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Letter to the Editor

Making Your Mark

Yellow Page advertising is dropping as shops find more cost-effective ways to spend marketing dollars

Twenty years ago, the vast majority of collision repair shops were spending all or a substantial part of their marketing budgets - not that "marketing" or "budget" were terms they used much - on phone directory (Yellow Page) advertising.

Though it might not have been cheap, it was less expensive than many other forms of traditional advertising. More importantly, it was easy; it wasn’t entirely ineffective; and for a shop owner flipping through the phone book, it seemed like the thing that "everyone does."

To gauge the change in reliance on phone directory advertising by collision repair shops, INSIGHT reviewed the last 10 years of directories for one U.S. market: Portland, Oregon. In terms of population, Portland is right in the middle of the Top 50 markets.

From 1990 to 2001, the total number of display advertising pages in the "Automobile Body Repair & Painting" category has fallen 44 percent. Compare this to the "Automobile Repair & Service" category, which has held steady over the same period. Ironically, the 44 percent decrease came during a decade in which the Portland area added 400,000 people (a 26 percent increase), and experienced the largest increase in automobile use per capita of any U.S. urban area with more than one million people.

"I switched to a small in-column ad with our logo seven or eight years ago because the vast majority of our work comes from referrals, not Yellow Page shoppers," one Portland shop owner said. "That frees up several hundred dollars a month I can use for other marketing. Look up ‘advertising agency’ in the Yellow Pages; there are usually no display ads. Those folks are the experts supposedly, and they’ve figured out that for a lot of industries - including ours - Yellow Page advertising isn’t cost-effective."

We asked shops in Portland and elsewhere throughout the country to share effective - and it turns out, often inexpensive - ways they make the most of their marketing budgets. Here are more than a dozen of the ideas we heard.

Academic Advertising

1. High school sports attract a decent percentage of the population in many smaller communities. One shop has its name imprinted on mini-basketballs or footballs that are tossed into the stands during breaks in the games.
2. Another shop funds an annual college scholarship to a graduating student at the local high school. The scholarship is announced in front of hundreds of people at each year’s graduation ceremony, and information about it is included in school materials and the local newspaper.
3. Still another way to use involvement with the schools as a marketing technique: One shop donates bikes and helmets, complete with the shop name and logo, to a nearby elementary school each year. Every quarter that a student has perfect attendance, his or her name is entered into the drawing for the bikes. It’s something that’s talked about all year, the shop owner said, and has also resulted in numerous field trips by classes to the shop.

   Community and Referral Activity

4. Think you can’t afford a manager to run your shop? One Midwest shop owner said that he could directly attribute at least $85,000 in business his shop gained last year because of his involvement in two civic groups. "I couldn’t be that involved if I didn’t have a manager, and that involvement generates a lot of the revenue to pay for that manager," the shop owner said.
5. A number of shops talked about finding several others around town who were willing to combine their marketing budgets in order to hire a full- or part-time marketing representative. The rep works several days each month for each shop, calling on insurance agents (and other sources of referrals) in that shop’s area.
6. "I don’t know anyone who likes to play golf more than insurance agents," said Bill Wincoupe, owner of Auto Rehab in Rockford, Ill. Wincoupe works with his vendors to put together an annual golf tournament for the agents he hopes will refer work to his shop. Vendors are generally happy to donate prizes and sponsor holes. Some shops even generate more publicity by making the event a fund-raiser for a local charity.

   Wise Use of Air Waves

7. Radio advertising, particularly in larger markets, can be expensive. But sponsoring traffic reports can be a cost-effective way to get your shop name on the air during those important "drive times." Many stations also have vans they use for remote broadcasts and to take to community events they help sponsor. One shop paints these vans at a discounted rate in exchange for its shop name and logo included on the back.
8. And if you are buying a slate of ads with a radio station, ask them to throw in some ‘remnant space’ for free. Remnant space is advertising air time that the station hasn’t been able to sell. It’s often at less than peak listening times, but it can’t hurt. One shop owner said that when he buys ten radio spots at regular price to run on a Tuesday, he asks for (and generally gets) an equal number of remnant spots to run at the station’s choice of time during the following Wednesday, Thursday or Friday.
9. Most shops report little success with television advertising, given its expense. But an Indiana shop regularly sponsors late night movies on a cable TV station. The movies don’t have huge audiences, but the ad rates are reasonable, and the consistency of doing it over time has generated a good return in terms of sales.

