There may be bountiful life in car stereo yet, when you advertise it.
Two of the larger advertisers in the MESA car buying group running newly minted MESA TV/radio ads said that their Black Friday sales were up by 7 and 40 percent, respectively over last year. However Custom Sounds, Austin, TX., which had the 7 percent gain, said sales in early December were up by 62 percent, (and it had its best year ever last year).
Drive-In Autosound based in Colorado Springs, CO., saw the 40 percent gain over Black Friday and said sales for December so far are tracking 15 percent of last year. “I was shocked, to be honest with you,” said president Kevin Clark.
The 6- store chain is running a total of 800 TV spots and 700 radio spots in the Colorado Springs and Denver, CO markets until Christmas, with an ad budget of $35,000 for the season. “So far it’s paying off,” said Clark. Remote start and in-dash AV head units were the top sellers over Black Friday.
Custom Sounds with 16 locations will run a total of 2,765 TV and radio ads for the season. President Mike Cofield said, “Most [retailers] give up on the first weekend of December. We have a very targeted strategy for that first weekend. We want to suck as much money out of the market as we can before everyone else starts running. We had a very robust first week of December. Through the first four days we were up 62 percent because of the advertising.”
MESA members pooled their resources to produce a car stereo ad creating significant savings to its members. As director Ryan Gunter stated in November, “Many of our members have always wanted to run TV ads but by the time they spent $10,000 to $15,000 producing a commercial they would have no budget left for running it.”
With the theme of “Not So Silent Night,” the commercial is accompanied by a 60-second radio spot and other in store point of purchase materials and web banners.
The group hopes to produce 3 or 4 such ad campaigns a year during Dad’s and Grad’s, Back to School, and other key selling seasons plus offer separate ads for targeted areas of car electronics including security.
Source: CEoutlook
The car audio specialist has tremendous value to sell to consumers. An experience that is delivered over and over again to consumers. Hats off to MESA and its members for spreading the word!
That is the point,indeed. As an industry we have done a very poor job of telling the consumer why they need to buy, what we have to sell! That is why M.E.S.A. will continue to focus on delivering marketing materials that will drive customers into our Members’ stores and help the industry in general, “High tide raises all boats”.
So isn\’t the real take away that 12 volt is not a segment on its way out. 12 volt is a segment not being properly promoted. Consumers are not being educated about who we are, what we do, and why they want it. If these numbers are for real, then at what point does this industry wake up?