Document Vj3MoGDw0YX7YOJOgkvpGn6nZ

Local Ad Council "Doing business without advertising is like winkingatagirlinthedark. Youknowwhat you are doing, but nobody else does" (anony mous). In today's highlycompetitivemarket place that quote has never been more true. Moreand moreNAPA AUTOPARTSstore ownersand managers are recognizingthe im portance ofadvertisingand are lettingother people "see them winkat thegirV'And, asad vertisingincreases as an important business tool, many NAPA A UTOPARTSstores and Distribution Centersareparticipatingin local adcouncils to help themget the mostfor their advertising dollars. By pooling their resources together, these jobbers andDC. 's arefindingthat the money they spend on advertising is providing them with more positive results than if they were advertising on their own. Outlook recently talked to two NAPA AUTO PARTS store owners who are members ofa local ad coun cil. More advertisingfor the dollar, better ex posurein theirmarketareaandinoeasedsales arejustsomeofthe benefits thesejobbers have seen as a result of their local ad councils' efforts. Joe Tbibaut NAPA AUTO PARTS/ Fallon Auto Parts, Inc. Fallon, NV Serviced by NAPA Sacramento The Sacramento local ad council was started in 1986 and has 12 members who own 29 NAPA AUTOPARTS stores. In ad dition to the 12 members and the stores they represent, another 60 NAPA AUTO PARTS stores serviced by the Sacramento Distribution Center support and contribute to our local ad council. Funds to purchase our advertising come from co-op reimbursement monies each participating jobber receives as a partici pant in the NAPA National Advertising 10 Program. So, instead of taking our co-op dollars and planning our own individual lo cal advertising campaigns, we pool our funds. The funds are used to purchase tele vision and newspaper advertising in three major market areas -- Sacramento and Redding, CA and Reno, NV. These areas could best be described as a combination of urban, rural and farm markets. In other words, there's a broad consumer base we have to cover in our advertising. Early in our council's existence we made the decision to direct our advertising efforts to the retail segment of our market. The reasons for this were twofold. First, we looked at what our competition was doing and noticed that they were adver tising to retailers. Thus, in order to remain competitive in our marketplaces, we knew ' we were going to have to capture a share of the retail market. The council thought our NAPA AUTO PARTS stores could really make an inroad in this market because we had the ability to offer a wider range of retail-oriented products at very competitive prices. The second reason for directing our ad vertising efforts to the retail marketwas to increase the in-store traffic of our NAPA AUTO PARTS stores. We believed NAPA already had a positive image in the con sumers' minds, but now we wanted to make a big impact with price/product adver tising. Through trial and error we found that television and newspaper are the best me dium for us to advertise in. That's because in some of our market areas, such as Reno and Redding, television spots work better -- they reach more consumers -- and they are more economical in these areas than other forms of advertising. In other areas, such as Sacramento, newspaper ads have a greater impact and are a more costeffective method of advertising. The council meets once a month to dis cuss advertising efforts and to plan promo tions. We try to plan our promotions at least eight weeks in advance because that's the minimum amount of time the Sacramento D.C. needs to order, receive and supply the stores with an adequate inventory of the items that will be featured in the promotion. At our meetings we decide what items will be featured in the promotion and how much money we have to operate with. While the council makes all of these de cisions, it does employ an advertising agen cy to do the actual creative work and deter mine the media buys and placement. How ever, the agency does not do anything with out the consent of the majority of the council. Our promotions usually feature one "big ticket" item and 10 or 11 related items. Every promotion features oil, oil filters and batteries. That's because we've found these Members of the Sacramento local ad co Manager for NAPA Sacramento; Bart . Supply, Inc; Greg Boeble, NAPA AUTO NAPA AUTO PARTS/Debco Automo .PARTS/Canyon Motor Parts; Mable and Automotive; Joe Tbibaut, NAPA AUTO ran, Curran, Hitomi Advertising and Sacramento. three items are always demanded by retail ers. Prices for the featured items are deter mined based on what the competition is of fering, what will make us competitive in our marketplaces and still let everyone make a profit and how much support we can get from the D.C. and manufacturers. As an example, this past May the coun cil implemented a "May Madness" sale for the first two weeks of the month. The big ticket item in the promotion was a reman ufactured 350 cubic inch Chevrolet engine, complete with a 24 month limited warran ty, for $799. Other items featured in this promotion were NAPA Oil for 19<t/quart (after rebate), oil filters for $2.49 after manufacturer's rebate and numerous car cleaning products. Advertising for this promotion started on April 28 and lasted for 10 days. A television ad that highlighted the specially priced en gine ran over a four day block during that 10 day time frame and a newspaper ad,