In our last blog, we looked at using hats as promotional products for dealerships and auto body shops. Today, we’re continuing to discuss promotional hats as we look at gas stations and automotive manufacturers.
Gas Stations
Gone are the days of locally owned full-service gas stations. Nowadays, almost all of them are either owned by corporations or franchisors. Both of which come with additional hurdles when trying to provide promotional merchandise compared to mom and pop shops due to brand licenses.
However, if your territory includes locations that house the home office of a national chain, it never hurts, to call on them and try to get a meeting with some of the decision makers. You can also try to get in touch with franchise owners in your area.
Automotive Part Stores
Although you will occasionally find a locally owned auto part store, most of these will also be national chains. So, you will once again have to make your way through gatekeepers in order to get to the person who will become your buyer. There may even be a team of decision makers you will work with.
A good way to pitch branded hats, in this case, is as an add-on gift for special sales. For instance, during the holidays, stores can give out free hats with every purchase. Or the special can run year-round with the purchase of a specific big-ticket item.
This is a simple way to maintain repeat customers. There are millions of car fanatics who spend most of their free time tinkering in their own garage, which leads to weekly trips to the automotive supply store.
If an auto part store offers free gifts to its patrons from time to time, that is going to establish lifelong customers. Brand loyalty runs deep so long as it is built and maintained.
Once again, using logoed caps as part of the employee uniform in stores is an easy sell here as well.
Manufacturers
The following are major American automobile manufacturing companies:
As you know, these companies are all giant entities with multiple locations—offices, factories, research and development labs, etc.
Do you want to outfit factory workers with uniforms? How about selling employee anniversary gifts and new hire onboarding packages to human resources? What about selling promotional products to the marketing team for advertising and corporate gifts?
There are countless ways you can try to get in with businesses of this size. And there is no reason you can’t sell to more than one department from the same company, they are all on the same team after all.
In fact, if you provide excellent customer service, your buyer will be happy to introduce you to other decision-makers throughout the enterprise.
The automotive industry makes up approximately 3.5% of the United States GDP.
If you can help automotive companies see how valuable promotional headwear can be in growing and maintaining their customer base, your sales volumes are guaranteed to increase.
Don’t forget to check out the previous article on using hats for dealerships and auto body shops. What industry would you like to see us cover next? Let us know in the comments below. Don’t forget to follow us on Instagram using the hashtag #hatswork.
