Last month I started an examination of marketing in the aftermarket by explaining "zero-based marketing." Briefly, it is the practice of starting from a "zero base" and analyzing marketing programs for future relevance in terms of their potential contribution toward a measurable goal. Budgets for zero-based marketing are built around what will be required for the upcoming period, regardless of allocations in previous periods.
The catalyst for that examination was the observation that evolving market drivers, such as business technology, vehicle technology and exponential parts proliferation should be pushing us to radically rethink how we market our products. I see the majority of aftermarket marketing efforts not keeping up with these new drivers.
What has begun to surface from this catalyst is a clearer definition for a concept I call Next Generation Marketing (NGM). This concept — NGM — is different from more traditional marketing in that it focuses on sales and marketing activities that are zero-based, customer-centric, technology enabled, collaboratively applied and fact based.
"Traditional" aftermarket marketing is frequently misdirected and out of tune with large expanses of today's business landscape. It is typically too focused on issues or activities within the distribution channel (supplier-reseller) and pays too little attention to customers' needs. Regular readers of this column know that I define "customers" as people who throw away the box. For most replacement parts sellers, the customer is the repair shop.
This focus within the supplier-reseller channel is why I say conventional marketing is misdirected. Rather than presenting a well-targeted value proposition from the customer perspective, it often attempts to elicit behavior from the customer based on a seller-centric value proposition.
There is an old joke about the guy whose doctor tells him he has both good news and bad news to share with him. The bad news is the patient has a terminal disease and has only weeks to live. Devastated, the patient asks what the good news is, and the doctor tells him that he, the doctor, has an attractive new girlfriend that is years younger. I'm often reminded of that joke when I see much of the marketing for aftermarket companies; it's full of good news for the supplier or reseller, and offers the installer little benefit. Too often programs revolve around onerous requirements for the installer, such as purchasing a large assortment or requiring the purchase of multiple lines to gain advantage. Such programs serve the needs of the channel and not the installer.
Why do such programs continue to be offered by both suppliers and resellers? Part of the answer is a reliance on erroneous assumptions and opinions. Too often, marketing people perpetuate the problem by approaching these tasks with a "how we have always done it" attitude, exacerbated by too much focus on the purchasing behavior of channel partners (WDs & retailers) and not on the customers (DIY & installers).
Resellers make brand decisions based on what sort of "deal" they can leverage (price, terms, rebates, etc.). Customers make brand choices based on product benefits, their perception of value, the elimination of comebacks and their experience or the word-of-mouth regarding the brand. NGM makes marketing decisions through the customers' eyes and based on facts.
Next time, we'll examine fact-based decision making.
