Pretty good read.....
(snipped copy - See link for entire article)
Profile of a Phenomenon
by Barbara E. Mathews, M.D., FACS, FACOG
Introduction
Andy Granatelli has a long and accomplished career in business
(most notably as President and CEO of STP Corporation, but in
numerous other endeavors as an entrepreneur as well) and in
virtually every aspect of motor sports-as a race car driver, race car
owner, marketing and sales promotion genius, creative automotive
designer, and inventive automotive engineer. His celebrated record
of distinguished leadership and achievements in business are
legendary.
Andy has highlighted our free enterprise system by combining with
inimitable style his role as corporate executive in large, paneled,
thickly carpeted offices with life on the reckless outer edge, made up
of every increasing speed, competitive racing, fast cars, and high
winding engines, with unique flare, finesse, and aplomb. Arguably
the most dogged, controversial figure at the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway, sporting an insatiable desire and relentless determination
to win, Andy always has thrived on contest, rivalry, promotion, and
exposure-all traits which uniquely have characterized and peppered
his successful business career.
Andy's remarkable accomplishments exemplify and serve as
inspiration for the just rewards induced by consistent hard work, self
imposed demand for high standards, drive for perfection, dedication
to customer satisfaction, concern for employee welfare, thirst for
challenge, courageous risk taking strategy, creative thinking, and
unlimited broad vision.
Obviously, it comes as no surprise that, as one of the captains of the
automotive industry and precedent setting innovator in the motorsports establishment, Andy repeatedly has been recognized and
honored, justifiably and appropriately, for his dedicated efforts in
and unique contributions to this discipline. He was knighted by the
Italian Government with the title of Cavalieri nel Ordine della
Republica Italiana in 1993, and will have been inducted into
eighteen separate Halls of Fame by January, 2003.
His enormous success in numerous business ventures, coupled with
his ardent passion for philanthropy and sense of social
responsibility, distinguish him and set him apart as a true folk hero
in our time.
The Early Years
Andy Granatelli's life story stands as a true "Grapes of Wrath"
phenomenon. Along with his father and two brothers, Joe and Vince,
young Andy, the middle child, came out of Texas during the Great
Depression.
He grew up in the slums of Chicago-pitiful, ragged, entirely
penniless, and literally starving, but with that unmeasurable recipe
of courage, creativity, tenacious, eternal optimism, supreme
confidence, high ideals, unbridled imagination, passion for hard
work matched by physical stamina, drive, and endurance-those only
God given ingredients essential to
make history, not to be victim of
it.
Andy's father Vincent, a dignified, austere, kind gentleman with
greying hair and imposing stature, had immigrated from Sicily at the
young age of 17, leaving the small town of Campo di Felice, near
Palermo, to seek fortune in America. He had taught himself to read
and write English, and, in the years before 1929, had established
himself as a grocer in Dallas, Texas, and was a well-respected
advisor to families in the Italian community there.
With the stock market crash in 1929, the family lost everything-the
store, the little house, and any minor savings. With nothing but the
clothes on their backs, they traveled to Chicago, living briefly with
relatives part of the time, and on Relief, NPA, and WPA, most of the
time-existing on a sparse diet of old oatmeal and worm infested
farina.
Andy's mother died when he was twelve years old, and his father
spent most of his adult life trying to rear, guide, and control his three
roughneck sons.In Chicago, the family lived huddled in the slums not far from
Soldier Field, sustaining themselves by the few pennies collected
from recycling of old Coca Cola bottles discarded at the Chicago
World's Fair. Andy and his brothers would hike eighteen miles
round trip to fill shopping bags with bottles gathered from garbage
cans, lawns, and grandstands to generate a mere eight dollars a week
during times of peak sales.
In the mid 1930's the family fell in with the many caravans on a
California trek-father Vince anxiously in search of some work or
promise of that elusive golden opportunity out West, only to
experience failure and starvation yet again-and returned emptyhanded
to Chicago where young Andy found employment for six
dollars a week as a delivery boy by day, collecting added pennies as
a clerk and stocking grocery shelves also at night.
Dropping out of school at age 14 to help feed his family, Andy also
took on extra work hauling coal up flights of stairs in the
neighborhood tenements in winter months. Also, the Granatelli
brothers sold produce out of an old 1927 Buick and started cars on
the coldest of Chicago mornings to get that badly needed extra cash.
This was the start of Andy Granatelli. Through hardship, he
somehow, as if miraculously, combined his inimitable business
acumen and now legendary salesmanship to produce so many varied
careers, some of which seem downright unbelievable, that each is a
virtual Horatio Alger epic in its own right. Andy unquestionably was
born supercharged.
Entrepreneurial Beginnings
Andy Granatelli began his career in 1943, at the age of 20, when he
and his brothers pooled their meager resources to purchase a Texaco
gas station on the north shore of Chicago, which he called "Andy's
Super Service." From the outset, on Chicago's lakefront, Andy
proved to be a high profile trend-setter; he initiated the concept of a
"pit stop" gasoline service station and repair shop, using four to five
mechanics working on a car at one time. This unique service concept
drew customers in, willing to wait, sometimes in lines a block long,
just to appreciate the true "super service" experience.
Ironically, this was truly a case of people buying the "sizzle, not the
steak," since the benefit of the rapid customer service which Andy
provided was defrayed by the extended wait in long lines. But the
super advertising phenomenon never failed to please the crowds.They loved it, and Andy prospered from it.
Two years later, in 1945, Andy and his brothers formed the
Granatelli Corporation, naming their business "Grancor Automotive
Specialists." This is where Andy first introduced the concept of mass
merchandising of performance products, quickly becoming the
leading national manufacturing, distribution, and sales organization
for automotive power and speed equipment. An inimitable
marketing genius and entrepreneur, Andy successfully demonstrated
that basic need and public interest can be combined to provide high
quality, consistent products and service on a grand scale.
Andy recognized early on that if you give the customer what he
needs, you make a living; if you give the customer what he wants,
you will make a fortune. By introducing and opening the normal
retail and wholesale automotive distribution outlets to sell his power
and speed equipment, it is said that the SEMA (Specialty Equipment
Market Association) show may never have existed if not for Andy
Granatelli's foresight and boldness in being the first to develop a
booth at the regular wholesale automotive parts warehouse shows.
People professed that he was crazy to try this. Today the power and
speed business is a multi billion dollar industry.
Combining his business ventures in the boardroom with his passion
for auto racing engineering and motor sports promotion seemed to
come naturally. In 1946 Andy and his brother built the only
successful rocket car in history that was run on oval tracks. It was
driven by Andy himself (promoted as "Antonio the Great") on state
fairgrounds throughout the Midwest and South. And what a true
sensation it was!
At Grancor, Andy built and sold hundreds of Ford V8 hopped up flat
head motors to customers in the Southeast and throughout the
United States. These engines were used by moon shiners as well as
running stock car races on the sand at Daytona Beach, Florida, and
other races throughout the South. Granatelli built motors repeatedly
dominated qualifying and set world records.
Enjoying a passion for building hot rods, and aspiring to raise public
awareness and improve the quality of motor sports, Andy, in 1947,
formed and became President of the Hurricane Hot Rod Racing
Association. In that capacity, using his penchant for showmanship,
promotion, and advertising insights, Andy single-handedly created a
series of hot rod and stock car racing events that were held at
Chicago's Soldier Field, packing in an all time record of 89,560 fans,
the biggest crowd to this date, exceeding by at least 10 fold theattendance at any stock car auto racing event in history for a quarter
mile track.
Also in 1947, at Soldier Field, with a meager advertising budget of
only $1500, Andy held the first hot rod race outside California,
generating a record crowd of 24, 962 race fans. This attendance was
over six times larger than any California hot rod event. A year later,
Andy started promoting stock car races to crowds that averaged 10
times higher attendance than that at any other quarter mile track in
the United States.
In 1952, at Half Day Speedway in Libertyville, Illinois, Andy
pioneered and ran the first drag race outside of California. He
advertised and promoted his first race at Half Day drag strip as "the
first nationally advertised drag race," and successfully drew an
historical, record crowd of over 26,000 race fans for this first event,
a remarkable feat by comparison to the meager attendance of
approximately 1500 persons at the California tracks. Once again,
Andy proved to be a master at sales, engineering, advertising,
marketing, innovation, and promotion-a skill that served him well as
his career progressed.
During this years as President and CEO of Grancor Automotive
Specialists, Andy was actively racing as Vice Chairman of
NASCAR, President of California Muffler Sales, Hurricane Hot Rod
Racing Association, Half Day Speedway, and Chicago Auto Racing.
Andy took his first race car to the Indianapolis 500 in 1946-a prewar
Miller Ford, an historic car even in its day. Two years later
Andy, himself, drove in the Indy, wearing his good friend Bill
France's borrowed helmet to pass his rookie test.
