Scott Duffy interviews Barry Meguiar: We're All Car Crazy, Business & Burgers: Season 1 Ep. 9

I'm Alan Taylor. My buddy Scott Duffy and I are in search of the best burger in America. Each month we visit a new city to try some of the top restaurants, pubs and brewhouses while sitting down for a candid conversation with some of the top entrepreneurs, athletes, entertainers and celebrities. I don't know about you, but I love talking business over a burger. Welcome to business and burgers.

Scott and I are back at Muldoons to try another of this award winning pub's burgers. Sitting down with us is Barry McGuire. Barry took his grand grandfather's brand, Meguiar's car care products and transformed it into a household name. And he did it all with little to no advertising. Instead Barry would focus on demonstrating his products at car shows and educating the customer on how to properly use the products. Today Barry travels the world with Car crazy TV to find others who share his passion for the automobile. Today we're trying out Muldoon's best seller, the St. Patty's Burger. With a half pound Angus patty, Dubliner cheese, bacon, lettuce and tomato and some homemade guacamole. It's no wonder this burger is so popular and, and the fries, don't get me started on these hand cut made fresh daily fries. They're to die for.

I was with Barry in France or Germany or somewhere. We've been all over the world.

Yeah, almost all the above.

And one day I hear myself talking on television and I look around and I'm being interviewed by Barry Maguire on car crazy television. So out of this, Barry starts this television show which is also now been the longest running and the number one in its time slot and everything for 18 plus years. It's a car show, not about the cars, it's about the people and the people's passion for what they do which was the driving force behind him. Knowing that because people are so passionate about their cars that if the product is the best that it will sell, build it and they will come build.

The best product and they will buy it.

We actually back up a step beyond that. Behind that you might say the car hobby was dying. Most people going to car shows were my age or older. Car clubs were disbanding, car shows were having poor attendance and that's our audience. If there's not people passionate about their cars, we're going to have a problem. So one day there's a gal in our office, her name is Leslie Kennedy, who's still with me today. And she said speed Vision had just started, Roger Werner had just started Speed Vision and they Were looking for content. She said, let's go to Roger and talk to him and we'll do a show. And you get the stories behind their stories. Talk about why they're so passionate about their cars. All the collectors we know, all the painters, we know all the builders, we know all the people in every genre. Because our car wax, we're with the Volkswagen guys, we're with the Ferrari guys, we know the entirety of the car hobby probably about as well as anybody does. So we created car crazy television to get people excited about this so they can get insight into the car hobby and hear the passion. So here we are 20 years later, and the car hobby is exploding for a lot of reasons. But I think we had a little something to do with it, because it was never about selling car wax. It was about growing the car hobby. But here's what I knew. If you're a car guy, you're going to end up using Meguiar's product. But we're the only company that's created a brand for our customers. See, when I go to car show, they don't yell, I'm McGuire's, they're not Meguiar's, but they do yell, I'm car crazy. Bunches of them. They get together from across. So you've seen it. We're car. Hey, Barry. We're car crazy. We've given them identity. We all like different types of cars, but we're all car crazy. We all share the same passion, and so we have brought community.

You really knew who your customer was.

You knew that target, and you went.

Really deep down that niche. You've gone through, like three transformations with your business, right? There was your grandfather's version of the business. There was you taking it to retail. Maybe that was version two.

It was a professional brand. It wasn't retail. It's two entirely different worlds. And then going into television and doing that.

So as an entrepreneur, how do you kind of transform or remake yourself or your business?

If two people are doing the same thing the same way, one of them is not necessary. We have never followed the crowd. We have never followed. We don't care what our competitors do. We pay no attention to them whatsoever. We don't advertise. We do, but we're a terrible advertiser. You have to have a point of differentiation in your business. That's my point. I'm saying, why should they go to you and not go to somebody else? If you're all in the same, then it's a price issue differentiator. So you have to have a value added. When I walk into a retailer when they didn't know who I was, I just talked to them for a while and I found out what their hotspot was, what was their struggling with this and my mind would race. How can I help them? If I can help you be a success, maybe you can help me be a success. But first I want to help you. So let's just focus on you right now. We found ways to do that going to car shows, nobody. We ended up being the biggest sponsor of car shows in the world. Today we're at just about every major car show in the world. Every weekend you go to Russia, today you go to China, you go to Indonesia, you go to Thailand, you go to France. If there's a major car show, our men in black will probably be there. And you know what they do? They just love on people and they go out and they say, you got a problem, let's go see your car.

