Document DMnD960bOq4qEKrKoR0yKJ1Zo

A NATURAL TIE-IN FREEWHEELIN' WITH NAPA If you take a close look at any successful sales-generating pro motion, chances are you'll find it incorporates the following recom mended elements: A strong theme into which every facet of the promotion can be tied. Whether students, women, senior citizens or male parts buyers in general, a promotion should target a specified au dience. To keep interest and enthusi asm at a peak, employee incentives enhance any pro motion. Advertising is a must; making the audience aware of a pro motion is obviously essential to the promotion's success. A careful plan ensures the pro motion will run smoothly from beginning to end, with ade quate lead time for advertising and publicity activities. Every promotion must have an established purpose; other wise, you have no means of gauging whether or not it was successful. Following such a formula for success, the NAPA Louisville Dis tribution Center and 26 of the NAPA Jobbers it serves have created an enormously successful promotion using a popular new form of entertainment: Malibu Grand Prix racing. The Louisville area is the home of one of 33 Malibu Grand Prix tracks located across the country. Open to the public, these race tracks are growing in popularity as a fun form of motor sport. For $1.50 a lap, "would-be" race car drivers can put their real talents -- and their dreams -- to the test. Recognizing the huge potential of incorporating this form of enter tainment into a promotion -- after all, it's a sport that naturally ap peals to car buffs (i.e., potential and current parts and accessory buyers) -- representatives from the NAPA Louisville Distribution Center made contact with the local The NAPA race car put on a lot of mileage; track officials report NAPA's coupon redemp tion rate was more than double the national average for similar promotions. Malibu Grand Prix officials to see what could be arranged. Following several meetings and planning sessions, the "NAPA Freewheelin' Days at Malibu Grand Prix" promotion was born. A contract was drawn up providing one NAPA-designated race car and one NAPA advertising billboard at the track for one full year. During this time period 26 NAPA Jobbers agreed to run three separate pro motions: the first in the fall of 1981 (September through October), and one each in the spring and summer of 1982. The intent of each of these promotions would be to: 1). build awareness of and identify the 26 participating stores; 2). increase new customer walk-in traffic to, in turn; 3). enable the participating NAPA Jobbers to sell more parts and accessories. Each promotion was planned around the distribution of coupons, each worth two free laps upon redemption at the Malibu Grand Prix track (compared to the regular price of $1.50 per lap). Each of the participating NAPA Parts Stores received an initial supply of 200 coupons at the start of the fall promotion to be given away with purchases of designated products. A "free laps to product ratio" was established, with the number of coupons given away with a pur chase proportionate to the price of the item(s). For example, a set of spark plugs or a six-pack of oil is worth one coupon (or two free laps), whereas a battery purchase would yield five coupons (ten free laps). It was felt this arrangement of fered two immediate benefits. First of all, Malibu Grand Prix rac ing is an activity with repeat ap peal; if the customer enjoyed his first experience at the track, chances are he'd return to the store the next time he needed a part or accessory in order to get another free ride at the racecourse. Secondly, by limiting the availabil ity of these coupons to only cer tain products, participating NAPA Jobbers could monitor sales of these items during the. promotion. This would enable them to deter mine for future promotional con sideration which items are most effective toward building store traffic. To identify the promotion to walk-in customers, each par- 8