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Monro Muffler Brake Announces Joint Promotion With Priceline WebHouse

28 August 2000

Monro Muffler Brake Announces Joint Promotion With Priceline WebHouse Club Name Your Own Price Gasoline and Grocery Services

    ROCHESTER, N.Y.--August 28, 2000--Monro Muffler Brake, Inc. , today announced a joint promotion with Priceline WebHouse Club(SM), at www.priceline.com. Different Monro sales promotions will appear in conjunction with Priceline WebHouse Club's Name Your Own Price(SM) service for gasoline and groceries.
    For example, customers who electronically purchase a $10, $25 or $50 Monro gift certificate at the Priceline(SM) for Gasoline web site will receive additional savings on their gasoline offers. At Priceline For Groceries, customers who purchase Monro gift certificates will receive a number of Half-Price Tokens(SM), which customers may use to save up to half-off average typical store prices on groceries. The Monro gift certificates can be used toward any purchase such as oil changes, brake service, exhaust and tire rotations at any Monro or Speedy location. The promotions will begin appearing at the Priceline WebHouse Club(SM) by October 1, 2000.
    Priceline for Gasoline recently opened up the Name Your Own Price service to all consumers after 250,000 charter customers priced more than 6 million gallons of gasoline and saved an average of 12 cents a gallon off the price at the pump in just one month. Priceline for Groceries, already well established in the eastern part of the country with more than 1 million member households, recently launched in Texas and next month will expand to California before becoming available nationwide by fall. Priceline for Groceries customers save an average of $10 per shopping trip.
    The joint promotion with Priceline WebHouse Club(SM) is Monro's first step in a more comprehensive Internet strategy designed to provide Monro with an additional low-cost venue to build brand awareness, promote the depth and quality of the Company's service and product array, and source additional customers. A key component of Monro's Internet strategy is branding with high quality, nationally recognized partners and to drive sales through gift certificates. The agreement with Priceline WebHouse Club(SM) exemplifies this strategy. This and other future partnerships will leverage the Internet as an extremely targeted, cost-effective tool to improve Monro's marketing reach.
    Robert W. August, Senior Vice President of Monro Muffler Brake, commented, "We plan to be proactive in our use of the Internet to source customers and build our brand. Our partnership with Priceline WebHouse Club(SM) is a very positive first step in that direction. Unlike other advertising and marketing programs, the effectiveness of this partnership is easily quantifiable because consumers will pre- pay for Monro's services. Future Internet marketing agreements will all fall within our current budget guidelines, we will pay for measurable results, and we will refine our strategies as we continue to learn more about how to most effectively market our services using this venue."