The Birth of STP
In 1958, Andy and his brother Joe bought Paxton Products, a
floundering engineering firm which manufactured superchargers and
had experienced an abysmal operating loss in the last five months of
operation alone. In the first seven months under Andy's leadership
and guidance, employing Andy's aggressive, innovative advertising
and sales promotion techniques, Paxton Products became highly
profitable, almost immediately recouping the entire business losses,
and even posting a considerable profit.
Andy's prompt success in the redevelopment of this company
brought him instant industry recognition and the invitation tobecome engaged as a performance engineer consultant to several
automobile companies.
Following the lucrative sale in 1961 of Paxton Products to
Studebaker Corporation, while still CEO of Paxton Products, Andy
took on the responsibilities of Vice President, Chief of Performance
Engineering, Chief Driver, and Chief Engineer. At Studebaker,
Andy personally directed engine and chassis development, setting
more than 400 world land speed and endurance records, driving and
setting many of the fastest records himself. In 1961, Andy in his 300
F Chrysler, ran a record return speed of 179.472 mph, the fastest
time ever recorded by NASCAR on the sands of Daytona Beach.
Also at Studebaker, Andy developed the first prototype Chrysler
300, Cadillac Eldorado, Studebaker Avanti, and R Series Engines;
redesigned the immortal Novi racing engine, increasing the
horsepower from 450 to 837; and owned and ran the immortal Novi
race cars both at the Indy 500 and in Atlanta, Georgia's Hi-Bank
Track (for which he is laureate in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of
America).
Moreover, at STP in 1967, Andy completely designed, built, ran,
and campaigned the world famous, controversial STP Turbine Carwithout
dispute, the most creative, innovative, spectacular,
futuristically engineered, forward thinking race car in history-the
subject of over 30,000 articles worldwide, pictured on the cover of
hundreds of magazines, and currently on display at the Smithsonian
Institute.
Andy's associations with Studebaker in 1963 led him to become
President and CEO of a company that was a partially owned
subsidiary and whose only product was STP Oil Treatment. This is
where Andy was to make his most significant and lasting
contributions to the advertising process and the automobile racing
world.
At STP, Andy combined his inimitable business acumen, advertising
insight, intuitive promotional abilities, salesmanship, and innovative
marketing strategies, first to change the name of the company from
Chemical Compounds to the name of the product, STP, and soon to
make STP a virtual household word.
As President and CEO of STP, Andy, in fewer than seven years,
raised the company from a level of virtual obscurity to a position of
dominance in the world market. The company quickly expandedfrom 7 to over 2000 employees as sales skyrocketed; profits grew
exponentially, and market share increased from 7% to over 85%. All
the while, Andy's name recognition and his accomplishments in the
auto racing world rose to new and monumental heights on a
worldwide basis.
Advertising Strategy
Just how did Andy accomplish his monumental success at STP, and
what was the eventual impact of his remarkable achievements in the
business arena? Andy was arguably the first person to apply the
principle of "grand scale," spectacular, "mass merchandising" to
sports activities in general, and to motor sports in particular. Andy
made his mark in auto racing, but his operating principles could
have been applied anywhere, and clearly stand alone in distinction
and in historical importance.
Since Andy initially was allowed only a minuscule advertising and
sales promotion budget, he adopted a quadripod theory of
advertising and marketing, a "Granatelli theorem," it might be
called, which included a product log (in this case STP), a product
(oil treatment), a product spokesman (himself), and a raison d'etre
(auto racing).
Andy personally redesigned the STP logo and changed the color
from a deep, dark maroon to a more identifiable, more spirited dayglo
red with white and blue trim. He removed the name "oil
treatment" from the product logo, in spite of vehement opposition
from the Board of Directors of the company.
Cleverly, Andy was able to apply his STP logo on every type of race
car in every type of car and boat race by offering contingency
products, trophies, and/or cash prize money to the winners, provided
they used his product, and displayed the STP decal. This created
unparalleled demand for his nameless product decals. Andy
distributed literally several hundred million free STP decals to fans
at auto, boat, and air races, as well as offering decals through mail-in
coupons in advertisements which provided free decals with the
purchase of STP Oil Treatment.
Soon, the program expanded further when STP Oil Treatment and
free STP decals were available in 99% of the more than 238,000
gasoline stations and 37,000 automotive parts wholesalers across the
nation. Most of these locations exhibited large, colorful banners,
along with STP Oil Treatment on display racks provided at nocharge, meanwhile distributing free STP decals to anyone who
wanted them.
Andy sent teams of salespeople along with local automotive jobber
salesmen into gasoline stations across the country, first starting at
the less densely populated perimeters of towns in order to
demonstrate how to sell his product directly to the consumer. He
showed the jobber salesperson, as well as the gasoline service
station attendants, how to sell STP directly to the car owner. His
men then took fistfuls of orders from gas stations to the jobber, and
then STP asked the jobber for an order. Having established its
quality, consistency, efficacy, and popularity, Andy used the
established success and credibility to continue into mass populated
urban areas. Sales and profits skyrocketed.
Andy was unique in the way he marketed a product. He took the
totally unprecedented, bold initiative, in the face of the most severe
opposition, to lower the discount provided to his highest volume
customers who normally supplied their jobbers (called warehouse
distributors) from 60% to the 40% off provided to jobbers, thereby
effectively making everyone jobbers. Andy used the extra 20%
savings for advertising and sales promotions. It was unprecedented
not only to produce such a radical elimination of the "middleman,"
but also to add all this new found money to an advertising and sales
promotion budget, raising the budget from the usual 10% to an
astounding 30% of sales.
Andy used his advertising money to get the consumer to come in to
ask for his product rather than to rely upon a warehouse distributor
to sell the product to jobbers who in turn sold to dealers (gas
stations). He very effectively reversed the demand to flow directly
from the consumer.
Moreover, Andy championed and pioneered the unprecedented
concept of committing his entire annual STP advertising budget to
be spent in the first nine months, and took the equally boldfaced,
controversial action in the 1960's to assign a disproportionately large
percentage of his advertising budget to include STP promotional
items such as sample products, decals, banners, and assorted
memorabilia (including baseball style caps, tee shirts, jackets, duffel
bags, ties, pens, etc., all bearing STP logos predominantly on them),
which he distributed to the public by the hundreds of thousands at
no charge. Using this advertising strategy, Andy succeeded every
year in meeting or exceeding his annual sales and profit in the first
nine months.In addition to billboards being placed around the country, Andy
conceived a 4 by 8 foot "Welcome Race Fans" banner which was
placed by the thousands in gas stations, on motor homes, fences,
trucks, etc., displaying large STP logos, which served to raise public
awareness, create excitement, and ignite enthusiasm for STP and
auto racing. Coveted and highly prized by adoring fans, the banners
would invariably disappear at night.
People wanted to collect anything they could with STP on it, starting
on a large scale basis the national pastime of collecting racing
memorabilia and creating the multi billion dollar merchandising
industry that is enjoyed today.
Such global vision and broad based identity expansion was
manifested by permeation and saturation of STP decals and
paraphernalia into all aspects of society, involving all age ranges,
educational levels, and financial strata. Andy succeeded in achieving
an incredible advertising phenomenon by literally indulging the
visual senses, by imposing the STP logo in absolutely every aspect
of life.
STP decals appeared on children's bedroom walls, notebooks, lunch
boxes, bicycles, go karts, wagons, scooters, tanks in Vietnam, pedicabs
in Singapore, trucks, refrigerators, and much more! At one
time, over 30 million cars were estimated to be bearing STP decals.
In fact, STP decals literally became a part of the world pop culture.
For several years in the mid nineteen sixties it was not uncommon
for almost all motor sports publications to show STP decals on
drivers or cars that appeared on almost every page of the magazines.
In some cases over 100 STP decals appeared prominently in each
magazine and numerous times on the cover. Andy also had free STP
decals inserted in the motor sports magazines.
Amazingly, under Andy's direction, in only four to five years, the
product STP rose from a state of trivial insignificance to become a
virtual household word. In a national poll, STP was identified and
recognized on a par with Coca Cola-a high profile product since the
turn of the century, with an obviously unlimited advertising budget.
A measure of the advertising genius of STP was confirmed by the
New York Times
famed cartoon depicting Neil Armstrong landing on
the moon and the first thing he saw was an STP decal.
Additionally, Andy took the audacious, once again unprecedented
action to apply money from his STP advertising budget to promoteauto races free-to give radio, television, and print free advertisement
to auto race promoters in order to build up their crowds. This
included the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which, in those days,
spent absolutely no money on advertising.
Andy's company, STP, supported NASCAR racing in every way
possible as an accessory company, including product and prize and
point money. For the NASCAR short track program, when it was
struggling, 100% of all NASCAR tracks were covered by STP from
coast to coast. NASCAR owned and operated "Motor Racing
Network" which was primarily sponsored by STP.
