Executive Interview With Bill Thompson, CEO of IMR Inc. - aftermarketNews

Executive Interview With Bill Thompson, CEO of IMR Inc.

Bill Thompson serves as the CEO of IMR Inc. He acquired the company in 2003 after recognizing the extraordinary potential in both the amount of research the company performs and the volume of data it collects. While at IMR, Thompson has led the way into new research venues, as well as developed new and innovative ways of using IMR's data for a variety of automotive customers. Under his leadership, the company continues to grow its portfolio of automotive research products and services. In this AMN Executive Interview, Thompson sheds some light on expectations for the overall health and growth of the automotive aftermarket in the coming years. He also discusses the trends he's seeing in his firm's aftermarket research.

Bill Thompson serves as the CEO of IMR Inc. He acquired the company in 2003 after recognizing the extraordinary potential in both the amount of research the company performs and the volume of data it collects. While at IMR, Thompson has led the way into new research venues, as well as developed new and innovative ways of using IMR’s data for a variety of automotive customers. Under his leadership, the company continues to grow its portfolio of automotive research products and services. Thompson is currently an active member of the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (AAIA), Automotive Aftermarket Suppliers Association (AASA) and the Specialty Equipment Manufacturer’s Association (SEMA). He has a degree in economics from Loyola University of Chicago and currently resides in Naperville, Ill. with his wife and two daughters.

In this AMN Executive Interview, Thompson sheds some light on expectations for the overall health and growth of the automotive aftermarket in the coming years. He also discusses the trends he’s seeing in his firm’s aftermarket research.


Recent reports indicate that the U.S. automotive aftermarket is expected to continue growing over the next several years at a fairly significant rate. What are your thoughts on the overall health of the industry today and going forward?

I would definitely agree with those reports. The big question always seems to be where exactly the industry will grow and in what categories. A lot of the same dynamics that drive the industry, like miles driven, age of vehicles and so on, will certainly continue to affect it. As more vehicles age into the aftermarket sweet spot, there will be more opportunities for repairs. That seems to be playing out and having a positive effect on the industry. What we at IMR have been paying attention to, in addition to those metrics, are the changing parts category dynamics between DIY and DIFM consumers and how channel share shifts are occurring. We know the overall mix of vehicle repairs is changing and those dynamics, among others, help us understand where the repairs are going. Ultimately, that leads us to the repair shops and their buying habits, information that a lot of our clients are asking us to help them understand.

IMR recently began releasing new research on consumer auto parts purchasing trends. Tell us a little about the new data you are collecting and what trends you are seeing.

The new data we are collecting is proving to be valuable to our customers. We are tracking more pre-purchase decision metrics on DIY customers than ever before, including behavior before a part purchase, such as calling stores, visiting stores or visiting websites. We also are tracking, on average, how many stores they visit or contact and websites they visit, along with what information they are looking for and who influenced the decision on which part to buy.

In addition, we’re beginning to track the duration between the time a consumer learned a particular repair was needed on their vehicle and when the repair was actually performed. We dig deeper to uncover more demographic data, such as specifics about the primary driver of the vehicle, the usage of the vehicle in the household and the annual miles driven on the various vehicles in the household to help us calculate replacement intervals. All in all, this is very useful data for customers.

Have you made any recent changes to your repair shop research offering?

Most recently, we have made some significant changes to our repair shop research, structuring it so we have very detailed insights on supplier and parts usage among shops. We are really trying to understand the dynamics of parts purchasing from various parts suppliers. For example, on a monthly basis, we are tracking shops’ first, second, third calls; the percentage of parts they buy from their first call; overall satisfaction with primary suppliers; and the importance and satisfaction of primary suppliers on key attributes and other metrics.

With the parts-specific research, we are able to determine, at a product level, who shops are purchasing parts from and when they are making the purchases. Other metrics we are tracking are unaided/aided brand awareness, importance of key brand attributes, and the preference, usage and satisfaction of the shops’ primary brands with regard to key attributes. Finally, we are also tracking shop demographics in more detail, including average number of bays, number of technicians, percentage of vehicles serviced that are domestic, European and Asian, and a series of other metrics that allow us to look closely at both the supplier and parts data in meaningful segments.

What information are aftermarket executives hungry for today? What are they curious or concerned about from your perspective – what questions do you get asked most frequently about the industry?

Because we serve a broad base of clients, we receive a wide variety of inquiries. We are consistently asked about market size, for hard parts in particular, and receive a tremendous number of requests for insights to better understanding commercial customers. Many clients want to know how their brand is positioned against their competitors; what can they do to differentiate their brand in the marketplace; and anything else that will give them an edge. There is more emphasis on how a company and its brands are performing according to their customers and those types of metrics are being evaluated more frequently as well.

In what ways does the research you collect help guide aftermarket companies in strategic planning?

Our research covers a lot of ground and is useful to the strategic planning process, providing an understanding of repair shop and consumer purchasing habits. Not only can we help our clients understand their customers in a macro sense, but we can help them understand their customers within specific parts categories. Our customers find that this type of in-depth customer knowledge is very valuable, helping them make more informed, fact-based and profitable business decisions.

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