Not that long ago, say two years or so, the aftermarket had the upper hand against the OEMs when it came to parts quality. "Better than OE" was the battle cry that stopped the OEMs in their tracks. Nothing trumps the "better than" claim. Or so I thought.
While the aftermarket copped a smug attitude about the parts it was making, those oh-so-crafty OEMs had been busy outmaneuvering us with the alliterative marketing mantra "form, fit and function" that resonates with service dealers looking to simply replace an original part with an exact replica. From the standpoint of a technician doing the replacing, what's not to like about that? But that's always been the case with OE parts. It's just now the OEMs have the slogan, which they are wielding with some force.
The impact of the effectiveness of the call for the "3Fs" was apparent at the recent Automotive Distribution Network conference. As you may know, the program group presents a Vendor Forum in which four brave vendors entertain live questions from the service dealer and jobber audience. First and foremost on their minds was the subject of the 3Fs. The service dealers demanded "form, fit and function," and the vendors promised they were doing everything in their power to get them what they wanted. What choice do they have?
From the vendors' perspective, the distributors are to blame for putting them on the hot seat with the service dealers. The problem started, they say, about a decade or so ago when the distributors pushed for universal parts to streamline their inventories. That's true, but it's also true that the distributors didn't make some grandiose decision in a vacuum on this issue for all the players in the channel. Many service dealers saw universal parts as a way to control ordering mistakes that inevitably lead to returns. And the manufacturers? Universal parts help them as much as they help distributors with controlling parts proliferation.
This is not to say that manufacturers and distributors have the luxury of ignoring the 3Fs that service dealers demand for speedier service. Moreover, compounding the problem are savvy consumers demanding the 3Fs, which is luring them back to the dealerships for repair and maintenance.
The aftermarket manufacturers find themselves in an odd position. Their biggest competitors –– the OEMs –– have defined quality for the entire marketplace. The way to fight back may be as simple as aftermarket manufacturers communicating incessantly to service dealers that aftermarket parts are superior replacement parts for parts that in many cases were conceived, engineered and manufactured under "planned obsolescence." Conversely, aftermarket manufacturers are in the unique position of analyzing and correcting defects of OE parts.
Instead of making the distributors the scapegoats for this dilemma, they should be used as the key marketing arm to convince the service dealers that function trumps form and fit because no comebacks is the ultimate goal. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the aftermarket manufacturers should get "form and fit" up to snuff and there won't be any doubt in anyone's mind on who the true parts leaders are.
