Hundreds of Tenneco Inc. North American aftermarket team members and warehouse distributor sales professionals recently hit the streets of Southern California, visiting 1,427 service dealer locations in one day. This was the first of several single-day “lightning strikes” planned by Tenneco, designed to communicate to customers information on the company’s latest products and promotions.

Reminiscent of the Monroe brand’s trademark field sales programs of the past, Tenneco’s Southern California campaign combined personal selling and product training with aggressive regional trade and consumer advertising. The company will take this "Power to the Streets" concept into other key markets in 2006, according to Richard Alameddine, vice president, engineering and marketing, North American aftermarket, Tenneco.

“Tenneco has great products and brands supported by a large and talented field sales force and the industry’s most successful distributors," Alameddine said. “We’re going to leverage this power with market-specific ‘lightning strikes’ throughout the year to communicate how Monroe, Walker, DynoMax and Rancho products help drive shop sales and profitability.”

The single-day Southern California campaign brought together more than 300 Tenneco representatives and leading distributors and jobbers for an evening of training in Laguna Cliffs, CA, before dispatching teams across the region the next morning. The first teams headed out to their assigned counties at 6 a.m., and many did not return to Laguna Cliffs until 7:30 p.m.

In addition to introducing the company’s latest products including Monroe premium brake pads, Monroe Reflex monotube shock absorbers, Walker Quiet-Flow3 exhaust assemblies and DynoMax performance exhaust systems, the teams discussed features of the 2006 Tenneco Expert Plus shop incentive program. Expert Plus offers shops a wide range of marketing and merchandising materials, promotional campaigns and other business-building tools while enabling members to earn attractive rewards by relying on Monroe, Walker, Rancho and DynoMax products. Nearly 700 shops enrolled in the program during the one-day Southern California campaign.

“Years ago, Monroe sales representatives would canvass key markets in their trademark yellow jackets to help installers grow their ride control sales. We’ll be taking the same approach throughout 2006, but with a significantly larger brand and product offering," Alameddine said.