Direct Marketing: Jiffy Lube Jiffy Lube, One

Direct Marketing: JIFFY LUBE

Jiffy Lube, one of the nations leading competitors in automotive preventive services, has been in business to promote the maintenance and value of automotive vehicles for several years. The company offers maintenance services and diagnostic services including lubrication and fluids services as well as inspection services by qualified technicians (JLI, 2003). The company faces stiff competition in the United States, with inexpensive auto maintenance dealerships popping up at a rapid pace. To compete in a market place where consumers have so many options, the company would benefit by employing more direct marketing techniques.

Traditional marketing techniques such as television advertisement are not effective in marketing many of the automotive services that this company offers, because consumers most often choose a service provider based on randomized factors including convenience and cost. Many consumers will opt to have their oil changed for example, at the automotive specialist closest to their home, rather than driving any distance out of their way unless they are prompted to do so. Direct marketing techniques such as mail and door to door sales methods would help consumers gain a wider understanding of the diverse services Jiffy Lube offers, and influence their tendency to move from random automotive maintenance selection to a directed and conscious move to selection of Jiffy Lube for specific services it offers consumers. Consumers may be made aware of special promotional sales offers via direct marketing ventures, and are more likely to drive to a Jiffy Lube for service once they are aware of the advantages of doing so.

Direct marketing involves directs selling and promoting corporate products and materials to existing and future customers utilizing tools such as direct mail, telemarketing and similar direct contact methods (WBC, 1997). Many automotive maintenance specialists advertise via television and similar traditional marketing mechanisms. Consumers however, looking to service their vehicles typically turn to those automotive corporations offering the most convenient, inexpensive and speedy services.

If Jiffy Lube were to market it's services door to door and via direct mail methods such as coupon offers and service deals, their consumer base would expand tremendously. Consumers are more likely for example, to frequent an automotive service corporation if they feel they are getting a good value for their money. Jiffy Lube could offer service packages that consumers pre-pay for, and sell these packages via door to door and telemarketing mechanisms. Once a consumer has pre-paid for a service, they are much more likely to continue to patronize the corporation in question.