Know Your Customers to Build Your Business
From manufacturers and distributors to jobbers and retailers, the automotive specialty-equipment industry is built around meeting consumers’ demands. Understanding which goods and services those consumers are actually interested in requires study of the marketplace, interaction with customers and attention to detail—and that is a pretty fair synopsis of what was done to create the latest offering from the SEMA research team and the Modellers Inc.,a market research and analytics company.
Who are “typical” automotive specialty-equipment consumers? What is their relationship with their vehicles? How does that relationship influence their purchasing habits? And how can automotive specialty-equipment businesses reach them with their marketing? These are some of the perennial questions that drive the industry. SEMA is now offering the 2012 SEMA Market Segmentation Report, an in-depth summary of a recent, comprehensive look into these and other questions affecting every company in the specialty-equipment marketplace.
One of SEMA’s primary tools in achieving its mission statement—to help its member businesses succeed and prosper—is providing market research that draws on historical comparisons and illuminates current trends. As a major part of that effort, the association produces an overview of where the industry stands each year. The 2012 SEMA Annual Market Report has just been released and is now available. The report is free to SEMA members and is available for a $250 fee to non-members.
The three-year-old SEMA enthusiast opinion leader research program was created in advance of the 2009 SEMA Show to provide SEMA researchers with consumer insights into industry trends, products, vehicles and the SEMA Show itself. It was built around automotive enthusiasts and opinion leaders who were active in car clubs, automotive websites or forums as well as active social media bloggers who follow performance automotive businesses.
Other than powertrain components that have to coexist with vehicle on-board computers, mobile-electronics components can often be the most complex specialty-equipment accessories added to a vehicle.
The specialty-equipment market is divided into nine niches.
The racing and performance component of the specialty-equipment market is comprised of three market niches:
The light-truck market refers to the sales of pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles (SUVs), crossover utility vehicles (CUVs) and even vans.
In 2008, the restoration market held its ground and fended off economic troubles by sticking to its classic formulas.
It wasn’t all that long ago that the OEMs were trumpeting the concept of mass customization.
