Document 6B1DbevNBGNOq4oQMeVzNnBDR

CAST YOUR VOTE NOW FOR THE . . . NAPA/NIASE MECHANIC OF THE YEAR ITODULDBEYOU! NIASE Mechankof ttieYeac <S> ASK US fOR DETAILS 5Su This poster and other promotional materials available through your NAPA Distribution Center. To provide recognition for me chanics who are certified by the National Institute for Automotive Service Excellence (NIASE), a new, 1982"NAPA/NIASEMechanic of the Year" program has been introduced. Created by the NAPA Engine and Chassis Parts sales groups, the program has been developed with the enthusiastic support of NIASE. Nominations for the 1982 "NAPA/NIASE Mechanic of the Year" are to be made by NAPA Jobbers across the country. The nomination form, available through your NAPA Distribution Center, is a simple, ten-item questionnaire covering areas such as NIASE cer tification (nominees must be NIASE-certified in at least one area), business practices and civic involvement. There is no fee for entering and you may nominate as many mechanics as you like. The nomination period, which began May 1st, ends on August 1, 1982. A panel of dealer trade mag azine editors will select the "NAPAI NIASE Mechanic of the Year." Judging will be based on mechan ic expertise as evidenced by NIASE certification, as well as demonstrated good business prac tices and personal character. The recipient of the 1982 "NAPA/ NIASE Mechanic of the Year" award will be hosted at the 1982 NAPA National Business Con ference in Toronto this September. There the winner will receive the award along with his or her choice of $500 worth of NAPA hand tools. Give your good, NIASE-certified dealer customers the kind of re cognition they deserve by nomi nating them for the "NAPA/NIASE Mechanic of the Year" award. For more information on this exciting event, contact your NAPA Distribu tion Center. (continued from page 11) had real good luck with the more aggressive stations like Marathon, Standard and Texaco. All of them like to hang the signs out, espec ially since it's tied to the national television ads." Tom Vester, a customer of San ders Automotive who owns a Mara thon station, reflects this train of thought. When asked if he felt the local advertising and P.O.P. mater ials were doing him any good, he reacted positively. "Oh yes, defin itely. Anything people see on tele vision, they want to be a part of. A couple of people have come in and asked about it, because they no ticed the signs. So I think it's great; it's not costing me anything, and it's increased my business." As mentioned earlier, one of Howard Dayringer's goals was to tie his dealers into M&H's local Spring Car Care Days advertising. "But we found that most dealers in this area have never done any ad vertising, and therefore were a lit tle reticent to spend money on it. "Now since 1973, M&H has sort of, as a rule of thumb, allocated 1% of gross sales to advertising. This way, I figured that if the adver tising produced in terms of in- 14 SPR NG SUCCESS STORIES creased sales, our advertising bud get would automatically become larger. And this has, in fact, hap pened throughout the years. "So I explained to our dealer customers that M&H has an adver tising budget and that we were already committed to about 100 radio spots for the month of April. In other words, we're going to advertise anyway, so why not take advantage of it? About 20 or 25 dealers agreed to participate in our local radio advertising. On one day, our Spring Car Care Days radio spot would list two or three dealers, the next day, two or three others, and so on. This way, each of the participating dealers ends up with several spots spread throughout the month. "And it's worked out quite well. It was our chance to show them that this is a service we can pro vide. Sure, these dealers can buy from other local people. But these other local people can't really do much else for them other than sup ply a part. We could carry it through and do some advertising for them. It was a chance to show these dealers that with M&H and NAPA, they're on a winning team. "We're also using the Spring Car Care Days program as an entree to new customers, as we just opened a branch store about seven months ago. It's our first real con crete association with those cus tomers. So we're basically using it to say to them, `This is an example of what the NAPA Store, our organ ization, can do for you.' " "As far as the entire 1982 pro gram goes," Howard continues, "I feel it's very timely and very well received. I think that, in today's economy, maybe the average deal er's business is good, but he keeps hearing all this talk and all these reports that things really aren't too good, or that they're getting worse. So he's much more receptive to hearing that we're going to direct him some business; we're going to advertise for him. "We've at least, in hard times, tried to help him . . . and I think we'll be appreciated over the long run for doing so."