Moreover, and perhaps most significantly, Andy pioneered auto
racing on television and initiated the concept of major corporate
sponsorship in auto racing-having entries in almost every major
racing event on four continents, including Indy, NASCAR, Formula
I, and Tasman Cup championships, expanding STP to 93 countries
worldwide. He personally designed, created, and fabricated the
famous multiple logoed STP suits and pajamas which distinguished
his racing teams across the globe.
Andy conceived and produced 24 minute movies depicting segments
of the Indy 500 races from 1963 to 1973 (all exhibiting STP logos),
which he sent to servicemen abroad, distributed free to television
stations worldwide, and which remain regular features on sports
stations to this day. Andy literally ignited the fire and fanned the
flames of enthusiasm for motor sports with his short subjects about
the Indy 500, Bonneville Salt Flats, and NASCAR stock car racing.
Andy's racing team won the Indy 500 in 1969 and again in 1973. He
continued to establish records with himself as driver in the
Bonneville Salt Flats (this CEO of STP driving an amazing, record
241.731 mph on pump gasoline in his street legal passenger car),
and El Mirage Dry Lakes, and in Daytona. He made record wins
with NASCAR, with Richard Petty driving Andy's own car.
Always an advocate for safety, Andy spearheaded the use of Nomex
fire retardant driver uniforms by giving all drivers entered into the
Indy 500 race and NASCAR participants free suits with the STP
logo prominently embroidered onto them-on the shoulders and
upper body (front and rear) to ensure their display in press releases.
He pioneered the concept of advertising on driver uniforms and race
cars en mass. This advertisement appropriately associated STP with
safety and security, while at the same time, increasing product
recognition among fans, competitors, and media, who visually,
almost unknowingly, registered the STP patches.All of this made the STP logo one of the most recognizable in sports
history!
In order to establish an identifiable, notionally, and internationally
recognized product, with a characteristically distinctive logo, Andy
perceived the advantages of providing a readily identifiable
spokesperson. Having no budget for a spokesperson, what more
novel approach to advertising than to use the CEO himself.
And indeed, Andy, while CEO of STP, was the true quintessential
ambassador to the media. He penetrated all media-radio, television,
outdoor billboards, banners, mailings, and print-using himself, the
CEO, as spokesperson, and placing himself distinctively on a par
with the fan, the common man. His ads appeared mostly in gas
stations, garages, racetracks, or on his car.
Andy's concept in advertising the products was to talk to viewers as
peers. His flamboyant style, seemingly simple personality, sense of
humor, quick wit, and genuine sincerity served to add charm and
charisma, captured the imagination, and endeared him to the public.
His grand stature justified his popularizing everything in a big and
grandiose fashion.
One of the longest lasting images in motor sports history is that of
Andy Granatelli planting the big kiss on the cheek of Mario Andretti
in victory lane after the 1969 Indy 500.
Appearances on
Laugh-In, Johnny Carson, and other high profile
television shows and in some movies, including
The Love Bug, soon
gave Andy an image synonymous with auto racing and STP. He
achieved, in a national poll, a personal recognition factor of 87% by
simply showing his picture, superseded only by a few movie
superstars and recent presidents and vice presidents of the United
States.
The Advertising Legacy
How have Andy Granatelli's efforts impacted the advertising process
over time? What notions did Andy bring, and what legacy did he
leave to the advertising industry?
Just imagine sports activities today without sales promotional itemsjackets,
tee shirts, hats, decals, banners, flags, and assorted
memorabilia.Just consider sporting event press rooms without colored pictures
and brochures, and unique, flamboyant, sales promotional items and
propaganda.
Just visualize a time without the interlude of periodic television
filmstrips (which Andy pioneered in auto racing), and controversial
broadcast race sports programming, reviews, and multi-sportswriter
media exposure, which Andy introduced and developed.
Realize, above all, that this was the world before Andy. These were
the advertising principles entirely conceived, designed, modulated,
and expanded by Andy as vehicles for advertising his product STP.
It is impossible to ponder how the sport can ever repay the legendary
Andy Granatelli for what he has done to popularize racing. Surely
no individual could have done more to popularize a product, and in
doing so, to enrich the entire motor sports industry and racing
establishment.
Andy appropriately is credited with bringing unparalleled exposure,
innovation, public interest, spectacle, and media (especially
television) coverage to motor sports. Arguably, it is through his
contributions, his historic efforts, that auto racing has become the
biggest spectator sport in the world.
Another Business Venture
Somewhat later in his career, by using his advertising and sales
promotion genius as the owner of Wilcox and Wilcox Advertising
Agency, Andy conceived and popularized the concept of the "while
you wait" tune-up and lube-oil change at another of his companies,
TuneUp Masters, Inc.
Andy purchased, built, and expanded the fledgling business in less
than a decade from 18 locations to 278 company owned locations in
eleven southwestern states and eventually sold the company in 1986
for over 60 million dollars. Again, Andy developed and paved the
way for another "while you wait" automotive service.
Throughout his illustrious and high profile career, Andy has
maintained a keen eye for social awareness, for the needs of the less
fortunate, and for social justice. In spite of his many
accomplishments in the executive office at TuneUp Masters, Andy
still credits his most significant business achievement as theambitious, innovative Youth At Risk program which he developed
at TuneUp Masters, whereby literally thousands of disadvantaged
young people, through on the job training, mentoring,
encouragement, and support, were able to develop technical skills,
self esteem, and self reliance necessary to lead meaningful and
productive lives.
Over a period of nine years, Andy personally interviewed and
selected thousands of young people of all race, color, and creed
(many gang members marked by society as unemployable,
undesirable, undependable, and untrustworthy) to participate in his
program of computer, public relations, mechanics, technical, and
vocational training which produced remarkable results.
Andy would, on a quarterly basis, travel to 17 cities or provide
educational and motivational video presentations to the young
people in all 278 company owned shops of TuneUp Masters,
inspiring them to believe in themselves, to maintain a positive
attitude, to recognize their potential, develop their talents, and never
to abandon their dreams. Many of these trainees went on to pursue
advanced degrees, to hold leadership positions in well established
industries, or to create and operate their own corporations and
businesses.
Corporate Culture and Management Style
Throughout his illustrious career in auto racing and in the executive
offices as CEO of thriving businesses, including Grancor, Paxton
Products, TuneUp Masters, and especially STP Corporation, Andy
demonstrated effective, inspiring leadership and exhibited a
managerial style conducive to innovation, employee participation,
loyalty, and enthusiastic support.
Andy always was a hands-on mentor, willing to delegate
responsibility, without relinquishing control, offering opportunity
for growth to individuals with thirst for challenge, willingly
providing guidance, counseling, and instruction, always accessible,
quick to award praise, happy to reward work well done, buffering
any critique or discipline with a gentle, warm, and forgiving heart,
and fully accepting of criticism, even flexible, and amenable to
change himself.
A self made giant in American business, Andy achieved success by
values which he acknowledges he learned from his revered father.
By his own predictable example, Andy used his magneticpersonality and persuasive powers to set a climate which fostered
integrity, creativity, and credibility, He offered management staff
freedom and responsibility, but demanded accountability. He
encouraged action on the part of all employees, focusing on values
of simplicity, quality, cost management, excellence, and efficiency.
Every business with which Andy has been involved as CEO
experienced prompt and exponential growth, organized expansion,
rapidly increasing sales, and concomitant escalating profit margin
and market share. This success, as with any business, was due, in
part, to enhanced productivity achieved by proper employee
training, incentive compensations and rewards, use of good
machinery and development of modern industrial plants, continuous
quality control and quality improvement, and purchases of supplies
on a high volume, low cost basis.
At STP, over a period of nine years, Andy absolutely never accepted
a price increase for any product, even though sales and profits of
STP went up, and prices of goods and services rose with time. If
vendors wished to increase prices, Andy looked to alternate vendors,
or more imaginative and ingenious alternative solutions which
produced no price increase (cardboard versus metal containers, etc.).
Profits were enhanced further by an instinctive, forward thinking
approach to human nature and intuitive response. A true visionary,
Andy was able to anticipate public interest, and consequently, to
create appropriate supply and demand.
Good customer relations was the hallmark of all of Andy's
businesses. Most assuredly, none of his businesses could have
achieved the rapid sales increases and consistent high profits which
they repeatedly exhibited without proving good and predictable
service. At TuneUp Masters, Andy initiated a program whereby
every customer vehicle had a TuneUp Master decal applied to the
rear window lower left corner. Each of Andy's 2500 employees in
all eleven western states was instructed to stop to assist any
individual whose vehicle exhibited the TuneUp Master identifying
marking and had broken down at the roadside, whether by virtue of
an accident, flat tire, lack of gas, or problem unrelated to tune up
service. This gesture of kindness, and at no charge, produced
predictable customer good will.