   Give-Aways that Give in Return

10. Stadium and arena advertising can be an effective way to keep your shop name in front of fans. But you can also buy relatively inexpensive insurance policies that allow you to sponsor "hole-in-one" or "half-court shot" promotions at local sporting events (professional or otherwise). The policies pick up the cost of the prize you offer (frequently a car or large cash prize) if someone actually wins.
11. Work with a local charity to repair a vehicle for a needy family. Let local TV and radio stations know about your good deed and you’ll likely get some free positive publicity.
12. Most local public broadcasting television stations hold "pledge breaks" - brief segments between shows in which they ask viewers to call in donations. The stations need volunteers to answer the phones in the studio during these fund drives. Businesses that volunteer are generally recognized several times during the breaks. Get a group of your employees or supporters (you may need a total of only ten or twenty people) to volunteer at the station for an evening. If you all wear shirts with your company name and logo, you’ll get even more free publicity.
13. A group of shops in California skip the expense of sending out Christmas or holiday greeting cards and instead send out a simple postcard explaining that they’ve instead made a donation to a particular charity or nonprofit organization.

    Billboarding That’s Not Boring

14. Don’t let your billboard message be "flat." Bob Goff, who owns two shops in a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, credits some of his growth to his commitment to a billboard campaign he started more than a dozen years ago. Goff cut a totaled vehicle in two and attached the front to the billboard, making it look as if the vehicle was driving straight through (or out of) the sign. He added a mannequin next to the vehicle for more 3-D effect, and a simple message about his shop.

    Some time later, vandals shot some arrows into the mannequin. Goff said they weren’t all that visible from the street, so he was surprised when a lot of people started to comment on them. That’s when he realized just how much careful attention the billboard was getting from potential customers.

    He left the arrows in for a while, then started regularly changing the clothes on the mannequin. At Easter, it’s dressed up like the Easter Bunny. In June, it’s a bride. When the Dick Tracy movie was popular, he put a trench coat and hat on the mannequin. The local Girl Scout office called him and persuaded him to use the billboard to promote their annual cookie sale. In hunting season, he includes a deer (which at Christmas returns as Rudolph). A "crossing guard" on the billboard in September reminds drivers, "School is in session. Drive with discretion."

    But Goff said the attention the billboard receives from passers-by is just the beginning of its marketing power. The novelty of the ever-changing billboard has resulted in photos and articles about it in numerous local newspapers and magazines.

    "You can’t buy space on the front page of your town’s newspaper, but a big photo of my billboard has run there," Goff said.

    Raffles and Drawings

15. Team up with a mechanical shop to buy and build a kit car or to restore a classic car. Then raffle it off for a local charity that can help you promote the raffle, including showing it at local events, etc. One shop that restored a 1965 Mustang for the Red Cross said a local television reporter did a short update on the restoration process every week at the shop for 10 weeks. The car you give away also does not have to be valuable if you can develop a clever tie-in to a local event or worthwhile cause. One summer, a shop in Indianapolis, home of the Indiana Pacers, painted and held a drawing for an AMC Pacer. It wasn’t exactly a car everyone wanted, but the unique promotion generated a lot of media coverage, the shop reported.

    Make Insurance Agents Look Good

16. With Internet and direct sales of insurance growing, many agents are anxious to convince their policyholders of the value they offer. That’s why one shop says that rather than bringing doughnuts or candy to the agents, he spends money convincing his customers they received special treatment because of their agents.

    That may mean a personal phone call from the shop owner, priority use of the shop’s loaner cars, and a follow-up letter that their agents really made sure things went smoothly. The shop has even filled gas tanks for customers, leaving a note saying it was done compliments of the agent. Money they were spending on agents is now going toward improving the customers’ experiences, yet it is still rewarding agents for their referrals as well.

According to INSIGHT’s September 2001 TrendLine, (See chart.) collision repair facilities still tend to be conservative and cautious in their marketing, with only about two percent of their overall budget designated for advertising. Overall, only insurance referral promotions and billboards appear to be getting more advertising dollars from shops. While the latest TrendLine actually indicates an increase in the number of shops using Yellow Pages advertising, follow-up telephone interviews with shop owners reveal a marked decrease in size of ads.

Almost one-fourth of responding shops now have a fulltime marketing person on board, up from 14 percent in 1999. It may very well be that the old-fashioned personal touch is still be the best marketing tool.   o

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