• by Karl Greenberg , February 2, 2011

Auto parts distributor NAPA has a customer base that mostly comprises the people who fix cars for a living rather than people who fix their own cars for pleasure or savings. But the company is doing a number of Hispanic-market programs this year that look a lot like pure B-to-C grassroots campaigns. The reason, says Eduardo Perez, president of PM Publicidad, NAPA's Hispanic marketing agency since 2003, is that there are a lot of mechanics, professional and amateur gear heads who happen to be Hispanic.

"Hispanics over-index for do-it-yourself and, perhaps more importantly for NAPA, they over-index in the automotive service technical professions," he says. "Hispanics represent 12% of the working population in the U.S., but at least 17% of mechanics are Hispanic." According to Perez, only about 30% of NAPA business is retail, the other 70% is wholesale, "so their biggest consumers are professionals in places like shops and vehicle fleets."

The Atlanta-based company is doing a grassroots program, NAPA's Pura Calidad Mobile Tour, around its status as "Official Auto Parts Sponsor of the Federación Mexicana de Fútbol (FMF)" Mexico's national soccer team, and the "Official Auto Parts Sponsor of the team's El Tri U.S. Tour" this year.

In addition to being at five FMF games at stadiums in cities like Atlanta, Oakland, Calif., and San Diego, the tour will visit 10 major U.S. cities, Alianza de Fútbol amateur soccer games, Hispanic festivals, and NAPA locations. The road show, with themes around sports, music, and family, includes things like autograph sessions with soccer legends, games, contests and merchandise.

The first FMF game is on Feb. 9 in Atlanta's Georgia Dome, where Mexico faces Bosnia-Herzegovina. The company is promoting the tour on NAPA Pura Calidad Facebook page.

Perez says this will be the sixth year in which NAPA is sponsoring the Mexican National Soccer Team, but the first involving a grassroots tour. "NAPA in general is not a company that does heavy general-market advertising," he says -- adding that while the company has a media budget of around $20 million, "they don't spend a lot on traditional media; it's mostly radio and TV around motorsports like NHRA (drag racing), and around NFL and outdoors-themed cable shows."

NAPA did Hispanic-market TV outreach for the first time last year on channels like ESPN Desportes. The company has also sponsored Major League Soccer, but has dropped that program. "It's great for reaching soccer fans and Hispanics, but it was hard to get regions to embrace it and leverage it." He says that is not the case with FMF. "This is certainly an expansion of what we have been doing in the past," says Perez, adding that average attendance at the FMF games last year was 50,000.

He says the idea of the mobile tour was "to take that experience out to more NAPA stores, secondary markets and, generally, to 'spread the love' with the Alianza de Fútbol amateur soccer program. And those games are not just for one day. In some markets it's two or three weekends in a row of tournaments. It allows us to support Hispanics' passion for soccer in a different way, at the amateur grassroots level."