Larisa Walega: What consumer trends data are you seeing right now, and which are you using in your marketing?

One consumer trend that is always at the top of our list is the age of vehicles on the road. This is a strong indicator of aftermarket performance. This trend shows consumers holding on to their vehicles longer, so service, maintenance, and repair are in great demand and strong growth is expected.

Our appearance and protection services are an excellent match for consumers’ need to hold on to their vehicles longer. Educating consumers through our marketing efforts on the opportunity to include appearance protection as a part of their everyday vehicle maintenance helps us to fulfill a variety of needs: 1) We are extending the life of that vehicle to ensure a safe and comfortable ride. 2) We are maintaining the appearance of the vehicle to help our consumers show the pride they have in vehicle ownership.

3. We are helping that consumer increase the resale value of that vehicle when they are ready to trade it in and purchase a new one. To understand where our customers’ needs are, we review our personas a few times a year or we invite them back to the table for a “cup of coffee.” This figurative exercise lets us step out of our day-to-day and make sure we are correctly aligning our messaging to the most current needs of our customers.

We take into consideration things like cultural shifts, industry changes, as well as factors such as how our personas have evolved and where they aspire to be since the last time we had a cup of coffee with them. Having this conversation allows us to dig deeply into our core customers’ needs and ensures that we are aligning our services appropriately to fulfill them. It can also give us ideas for our product development team.

I find these regular conversations allow us the greatest opportunity to ensure we are having the right conversations with our customers, and at the right time, which ensures that we are building meaningful, long-lasting relationships.