Whether revealed in the form of manifest destiny, the rite of passage associated with becoming a new driver or the long list of movies celebrating rebel wanderers, Americans have always abided a love affair with the road. For as long as the road intimates freedom, neither industry struggle nor national economy will deter the majority of American consumers from becoming car owners. 2006 was a case in point:
even while domestic car sales were down, the year’s best-performing month reported 1.53 million vehicles sold in the United States alone, according to www.msnbc.com.
Regardless of what form they take in the future, cars and drivers aren’t going anywhere--which is why distributors and manufacturers can still rely on automotive products for profit. Gordon Klepec, director of sales at Wright Business Graphics, Portland, Ore., attributes a large part of Wright’s business to automotive forms. Wright didn’t set out to produce them specifically, he said, but to service bigger industries promising growth. “Since we are a trade-only manufacturer, it is our distributor partners [who] decide which markets to actively sell into. We just happen to have the right equipment to satisfy the automotive industry’s needs when it comes to printed product[s].”
Klepec said sales performance always affects the companies providing services to an industry, but Wright specifically “saw some areas of [the auto industry’s] usage decline, and were able to offer ... distributors other avenues of print to sell to the automotive dealerships.”
Forms aside, distributors can veer toward providing products like parking permits, decorative body and windshield decals or striping adhesives. (Wright even prints millions of traffic citations every year.) Vehicle wraps, vinyl advertising of all shapes and sizes and outdoor advertising in general offer sales opportunities, as well. Dixie Seal & Stamp Company in Tucker, Ga., for example, generates novelty license plates.
With millions of cars sold annually, outdoor advertising revenue and brand exposure is increasing along with the amount of time American drivers sit in traffic. A 2003 study by Arbitron titled “National In-Car Study” reported that Americans spend a weekly average of 15 hours in their cars.
“I would say that increased traffic certainly gives our product additional marketing [or] advertising value,” said Curtis Schmidt, vice president of marketing for Dixie Seal & Stamp. “The automobile license plate is a small billboard for ... your vehicle. The longer you sit in traffic, the more likely you will be staring at someone else’s bumper, which might have a promotional message bolted to it.”
Dixie Seal & Stamp began in 1897 as a rubber stamp and seal manufacturer, embosser and engraver. During the 1950s, it produced promotional novelty bicycle plates for companies like Kellogg’s and Lay’s. The company began producing standard-size, novelty license plates in the 1960s, when the Atlanta Chamber of Commerce commissioned the creation of plates celebrating the milestone of the city’s millionth resident. Since that request, Dixie Seal & Stamp has manufactured plates for a variety of companies, including car dealerships, Walt Disney World and Disneyland.
The ride to automotive sales isn’t always smooth, however. Just as notorious as America’s fascination with the open road is the auto industry’s infamous tendency to haggle. “Selling to auto dealers is a tough, very price-conscious market,” Schmidt admitted. He suggested combating price obstacles by readying sales forces with the best prices possible before negotiation.
Competition from overseas suppliers offers another bump in the road, which Schmidt sees as best battled with superior customer care. “If product quality is the same,” he asserted, “and price is close enough to being the same, [then] it comes down to servicing the customer.”
“Two words: program sales,” Klepec advised fellow distributors. “Any distributor can go into an automotive dealership and suggest ways to assist [its] salespeople with the printed material to draw customers into [its] lot, sign them up for a purchase and extended warranty service [and offer them] one-to-one marketing ... in areas such as maintenance, warranty, accessories and future purchases. That is a no-lose scenario for both the distributor and automotive dealership owner.”
Once a car deal is complete, Klepec noted, a dealership and its partners have all of the direct marketing information necessary. They have their customers’ date of birth, as well as the birth dates of their customers’ family members, and as a result, also the ages of the next driving generation. All purchasing information can be used to initiate a personalized direct mail campaign.
As for the evolution of online business versus printed products, Klepec hasn’t witnessed much adversity in the automotive segment. “If online shopping is done correctly from a print manufacturer’s point of view,” he said, “all of the hits on the website are linked to one-to-one marketing pieces that get sent to the customer in the mail ... [which is] information that the dealership already has. Therefore, the business forms printed product show[s] a slight decline, but the commercially printed marketing pieces are growing and growing. Those marketing pieces then feed our print and mail division.”
The auto industry itself might be fraught with even more change than printing. Some might argue about optimal fuel resources, but the good news for distributors and manufacturers is, the individuality and freedom associated with cars continue to charm drivers.
As Klepec commented, “Everyone likes to see their name on the license plate of their ultimate dream car. Through current technology, it is possible to give them that dream car in their mailbox every month--until it eventually ends up in their garage.”
- Companies:
- Wright Business Graphics