Executive Interview with James Croston, Director of Marketing, Trico Products - aftermarketNews

Executive Interview with James Croston, Director of Marketing, Trico Products

Our latest Executive Interview features James Croston, director of marketing, Trico Products. As director of marketing for Trico Products, Croston has surfaced as a leader in today’s highly competitive automotive aftermarket. He has dedicated the last 15 years at Trico to developing new products that fill voids in the marketplace, educating the sellers and the buyers alike and finding better ways of communicating with potential and existing customers. Croston recently shared with us his opinions on the future of the wiper blade segment, as well as details about Trico's recent product launches for the Innovision and Oktane lines.

ROCHESTER HILLS, MICH — Every other week, aftermarketNews.com offers an interview with high-profile individuals in the automotive aftermarket. We give executives free rein to express their views on anything from the state of their corporations to recent legislative news to future trends in their niche markets. Here you see what matters to the newsmakers themselves.

Our latest Executive Interview features James Croston, director of marketing, Trico Products. As director of marketing for Trico Products, Croston has surfaced as a leader in today’s highly competitive automotive aftermarket. He has dedicated the last 15 years at Trico to developing new products that fill voids in the marketplace, educating the sellers and the buyers alike and finding better ways of communicating with potential and existing customers.

The originator of the wiper blade, Trico invented the first windshield wiper blade in 1917. Since then the company has grown to become of the biggest suppliers of wiper blades to both original equipment manufacturers and the aftermarket. The company has 16 locations around the globe, including sales offices and manufacturing facilities in the U.S., Mexico, Argentina, Wales and Australia.

Croston recently shared with us his opinions on the future of the wiper blade segment, as well as details about Trico’s recent product launches for the Innovision and Oktane lines.

With wiper blades being such an important component of vehicle safety, as well as an accessory, what are some of the latest innovations in wiper blade technology today?

The newest thing is what we called “beam” blades. It’s a growing trend in the OE market that we are trying to capitalize on. Basically it’s three piece blade, unlike any other blade you’ve seen before. It’s one big beam, or platform of steel, with a rubber element glued to it and a plastic coupler attached to it, which attaches to the car. The reason the OEMs like it so much is because it is so much lighter in weight, which means less of a motor, less of a linkage and essentially less of a system for them. They also like it because it has such a low profile, it tends to hide the blades when a person is driving. Additionally, its low profile resists wind lift a much higher speeds – up to 115 to 120 miles per hour.

The other reason they like it is for warranty issues. Because this blade is only three pieces there are no exposed parts, so basically it is a year-round blade. So, the OEs know they can sell a car in Buffalo in December and not have any issues with having the blades come back because they are not working well in the snow.

This type of blade has been out on certain, smaller unit sales cars. For example, Trico has a beam blade on the Dodge Viper and the new Land Rover LR3. Some of our competitors have them on certain Mercedes and Audi models. In 2005, this new type of blade will be included on some Ford vehicles. In 2007/2008, which everyone is quoting on, you can’t really quote on an OE platform without quoting on a beam blade as part of your whole package. It is the future of wiper blades. People are going to see them a lot more starting in 2005/2006.

The other reason I think the OEs like it too is that with the low profile the aesthetic of the vehicle looks a lot nicer because the arm and the blade flow into each other much nicer, from an appearance standpoint.

Trico is unveiling a new line of beam blades called Innovision. Tell us about this new line.

We are just introducing an aftermarket all makes and model program with a beam blade for Trico. Trico has some at the OE level, like on the Viper and the Land Rover, which have unique arm types, but what we are doing now is being first-to-market with an all makes and models beam blade that will fit a hook or a pin, like on the Accord, Taurus or similar car. We are currently already selling this to Pep Boys and Canadian Tire. In January, we will launch it to NAPA, as well as the rest of the Trico retail and traditional accounts. We know it’s the blade of the future. We know it wipes so well, so the idea was to develop a line retro-fit to fit ‘normal’ cars if you will, that don’t come equipped OE with this style of blade. We launched it out in Vegas and had a tremendous response. People can’t wait until January to get it.

What is Trico’s stance on the performance tuner market? Is this segment important for you?

