Mid America Motorworks announces Supplier of the Year, discusses rebranding strategies at recent event.
About 20 percent of Mid America's sales go to business-to-business accounts, which the company avows as an important part of its business.
It all boils down to personal relationships for the company's founder. "Customer services are where transactions are transformed into relationships," says "Chief Cheerleader" Mike Yager, who in January helmed a refreshing departure from some aftermarket events. Mid America Motorworks brought a number of its top suppliers to its rural southern Illinois headquarters to ask for nothing in return, except maybe more business.
"One of our goals is to build alliances from the supply side of the business: it's about long-term relationships," says Yager. "I don't believe in the deal of the day."
The company, whose mail-order catalog circulation is approximately 6 million, works with about 1,000 suppliers and invited to the event its top providers, who were recipients of the M-Curve Quality Supplier Award.
Mr. Gasket Performance Group was named the M-Curve Supplier of the Year, and Mid America Motorworks donated $4,000 to the Specialty Equipment Market Association's (SEMA) Memorial Scholarship Program on the company's behalf.
Unifying the brand
Yager also explained the company's rebranding efforts, which merged a number of different components under the Mid America Motorworks name a couple of years ago.
As part of Mid America Motorworks' growth, there were so many sub-brands that billing and shipping orders were sometimes being refused due to name confusion. Divisions at the time included Mid America Direct, Mid America Designs, Tweeks, The Real Source, Funfest and Performance Choice.
The company underwent full-scale audits and had to take stock of every one of its elements, engage in workshops and register a name, not to mention look for a logo that aptly defined the business' many divisions.
"Taking an audit of your business is pretty scary," admits Yager. Rebranding, he adds, is "an extremely expensive and ever-ongoing process."
One of the worst shocks, he shares, wasn't paying the three quarters of a million dollars for the branding — it was discarding all of the previously branded items like stationary and apparel.
On the upside, though, thousands of shirts were given away to charity as a result.
