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June 1997 |
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| SELLING TIRES - IS THAT ALL THERE IS? |
Article for "Tire Retailing Today"
The official publication of the: National Tire Dealers and Retreaders Association.
by Stephen J. Alexander
President, Automotive In-Store Marketing |
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| Stephen J. Alexander |
Would you like to increase your dollar volume and profits 30-50% without adding so much as a brick to your existing service facility? Are you interested in high profit add-on sales that requires very little on-site stock? Do you believe that selling and installing tires is not all there is? If so, let’s take a look at how you can easily add significant new selling opportunities to the same customers you now serve, create an expanded customer base and possibly triple your marketing territory reach.
Beginning in 1986, I raised the same questions and presented the tire store industry with the first major marketing method of capitalizing on the growth potential of the truck accessory market. The premise was simple. Turn your underutilized waiting rooms into a mini accessory display area and you will provide customers with exposure to products that they will buy and you will install. It seems the time is now at hand to revisit this premise.
The new relationship between the NTDRA and SEMA has opened up a whole new world of merchandising and profit opportunities with truck and car accessories. Let’s look at the numbers. For purposes of classification, light trucks include sport utilities, van and pickups. Light truck aftermarket accessory sales doubled between 1985 and 1995, reaching $26.6 billion. During the same 10 year span, passenger car aftermarket products sales increased only 16 percent. Since 1994, light trucks have accounted for more than four in ten light vehicles sold in the United States. All of this growth is not a flash-in-the-pan, one time phenomena. This growing market reflects a direct personality change in the lifestyle of your customers.
Even though vehicle manufacturers are offering more accessory type options because they see and feel the buying pressure, remember that they are not in the accessory business. The overwhelming proportion of light truck accessory sales are and will continue to be the domain of independent marketers of product and services such as yourself.
Tire stores are in the most unique position to capitalize on the main accessorizing market segment - light trucks. You can readily satisfy the needs of today’s time pressed consumers who have the discretionary income available to dress up their vehicle and make their lifestyle statement but lack either the time or skills to perform the installation.
Tire stores can both display truck accessories and offer full installation services. By contrast, few retailers and jobbers are not set up to install what they sell. Often, they refer the customer to an installation facility. True, many purchasers of truck accessories are capable do-it-yourselfers. But, most are do-it-for-me-ers. Once the purchase is made, they don’t like looking for an installer.
Your tire store can easily provide that one-stop shopping experience - display merchandise, sell the product, special order and install the items. Once consumers learn that you sell and install truck accessories, your marketing territory will expand significantly; often out to 25 miles versus your traditional 5-7 mile radius. Truck accessory customers think nothing of traveling 50 miles to find what they want especially when installation services are offered at the same location as the purchase is made.
A few simple in-store merchandising marketing and merchandising rules will start you on the road to a successful business of selling and installing truck accessories.
Know Your Market
Key to selecting the right products is knowing your customers. That means learning as much as you can about the type of vehicles registered within your trading area - not just those vehicles that you see when selling tires. The R. L. Polk vehicle registration data base is one such resource; although not available in every state. Contact local 4 x 4, off-road, van, RV and light truck clubs to get a sense of the vehicle types popular in your market.
Perform a simple 5 minute observation analysis. Step outside and count the number of vehicles classified as light trucks that pass by your store. If you are open eight hours a day, multiply that number by 96. For example, 20 light truck in a five minute period translates into 1,920 per day passing right by your store. What percentage of this vehicle base do you want to sell to?
Expand your knowledge of the demographics of the vehicle owners within your trading area. Your local Automobile Association is another source of valuable data. The better prepared you are to sell, the more you will sell, because “Knowledge = Profits”.
Store Environment
Truck accessories are like clothing for the vehicle. They need to be attractively presented. With your waiting room a perfect natural setting, it should be clean and inviting. Often a coat of paint will do but, also consider carpeting the floor, increasing the lighting and putting fresh new tiles in the drop ceiling. If you have windows with an outside view, remove all obstacles to create greater product visibility.