That's so cool that you found where your target customer was at the car shows. You brought your wax and you do a little bit of wax, a little polish and you give a little something away. And what did they have to do in return for that?

You know I'd put a little spot on their car, right? Yeah. They'd say, wow. I'd say, I thought you'd like that. Here, I'll give you the bottle. You're not trying to sell me something? No, I don't sell anything. What's the deal? Yeah, I just want you to know about our products. Really? Yeah. And I take two steps on purpose. And long before Columbo came up with the thing, I had this extra question. Oh wait, one more question.

If you like the product, what it does to your car, would you put a little sign there saying you use Meguiar's? Well, of course we would. So by the time the show opens, every car in the show there is Cadillac and Mercedes and all these big brands all around. But I got with my little 10 foot space and I've got every show car in the building having a Lowell McGuire sign.

It's almost like the old school version of what we call a tripwire. So using technology to get people into a sales funnel, giving something away. Like I believe today that it's never been more difficult to get a customer in and make that purchase for the first time. It's never been easier to get that person to buy from you the second time. And so what you've done is in the same way you may direct Someone to your website in return for them registering for something.

Of course, now it's more of the website. Social media technology today. So we're not doing just at car shows on weekends. We used to have to be there personally, and we still do it. As I just told you, real social media. Real social media. We have a reputation now. You go to McGuire's and they'll tell you how to do it. We have a call center. The only company in our business does this. You call our company and ask for the call center, you got a problem. I got swirl marks, I got scratches, I got water stains, I got acid rain. Whatever the problem is, this person will stay with them for a half hour. He'll give them their name, call back, go and use these products and call me back, let me know if that works. And they're not trying to sell anything. These are car guys with passion that want to help you. Because people have all these questions. They help you through the process. People are starving for help, and we overwhelm them with help. Well, how does that pay off? Do you think that guy will ever use anybody else's product ever again? There is this thing called lifetime value. If you invest in them and you do it genuinely, you really want. And you get your joy from helping their car look the best. And you get your joy when they win Bess's show. That is so cool. But that is the really. That's what makes my day. But you know what happens then? They are never going to leave us. The four steps of marketing. Here's four steps of marketing for any entrepreneur. First is awareness. You got to find your unique piece and you got to create awareness for them. Okay? Yeah. And that could take some time. Next step is community. You buy in, you use the product. Can you believe what Meguiar's does? Can you believe? And you know, if you take that product and you can also use it over here. Have you ever tried it on your wheel? You will not believe what it is. It even works on furniture. And you get this community. They're all shared. That's community. But the last step is the most important. Advocacy. Advocacy is when you buy a product. Did you see that movie? That was. Wasn't that a great movie? You haven't seen that movie? You got to go see that movie.

Yeah.

You haven't used Maguire's. So you know the story I've heard most consistently through the years. I was walking by in this car show. This guy had this great car and he was using X brand of product on it. And I Just cringed. And I went over. I said, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Don't. Don't use that for. I'll be back in a minute. They go and get their bottle of Meguiar's, and they come back and they show him how McGuire's. And most of the time, they say, and I gave him my bottle of product.

They're. So that's what we did. They give their bottle of product. They're advocates. And so the last step for any entrepreneur, Find your point of identification. Make it clear to people why you're not good at everybody but the people that you have to identify your target audience. My target audience was car guys. I didn't want the general audience. I don't care anything about. People are going to wax cigar once a year, you know, with no patience, just because they're waxing out of obligation. I'm with the person that wax their car once a week.

Yeah.

You know? Yeah. And so they have patience. They want to know. So I aim everything at them, and they buy in. They have communities invested in that customer.

He's investing that customer. And here's the thing. That whole marketing strategy was done without an ad budget.

No.

Our adventure was horrible. It was sweat equity, you might say, although we didn't sweat because it was so much fun. But you know what you put your time in. But it's passion. And what we've heard through the years over and over. Why is it that everybody in your company has this same passion? They're so excited. They're so proud to be working for Meguiar's.