While Andy was chief executive of several corporations, he was
especially sensitive to the needs of his employees. In all of his
companies, Andy brought his staff together in a family atmosphere,
in a helpful, nourishing environment. Within this framework of
cooperation, teamwork, and commitment, Andy was able tomotivate and identify talent and stimulate potential. When he retired,
he kept or found placement for many employees, and has remained
close to others, as a teacher, counselor, and special friend, in spite of
the fact that they moved away or worked in other locations.
When Andy sold Grancor, he gave controlling interest of the
company to his employees, free of charge. When he sold TuneUp
Masters, he offered a two million dollar bonus to the employees if
they increased sales minimally for the new owners for the following
year.
Always a champion of women's rights, Andy in all his companies,
provided women equal pay for jobs and equal responsibilities, and
provided stock options to executives as well as to secretarial staff. In
the early 1960's, Andy set the unprecedented action of using two
women race drivers to set records in the Bonneville Salt Flats, and in
1964, Andy used the first woman driver ever to compete in an
Indianapolis race car.
No individual has been able to respond to and recover from
unanticipated and repeated crisis more than an auto racing driver and
car owner, having confronted conditions on many occasions
requiring immediate decision making and reflex action, having
experienced repeated engine failures and malfunctions, having
endured multiple crashes and incurred sometimes serious bodily
injuries, in addition to tackling the standard business technical,
legal, and employee concerns. Andy perhaps excelled in every one
of his endeavors because of his uncanny ability to actively and
intuitively respond to, and to teach his employees to adapt to
enormous stress.
Humanitarian and Philanthropist
Especially since his retirement from the business sector and racing
community, and following his relocation to Santa Barbara,
California, almost 15 years ago, Andy has dedicated himself
primarily to giving back to society from which he credits his fame
and fortune. An avid and selfless supporter of numerous local
charities who never has forgotten his own modest and humble
beginnings, Andy has donated-quite literally on a daily basisunlimited
time, extensive financial resources, boundless energy, and
passionate fund raising talent to over 100 local organizations, as
well as to numerous regional and national organizations.
Andy's peerless determination to assist and contribute to thedisadvantaged members of his community prompted him almost
immediately to involve himself directly in a broad spectrum of
philanthropic endeavors encompassing all aspects of society
including the arts, community health, local schools, medical and
scientific research, alcohol and drug abuse, public safety, child
welfare and development, and youth mentoring.
Recognizing that an investment in public safety, education,
community health, and young people is key to our community
strength, Andy has generated unprecedented aid to others by
gathering corporate and private donations, offering matching grants,
conducting numerous auctions, giving inspirational talks to schools
and juvenile detention centers, establishing auxiliaries, hosting local
telethons for food, clothing, national disaster relief, and mentoring
of children, as well as for local hospitals, medical equipment and
research.
On a National level, Andy has served as Chairman of the Institute of
Cancer and Blood Research since 1979, and has served on the
Advisory Boards of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and Boy
Scouts of America since 1960. He was involved with the National
Kidney Foundation, and for many years worked as a volunteer for,
and benefactor of, the Child Welfare League, and worked also for
several years on behalf of Child Help USA.
In Santa Barbara, Andy actively has been involved with the Ben
Page Youth Center, Christmas Unity/Unity Shoppe, United Boys
and Girls Clubs, Girls Incorporated, Rehabilitation Institute of Santa
Barbara, Santa Barbara Chapter of the American Heart Association,
Fighting Back Youth Mentoring Program, U.S. Navy League,
Laguna Blanca School, Bone and Joint Institute, Institute for Cancer
and Blood Research, Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, and
the National Kidney Foundation, only to name a few.
Andy has been actively involved as an energetic, vigorous fundraiser,
benefactor, spokesperson, and volunteer in all aspects of law
enforcement and the Fire Department in Santa Barbara County and
in all communities where he has resided in the past. He has served as
Director and chief fund-raiser for the Santa Barbara Sheriff's
Council since its inception, and was co-founder of the 11-99
Foundation for the California Highway Patrol-dedicated to raising
money for families of firefighters, policemen, and highway patrol
officers in California who have been injured or killed in the line of
duty.
Andy has extended charity beyond the bounds of the usual non
profit organizations and activities. He has provided financial support
and enlisted contributions for local individuals who have been
severely injured in automobile accidents or who have required organ
transplants, but lacked the financial resources to care for themselves.
While Andy was chief executive of several corporations he was
especially sensitive to the needs of his employees. When he sold
Grancor, he gave controlling interest of the company to his
employees, free of charge. Always a champion of women's rights, he
offered equal opportunities, responsibilities, stock options, benefits,
and salaries regardless of gender.
Within his businesses, Andy conceived, promoted, implemented,
and conducted ambitious, innovative, highly organized and carefully
structured Youth at Risk Mentoring programs which provided
emotional support as well as sales, mechanical, and vocational
training for literally thousands of disadvantaged youth.
Andy has been able consistently and repeatedly to use his
flamboyant theatrical style, penchant for showmanship, promotional
and marketing genius, creative salesmanship, along with his
beneficent, gentle spirit and generous heart very effectively, not only
to generate money, but to attract needed public interest and embrace
enthusiastic volunteers to benefit his local community. There rarely
exists a local charitable event that is not attended by him, chaired by
him, sponsored by him hosted by him, or conceived in honor of him.
Almost single-handedly, Andy has been responsible for millions of
dollars provided in contributions to local charities. His energy and
generosity truly are contagious. One of his many repeated and
remarkable feats was the acquisition in April, 2001, of over
$250,000 in donations to the Rehabilitation Institute of Santa
Barbara in less than 30 minutes at an itemless auction with Andy
serving as the celebrity auctioneer.
A truly incomparable inspirational leader and gentle giant, Andy has
been comfortable not merely in the limelight, but has enjoyed
working in the trenches and behind the scenes as an unsung hero
providing wisdom and new ideas, offering challenges and support,
garnering sponsorships, igniting enthusiasm, motivating and
generating unrivaled degrees of active participation and
unprecedented hard work by others to achieve his lofty goals. He
commands the admiration, affection, devotion, and respect of all
persons he encounters in all walks of life.His has been, and continues to be, a legacy of charity, not merely of
business success.
Conclusion
Andy Granatelli ranks among the most ingenious, insightful,
magnetic, colorful, impetuous, and highly publicized individuals in
American business.
With uncanny foresight and brilliant fitness, he was able, throughout
his celebrated, high profile career, to use his charismatic persona and
persuasive powers to create a flawless, seamless blend of the
sophisticated world of business acquisitions and mergers of
corporate America with the unruly, undisciplined, rough and ready
motor sports establishment, bringing singular honor, fame, and
fortune to himself, and at the same time, accelerating auto racing by
a media rocket to the level of empire status.
Throughout his involvement in motor sports and in business, Andy
was the hallmark of technological change and industry innovation.
From the outset, at "Andy's Super Service," he conceived and
established the concept of "pit stop" automobile service. At Grancor,
he initiated the concept of mass distribution of automotive power
and speed equipment, popularized and reconfigured the famous
"flathead" Mercury and Ford powered engines, and revitalized and
redesigned the immortal Novi racing cars-all vehicles which he was
first to run and which captivated crowds unlike any other at Indy. He
was the acknowledged giant in the development of hot rod, sprint
car, stock car, and drag racing, and was an engineering wizard at the
forefront of race car engine design-culminating in his sensational,
incomparable, unsurpassed, legendary STP Turbine Car. He
allocated extensive funding to research and development, aspiring
through creative automotive engineering in racing to bring
innovation and safety features to traditional passenger cars.
Andy was the innovator and popularized the concept of "while you
wait" tune-up and lube oil change at TuneUp Masters, Inc.
As CEO at STP, Andy really showed his stuff as a bold and
inventive pioneer in grand scale, mass media merchandising of a
product, specifically oil treatment. His advertising concepts were
personified in the image of his grand frame in the pits of the Indy,
sporting a business suit, but conspicuously white and bedecked with
colorful STP decals. He wore the Badge Number 500-was proud of
it and forever brought honor to it.The life and times of Andy Granatelli, the rags to riches, guts and
glory story, is intimately reviewed in his own words and defined by
his own terms, in his highly acclaimed autobiography,
They Call Me
Mister 500
.1
Controversial to some, beloved and revered by all, this magical,
Houdini-like hero undeniably made his mark as decidedly the most
resourceful advertising genius and the most masterful marketing
legend of his time.
Acknowledgment
The informational material used in the preparation of this article was
obtained from numerous conversations with Andy Granatelli, survey
of many media news reports, numerous press releases, and multiple
magazine articles as well as the analysis of corporate annual reports,
examination of videotapes and films, and review of Andy
Granatelli's autobiography,
They Call Me Mister 500 (Henry
Regnery Company, Chicago, 1969).
