Saturn of West Chester Land, Scott Select to Open This Spring

On the afternoon of January 15th the ink dried on a deal to purchase 700 Westtown Road, in West Chester, formerly Saturn of West Chester.  This 4.5 acre swath of land will be the new home of Scott Select, "simply the best pre-owned cars".

The exact business plan for Scott Select is still be fine tuned, but Scott will be taking 80 years of automotive sales and service experience and injecting into this new venture.  With Scott Honda finishing as the #2 Certified Honda dealer in the country two yeas in a row, we feel we have a great blue print for selling newer model, impeccably reconditioned vehicles in the Delaware Valley.

"To have this new property on a well traveled road and right next to Scott Honda gives us a huge advantage," says Vice President Duke Scott.  "Our sales people will be able to sell between both stores and our service departments will be able to handle overflow at either location."

Scott had planned to build an entirely new "green" building further down Westtown Road and was close to breaking ground when the Winner Automotive Group announced the sale of their Saturn property last fall.  It was a no-brainer for Scott, what's more green than reusing an existing building and there are still plans to possibly use solar technology and LED lighting in the new building.

"We are really looking forward to opening the doors of this new store," Duke told Sconda Blog.  "It will be a push to get it open as soon as we'd like, with the right people in place, but we know we have resources to make it happen."

Stay tuned for more details on Scott Select, coming in the Spring to this corner near you.

Sconda Hoodies Across America - DE

Ken Barker is back in the game! This is the first of a three state tour he made last weekend to tie the contest at four with early leader Zach Zimmerman.

"I got up early this morning, jumped into the Honda Pilot, grabbed my photographer (my loving and very patient wife of 44 years) and headed for the beach," Barker told Sconda Blog last Saturday.  "My first stop was Bethany Beach, Delaware where we took this picture along Route 1 near the National Guard training center.  Not quite so cold and windy as the Valley Forge adventure from last week, but still not beach weather!"

Barker stood before the Delaware National Guard Training Site and a sweet helicopter which definitely got him some points for "unique objects in the background", under the creativity portion of the contest.

To all you other eager hoodie wearers there is still time to get in the contest.  All you need is a Sconda Hoodie, a camera and a smile.  As we speak hoodies are being mailed across the country, but one road trip to Florida could yield 5 states and put you right in the lead. 

Get your picture taken in a new state (only 42 remain), in front of a prominent, obscure or unique landmark and you'll get a special post on Sconda Blog.  The best photograph and the person who sacks the most states will win a new iPod Nano 8gb and even more Sconda gear. Scott Honda employees are not excluded, the more the merrier.

Send your photo's to dougscott@scotthonda.com or post them on our Facebook Fan page.