Does Sex sell at SEMA

Booth babe bonanza:  Do bikinis sell car parts?

NIKA ROLCZEWSKI SPECIAL TO THE STAR

Halfway through the flight to Las Vegas, talking to the young woman seated beside me, we discovered we were both headed to the largest automotive aftermarket trade show in the world.

I was going to the Specialty Equipment Marketing Association show as a journalist. She said she was going to SEMA to work at a booth for a wheel company.

I was about to ask her thoughts on chrome dipping versus electroplating when she mentioned that her job would be to loiter at the booth, posing for pictures next to the product the company intended to sell.

Now, I'm not a blatant feminist. I wear dresses, like shopping and think Paul Newman in his 70s is still a hottie, but one thing I feel strongly about is the role and perception of women in the automotive industry. I've often questioned the validity and value of using scantily dressed young women to increase sales of an auto product or service.

And here I was, going to a trade show notorious for its "booth babes."

Does adorning your booth with scantily clad women sell product? Not directly — not unless they staff the cash register. But there are benefits to their presence apparently.

At the show, Andy Freeman, of the English company EBC Brakes, said this is the first time his company has used models at a U.S. trade show. Models featured on the company's posters were there to sign their autographs, and there were long lineups of both post- and pre-pubescent men for those posters, but Freeman could not say whether it meant increased sales of brake pads and rotors.

But while the men waited in line, company reps would scan their information cards. This, in turn, would help establish a mailing list that could lead to sales in the future.

As well, the posters themselves — pasted with a pretty woman, company logo and, sometimes, even product — will make their way back to shops and offices and so advertise the name and brand of EBC Brakes. I asked Freeman if EBC does the same sort of marketing back home in England.

"No," he said. "It's too cold to wear dresses so short."

Could it be just the monotony of wheels and tires that warranted this advertising and that it was just the degree of nudity that varied from booth to booth? One does get lost in a sea of shiny round rims and black circular tires.

This T & A marketing can sometimes backfire and actually cheapen the image of the product by the use of what's called the "trashier" kind of the model.

But a rule of marketing is to know your audience. The vast majority of registered guests of the SEMA show were male. The risk of alienating a potential female buyer is low compared to a dealership showroom where bikinis would be out of place.

Second, know your product. The female automotive consumer plays a big part in the buying decision for a new car, for example, but less so in dealing with forged aluminum parts. With its vast array of automotive parts and services, the SEMA show had something for everyone and the difference in the amount of naked skin varied greatly among the products.

I moved on to Fabtech Performance Suspensions of Chino, Calif., where there were no booth babes at all to be seen. "Our suspension systems are sexy enough," joked general manager Greg Soaper.

"People come to our space knowing what they are looking for. We don't want to distract them from our award winning products." Something must be working, since Fabtech is one of the largest manufacturers of aftermarket suspension lift kits in the world.

As well, Bridgestone and Michelin both adorned their booths with fine Formula One cars. Their marketing included autograph sessions with racers Mario Andretti and Kimi Raikkonen respectively, and their lineups were the longest I saw all week.

But they were the exceptions.

Never forget that a celebrity in a spandex outfit will not influence the majority of the tire-buying public. Issues such as quality, durability, safety and price are the decision makers.

Would you buy Aspirin because a pretty girl is selling it, or because it works? Creativity in marketing can achieve the same results.

There's no argument that women and cars have gone together since the beginning of high performance time. In 1966, one of the first and best-known promotional women was Linda Vaughn — Miss Hurst Golden Shifter.

While the majority of the other models' fame will fade at the end of this show, Vaughn has built a career from her association with an automotive part. Her appearance at the SEMA show this year signing autographs was for the nostalgic old timers.

As for the others — Jade, Kat and Soy, to name a few — it was just a job, with many returning to their evening work at local establishments for the night shift. It was easy money for a few hours a day posing or signing.

Before leaving, I approached Jim Simpson, owner of an automotive tinting shop in North Highlands, Calif. He had just stood in line at the DONZ Wheel booth to get an autograph and chat to the girl. It's his fourth year attending the SEMA show and he says it's the "girls first, then the product."

I asked him if he could tell me the name of the booth's company and the product it sells.

"I haven't a f------ clue," he said, and went to find another poster.