ENDNOTES
1. Andy Granatelli,
They Call Me Mister 500, Henry
Regnery Company, Chicago, 1969
(snipped copy - See link for entire article)
Profile of a Phenomenon
by Barbara E. Mathews, M.D., FACS, FACOG
Introduction
Andy Granatelli has a long and accomplished career in business
(most notably as President and CEO of STP Corporation, but in
numerous other endeavors as an entrepreneur as well) and in
virtually every aspect of motor sports-as a race car driver, race car
owner, marketing and sales promotion genius, creative automotive
designer, and inventive automotive engineer. His celebrated record
of distinguished leadership and achievements in business are
legendary.
Andy has highlighted our free enterprise system by combining with
inimitable style his role as corporate executive in large, paneled,
thickly carpeted offices with life on the reckless outer edge, made up
of every increasing speed, competitive racing, fast cars, and high
winding engines, with unique flare, finesse, and aplomb. Arguably
the most dogged, controversial figure at the Indianapolis Motor
Speedway, sporting an insatiable desire and relentless determination
to win, Andy always has thrived on contest, rivalry, promotion, and
exposure-all traits which uniquely have characterized and peppered
his successful business career.
Andy's remarkable accomplishments exemplify and serve as
inspiration for the just rewards induced by consistent hard work, self
imposed demand for high standards, drive for perfection, dedication
to customer satisfaction, concern for employee welfare, thirst for
challenge, courageous risk taking strategy, creative thinking, and
unlimited broad vision.
Obviously, it comes as no surprise that, as one of the captains of the
automotive industry and precedent setting innovator in the motorsports establishment, Andy repeatedly has been recognized and
honored, justifiably and appropriately, for his dedicated efforts in
and unique contributions to this discipline. He was knighted by the
Italian Government with the title of Cavalieri nel Ordine della
Republica Italiana in 1993, and will have been inducted into
eighteen separate Halls of Fame by January, 2003.
His enormous success in numerous business ventures, coupled with
his ardent passion for philanthropy and sense of social
responsibility, distinguish him and set him apart as a true folk hero
in our time.
The Early Years
Andy Granatelli's life story stands as a true "Grapes of Wrath"
phenomenon. Along with his father and two brothers, Joe and Vince,
young Andy, the middle child, came out of Texas during the Great
Depression.
He grew up in the slums of Chicago-pitiful, ragged, entirely
penniless, and literally starving, but with that unmeasurable recipe
of courage, creativity, tenacious, eternal optimism, supreme
confidence, high ideals, unbridled imagination, passion for hard
work matched by physical stamina, drive, and endurance-those only
God given ingredients essential to
make history, not to be victim of
it.
Andy's father Vincent, a dignified, austere, kind gentleman with
greying hair and imposing stature, had immigrated from Sicily at the
young age of 17, leaving the small town of Campo di Felice, near
Palermo, to seek fortune in America. He had taught himself to read
and write English, and, in the years before 1929, had established
himself as a grocer in Dallas, Texas, and was a well-respected
advisor to families in the Italian community there.
With the stock market crash in 1929, the family lost everything-the
store, the little house, and any minor savings. With nothing but the
clothes on their backs, they traveled to Chicago, living briefly with
relatives part of the time, and on Relief, NPA, and WPA, most of the
time-existing on a sparse diet of old oatmeal and worm infested
farina.
Andy's mother died when he was twelve years old, and his father
spent most of his adult life trying to rear, guide, and control his three
roughneck sons.In Chicago, the family lived huddled in the slums not far from
Soldier Field, sustaining themselves by the few pennies collected
from recycling of old Coca Cola bottles discarded at the Chicago
World's Fair. Andy and his brothers would hike eighteen miles
round trip to fill shopping bags with bottles gathered from garbage
cans, lawns, and grandstands to generate a mere eight dollars a week
during times of peak sales.
In the mid 1930's the family fell in with the many caravans on a
California trek-father Vince anxiously in search of some work or
promise of that elusive golden opportunity out West, only to
experience failure and starvation yet again-and returned emptyhanded
to Chicago where young Andy found employment for six
dollars a week as a delivery boy by day, collecting added pennies as
a clerk and stocking grocery shelves also at night.
Dropping out of school at age 14 to help feed his family, Andy also
took on extra work hauling coal up flights of stairs in the
neighborhood tenements in winter months. Also, the Granatelli
brothers sold produce out of an old 1927 Buick and started cars on
the coldest of Chicago mornings to get that badly needed extra cash.
This was the start of Andy Granatelli. Through hardship, he
somehow, as if miraculously, combined his inimitable business
acumen and now legendary salesmanship to produce so many varied
careers, some of which seem downright unbelievable, that each is a
virtual Horatio Alger epic in its own right. Andy unquestionably was
born supercharged.
Entrepreneurial Beginnings
Andy Granatelli began his career in 1943, at the age of 20, when he
and his brothers pooled their meager resources to purchase a Texaco
gas station on the north shore of Chicago, which he called "Andy's
Super Service." From the outset, on Chicago's lakefront, Andy
proved to be a high profile trend-setter; he initiated the concept of a
"pit stop" gasoline service station and repair shop, using four to five
mechanics working on a car at one time. This unique service concept
drew customers in, willing to wait, sometimes in lines a block long,
just to appreciate the true "super service" experience.
Ironically, this was truly a case of people buying the "sizzle, not the
steak," since the benefit of the rapid customer service which Andy
provided was defrayed by the extended wait in long lines. But the
super advertising phenomenon never failed to please the crowds.They loved it, and Andy prospered from it.
Two years later, in 1945, Andy and his brothers formed the
Granatelli Corporation, naming their business "Grancor Automotive
Specialists." This is where Andy first introduced the concept of mass
merchandising of performance products, quickly becoming the
leading national manufacturing, distribution, and sales organization
for automotive power and speed equipment. An inimitable
marketing genius and entrepreneur, Andy successfully demonstrated
that basic need and public interest can be combined to provide high
quality, consistent products and service on a grand scale.
Andy recognized early on that if you give the customer what he
needs, you make a living; if you give the customer what he wants,
you will make a fortune. By introducing and opening the normal
retail and wholesale automotive distribution outlets to sell his power
and speed equipment, it is said that the SEMA (Specialty Equipment
Market Association) show may never have existed if not for Andy
Granatelli's foresight and boldness in being the first to develop a
booth at the regular wholesale automotive parts warehouse shows.
People professed that he was crazy to try this. Today the power and
speed business is a multi billion dollar industry.
Combining his business ventures in the boardroom with his passion
for auto racing engineering and motor sports promotion seemed to
come naturally. In 1946 Andy and his brother built the only
successful rocket car in history that was run on oval tracks. It was
driven by Andy himself (promoted as "Antonio the Great") on state
fairgrounds throughout the Midwest and South. And what a true
sensation it was!
At Grancor, Andy built and sold hundreds of Ford V8 hopped up flat
head motors to customers in the Southeast and throughout the
United States. These engines were used by moon shiners as well as
running stock car races on the sand at Daytona Beach, Florida, and
other races throughout the South. Granatelli built motors repeatedly
dominated qualifying and set world records.
Enjoying a passion for building hot rods, and aspiring to raise public
awareness and improve the quality of motor sports, Andy, in 1947,
formed and became President of the Hurricane Hot Rod Racing
Association. In that capacity, using his penchant for showmanship,
promotion, and advertising insights, Andy single-handedly created a
series of hot rod and stock car racing events that were held at
Chicago's Soldier Field, packing in an all time record of 89,560 fans,
the biggest crowd to this date, exceeding by at least 10 fold theattendance at any stock car auto racing event in history for a quarter
mile track.
Also in 1947, at Soldier Field, with a meager advertising budget of
only $1500, Andy held the first hot rod race outside California,
generating a record crowd of 24, 962 race fans. This attendance was
over six times larger than any California hot rod event. A year later,
Andy started promoting stock car races to crowds that averaged 10
times higher attendance than that at any other quarter mile track in
the United States.
In 1952, at Half Day Speedway in Libertyville, Illinois, Andy
pioneered and ran the first drag race outside of California. He
advertised and promoted his first race at Half Day drag strip as "the
first nationally advertised drag race," and successfully drew an
historical, record crowd of over 26,000 race fans for this first event,
a remarkable feat by comparison to the meager attendance of
approximately 1500 persons at the California tracks. Once again,
Andy proved to be a master at sales, engineering, advertising,
marketing, innovation, and promotion-a skill that served him well as
his career progressed.
During this years as President and CEO of Grancor Automotive
Specialists, Andy was actively racing as Vice Chairman of
NASCAR, President of California Muffler Sales, Hurricane Hot Rod
Racing Association, Half Day Speedway, and Chicago Auto Racing.
Andy took his first race car to the Indianapolis 500 in 1946-a prewar
Miller Ford, an historic car even in its day. Two years later
Andy, himself, drove in the Indy, wearing his good friend Bill
France's borrowed helmet to pass his rookie test.
