Increase Wiper Sales With In-Store Marketing

Getting consumers to think about wiper blade replacement is a tough job. Getting them to buy one from you or your customer is at least as tough.

Wiper suppliers have long sought to prompt consumers to get their wipers replaced more regularly. The Trico website, for example, allows consumers to sign up for a reminder service. Pennzoil-Quaker State Canada recently launched a campaign using Groundhog Day as an annual reminder for wiper maintenance under its Rain-X brand. Many manufacturers have campaigns that focus on getting your attention, through offering premiums with selections of wipers, with the idea that it will prompt you to pay attention to the product category and ensure that you have some stock on hand to talk about. Then there is the technology sell, where new wiper designs provide added sizzle. The latest is the flat blade, probably the first substantial change in wiper design in years. Having debuted on a number of vehicles as original equipment, it has now made its way into the aftermarket.

Once the customer gets into a store, however, a whole new set of forces takes charge. No longer is it about the need for a wiper; it is about the ability of the consumer to be confident in making a choice. It is about communicating information.

“That information has to be easily acceptable, coded in a simple way so that the consumer can, in a matter of a few seconds, make a choice,” says Stephen J. Alexander, president of Automotive In-Store Marketing, a Florida-based consulting firm that has worked with clients in the U.S. and Canada.

“The whole thing about a wiper display is they have choice. Consumers like that. What they don’t like is when making that choice becomes confusing.”

It is easy for stores to add to the confusion if they rely on trade catalogues as their customer aid.

“Complex lookup tables that the counterperson takes for granted–it is second nature to the expert–are often very confusing to many consumers. There is an awful lot of small type.”

It is quite easy for a consumer to become confused when faced with a choice of so many options, but there are solutions. Everything from simple printed application listings to dial selectors and electronic touch select devices can do the job.

All of these approaches can be effective, he says, but they must meet some specific criteria.

“They must have ease of use, clarity, the ability to quickly aid the consumer, and empower the consumer to make the choice.

“When that is done, consumers exercise their power to make their own choice.”

How effective can efficient shelf communication be? When Automotive In-Store Marketing did some work for Canadian Tire in 1999, the focus was on improving its store-branded wiper sales.

Canadian Tire wanted to create the perception that its Motomaster brand was equal to or better than any name branded wiper blade, that consumers could receive all the information needed to make a choice between different types of wiper blades, and that selecting the correct wiper was far easier than using a printed catalogue.

Canadian Tire already sold more wipers than any other single outlet in Canada, but wanted to protect its position. It worked to develop a shelf edge electronic selector that could give the consumer his options with no more than five pushes of a button, and provide useful installation tips.

The result of adding this method of selection was that wiper blade sales rose 17%. In particular, sales of higher-end wiper blades increased proportionately.

At-shelf merchandising and selection aids can help consumers make decisions, and can also provide store staff with a consistent starting point and a sales conversation tool.

“The story is told the right way, the same way, every day. Consistency helped the sales clerk sound very professional and enabled the sales clerk and the customer to have a dialogue.”

Alexander says that traditional automotive jobbers tend to do less well at merchandising than other industry sectors, but the potential is there.

Taking a clean approach to merchandising is probably job one for most traditional stores. Aggressive stores do sell more, says Alexander.

“There is a mindset that most of our customers are destination customers. Once in the door you have myriad of opportunities, so take advantage and create those in-store marketing opportunities that attract the customer’s eye.”