Automotive Marketing Articles

Marketing topics for the automotive aftermarket

Americans Spend More Income on Auto Parts, Reversing Long-Term Trend

January 23, 2012
Americans Spend More Income on Auto Parts, Reversing Long-Term Trend

A bit of good news to add to our post last month that sales of auto parts for 2011 will show an increase over 2010: Our market research shows the amount of auto parts purchased as a percentage of personal income has reversed a downward trend of more than 10 years. In 2010, retail sales of auto parts represented about half a percent of personal income (0.0513% to be exact). Preliminary numbers for 2011 show the first increase in that percentage in more than 10 years, to levels not seen since 2008. We’re projecting...

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New Automotive Market Research Reports Available for Purchase

December 19, 2011
New Automotive Market Research Reports Available for Purchase

New automotive aftermarket market research reports are now available for purchase online, direct from Hedges & Company’s new Market Research Store. These marketing research reports are based on consumer perceptions and opinion data, gathered after inviting over 100,000 automotive enthusiasts to participate in a market research survey, and include data never-before reported in the automotive aftermarket. These new research reports fall into two categories. BuyerZoom™ research reports are part-specific and analyze how enthusiast consumers shop for specific products including gaskets, camshafts, cylinder heads, carburetors, engine blocks, intake manifolds, valve springs, valves, rocker arms, pistons,...

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Hedges & Company on RSS Ray: Email Marketing Best Practices

February 22, 2011

Hedges & Company was featured on RSS Ray’s radio show February 9, covering email marketing and email best practices. The landing page on RSS Ray’s site is here and a link to the podcast is available on that page. Topics covered on the RSS Ray show included: Managed email marketing vs. self-serve email marketing: Hedges & Company manages email marketing and customer segmentation for clients, there is no software to buy, no training, no additional employees to hire and no learning curve. Hedges & Company also manages customer databases and is able to provide...

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Turn/Earn Calculation and GMROI to Manage Inventory

October 15, 2010
Turn/Earn Calculation and GMROI to Manage Inventory

The Turn/Earn Index and Gross Margin Return on Inventory (GMROI) are two simple ways to help manage your inventory. Turn and Earn to manage inventory Your purchasing manager or accountant may want to justify a SKU (stock keeping unit) with the Turn/Earn Index. Also known as the Turn/Earn calculation or Turn/Earn formula, or simply as Turn and Earn, it’s a simple way to help manage inventory by evaluating your entire inventory or a part number to see if it is worth stocking or selling. To calculate the Turn/Earn index for your inventory, simply multiply...

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Stages of Growth in a Company and ‘Growing Pains’

October 15, 2010
Stages of Growth in a Company and ‘Growing Pains’

As a business grows, it goes through major, distinct phases of growth. These phases have unique characteristics and challenges and require some strategic planning. Recognizing these characteristics (even better, preparing for them) will help you manage your business through these challenges, or “growing pains.” Stage One: $1 million (manufacturer) or $2 million (distributor) The first stage typically hits when your business reaches around $1 million in sales for a manufacturer, or $2 million in sales for distribution. Your business is building momentum, but you’re overworked and need additional help. You’ve been adding employees and...

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How A Price Increase/Decrease Affects Gross Profit vs. Unit Sales

October 15, 2010
How A Price Increase/Decrease Affects Gross Profit vs. Unit Sales

If you want to increase gross margin with a price increase, you should know how gross profit is calculated and assuming a drop in unit sales, how many unit sales are needed to maintain the same gross profit. On the other hand if you’re considering a sale you should know how many additional unit sales are needed to maintain the same gross profit. You need to know how total unit sales can drop (for a price increase) or need to increase (for a price decrease) for gross profit dollars to remain the same. The...

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Rule of Three Marketing: Market Share and Market Dynamics

October 15, 2010
Rule of Three Marketing: Market Share and Market Dynamics

Why do some companies thrive and dominate their market, only to later become an afterthought in history? Most industries and market segments, including the specialty aftermarket industry, will have market share dominated by three competing companies. This article will take that a step further and show how companies can plan a market share strategy that will help ensure profits in the coming years. Rule of Three reviewed To revisit an October 2003 article we wrote for SEMA News, market share is the result of a complex combination of market dynamics, strategy, products and consumer...

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Using the Pareto 80/20 Principle to Analyze your Business and Increase Profits

October 15, 2010
Using the Pareto 80/20 Principle to Analyze your Business and Increase Profits

You’ve undoubtedly heard about Pareto’s Law or the 80/20 principle, although most people only understand 20% of it, 80% of the time. This simple, century-old principle can be used to increase your sales, profits and overall marketing, and is easy to use. Let’s look at how the 80/20 principle can be used to streamline your business, reduce your costs, and increase your profits. First, a quick history lesson: Vilfredo Pareto was an Italian economist and sociologist born in 1848. HIs big discovery, “Pareto’s Law,” claimed in 1897 that basically in any society, 20% of...

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When Is The Best Time To Send An Email Campaign?

October 11, 2010
When Is The Best Time To Send An Email Campaign?

Rising above the clutter and noise in the inbox is your goal. First impressions are critical in email marketing and although the subject line grabs attention, when does it grab attention? If your email is sent at the wrong  time, your message may be buried by emails received after your email. Your prospect may start with the newest emails first, ignoring older emails further down the queue. Here are some examples of what we’ve observed in our email marketing, but all audiences are different and you need to design tests on your customer list...

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Ideas For The Best Email Marketing Subject Lines

September 3, 2010

Email marketing best practices call for analysis of subject lines which have a huge influence on the open rate. An appropriate subject line also influences the click-through rate. Why is this so important? Let’s say in a year you send 100,000 emails. Improving your open rate from 15% to the industry average of just over 19% means over a year’s time your messages are seen by 4,000 more sets of eyeballs. Clearly the entire email message is important, but the first few words of the subject line, the overall approach and the call to...

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What Should You Budget for Online Marketing?

September 3, 2010

Bryan Robb posted some interesting automotive marketing information over at Digital Throttle. He points out three compelling facts why he feels you should allocate at least 35% of your automotive marketing budget to online advertising. 1). The average consumer in the United States spends 12 hours per week on the Internet compared to three hours reading magazines. 2). 40% of consumer’s media time is spent using the Internet. 3). Consumers aren’t thinking in terms of “offline or online” any longer. Visiting an automotive enthusiast website is an extension of their hobby and lifestyle, like...

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Hedges & Company Principals To Speak at SEMA Show

September 1, 2010

Tuesday, November 2 at 11:00 am, Julie Hedges, President of Hedges & Company, will speak about the SEMA Financial Benchmarking program in room N259 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. How does your business compare? The SEMA Financial Benchmarking Program was developed in order to provide SEMA members with financial benchmarks they could use to help measure and compare their business operations with others in the industry. Industry-specific key performance indicators are reported that can then be used by participants to improve or grow their businesses. The program provides business owners and managers information,...

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A Checklist If You’re Thinking of Selling Online

August 30, 2010

A friend of ours, Rob Eberhart, posted a good checklist to follow if you’re considering selling automotive performance parts and accessories online. Rob’s an expert on selling auto parts online and works at Direct Communications, Inc. (DCi), and his blog is over on the CatalogRack eStore site, found here. His checklist is good advice for anyone starting out. His six most important things to check off: 1). First, decide how you’ll sell online: turnkey website, through shopping sites like eBay, or build your own site from scratch (very expensive!). 2). Don’t forget the data!...

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