The Birth of STP
In 1958, Andy and his brother Joe bought Paxton Products, a
floundering engineering firm which manufactured superchargers and
had experienced an abysmal operating loss in the last five months of
operation alone. In the first seven months under Andy's leadership
and guidance, employing Andy's aggressive, innovative advertising
and sales promotion techniques, Paxton Products became highly
profitable, almost immediately recouping the entire business losses,
and even posting a considerable profit.
Andy's prompt success in the redevelopment of this company
brought him instant industry recognition and the invitation tobecome engaged as a performance engineer consultant to several
automobile companies.
Following the lucrative sale in 1961 of Paxton Products to
Studebaker Corporation, while still CEO of Paxton Products, Andy
took on the responsibilities of Vice President, Chief of Performance
Engineering, Chief Driver, and Chief Engineer. At Studebaker,
Andy personally directed engine and chassis development, setting
more than 400 world land speed and endurance records, driving and
setting many of the fastest records himself. In 1961, Andy in his 300
F Chrysler, ran a record return speed of 179.472 mph, the fastest
time ever recorded by NASCAR on the sands of Daytona Beach.
Also at Studebaker, Andy developed the first prototype Chrysler
300, Cadillac Eldorado, Studebaker Avanti, and R Series Engines;
redesigned the immortal Novi racing engine, increasing the
horsepower from 450 to 837; and owned and ran the immortal Novi
race cars both at the Indy 500 and in Atlanta, Georgia's Hi-Bank
Track (for which he is laureate in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of
America).
Moreover, at STP in 1967, Andy completely designed, built, ran,
and campaigned the world famous, controversial STP Turbine Carwithout
dispute, the most creative, innovative, spectacular,
futuristically engineered, forward thinking race car in history-the
subject of over 30,000 articles worldwide, pictured on the cover of
hundreds of magazines, and currently on display at the Smithsonian
Institute.
Andy's associations with Studebaker in 1963 led him to become
President and CEO of a company that was a partially owned
subsidiary and whose only product was STP Oil Treatment. This is
where Andy was to make his most significant and lasting
contributions to the advertising process and the automobile racing
world.
At STP, Andy combined his inimitable business acumen, advertising
insight, intuitive promotional abilities, salesmanship, and innovative
marketing strategies, first to change the name of the company from
Chemical Compounds to the name of the product, STP, and soon to
make STP a virtual household word.
As President and CEO of STP, Andy, in fewer than seven years,
raised the company from a level of virtual obscurity to a position of
dominance in the world market. The company quickly expandedfrom 7 to over 2000 employees as sales skyrocketed; profits grew
exponentially, and market share increased from 7% to over 85%. All
the while, Andy's name recognition and his accomplishments in the
auto racing world rose to new and monumental heights on a
worldwide basis.
Advertising Strategy
Just how did Andy accomplish his monumental success at STP, and
what was the eventual impact of his remarkable achievements in the
business arena? Andy was arguably the first person to apply the
principle of "grand scale," spectacular, "mass merchandising" to
sports activities in general, and to motor sports in particular. Andy
made his mark in auto racing, but his operating principles could
have been applied anywhere, and clearly stand alone in distinction
and in historical importance.
Since Andy initially was allowed only a minuscule advertising and
sales promotion budget, he adopted a quadripod theory of
advertising and marketing, a "Granatelli theorem," it might be
called, which included a product log (in this case STP), a product
(oil treatment), a product spokesman (himself), and a raison d'etre
(auto racing).
Andy personally redesigned the STP logo and changed the color
from a deep, dark maroon to a more identifiable, more spirited dayglo
red with white and blue trim. He removed the name "oil
treatment" from the product logo, in spite of vehement opposition
from the Board of Directors of the company.
Cleverly, Andy was able to apply his STP logo on every type of race
car in every type of car and boat race by offering contingency
products, trophies, and/or cash prize money to the winners, provided
they used his product, and displayed the STP decal. This created
unparalleled demand for his nameless product decals. Andy
distributed literally several hundred million free STP decals to fans
at auto, boat, and air races, as well as offering decals through mail-in
coupons in advertisements which provided free decals with the
purchase of STP Oil Treatment.
Soon, the program expanded further when STP Oil Treatment and
free STP decals were available in 99% of the more than 238,000
gasoline stations and 37,000 automotive parts wholesalers across the
nation. Most of these locations exhibited large, colorful banners,
along with STP Oil Treatment on display racks provided at nocharge, meanwhile distributing free STP decals to anyone who
wanted them.
Andy sent teams of salespeople along with local automotive jobber
salesmen into gasoline stations across the country, first starting at
the less densely populated perimeters of towns in order to
demonstrate how to sell his product directly to the consumer. He
showed the jobber salesperson, as well as the gasoline service
station attendants, how to sell STP directly to the car owner. His
men then took fistfuls of orders from gas stations to the jobber, and
then STP asked the jobber for an order. Having established its
quality, consistency, efficacy, and popularity, Andy used the
established success and credibility to continue into mass populated
urban areas. Sales and profits skyrocketed.
Andy was unique in the way he marketed a product. He took the
totally unprecedented, bold initiative, in the face of the most severe
opposition, to lower the discount provided to his highest volume
customers who normally supplied their jobbers (called warehouse
distributors) from 60% to the 40% off provided to jobbers, thereby
effectively making everyone jobbers. Andy used the extra 20%
savings for advertising and sales promotions. It was unprecedented
not only to produce such a radical elimination of the "middleman,"
but also to add all this new found money to an advertising and sales
promotion budget, raising the budget from the usual 10% to an
astounding 30% of sales.
Andy used his advertising money to get the consumer to come in to
ask for his product rather than to rely upon a warehouse distributor
to sell the product to jobbers who in turn sold to dealers (gas
stations). He very effectively reversed the demand to flow directly
from the consumer.
Moreover, Andy championed and pioneered the unprecedented
concept of committing his entire annual STP advertising budget to
be spent in the first nine months, and took the equally boldfaced,
controversial action in the 1960's to assign a disproportionately large
percentage of his advertising budget to include STP promotional
items such as sample products, decals, banners, and assorted
memorabilia (including baseball style caps, tee shirts, jackets, duffel
bags, ties, pens, etc., all bearing STP logos predominantly on them),
which he distributed to the public by the hundreds of thousands at
no charge. Using this advertising strategy, Andy succeeded every
year in meeting or exceeding his annual sales and profit in the first
nine months.In addition to billboards being placed around the country, Andy
conceived a 4 by 8 foot "Welcome Race Fans" banner which was
placed by the thousands in gas stations, on motor homes, fences,
trucks, etc., displaying large STP logos, which served to raise public
awareness, create excitement, and ignite enthusiasm for STP and
auto racing. Coveted and highly prized by adoring fans, the banners
would invariably disappear at night.
People wanted to collect anything they could with STP on it, starting
on a large scale basis the national pastime of collecting racing
memorabilia and creating the multi billion dollar merchandising
industry that is enjoyed today.
Such global vision and broad based identity expansion was
manifested by permeation and saturation of STP decals and
paraphernalia into all aspects of society, involving all age ranges,
educational levels, and financial strata. Andy succeeded in achieving
an incredible advertising phenomenon by literally indulging the
visual senses, by imposing the STP logo in absolutely every aspect
of life.
STP decals appeared on children's bedroom walls, notebooks, lunch
boxes, bicycles, go karts, wagons, scooters, tanks in Vietnam, pedicabs
in Singapore, trucks, refrigerators, and much more! At one
time, over 30 million cars were estimated to be bearing STP decals.
In fact, STP decals literally became a part of the world pop culture.
For several years in the mid nineteen sixties it was not uncommon
for almost all motor sports publications to show STP decals on
drivers or cars that appeared on almost every page of the magazines.
In some cases over 100 STP decals appeared prominently in each
magazine and numerous times on the cover. Andy also had free STP
decals inserted in the motor sports magazines.
Amazingly, under Andy's direction, in only four to five years, the
product STP rose from a state of trivial insignificance to become a
virtual household word. In a national poll, STP was identified and
recognized on a par with Coca Cola-a high profile product since the
turn of the century, with an obviously unlimited advertising budget.
A measure of the advertising genius of STP was confirmed by the
New York Times
famed cartoon depicting Neil Armstrong landing on
the moon and the first thing he saw was an STP decal.
Additionally, Andy took the audacious, once again unprecedented
action to apply money from his STP advertising budget to promoteauto races free-to give radio, television, and print free advertisement
to auto race promoters in order to build up their crowds. This
included the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which, in those days,
spent absolutely no money on advertising.
Andy's company, STP, supported NASCAR racing in every way
possible as an accessory company, including product and prize and
point money. For the NASCAR short track program, when it was
struggling, 100% of all NASCAR tracks were covered by STP from
coast to coast. NASCAR owned and operated "Motor Racing
Network" which was primarily sponsored by STP.
