On July 8, 2011, SEMA members joined with SEMA staff and thousands of enthusiasts across the country to celebrate the second annual Collector Car Appreciation Day. More than 200 events—double last year’s total—were held in the United States and Canada to commemorate the day, which had been...

Business is as competitive as ever. Having a great product or service isn’t enough anymore—you have to constantly look for a competitive edge. Will it be a killer website, a particular sales technique, superior customer service, a better industry trend analysis? It is critical to stay up-to-date on...

The king of the automotive trade shows is better for 2011 as the result of a host of new features. They start with an enhanced website and end with a new cruise event as the grand finale, so the SEMA Show once again continues to evolve and improve. The theme this year—Ideas Alive—begins with the...

A recent study on vehicle accessorization by the automotive marketing research and consultancy firm AutoPacific confirmed that accessories influence more than a million vehicle sales each year (www.sema.org/products/10596/influencer-report). And while many new- and used-vehicle dealers understand...

Google has turned more than a few heads in the business community by rolling out a new, free service that promises to dramatically speed the download of websites. The technology, called Page Speed Service, works by fetching content from your web-hosting service, rewriting pages using optimization...

Honda Ridgeline, Volkswagen CrossPassat, Honda CR-V, Corvette C7

The SEMA Show is the premier trade event for automotive enterprises of all types. The industry gathers in Las Vegas each year to learn about the latest innovations and most sought-after parts and accessories for car, truck and powersports vehicle owners throughout the world. And the top attraction...

Made in the U.S.A.” has long been a powerful marketing proposition, especially for the automotive specialty-equipment market. Resurgent patriotism and concern over American job losses, along with outsourcing and foreign knockoffs, are currently inspiring consumers to “buy American.” Of course, there...

Made in the U.S.A.” has long been a powerful marketing proposition, especially for the automotive specialty-equipment market. Resurgent patriotism and concern over American job losses, along with outsourcing and foreign knockoffs, are currently inspiring consumers to “buy American.” Of course, there...

Faced with the uncertain U.S. recovery and a relatively soft market, many companies are looking to international markets to grow their businesses. This is particularly true in the automotive industry, as emerging global economies create new middle classes of consumers eager to purchase and modify...