Consumer Needs are Crucial to Success in Automotive Aftermarket
26 May 1998
Consumer Needs are Crucial to Success in Automotive Aftermarket
NEW YORK, May 26 -- To survive and prosper in today's
automotive aftermarket, one must do everything better than the competition.
The auto market has taken advantage of the stable economy, low inflation and
low unemployment rates in the last few years, to roil the currents with
consolidation and fierce competition. With the various segments of the
aftermarket in a state of flux, it is more important than ever to know what
consumers want and when they need it.
Frost & Sullivan (http://www.frost.com/conferences) seeks to provide strategic
direction to the various players in the automotive aftermarket by assembling
the industry's leading authorities for its Twenty-Fourth Annual Automotive
Aftermarket Industry Conference, July 21-22, 1998, and its Market Engineering
Management Seminar, July 20. Long regarded by industry players as THE
aftermarket conference, this not-to-be-missed event is specifically designed
for companies in the automotive aftermarket to provide information that will
help improve your company's bottom line for years to come.
Frost & Sullivan's automotive aftermarket conference will include three
days of intense learning and discussion through formal presentations, informal
networking and roundtable discussions with industry leaders and colleagues.
Kay speakers hail from cutting-edge companies such as The Auto Channel,
Aftermarket Business, Dana Corporation, Echlin-BWD International, Federal
Mogul, The Polk Company, Sears Automotive, Sun Microsystems, and Visteon
Automotive Systems.
Key speakers will share their knowledge about successful strategies,
pitfalls to avoid and market opportunities. Tony Datillo, vice president of
The Dana Corporation, will give the keynote address on the first morning,
"Automotive Aftermarket Overview," where he will describe the factors that are
currently changing the aftermarket. The keynote address on the second morning
will be presented by Paul Baffico, president of Sears Automotive, who will
discuss "Retail Consolidation."
As small and mid-sized retailers feel the crunch of consolidation,
addressing inefficient distribution methods and inventory management systems
become more important. Large companies have learned that computerization
gives them several competitive advantages, since computer software is the most
effective and most efficient option. Bob Gordon, president and publisher of
The Auto Channel, will explain why utilizing software programs designed for
the aftermarket can be your biggest weapon in maintaining market share in his
presentation, "360 Degree Communications."
The conference will be preceded by an intense, full-day Market Engineering
workshop, "Growth in the Automotive Aftermarket: Utilizing the Market
Engineering System to Accelerate Growth and Identify Market Opportunities,"
July 20, 1998. Led by David Frigstad, chairman of Frost & Sullivan, this
seminar covers the Market Engineering system and how you can use this system
to identify opportunities to keep your company growing faster than competitors
and the market. It is a systematic, measurement-based system which integrates
market challenges, company goals, market research, marketing strategy,
implementation and monitoring into a practical and useful methodology that can
benefit each and every department in a company.
Both the conference and the seminar will be held at the Hotel
Intercontinental in Chicago, Illinois. Bob Ahrens, retired from the Ford
Corporation after a distinguished career of over 35 years, will chair the
conference. As an added bonus, all conference attendees will receive a
complimentary copy of Frost & Sullivan's best-selling training manual,
"Customer Engineering," a practical yet strategic approach to real marketing
problems and the strategies necessary to create a highly profitable sales
system in the automotive aftermarket through measurements of effectiveness
that ensure every project a company undertakes has an impact on their bottom
line.
This conference is sponsored by The Dialog Corporation, and endorsed by
Aftermarket Business. For more information on attending, sponsorship,
exhibiting, advertising, or future speaker possibilities, please call or
write:
Sales Inquiries: Devin Brown cfsales@frost.com
Press Inquiries: Rachel Putter rputter@frost.com (650) 237-4947
Sponsorships & Exhibits: Gary Robbins grobbins@frost.com
Frost & Sullivan
90 West Street
New York, NY 10006
Tel: (212) 964-7000
Fax: (212) 619-0831
Or, visit our Web site: http://www.frost.com/conferences
Conference: 2968-06 Date: July 21-22, 1998 Price: $1250
Seminar: 2970-06 Date: July 20, 1998 Price: $750
Conference & Seminar Package: Price: $1850