The Hot Rod Power Tour, a week-long event ending this year in Little Rock, Arkansas, recently held its kick-off event in Cleveland, Ohio, where many parts makers had an "ear to the ground," looking for product requests they may not have available, according to Scott Stutler, national sales manager for DynoMax Performance Exhaust.
Not only is an event like the Hot Rod Power Tour a good place to work on product development, "It's also a good forum for us to check on quality control," Stutler said. "If (drivers/consumers) have any issues, they're not shy about coming up and telling us."
The Hot Rod Power Tour represents an eclectic mix of demographics, from the young driver seeking more horsepower to the baby boomer looking to relive "better" times. Although the opinions of parts distributors are part of the product-development process, parts makers say events like this are an opportunity to obtain some feedback from the drivers/consumers themselves.
"You get most of your knowledge from the consumer," said Matt Graves, marketing manager for Cherry Bomb. "They give you a lot of feedback."
Jason Snyder, national sales manager for Edelbrock, carries a notebook throughout the tour. "We field a lot of questions and we write down product ideas or suggestions, and when you start to see a pattern there, it's a pretty good indication that people want a product."
On the engineering side, Edelbrock can look at consumer custom installations to get a glimpse of how the committed consumer likes products to be developed.
Mothers, a car-care product maker, offers an international online forum for product discussion, according to Ken Holland, marketing director, but, "if somebody is having a specific problem, it is much faster to work out the solution here, face-to-face."
Founded by Hot Rod magazine, Graves calls the Hot Rod Power Tour the "outdoor SEMA show" for its importance to the industry.
Along with the shows themselves, many parts and accessories makers attract attention along the way as company reps travel in lavish, brightly painted trailers, complete with visible branding.
As a promotion within the event, DynoMax allows drivers to pit their vehicles against a dynamometer. Cash prizes are handed out to street-legal cars that develop the highest horsepower and torque ratings. First- and second-place finishers are awarded $100 and $50 pre-paid gift cards and qualify for a chance to win $25,000, $10,000, or $5,000 at the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) Show in Las Vegas this fall.
At the Cleveland launch, the dyno was booked all day long, as the crowd gathered to witness the deafening roar of a muscle car revving its engine at full throttle.
The dyno contest, called "Power to the Wheels," is a powerful marketing concept; the company relies on sound to sell its items. Along with the attention-grabbing sounds of high-horsepower engines run at wide-open throttle, DynoMax also offers an earphone-equipped display that plays the sounds of various exhaust systems when installed on different vehicle makes and models.
"Power to the Wheels" will also travel to other events, such as the Car Craft Summer Nationals July 20-22, in St. Paul, Minnesota, and the Woodward Dream Cruise Aug. 16-18, in Detroit. Competitors can register at www.dynomax.com.
Events like the Hot Rod Power Tour maximize the vendors' time; rather than having to make weekly trips to remote events, manufacturers can get the exposure of at least seven smaller events in just one week.