Yes. Actually, in early first quarter 2005 Trico is going to introduce a line of performance color blades called Oktane. They will be available in six colors and five different lengths. This is something we’ve never gotten into before, but we know the performance tuner market is the fastest growing segment of the aftermarket. While the sport compact market is down from what it was two or three years ago, it is still at such a high level. We know it’s here to stay. We have a lot of retail customers as well as traditional customers who are interested in getting a performance blade that actually performs. It’s the best of both worlds. The Oktane line gives you the styling with a metal blade with a spoiler built into it and the colors customers want, backed up by performance. We use Trico rubber in the blade.

How did Trico decide on its color selection for this new line?

We did market research on competitive lines, as well as getting information from SEMA and going out and talking to customers.

You can get blades in many different colors, but we chose the six we know are more standard colors and not just fads. Our colors are “carbon fiber,” which is a very popular black and gray check, “Chrome,” probably the second-best seller, followed by white, red, blue and yellow. These seem to be the six colors that are more standard, that people tend to keep. We don’t want to invest in 20 different colors because we know in three months from now, 10 of those colors could be out of style and we would be stuck with the inventory.

We also changed our packaging to fit this market. Whereas before, Trico would have a ‘clamshell’ with an insert that goes all the way down the front, never allowing the customer to see the product, with Oktane we actually have the product packaged in half a card, where a customer can see the color of the blade and the fact that it has the Oktane logo right on the spoiler. The graphics on the packaging are in English, Spanish and Japanese to appeal to the tuner market.

Going back to our discussion about beam blades or flat blades, does the aftermarket generally follow OE trends in the wiper blade category?

Yes and no. There are certain OE blades for which the aftermarket doesn’t offer the exact replacement. The growing trend in original equipment now, especially with all of these beam blades and flat blades, is unique arm connections that connect the blade to the car, where these styles never existed before. You will not be able to offer coverage for that unless you invest and figure out a way to develop a blade to fit that specific arm type. So, right now there is a lot of coverage lacking in the aftermarket because of these unique blades. You can only go back to the dealership to find them.

Trico is in the process of developing new aftermarket replacement blades to fit these new arm styles. In that regard, the fact that the OEMs are moving toward more unique arm types is a growing trend. They are going from two or three different arm types to seven or eight now.

Is parts proliferation a problem in the wiper blade segment?

It hasn’t been a problem in the past, but it is coming. Because Trico is an OE manufacturer, we know about a lot of these new arm types. Many of the smaller competitors, or businesses buying blades offshore and packing them, are not aware of these changes, nor are they doing anything to fit it. Parts proliferation isn’t as big of an issue as it will be five years from now. Over the next five years, we are going to see a lot more new part numbers added to fit the coverage.

You mentioned that beam blades are really the future of wiper blade technology. What other advancements do you foresee in the wiper blade segment over the next three to five years?

Blades are getting longer. Ten or 15 years ago, 16- and 18-inch blades used to be the hottest selling sizes and now its 18- and 20-inch blades. Over the last couple of years it has slowly gone up to 22- and 24-inches. In the last two or three years, 25- and 26-inch blades have been developed.

Trico was lucky. Last year we introduced the industry’s only 25-inch blade used on three OE vehicles. Trico just happened to be the supplier on those vehicles. So, we took the blade we developed for the Nissan and put it in our aftermarket packaging and now sell the exact same blade. Being the OE supplier, as additional longer-length blades are developed, puts us in a better position to service the aftermarket.

Another trend I think we will see is an influx of ‘high-end’ lines. In 2001, Trico came out with a Teflon blade. We are a licensee of DuPont. Because Teflon has 97 percent consumer recognition backed up by the fact that it’s an OE Trico blade, we’ve had a lot of success selling it as a ‘high-end’ blade. One of the trends I’ve noticed in the aftermarket over the last two or three years is that some of our competitors are trying to come out with a ‘high-end’ blade that has some type of brand recognition. Companies that are not really in the wiper industry are lending their names to be licensed for wiper blades. For example Michelin and Car and Driver magazine are two names now being licensed for use on wiper blades.

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