Trying (and succeeding) in selling car parts to women?

Well - they're not just selling car parts - Victory Auto Service and Glass do as the name implies: Service cars, repair windscreens and .... sell car parts. Starting with one shop in Minneapolis in 1997, they now have 5 outlets, and their expansion has been driven by their successful use of social media marketing.

I was intrigued to see that a small business, in a very traditional, non-IT area, was using social technology extensively to interact with its customers, and in particular, its female clients.

I found them whilst researching for the Women 2.0 Google hangout I'm doing with Lisa, Emmy and Anne at 9:00am next Thursday the 19th, to which you are invited. The Google hangout is going to be looking at social media and how it helps, hinders, is helped, is hindered and generally affects women in the workplace. You may have guessed Lisa, Emmy, Anne and myself are all women, and so have a personal interest, and experience in the topic. Should be fun!
 
Back to Victory Auto Service and Glass. A case study of their use of social media was posted in Sept 2013, on social media examia, well worth reading. The lady responsible for it's success is Stephanie Gutierrez. What Stephanie has done, is to take a male dominated, masculine focused business, attractive to women by promoting a friendly, helpful image. Women now make up the majority of their customers.




Welcome to Victory Auto Service & Glass

Your premier auto specialty shop

This small business is actively using no fewer than 5 of the, "adding value by the use of social technologies" tips identified in the  McKinsey report (2012).

The Victory Auto Services facebook site, last updated today, abounds with happy smiling faces, and fun snippets of information designed to appeal to their customer base, which is now 60 % women, employing tip 5 for Marketing and Sales: "Use social technologies for marketing and communication/interaction." The most recent posts include photos of cute kids and puppies and friendly messages such as:
 "Do you have a kid going back to school this week? Or are YOU starting school back up as a student or teacher?  We're wishing you a week filled with great morning traffic and safety from crazy drivers in the pickup lanes!"






The posts include quiz like questions, jokes and cartoons as well as special offers. Tip 6. "Generate and foster sales leads".

 The comments from customers allow the company to use tip 4. "Derive Customer Insights".

For organisation and distribution, the inclusion of an app to provide easy booking of a service makes use of tip 3. "Use social to distribute business processes"; but I think the cream on the cake is the additional customer service they provide, employing tip 8; "Provide customer care via social technologies", in their series of you tube "how to " videos. The most popular one being "How to top up your wiper fluid." with 10166 views.

This particular company has shown to me that you don't have to be a multimillion dollar global retail giant to make effective use of social technology.

Is this what it's all about?