Chief Auto sells to the sound of music - Chief Auto Parts

Discount Store News, April 4, 1994

DALLAS -- Chief Auto Parts has begun airing an in-store radio program called AutoLink that it expects will produce double-digit sales growth of advertised product at its 468 stores from Texas to California.

Vendors are paying the tab for this program with their advertising dollars. The program airs in four music markets: Hispanic, African American, urban, and country and western. In addition to vendor commercials, the radio programs also will carry institutional spots, such as messages promoting Chief's oil recycling program.

The Muzak In-Store Marketing Group produces and operates AutoLink, which premiered April 1.

Before launching AutoLink, Chief retained Walker Research, Indianapolis, to test the program in 40 stores. It found that sales of promoted products, all offered at cut prices, rose an average of 23%. In one exceptional result, sales of mechanicss creepers soared 1,050%, compared to sales at stores without the radio promotion. Since these sales were so outstanding, Chief excluded them from the average.

Increases for other categories ranged from 9% for battery chargers and socket wrench sets fo 35% for anti-freeze, 50% for brake fluid and 53% for carburetor spray cleaner.

The test involved 20 control stores, with usual advertising, including shelf talkers and in-store signs, and 20 others that also broadcast in-store ads over the radio. A roof-mounted satellite antenna picks up the signal.

The system also gives Chief the satellite capability of transmitting messages as well as training videos from headquarters to stores. The next step could be allowing stores to transmit daily results back to headquarters via the satellite link.

The program features "different tunes for different stores and different neighborhoods," advertising director Kenny Cason said. Chief selected the following four music groups: Latino for Hispanic neighborhood stores; Hot FM for inner city urban stores; Foreground Music One, for customers who like adult contemporary hits; and Country Currents for its country and western fans.

In Hispanic areas, the commercials are broadcast in both Spanish and English, Cason said. "We'll speak Spanish to our customers and employees who use Spanish in their daily lives."

Chief president and chief executive officer David H. Eisenberg used a similar in-store radio promotional wystem when he was president of the People's Drug Store chain.

"It works in retail drugstores, in the grocery business, in mass merchandisers, and it will work with automotive parts and suppliers," Einsenberg said in announcing AutoLink. "We know this one works, too."