Big opportunities, mature conversations, wonderful long-term established industry relationships, and great to see so many friends and associates in the industry. This AAPEX 2024 was all about quality over quantity, at least for the Sound Press team.
Here’s a quick summary on how conversations went with Manufacturers (USA and INTL), Distributors, Groups, and Professional Service providers.
Manufacturers
USA Manufacturers in the automotive aftermarket were all asking about improving their catalog, and deploying that catalog. ACES/PIES is really not an option any more. Manufacturers need to make sure they have this data. Improving a manufacturer’s catalog on a public website is one side, having ACES/PIES data into various B2B and B2C ecommerce portals is another side of the need. B2C becomes a little more complicated based on where data is coming from and potential subsequent licensing.
International Manufacturers
International Manufacturers in the automotive aftermarket were really wanting to pursue getting into the master catalog providers. And no surprise, they need to be in ACES/PIES format. We talked about various conversion options into ACES and PIES from standards such as TecDoc. There are providers out there that do that. Some have better results than others though. We also had several marketing conversations about the pathways for growth, both through distribution and in brand marketing. Knowing where and how to market some of the high-quality international brands we talked to was a key strategy point of conversations. International Manufacturers definitely want to grow in the USA market, and having good distribution partners and good ACES/PIES data are the two biggest keys to success.
Distributors
We work with so many distributors, and it was so great to see many of them in person at AAPEX. In our realm of work in digital marketing, we don’t usually do a lot of on site visits, some yes, but the tradeshows are the best place to see each other in person. Distributors aren’t having an easy time. There is so much consolidation and M&A going on in the industry. Margins are still so thin. Competition is tough. There are a lot of players, and customers are all shopping around. Knowing this, we’ve got to not just make it about Price. It’s got to be about Value.
I might not have this quote perfect, but If you win on price, you can lose on price. We talked about getting the value propositions out there in marketing. These topics of value include:
- Service and Support
- Inventory
- Parts Knowledge
- Counterperson Expertise
- Public Websites, public marketing
- B2B marketing
- Speed of Delivery
- And yes, good pricing.
Groups
All the groups we spoke to are trying hard to deliver value and benefit to their members. Buying power is one thing, but the support and business growth is the larger play. Improving catalogs, B2B ecommerce, marketing support, and communication were key points. We do a fair amount of professional development in webinars and presentations on B2C, B2B, and marketing in the automotive aftermarket with buying groups. There are pathways to success that groups can achieve as a whole, but it also comes down to individual distributors growing their businesses.
Professional Services Providers
Sound Press is one of these with our 20+ years of automotive marketing expertise. Working with Distributors, Manufacturers, Heavy Duty, and E-tail/E-Commerce, we know the landscape and how this all works together. Software providers in B2B e-commerce were eager to improve value for their users with improved catalog lookups, kits, speed of software, data improvements, features and benefits to keep users in the platform and increase sales. WHI / Nexpart is a great partner for this. We’ve been working with them for about 20 years. We talked to a lot of other folks in the software space; fleet management, shop management systems, ERPs, WMS providers, catalog folks, data folks, various integrations we can leverage in our B2B and B2C work. The fields are getting a little crowded with service providers, but there are still great companies in those spaces offering good value for service. A reminder to not rest on your laurels and keep delivering innovation and value to your customers.
We are thankful to have an established body of successful work in many areas of automotive marketing; it has made it a lot easier to have conversations about helping manufacturers and distributors when we can show work examples. We’ve already had some great follow-up from AAPEX 2024 and we hope our industry fellows do as well.
Adam Smith, President and Founder
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