Moreover, and perhaps most significantly, Andy pioneered auto
racing on television and initiated the concept of major corporate
sponsorship in auto racing-having entries in almost every major
racing event on four continents, including Indy, NASCAR, Formula
I, and Tasman Cup championships, expanding STP to 93 countries
worldwide. He personally designed, created, and fabricated the
famous multiple logoed STP suits and pajamas which distinguished
his racing teams across the globe.
Andy conceived and produced 24 minute movies depicting segments
of the Indy 500 races from 1963 to 1973 (all exhibiting STP logos),
which he sent to servicemen abroad, distributed free to television
stations worldwide, and which remain regular features on sports
stations to this day. Andy literally ignited the fire and fanned the
flames of enthusiasm for motor sports with his short subjects about
the Indy 500, Bonneville Salt Flats, and NASCAR stock car racing.
Andy's racing team won the Indy 500 in 1969 and again in 1973. He
continued to establish records with himself as driver in the
Bonneville Salt Flats (this CEO of STP driving an amazing, record
241.731 mph on pump gasoline in his street legal passenger car),
and El Mirage Dry Lakes, and in Daytona. He made record wins
with NASCAR, with Richard Petty driving Andy's own car.
Always an advocate for safety, Andy spearheaded the use of Nomex
fire retardant driver uniforms by giving all drivers entered into the
Indy 500 race and NASCAR participants free suits with the STP
logo prominently embroidered onto them-on the shoulders and
upper body (front and rear) to ensure their display in press releases.
He pioneered the concept of advertising on driver uniforms and race
cars en mass. This advertisement appropriately associated STP with
safety and security, while at the same time, increasing product
recognition among fans, competitors, and media, who visually,
almost unknowingly, registered the STP patches.All of this made the STP logo one of the most recognizable in sports
history!
In order to establish an identifiable, notionally, and internationally
recognized product, with a characteristically distinctive logo, Andy
perceived the advantages of providing a readily identifiable
spokesperson. Having no budget for a spokesperson, what more
novel approach to advertising than to use the CEO himself.
And indeed, Andy, while CEO of STP, was the true quintessential
ambassador to the media. He penetrated all media-radio, television,
outdoor billboards, banners, mailings, and print-using himself, the
CEO, as spokesperson, and placing himself distinctively on a par
with the fan, the common man. His ads appeared mostly in gas
stations, garages, racetracks, or on his car.
Andy's concept in advertising the products was to talk to viewers as
peers. His flamboyant style, seemingly simple personality, sense of
humor, quick wit, and genuine sincerity served to add charm and
charisma, captured the imagination, and endeared him to the public.
His grand stature justified his popularizing everything in a big and
grandiose fashion.
One of the longest lasting images in motor sports history is that of
Andy Granatelli planting the big kiss on the cheek of Mario Andretti
in victory lane after the 1969 Indy 500.
Appearances on
Laugh-In, Johnny Carson, and other high profile
television shows and in some movies, including
The Love Bug, soon
gave Andy an image synonymous with auto racing and STP. He
achieved, in a national poll, a personal recognition factor of 87% by
simply showing his picture, superseded only by a few movie
superstars and recent presidents and vice presidents of the United
States.
The Advertising Legacy
How have Andy Granatelli's efforts impacted the advertising process
over time? What notions did Andy bring, and what legacy did he
leave to the advertising industry?
Just imagine sports activities today without sales promotional itemsjackets,
tee shirts, hats, decals, banners, flags, and assorted
memorabilia.Just consider sporting event press rooms without colored pictures
and brochures, and unique, flamboyant, sales promotional items and
propaganda.
Just visualize a time without the interlude of periodic television
filmstrips (which Andy pioneered in auto racing), and controversial
broadcast race sports programming, reviews, and multi-sportswriter
media exposure, which Andy introduced and developed.
Realize, above all, that this was the world before Andy. These were
the advertising principles entirely conceived, designed, modulated,
and expanded by Andy as vehicles for advertising his product STP.
It is impossible to ponder how the sport can ever repay the legendary
Andy Granatelli for what he has done to popularize racing. Surely
no individual could have done more to popularize a product, and in
doing so, to enrich the entire motor sports industry and racing
establishment.
Andy appropriately is credited with bringing unparalleled exposure,
innovation, public interest, spectacle, and media (especially
television) coverage to motor sports. Arguably, it is through his
contributions, his historic efforts, that auto racing has become the
biggest spectator sport in the world.
Another Business Venture
Somewhat later in his career, by using his advertising and sales
promotion genius as the owner of Wilcox and Wilcox Advertising
Agency, Andy conceived and popularized the concept of the "while
you wait" tune-up and lube-oil change at another of his companies,
TuneUp Masters, Inc.
Andy purchased, built, and expanded the fledgling business in less
than a decade from 18 locations to 278 company owned locations in
eleven southwestern states and eventually sold the company in 1986
for over 60 million dollars. Again, Andy developed and paved the
way for another "while you wait" automotive service.
Throughout his illustrious and high profile career, Andy has
maintained a keen eye for social awareness, for the needs of the less
fortunate, and for social justice. In spite of his many
accomplishments in the executive office at TuneUp Masters, Andy
still credits his most significant business achievement as theambitious, innovative Youth At Risk program which he developed
at TuneUp Masters, whereby literally thousands of disadvantaged
young people, through on the job training, mentoring,
encouragement, and support, were able to develop technical skills,
self esteem, and self reliance necessary to lead meaningful and
productive lives.
Over a period of nine years, Andy personally interviewed and
selected thousands of young people of all race, color, and creed
(many gang members marked by society as unemployable,
undesirable, undependable, and untrustworthy) to participate in his
program of computer, public relations, mechanics, technical, and
vocational training which produced remarkable results.
Andy would, on a quarterly basis, travel to 17 cities or provide
educational and motivational video presentations to the young
people in all 278 company owned shops of TuneUp Masters,
inspiring them to believe in themselves, to maintain a positive
attitude, to recognize their potential, develop their talents, and never
to abandon their dreams. Many of these trainees went on to pursue
advanced degrees, to hold leadership positions in well established
industries, or to create and operate their own corporations and
businesses.
Corporate Culture and Management Style
Throughout his illustrious career in auto racing and in the executive
offices as CEO of thriving businesses, including Grancor, Paxton
Products, TuneUp Masters, and especially STP Corporation, Andy
demonstrated effective, inspiring leadership and exhibited a
managerial style conducive to innovation, employee participation,
loyalty, and enthusiastic support.
Andy always was a hands-on mentor, willing to delegate
responsibility, without relinquishing control, offering opportunity
for growth to individuals with thirst for challenge, willingly
providing guidance, counseling, and instruction, always accessible,
quick to award praise, happy to reward work well done, buffering
any critique or discipline with a gentle, warm, and forgiving heart,
and fully accepting of criticism, even flexible, and amenable to
change himself.
A self made giant in American business, Andy achieved success by
values which he acknowledges he learned from his revered father.
By his own predictable example, Andy used his magneticpersonality and persuasive powers to set a climate which fostered
integrity, creativity, and credibility, He offered management staff
freedom and responsibility, but demanded accountability. He
encouraged action on the part of all employees, focusing on values
of simplicity, quality, cost management, excellence, and efficiency.
Every business with which Andy has been involved as CEO
experienced prompt and exponential growth, organized expansion,
rapidly increasing sales, and concomitant escalating profit margin
and market share. This success, as with any business, was due, in
part, to enhanced productivity achieved by proper employee
training, incentive compensations and rewards, use of good
machinery and development of modern industrial plants, continuous
quality control and quality improvement, and purchases of supplies
on a high volume, low cost basis.
At STP, over a period of nine years, Andy absolutely never accepted
a price increase for any product, even though sales and profits of
STP went up, and prices of goods and services rose with time. If
vendors wished to increase prices, Andy looked to alternate vendors,
or more imaginative and ingenious alternative solutions which
produced no price increase (cardboard versus metal containers, etc.).
Profits were enhanced further by an instinctive, forward thinking
approach to human nature and intuitive response. A true visionary,
Andy was able to anticipate public interest, and consequently, to
create appropriate supply and demand.
Good customer relations was the hallmark of all of Andy's
businesses. Most assuredly, none of his businesses could have
achieved the rapid sales increases and consistent high profits which
they repeatedly exhibited without proving good and predictable
service. At TuneUp Masters, Andy initiated a program whereby
every customer vehicle had a TuneUp Master decal applied to the
rear window lower left corner. Each of Andy's 2500 employees in
all eleven western states was instructed to stop to assist any
individual whose vehicle exhibited the TuneUp Master identifying
marking and had broken down at the roadside, whether by virtue of
an accident, flat tire, lack of gas, or problem unrelated to tune up
service. This gesture of kindness, and at no charge, produced
predictable customer good will.
