Super SMART Strategy!

This is a short story about a super smart brand strategy created by Meineke.

Driven Brands, the parent company of Meineke, underwent leadership changes in July of 2012. With that came a restructuring of its marketing group and a new viewpoint for brand development and reinventing the car-care category.

The strategy focuses on empowering consumers to care for their cars. The tagline is “Drive a little smarter” and is supported by television spots featuring “kid mechanics” sharing extremely simple and practical ways to care for your car. The spots proclaim that if you take care of your car, your car will take care of you. Who can argue with that?

My favorite spots in the series feature Sam and Scotty providing tips for identifying if your car needs brakes or tires. The “tire” spot instructs consumers to use a penny to measure their tire treads. (This is genius.) “If Abe’s head doesn’t cover the tread, you tires are probably bald,” Sam declares. (BTW: She is adorable…the casting for these spots could not be better.)

The 15-second versions are just as good as the 30s. If you haven’t seen them, you should.

“If your brakes sound annoying, like this”…as Scotty blows air into his terribly sounding musical recorder, “then you probably need new brakes,” states Sam. She goes on to explain that brakes are designed to squeak when they go bad and she asks what’s more important than stopping when you need to?

This is an excellent example of a sound brand strategy driving the advertising and marketing campaign. It is also the best way to swim out of the sea of sameness in an overcrowded category. Kudos to Meineke!