Ivy Hartman: Welcome to SBTV.com the coverage of the SEMA Show in Las Vegas 2008. I’m
Ivy Hartman and with me is Leslie Kennedy of Meguiars. Okay, Leslie tell us more about
Meguiars?
Leslie Kennedy: It is a special brand it’s a 107 year old company, 3rd generation which is
just merge and acquired by 3M.
Ivy Hartman: Oh wow!
Leslie Kennedy: It is— up into that have a family tradition, a legacy and a kind of a future
legacy and a past legacy, lots of family members started you know making lax in the bath tub
and kind of grow open to the number one brand domestically and number one and number two
and sometimes number three around the world.
Ivy Hartman: As far as part of supplies go or what is it the specialty of it?
Leslie Kennedy: Its wax, Meguiars is a wax product.
Ivy Hartman: I see the name every where over here at the SEMA show and I think it’s
automotive industry it’s a household name so forgive me.
Leslie Kennedy: More than wax.
Ivy Hartman: Okay.
Leslie Kennedy: It’s all surface gift so you know tires and paint and interior and dashboard
and class and you name inside and the outside of the vehicle.
Ivy Hartman: Okay so what’s been the key to the success to a business like this to become such
a household name and when they are so many products like that out there.
Leslie Kennedy: Passion.
Ivy Hartman: Okay.
Leslie Kennedy: Purely passion, you mentioned Car Crazy earlier; Car Crazy is the passion
behind Meguiars. Meguiars is a product manufacture and because Meguiars is very passion about
what they does and he believes in the enthusiast, he believes in the car habit and the people that
buy his products to say thank you he develop a second brand which is called Car Crazy. That
brand is on media, it’s internet, it’s television, it’s radio, it is forms, it’s plugs, it’s community,
it’s you know advertising in TV and marketing, we do 9000 events, automotive events in
domestically and we do another 2000 internationally and we support the hobby and we say thank
you and they give back to us.
Ivy Hartman: That make sense so you really buy then you really serving you’re— your creating
your marketing media entity right there you don’t have initially buy in the marketing on other
venues because your doing in yourself and this targeted specifically that the industry you serve.
Leslie Kennedy: You know it didn’t start up that way.
Ivy Hartman: Oh will.
Leslie Kennedy: It’s started to say thank you to the hobby but that has become all media
plot forms and we’re very fortunate and it’s certainly not strategically but it’s very well receive
and everything about the people rather than the cars that’s the difference.
Ivy Hartman: Talk about the rule and the visibility, you have here at the 2008 SEMA show.
Leslie Kennedy: Will we like to support our hobby. We are SEMA television we work with
SEMA and we distribute television into the rooms. we have a stage which we air about a hundred
live interviews on.
Ivy Hartman: Wow!
Leslie Kennedy: A week long all of the players in the hobby, all of the average people in
the high VIP’s and everything in between, everything from food critiques like Guy Theory to the
builders like you know the heartthrob builders, the ten biggest in the world and we bring those to
the people of the show to the people on the internet and then also later on in the television show
to the people at home.
Ivy Hartman: That’s awesome! How long you were partnering with SEMA to do something like
that?
Leslie Kennedy: We have been shooting at SEMA for about 9 years and we have producing
our car crazy stage about file.
Ivy Hartman: Fabulous. Okay that you mention a website how the people go on there to find
more about them.
Leslie Kennedy: There are many, I would say carcrazycentral.com will have it but we have
to aired on television before we can hassle on the internet.
Ivy Hartman: I see.
Leslie Kennedy: So it run on TV in about 9 to 10 weeks and we run on speed.
Ivy Hartman: Okay I want to ask you know for our national viewers how we find that yeah
speed network.
Leslie Kennedy: We run on speed network, we are right on the middle of scheduling as you
know all TV stations are scheduling program and so we don’t know our slot but do know will
have a primetime slot during the week in the evening and will also have a weekend slot.
Ivy Hartman: That’s huge now you will buy all the edge during that slot for yourself then or you
it yourself.
Leslie Kennedy: No, we do not.
Ivy Hartman: It’s kind to be unusual situation.
Leslie Kennedy: Yeah.
Ivy Hartman: Because we manufacture our show, it’s more about the program and that we
provide speed and then we have three ads in it but those we use for our self.
Leslie Kennedy: That so neat now and the Meguiar family name is still family own at this
point where you merchant with three M so do they stop with it?
Ivy Hartman: Oh yes, definitely I don’t know anything about the financials but definitely there
is involvement. Barry Meguiar is staying as President in the company he’ll be the long term and
he is the daughter.
Leslie Kennedy: I was wondering if there was a legacy, yeah.
Ivy Hartman: Yes, even his grandson was in yesterday and he was up on stage and new
generation coming up.
Leslie Kennedy: Awesome, Car Crazy, Meguiars here on SBTV.com who wouldn’t taught.
Thanks for joining us.
Ivy Hartman: Thank you for having me.
Leslie Kennedy: Oh so fun! For more information you can go to there website at
carcrazy.com.
Ivy Hartman: carcrazycentral.com.
Leslie Kennedy: carcrazycentral.com in corrected and we’re going to go continue to go car
crazy here on Small Business Television at the SEMA show 2008.
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