AASA launches "Know Your Parts" Campaign

Press release from The Automovie Aftermarket Suppliers Association, dated 10/13/09:
The Automotive Aftermarket Suppliers Association (AASA) recently launched an aftermarket industry education campaign: "Know your Parts". The initiative's goal is to educate all partners in the aftermarket supply chain from supplier to consumer about the importance of using quality, brand name products - and the hazards to the industry and to public safety posed by low cost, low quality parts.

Professional automotive technicians have already played a vital role in galvanizing this education campaign, and will continue to be integral to getting the message to consumers, according to Steve Handschuh, President and COO of AASA. "Technicians are the "front line" in the "Know Your Parts" campaign. We are reaching out to technicians as the main point of contact with consumers - we want to help them communicate effectively with their customers the importance of quality, brand name parts."

The ambitious "Know Your Parts" campaign was initiated by the AASA Marketing Executives Council (MEC). Since its formation in 2006, AASA MEC members have studied a growing trend among various aftermarket channel partners offering lower-cost, often lower-quality parts in an attempt to offer more competitive pricing and improve profit margins.

"The AASA Marketing Executives Council was organized three years ago to address common concerns as marketing professionals working for aftermarket suppliers," explained Jack Cameron, AASA Vice President and Staff Executive for the MEC. "Very early on, we identified a major concern: the proliferation of low-cost, poor quality parts in every level in the aftermarket distribution channel," he said.

Technicians were an important cource of information in the AASA MEC's research into the issue. The Council held focus groups with more than 60 professional technicians and owners of independent repair shops. The focus groups represented a cross-section of automotive service - from Los Angeles on the west coast to the heart of the midwest in Chicago to the growing southeast in Raleigh, NC.

The results of these focus groups, outlined in the AASA MEC Special Report, "Independent Repair Industry: Focus Group Findings on Buying Influences of Repair Professionals," were enlightening. The focus groups revealed that technicians depend on their supplier partners to provide the services they need such as cataloging, sales representation, warranty, and more - BUT they are largely unaware that the full service aftermarket supplier is the channel partner providing these services.

"Technicians do not buy directly from manufacturers, so it is understandable that they do not view the essential services offered by manufacturers to distributors as a motivation for loyalty toward a specific brand," Cameron noted. "But one point made clear from all the focus groups is that product quality is the Number One priority of technicians. Most repair professionals put quality above price and refuse to put their reputation at risk by installing inferior quality parts."

"Our entire association was mobilized by the coment heard from professional technicians across the country: 'when it comes to quality, it comes down to who will stand behind their parts," Handschuh emphasized.

Unlike generic versions of consumer products, auto parts are not required to list ingredients and may or may not meet original specifications - so technicians may be unaware of the risks involved with some low cost products.

"There is the potential for these low quality, low cost products to break during installation, becoming projectiles and endangering the technician working on the vehicle and everyone in the shop." Handschuh said. "These parts also pose safety risks to the consumers driving the vehicles on which they are installed and to everyone traveling the highways and roads of our country."

And low quality parts also pose a serious risk to the entire aftermarket's reputation.

"As customers ourselves, we all know that one bad experience can turn us against a particular business," said Cameron. "Independent repair shops stand to gain business now with the closing of car dealerships and their service departmetns across the country," he explained. "But all it will take is a bad experience at an independent repair shop due to a faulty part to shake a consumer's confidence in independent shops as a reliable place for automotive service - and drive them back to the OE dealer for service."

The entire aftermarket supply chain will be the conduit for spreading the "Know Your Parts" campaign. The chain begins with "Full Service Supplier", the manufacturers which provide the essential services including product specifications, quality control, product liability, research and development, and more.....

This complete article can be found at www.aftermarketsuppliers.org or you can e-mail media@mema.org. They will also make the full reports available to you . I've read both reports by MEC, and I can tell you there is a lot of good information in them.