Displays
Except for a few large retailers that exclusively sell truck accessories and maintain a sizable in-stock inventory, the vast majority of truck accessories are successfully merchandised merely by using sample displays. All the top manufacturers of quality accessories have beautiful merchandising displays; many designed to fit in smaller environments. They do a great job as a silent salesman, telling the product story and also serve as a valuable selling tool for the one-on-one presentation.
Over the years, in many tire store environments, a wheel display has been successfully employed as a related item sales generator. Other successful displays include batteries, suspension, towing and lighting. Periodically, to avoid a stale impression, rearrange the displays and add new ones that present hot products.
Special Orders vs On-Shelf Stock
Most sales are filled by special order from either a local distributor or, in some cases, directly from the manufacturer. However, depending on the size of your available floor space, a select few popular items could be stocked that match the largest segments of vehicle types, including floor mats, tool boxes, bug deflectors, running boards and bed mats. With good displays, even a small store can appear to carry any truck accessory your customer may want.
Signs & Graphics
Signs are a critical element of your retail store image. Because your store is a “branded environment” (your name is all over it), all elements - from signs to displays to printed communications - should serve to complement your brand and create a positive selling atmosphere. Any good signage program or other graphics communications needs to attract, engage, inform and direct the customer.
An investment in carefully chosen original signs will result in an immediate payback. Consumers never complain about too many signs but will immediately notice too few.
Interior and exterior signage and graphics must portray a consistent image, color, and type style to unify your identity and increase your customer’s mental recall. Manufacturers of accessories have many beautiful and exciting photo images for display in your showroom. Such graphics can also help to hide otherwise unattractive, blank wall space.
The exterior of your store should be viewed as your “eyes’ to the public. Reexamine the look of your existing exterior signage. Is it lighted? Update the signs to convey the fact that you sell and install truck accessories. And, don’t forget your windows and what the drive-by traffic will see. Neon signs remain one of the most noticeable and dramatic forms of window communications.
Signs should have large type with open letter spacing. Bigger is better. Keep messages simple and brief. Small signs disappear in the store environment. Mount signs to thick materials because thin signs appear flimsy and cheap and convey negative messages about product quality.
Dressing The Part
Retailing is theater but with a major difference from the movie house. In a retail environment the audience gets to see the “performance” before deciding whether or not to pay the “admission”. So, look at the appearance of your personnel with as critical an eye as you would the interior and exterior features of your store.
Uniforms which include a truck accessory theme reinforce that you sell and install truck accessories. Most manufacturers have an assortment of exciting brand specific clothing items. On the other hand, you can create your own uniform by applying brand name patches to an attractive stock uniform.
Related Items Merchandising
Of course, truck accessories are not the only items you should sell. All your customers can readily be exposed to a range of impulse or add-on purchase products. The idea is to capitalize on the convenience offered to consumers and encourage them to make an unplanned purchase while they are waiting for their vehicle to be serviced.
For example, consider carrying a limited selection of car care products that are easy to use. Select a major popular brand that offers a complete product selection and has exciting merchandising displays. Car care products continue to be a growth category and need no introduction to consumers.
It’s clear that the horizon is bright with new sales and profit opportunities at hand. Tire store owners have already paid the price and established themselves as the providers of quality products and services. All that remains is the commitment to expand your market with truck accessories and communicate to the truck-owning public that you sell and install what they already want. Surely, selling tires is not all there is!
Stephen J. Alexander is an aftermarket consultant, speaker, and author. To learn more about making your tire store a powerful selling platform and other in-store merchandising and marketing issues, contact Stephen Alexander, Automotive In-Store Marketing at 239-395-9203 or e-mail him at salexander@autoinstore.com.
COPYRIGHT NOTICE:"Reprinted with permission from Tire Retailing Today, Spring, 1997, page 1. Copyright by TDSI. TDSI retains all rights to this material." To subscribe to Tire Retailing Today, call 1-800-876-8372.
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