While Andy was chief executive of several corporations, he was
especially sensitive to the needs of his employees. In all of his
companies, Andy brought his staff together in a family atmosphere,
in a helpful, nourishing environment. Within this framework of
cooperation, teamwork, and commitment, Andy was able tomotivate and identify talent and stimulate potential. When he retired,
he kept or found placement for many employees, and has remained
close to others, as a teacher, counselor, and special friend, in spite of
the fact that they moved away or worked in other locations.
When Andy sold Grancor, he gave controlling interest of the
company to his employees, free of charge. When he sold TuneUp
Masters, he offered a two million dollar bonus to the employees if
they increased sales minimally for the new owners for the following
year.
Always a champion of women's rights, Andy in all his companies,
provided women equal pay for jobs and equal responsibilities, and
provided stock options to executives as well as to secretarial staff. In
the early 1960's, Andy set the unprecedented action of using two
women race drivers to set records in the Bonneville Salt Flats, and in
1964, Andy used the first woman driver ever to compete in an
Indianapolis race car.
No individual has been able to respond to and recover from
unanticipated and repeated crisis more than an auto racing driver and
car owner, having confronted conditions on many occasions
requiring immediate decision making and reflex action, having
experienced repeated engine failures and malfunctions, having
endured multiple crashes and incurred sometimes serious bodily
injuries, in addition to tackling the standard business technical,
legal, and employee concerns. Andy perhaps excelled in every one
of his endeavors because of his uncanny ability to actively and
intuitively respond to, and to teach his employees to adapt to
enormous stress.
Humanitarian and Philanthropist
Especially since his retirement from the business sector and racing
community, and following his relocation to Santa Barbara,
California, almost 15 years ago, Andy has dedicated himself
primarily to giving back to society from which he credits his fame
and fortune. An avid and selfless supporter of numerous local
charities who never has forgotten his own modest and humble
beginnings, Andy has donated-quite literally on a daily basisunlimited
time, extensive financial resources, boundless energy, and
passionate fund raising talent to over 100 local organizations, as
well as to numerous regional and national organizations.
Andy's peerless determination to assist and contribute to thedisadvantaged members of his community prompted him almost
immediately to involve himself directly in a broad spectrum of
philanthropic endeavors encompassing all aspects of society
including the arts, community health, local schools, medical and
scientific research, alcohol and drug abuse, public safety, child
welfare and development, and youth mentoring.
Recognizing that an investment in public safety, education,
community health, and young people is key to our community
strength, Andy has generated unprecedented aid to others by
gathering corporate and private donations, offering matching grants,
conducting numerous auctions, giving inspirational talks to schools
and juvenile detention centers, establishing auxiliaries, hosting local
telethons for food, clothing, national disaster relief, and mentoring
of children, as well as for local hospitals, medical equipment and
research.
On a National level, Andy has served as Chairman of the Institute of
Cancer and Blood Research since 1979, and has served on the
Advisory Boards of the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and Boy
Scouts of America since 1960. He was involved with the National
Kidney Foundation, and for many years worked as a volunteer for,
and benefactor of, the Child Welfare League, and worked also for
several years on behalf of Child Help USA.
In Santa Barbara, Andy actively has been involved with the Ben
Page Youth Center, Christmas Unity/Unity Shoppe, United Boys
and Girls Clubs, Girls Incorporated, Rehabilitation Institute of Santa
Barbara, Santa Barbara Chapter of the American Heart Association,
Fighting Back Youth Mentoring Program, U.S. Navy League,
Laguna Blanca School, Bone and Joint Institute, Institute for Cancer
and Blood Research, Council on Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, and
the National Kidney Foundation, only to name a few.
Andy has been actively involved as an energetic, vigorous fundraiser,
benefactor, spokesperson, and volunteer in all aspects of law
enforcement and the Fire Department in Santa Barbara County and
in all communities where he has resided in the past. He has served as
Director and chief fund-raiser for the Santa Barbara Sheriff's
Council since its inception, and was co-founder of the 11-99
Foundation for the California Highway Patrol-dedicated to raising
money for families of firefighters, policemen, and highway patrol
officers in California who have been injured or killed in the line of
duty.
Andy has extended charity beyond the bounds of the usual non
profit organizations and activities. He has provided financial support
and enlisted contributions for local individuals who have been
severely injured in automobile accidents or who have required organ
transplants, but lacked the financial resources to care for themselves.
While Andy was chief executive of several corporations he was
especially sensitive to the needs of his employees. When he sold
Grancor, he gave controlling interest of the company to his
employees, free of charge. Always a champion of women's rights, he
offered equal opportunities, responsibilities, stock options, benefits,
and salaries regardless of gender.
Within his businesses, Andy conceived, promoted, implemented,
and conducted ambitious, innovative, highly organized and carefully
structured Youth at Risk Mentoring programs which provided
emotional support as well as sales, mechanical, and vocational
training for literally thousands of disadvantaged youth.
Andy has been able consistently and repeatedly to use his
flamboyant theatrical style, penchant for showmanship, promotional
and marketing genius, creative salesmanship, along with his
beneficent, gentle spirit and generous heart very effectively, not only
to generate money, but to attract needed public interest and embrace
enthusiastic volunteers to benefit his local community. There rarely
exists a local charitable event that is not attended by him, chaired by
him, sponsored by him hosted by him, or conceived in honor of him.
Almost single-handedly, Andy has been responsible for millions of
dollars provided in contributions to local charities. His energy and
generosity truly are contagious. One of his many repeated and
remarkable feats was the acquisition in April, 2001, of over
$250,000 in donations to the Rehabilitation Institute of Santa
Barbara in less than 30 minutes at an itemless auction with Andy
serving as the celebrity auctioneer.
A truly incomparable inspirational leader and gentle giant, Andy has
been comfortable not merely in the limelight, but has enjoyed
working in the trenches and behind the scenes as an unsung hero
providing wisdom and new ideas, offering challenges and support,
garnering sponsorships, igniting enthusiasm, motivating and
generating unrivaled degrees of active participation and
unprecedented hard work by others to achieve his lofty goals. He
commands the admiration, affection, devotion, and respect of all
persons he encounters in all walks of life.His has been, and continues to be, a legacy of charity, not merely of
business success.
Conclusion
Andy Granatelli ranks among the most ingenious, insightful,
magnetic, colorful, impetuous, and highly publicized individuals in
American business.
With uncanny foresight and brilliant fitness, he was able, throughout
his celebrated, high profile career, to use his charismatic persona and
persuasive powers to create a flawless, seamless blend of the
sophisticated world of business acquisitions and mergers of
corporate America with the unruly, undisciplined, rough and ready
motor sports establishment, bringing singular honor, fame, and
fortune to himself, and at the same time, accelerating auto racing by
a media rocket to the level of empire status.
Throughout his involvement in motor sports and in business, Andy
was the hallmark of technological change and industry innovation.
From the outset, at "Andy's Super Service," he conceived and
established the concept of "pit stop" automobile service. At Grancor,
he initiated the concept of mass distribution of automotive power
and speed equipment, popularized and reconfigured the famous
"flathead" Mercury and Ford powered engines, and revitalized and
redesigned the immortal Novi racing cars-all vehicles which he was
first to run and which captivated crowds unlike any other at Indy. He
was the acknowledged giant in the development of hot rod, sprint
car, stock car, and drag racing, and was an engineering wizard at the
forefront of race car engine design-culminating in his sensational,
incomparable, unsurpassed, legendary STP Turbine Car. He
allocated extensive funding to research and development, aspiring
through creative automotive engineering in racing to bring
innovation and safety features to traditional passenger cars.
Andy was the innovator and popularized the concept of "while you
wait" tune-up and lube oil change at TuneUp Masters, Inc.
As CEO at STP, Andy really showed his stuff as a bold and
inventive pioneer in grand scale, mass media merchandising of a
product, specifically oil treatment. His advertising concepts were
personified in the image of his grand frame in the pits of the Indy,
sporting a business suit, but conspicuously white and bedecked with
colorful STP decals. He wore the Badge Number 500-was proud of
it and forever brought honor to it.The life and times of Andy Granatelli, the rags to riches, guts and
glory story, is intimately reviewed in his own words and defined by
his own terms, in his highly acclaimed autobiography,
They Call Me
Mister 500
.1
Controversial to some, beloved and revered by all, this magical,
Houdini-like hero undeniably made his mark as decidedly the most
resourceful advertising genius and the most masterful marketing
legend of his time.
Acknowledgment
The informational material used in the preparation of this article was
obtained from numerous conversations with Andy Granatelli, survey
of many media news reports, numerous press releases, and multiple
magazine articles as well as the analysis of corporate annual reports,
examination of videotapes and films, and review of Andy
Granatelli's autobiography,
They Call Me Mister 500 (Henry
Regnery Company, Chicago, 1969).
ENDNOTES
1. Andy Granatelli,
They Call Me Mister 500, Henry
Regnery Company, Chicago, 1969
101st Airborne Div. 326 Engineers Ft Campbell Ky.
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