How do you do that?

You do that by making it very clear what you are. And then you only hire people. I don't care. The manager comes, and we've had a position open for three weeks. We got to hire somebody. And they're perfect. Their skills are just perfect. But they don't share the passion. They're just going to be. I said no. And the manager gets so upset, I say, I'm sorry. But we only hire people that share our passion. We got to have a company culture that so understands that. And you need to work that through your company. So everybody understands that. So you.

You know your target customer so well that you know that niche so well, and they're so passionate or about their hobby. And it sounds like it's the same thing. You have, like this. This perfect representation of who your employee is. There's somebody that shares that same passion.

You have to know it first.

Yeah, you have to know it first.

You have to Know it first. Get very clear what you're doing. Razor sharp. Do not make that circle small. Stay there, hire people, understand that. Do your market research. Go out there, figure out who is it that, who are you aiming that at and when. If it's a big enough, if it's a small market, then you're never going to succeed no matter how well you do it. It's got to be a big market. You find out where is it where you can suck up the most number of people that are going to get excited about what you have and then get more excited about satisfying their problems than selling product to them. That's key. I worked for years to get on Walmart shelf. I get one product, wow, I got a product on Walmart shelf. Now we have 75 products on Walmart shelf. Goes for 15ft. You know, you know how we got there? One car guy at a time. Wow. One car guy loving on our customers, creating a lifetime value. Lifetime customers that will stand up for us, that would defend us to the nth and they pass it down generation. How many people I got it from, my dad told me never use anything else. We have a brand loyalty that's over 80%. Like 82% brand loyalty. How many products Microsoft, how many products have 82% brand loyalty? You know, I mean, that's pretty phenomenal. But we never let them down. And the goal of our company is the products. We have to have the product that deserves that kind of loyalty. So the product itself has to be the best. If you do that half heartedly, then everything else falls apart. But we do it every moment of every day, day and night, 24 hours a day, thanks to technology. And we're not in the selling business. I'm not trying to sell you Meguiar's. I'm trying to educate you how you can get that perfect finish. And that has a lot to do with towels and the, and the technique and how you wipe and the buffer speeds. And there's like an educational process.

So are you using forums or.

We use forums. We have Maguire's online. You go there and you know what happens? They presume they're, they're doing it, we're not doing it. We're watching it do it and we're walking it. And I found out that you can do this and we learn from them. You know, it's so exciting to see that happen.

It's like these car guys used to have to meet at the shows. And you created, you've leveraged technology, you've created forums and now what's happening is they can meet@mcguires.com through these forums. It's unbelievable where they're educating which helps to further.

So people come and say, well and learn from them. You'll learn more from them than you'll learn from us. And so there's this community. Technology is so wonderful. We do that 24 7. Globally. Yeah, globally. But you have to have content. We have great content. And quite frankly, if they'll use our training content, any product they use, should I say this, any car wax they use, they're going to get better results. With anybody else products, they'll get better results. You get the best results if you use the best techniques and the best products.

But they'll actually get better results with our competitors products if they learn what we've learned over 115 years of what it takes to get a perfectly clear we call it show card, Perfect paint finish. If that's your desire, we can help you get it.

That's awesome.

Barry's been a friend and a mentor of mine for a long time and every time we talk I learn something new. So here's some food for thought. If the product is the best, it will sell. If two people are doing the same thing the same way, one of them is unnecessary. Don't follow the crowd. Identify your target audience and focus on solving their problems rather than just selling selling them a product.

Next time on Business and Burgers. We're in Seattle to grab a burger with Lee Rhodes. Lee started selling glassy babies, roughly hewn glass candle holders after she was diagnosed with cancer for a third time. During her treatment, she saw other patients who couldn't even afford the bus fare to the hospital, let alone the cost of their treatment. So Lee sold her glassbabies and donated the profits to cancer charities. Today, Glassy Baby has donated over $5 million to charity and has promoted hope and healing for cancer patients all over the world. Join us next time and hear Lee's inspiring story right here on Business and Burgers.

Check out more episodes of Business and Burgers and our B and B blog at our website, businessandburgers.com and don't forget, visit Business and Burgers on Facebook and give us a big thumbs up. We'll see you next time right here on Business and Burgers.

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