Incorporating motorsports into your shop's business plan

And shop owner Jeff Lasecke says that's a big draw bringing customers into his bays for work.

"The Brad Penn racing oil, that's got a pretty good name out there, especially locally," Lasecke explains. "Just a banner on the outside brings in a lot of customers. That's why we've ordered some more signage for the outside because it does seem that people do recognize those names and stuff like that."

With NASCAR season getting underway last month and other national and regional racing circuits starting their seasons, motorsports is a timely aspect to consider incorporating into your marketing plans. Sometimes things as simple as putting signage up will spur your customers' interest. Lasecke says some customers request parts because of their brand recognition from exposure on racecars.

But many in the aftermarket view that as a side benefit of their motorsports programs. Most manufacturers as well as your distributors are targeting you, not your customers.

"Mighty is a business to business; we're not a consumer brand. We're usually not out there promoting our products to the consumers," says Dave Raphael, director of marketing for Mighty Auto Parts. "We basically market to the shops, to the professional technicians at repair shops. So that's really our target."

That means between what your distributors offer you and what you can put out there for your customers, motorsports opens a new avenue for drawing in customers.

Giving it All to You

Just like you are focused on your customers and making sure their vehicles are maintained and repaired right the first time, your distributors are focused on you. And they recognize the impact motorsports has on many of your lives.

Jim Olsen is president of Full Service Auto Parts in San Antonio, Texas, which this year is running a promotion for its shop customers culminating in a drive of a lifetime experience at Texas Motor Speedway.

"A lot of shop owners are car nuts. They're race fans. For them to actually emulate the thing that they watch every Saturday or Sunday on TV, it was a real high. We got a lot of mileage out of it," Olsen says of the program, which was done once before about 10 years ago.

There also is added benefit for the distributors running these promotions, as Full Service Auto Parts is doing its event this year with sponsorships from ACDelco and Motorcraft. The vendors will receive boosts in business from many of Full Service's shops. Olsen says already one of his shop customers told its sales rep that they'd be participating.

"(Mighty's sales rep) was just telling me that one of our large customers, he presented the promotion to them and (the owner) turned around to all his guys and said, 'Guys, between now and August everything we can we're going to try to order in Motorcraft and ACDelco,'" Olsen relates. "He told them right in front of him, and that's the whole intent of this, to drive business with a promotion like this."

Mighty also gets into the motorsports promotion with your distributors by offering you motorsports-themed products like racing cabinets from ACDelco and through promotions of various sizes.

"We have all sort of point of purchase materials from autographed cards to racing calendars to what we call standees, also kind of merchandising materials in their shops. And we're looking at kind of expanding it," Raphael notes. "We do consumer promotions and rebates, and we're looking in the future at tying our sponsorship in with that. We're trying to kind of take it one step at a time. And our relationship with Red Bull (Racing Team) is new this year. So we're kind of getting our feet on the ground."

That Red Bull relationship could reach your shop when Mighty takes the team's street legal racecar around to its customers. Distributors can request the car visit its area shops for promotions, says Raphael.

And no matter what types of parts your distributor provides you, there probably there are vendor promotions you'll see soon. Bosch is one of many other companies pulling their racing affiliations through to the shops, such as through its ICON Wiper Blade Challenge.

FRAM filters utilizes its relationship with Schumacher Racing to showcase its technical background. And Andy Coccari Jr., director of marketing, filtration, says mystery shoppers will be hitting FRAM-installing repair shops and rewarding some technicians with tickets to races.

Another filter company, WIX Filters, is heading into your shops with a new relationship with Joe Gibbs Racing. In addition to the NASCAR affiliation, the company again will present its NASCAR Contingency and WIX Lap Leader awards to draw attention to the brand many of you install.

Pulling it Through

OK, so there's a lot out there for you to take advantage of. But what about making sure you can implement the programs and still benefit your customers? Even if the majority of your customer base comprises women — many, but not all, of whom are in fact race fans — there's a chance you could see some increased traffic with a few signs.

And if not signs, memorabilia works, too.

Frantz Automotive Center in Cary, N.C., has all sorts of NASCAR and racing related items on walls and around the shop. Lisa Frantz, who owns the shop with her husband Don, says he is a huge NASCAR fan and has incorporated that love in the business. The unique shop decorations open a new line of communications with the shop's customers, allowing them to build trusting relationships without promotions.

"People love it. They eat it up. It is a very fun place" says Lisa Frantz. "We're always doing something, changing something. It's interesting. You never tire of your time here. It's a very fun environment, which is what we're really trying to do."

Another way Frantz suggests incorporating motorsports into a business plan without launching into promotions is to simply put the brand of product installed on your customers' invoices.

"If I was a parts manufacturer, I would really want shops that use my parts to put (for example) Raybestos Brakes on the invoice. For a shop to do that would not be any big deal," she explains. "It wouldn't cost us any more money to type in Raybestos than anything else, and that would be a great thing I think for that company. Then they could probably do little incentive things for shops to do that. I think that would be the (biggest) common ground for both parties."

Getting out of your shop and into grassroots racing also is a way to increase your shop's presence, as well as that of the brands you install. Russell McCloud of Accurate Automotive Attention in Yuma, Ariz., says while his shop doesn't really see a lot of customers coming in because of a NASCAR logo on signage or because of brand recognition, previous advertising at a local stock car track has paid off.

"It gets the name out there. Local stock car racing is pretty popular and kind of generates goodwill," McCloud says, adding they helped a couple of guys who worked in the shop with their cars. "People that enjoy the sport know it's important for sponsors to be out there helping the sport be available to them."

They are Listening

Your distributors are creating new opportunities for sales all the time, especially now when the economy is top of mind with nearly every business owner and manager. So from national to local events, they're giving you opportunities.

Olsen, with Full Service Auto Parts, says his distributorship has done local events at the local drag strip near San Antonio.

"For instance, we've rented the local track on a Sunday and we have had any of our customers, they can bring their cars out and it would be just like one of their regular evenings where they have car nuts come out and race each other," he says. "They'll have their starters and their primers and everything and everybody can just bring their vehicle out for a Sunday afternoon and have fun."

Those local promotions are one thing many of your fellow shop owners say they are interested in. Lasecke says the local promotions are even more important now with tighter budgets and less extra money for transportation available to many businesses.

"If we had more in-store promotions that were local, like giveaways or something like that," it would be a benefit, he adds. The odds of winning something like that are of more interest to his customers. "Most times people see they're offering a trip to a race or something like that, most people walking in here know they're not going to win that. But if there was something that we'd have in store and the giveaway was local, I think that would help more than big trips or stuff like that."

But don't get us wrong, the bigger national trips also are well received. McCloud, of Accurate Automotive, says his shop has taken advantage of the larger promotions.

"Sure they're of interest, and I can tell you whenever those are handed out, they're greatly appreciated. It's a nice perk," he states. "If I can't advantage of it, I pass it to other co-workers and they're always very, very appreciative."