Building loyalty among professional technicians and giving them tools to compete have emerged as essential themes when you examine the advertising and promotional plans that today's automotive aftermarket program distribution groups are rolling out in the marketplace.

The focus is primarily in two areas: keeping or attracting business from professional technicians, so they'll be loyal customers of their local jobber or WD, and helping drive consumer traffic to the service bays.

"The focus continues to be upon the professional technicians," explains Matt Davis, corporate communications manager, CARQUEST. "We want to support (technicians) as 'heroes' and to communicate to consumers that they should align themselves with CARQUEST to get that professional expertise."

Bill Maggs, president, National Pronto Association, readily agrees. "All our dedicated marketing dollars are going toward reaching the professional installers."

Even specialized program groups like TruStar, a two-step undercar group with 120 warehouse distributor members, focus their attention squarely on the service bays. "Most of our marketing programs are designed to strengthen the relationship between the distributor and the shop," explains Kevin Davidson, marketing manager for TruStar.

Delivering the message

It is no secret that each group varies in the way they market to wholesale customers. Some groups offer a strong national identity that includes common television, radio and print ads. Others are more independent oriented and leave the decision about advertising at the local level, primarily with the WD. And some groups fall somewhere in between.

Mike Lambert, president of Memphis, Tenn., -based Parts Plus, says his group has put money toward pushing the Parts Plus name through national television commercials on Fox Sports Net and the Speed Channel. All of the spots are tied to NASCAR, and run both before and after races.

"We feel these spots, in five different versions, are very good and professionally done," says Lambert.

Bob Bartstow, director of retail marketing for Parts Plus, agrees. "It's all about name recognition and we have decided to stay with the NASCAR scene because it has been very effective."

The Parts Plus television spots are designed to appeal to both the do-it-yourselfer (DIY) and the do-it-for-me (DIFM) markets. One spot shows a brother, who is a heavy DIYer and his sister, who is a soccer mom and DIFM customer.

Parts Plus members also can run the commercials in their local markets with five- and 25-second versions that can be tagged with names of local jobbers or car care centers. Barstow says WDs typically buy the time on a local cable system, with the ability to select only the zip codes they want to reach.

While Parts Plus does not buy national radio time, they have taken national television ads and turned them into radio spots that can be used by group members in their local markets.

The Aftermarket Auto Parts Alliance also has invested in national television and radio spots. "One of the things we did this year was make sure our national advertising hit 75 percent of the markets we serve," says Steve Marks, vice president of marketing and advertising for the Alliance. Since its members serve a lot of smaller markets, the group has been very selective in order to achieve this goal.

Marks says one of the Alliance's major efforts has been making co-op funds available to WDs or jobbers for local advertising. He explains that co-op money is split three ways between the Alliance, the local WD and the jobber or service center

"To obtain the money, you have to use the same spots," explains Marks. The program began in January and already 50 percent of Alliance members are taking advantage of the co-op funds. The ads can be customized at the local level and are available in either Auto Value or Bumper-to-Bumper versions. Marks believes keeping a common look to all the Alliance's advertising is vital.

At CARQUEST, both national television and radio ads are utilized. The television ads are employed during NASCAR and National Football League games. "We want to build the name 'CARQUEST' with consumers so they know where to go to get quality parts and service," says Davis.

Some groups like Pronto are not running national television and radio ads, but still make the spots available if members want to run them in their markets. Maggs admits though that few members are actually using the ads.

Over at Keystone Automotive, which markets under the Driver FX moniker, national television and radio time are not purchased, although members are buying spots for local usage (primarily on cable television), according to Butch Lahmann, marketing programs manager for Keystone.

Keystone targets consumers who are looking for truck accessories, items for their sport compact performance vehicles, or general car enthusiasts who want to enhance the appearance or performance of their vehicles. Keystone also buys consumer oriented print ads in specialty automotive magazines. "The focus of the ad is to push consumers to our 800 auto parts locator number or to visit our www.driverfx.com website," says Lahmann.

Independent Warehouse Distributors, LLD, flies its banner under the AutoPride name. Jim Donohue, automotive sales manager for the group, says the company is not involved in television but does advertise on radio on the TNT Radio Network's "Business of Sports" program, heard on 150 radio stations across the U.S.

Some groups like Automotive Parts Associates (APA), Engine Pro, TruStar and Auto Pride, have never used national television or radio in their marketing mix. That is not the case though for Cartersville, Ga., -based Independent Auto Parts of America (IAPA).

Mike Kamel, executive director of IAPA, says his group stopped buying national television and radio time a little over five years ago. "We did the national ads before and we are not against using them, but we decided to put the money where it is most effective in helping our jobber members," says Kamel.

Tying into the trade

Most of the program groups use trade advertising in their marketing mix, utilizing ads that appeal to professional technicians or current and prospective jobber members.

Dan Freeman, president and CEO of APA, explains that most of APA's national trade ads are focused on installers. The same is true for CARQUEST, according to Davis, who references one ad that promotes ASE certification and contains a promise to reimburse technicians who successfully complete their ASE certification tests. This approach also provides CARQUEST with the opportunity to promote its training programs.

At the Alliance, Marks says, "The message we are trying to communicate is our extensive training program and the quality of the people and the parts we install. The ads avoid any discussion about price."

IAPA's trade ads also are designed to work at both the installer and jobber levels. Kamel says the message tells installers and jobbers they can remain independent as IAPA members and yet enjoy the benefits of a national group. IAPA's major push is to promote their Automotive Service Professional (ASP) program to shops as a business development strategy. The program provides an independent shop with a turnkey package of credit cards, national warranty program, signage, etc.

AutoPride's Donahue says his group has teamed up with several key national vendors to run product-oriented ads. For instance, they recently banded together with Gates in a series of ads. About two-thirds of each ad is dedicated to Gates' information, while one-third is customized with AutoPride selling points. "The ads are an effort to raise the level of awareness of the AutoPride name among professional technicians," comments Donahue.

Tom Clayton, CEO and president of the AIM part of AIM/CMB Marketing, says the independent orientation of his group means they don't purchase national trade advertising. "We leave advertising decisions up to the individual members of our group," says Clayton. With a diverse membership of two-step distributors, fleet specialists and others, Clayton says it would be difficult to come up with a common theme to run a national ad campaign.

National Pronto Association has virtually eliminated its trade-advertising budget. "We have decided to put no money into advertising in national publications, other than sporadic buys in special issues," says Maggs. "We are taking that money and putting it toward our members efforts to reach their customers."