Carrying the brand experience on through from the digital to the physical.

Yes, the term “UX Design” is specifically used in referencing web/software design although a successful “user experience” is carried all the way through all facets of the brand.

The objective for many of the events attended by Race Technologies was to educate and inform people at events as a core discipline of Race Technologies to its authorized Brembo Performance dealers and the market.

Why do you do events?

The response I most often hear is for “brand awareness” which it does do, but if that is the only reason you are doing events, that is probably one of the most costly ways of creating awareness while not fully utilizing your involvement at an event.

The common vendor booth set-up

Within the performance automotive aftermarket (all markets from import, euro, to domestic), the typical booth consists of:

1. A canopy.
2. A table with some brochures, flyers, and some products.
3. A person or a bunch of people sitting behind the table, and in some cases some girl in booty shorts.

The table and table cloth set-up is an approach I liken to a help desk which I never saw any point of having at events because the majority of questions posed nowadays can be found online such as “do you have this for my car” and “how much?”

If this were twenty years ago, that might have been a valid way to use events since it took weeks to months to be able to get a catalog that you sent anywhere for that costs anywhere from $5-10 for. In fact, I think a couple companies never came through with sending one out after I had sent my money in, or I remember it taking several months to get one from either HKS or TRD back in the day.

Nowadays, brand awareness, pricing, and product information can easily be found online although companies in these markets have not adapted to these changes.

Not all market segments fall into this pit

There is one niche that does not fall into this category and that is the “Dub” market. Almost every single company to booth had a set-up to engage and acquire contact information. The vendors had a number of people to gather contact information, along with give-aways meant to encourage people to sign-up for contact lists either email or via their social media.

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Here are few ways I maximized our involvement with events

Define the user experience

I do not leave the experience up to the user to determine how they should approach us, and instead I work on ways to actively engage them. The first thing I do to do that, is by making the appearance of the booth approachable and engaging.

The design of your booth and your staff is a reflection of your brand: you might have a message you’re sending about your brand. One thing that I am bothered by when walking through any event from CES, DWELL, SEMA, to a local car enthusiast event is to see the staff hiding behind desks or tables.

I did not want to see our staff behind a desk, a table, or display, and I wanted everybody to feel as though RT/Brembo and Sabelt are inclusive vs. exclusive which is why you won’t find a VIP area or the space corded off.

Having people on one side, and the others on the opposite is an adversarial stance that I wanted to avoid because it can be a rather intimidating walking by, and if don’t want to ask the typical questions, there’s really no reason to engage the brand.

Have a marketing objective/message: I did not feature new products because you can easily find imagery online of what it looks like and it does nothing to progress the conversation along as to why you should buy a Brembo brake system.

1. Brembo is synonymous with professional racing. which is something all of the entry-level companies can not claim since they are not used in professional racing. Brembo’s direct competitors also do not have the same level of involvement, so we showed the vast range and types of products that Brembo offers for a street to racing applications.
2. What are brake systems designed to do? manage heat because unfortunately the vast majority of people do not know this… well, their first answer is to say to “stop” which is correct, but to repeatedly stop, you need to manage heat.
3. What is the difference between a street, track, to racing brake system?  I had these systems to show the varying heat that a track enthusiast, a sport car team, to a NASCAR brake system goes through. Knowing this helps the user determine which upgrades are appropriate for them without  always thinking they need “race” brakes (that is usually the typical answer).

My main objectives are typically to address the most commonly asked question or misconceptions about the product or service that a website cannot easily answer such as “how does that race seat feel like? Is it comfortable? Which size do I need?”

Aligning the booth and staff with the brand: you might have a message you’re sending about your brand. One thing that I am bothered by when walking through any event from CES, DWELL, SEMA, to a local car enthusiast event is to see the staff hiding behind desks or tables.

I did not want to see our staff behind a desk, a table, or display, and I wanted everybody to feel as though RT/Brembo and Sabelt are inclusive vs. exclusive which is why you won’t find a VIP area or the space corded off.

Having people on one side, and the others on the opposite is an adversarial stance that I wanted to avoid because it can be a rather intimidating walking by, and if don’t want to ask the typical questions, there’s really no reason to engage the brand.

2. Make full use of the physical/tactile experience: the web is great, but it still does not compare to a real life experience of what a product feels like to sit in it or the tactile feel of the release on a harness.

Depending upon your stature and physique, the only way to be certain of what you’ll be comfortable sitting in it, is by actually test fitting the seat.

5. Have some metrics in place to measure the performance of your event involement. Just going to the event is the least you can do, and there are a lot of things I would do to maximize our return on our investment at each event we attended.

One of the signs we used which was a cost-effective solution done up on a color printer with an acrylic magnetic frame.

I utilized the tiles to define the parameters of the event space and to establish a visual distintction between the brand and the overall event otherwise booths tend to blend together.

Tiles are commonly used in racing paddocks, but it is something you do not commonly see used at enthusiast events although carpet is sometimes used.

It is best not to assume everybody knows what your company does, so a simple sign that lets people know what you do is essential.

Being at these events, one of the major priorities I had was to support our dealers. Not only did I list all of our dealers who would be at the event, but I also made sure we had “Official Brembo Dealer” vertical banners at each dealers booth. This not only made sure that even goers knew who were our dealers, but it also increased Brembo’s presence at the event.

A step’n’repeat can help with maximizing your presence on social media, but you can use anything that is Instagram worthy.