START YOUR ENGINES
Grand Prix Car Wash zooms past competitors with marketing savvy

By Tracy Charuhas

(From left) Keith Jacobs, Juli Jacobs and John Nardini

The NASCAR Hall of Fame may be in North Carolina and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indiana, but racing fans in North Suburban Chicago don’t have to hit the road to feel the excitement of race day. All they have to do is rev up their engines and head to Grand Prix Car Wash.

With two full-service locations in Buffalo Grove and Deerfield, Ill., Grand Prix is about as close to the real thing as a race enthusiast could hope for. Drive into the carwash, and a member of the Grand Prix “Pit Crew” will help you choose a wash package. While waiting for their cars, customers can peruse the lobby, which seems like a mini racing museum. Authentic racing suits and pit crew shirts hang on the walls in glass cases alongside framed racing photos. Customers can also view parts from actual race cars.

The operators behind this clever marketing effort are owners Juli and Keith Jacobs, John Green and managing partner, John Nardini.

When the Jacobs first decided to get into the carwash business in the late 1990s, auto racing was one of the fastest-growing sports at the time. This trend, plus Juli’s marketing background, led to the development of the racing-themed washes. Nardini, who had prior carwash experience, does all the training and manages both washes.

The first location opened in Buffalo Grove in 1997. The concept proved so popular that the Jacobs opened their second location four years later in nearby Deerfield. Both sites were strategically selected for their dense, yet affluent population and the fact that there were no other full-service carwashes in either town.

“We saw a need, and we filled it,” Keith says. “I have a land development background and Juli has a marketing background. It just worked.”

Juli says she got the inspiration for the Grand Prix concept from a Chicago-based restaurant chain that has a particular theme for each restaurant. The theme can be found in the menus, décor and employee uniforms. Juli says she wanted to do something similar at the carwashes and have the theme revolve around cars.

“Everything is wrapped up in the racing theme,” Juli says. “We picked up the lingo, and it just sort of flowed and worked. It was highly marketed.”

The Grand Prix experience

As soon as customers pull into the “pit,” they are immediately immersed in the racing atmosphere—from the employees’ embroidered uniform shirts that resemble actual pit crew attire, to the racing-themed names of the wash packages. Grand Prix is not only a hit with adults, but children love the wash because of its kid-friendly atmosphere.

“We built the viewing windows in the tunnel extra large and extra low so kids could see everything,” Juli says. “So you get a show as well as a clean car.”

The three main wash packages are the Grand Prix for $18.90, the Silver Crown for $15.90 and the Indy 500 for $13.90.

After the wash process, cars go to the “Finishing Line,” where they receive the ultimate detailing treatment. Detail packages start at $59.99 for the Starting Line-Up to $189.99 for the Grand Prix Detail. Detail customers who choose to leave their vehicles at Grand Prix for the day receive complementary shuttle service within the local area.

The express detail areas of both washes were set up to accommodate a vehicle as large as a Hummer. This feature has been invaluable, since many of the wash’s customers drive large SUVs.

While customers enjoy the racing theme, the Jacobs know that atmosphere can only get you so far.

“Take away all the bells and whistles, all the aesthetics and the quality of the wash and the level of customer service comes down to the team providing it,” Keith says.

Credit for the wash’s early success is due in large part, Keith says, to a superior crew and outstanding management delivering a customer-first mentality. Proof of this is the fact that 25 percent of the current employees have worked for Nardini since the grand opening seven years ago. Grand Prix was also named “Best Car Wash” by North Shore magazine, a publication read by more than 250,000 people in 12 suburbs.

The carwash prides itself on using some of the highest-quality chemicals available. Unlike many carwashes that only soap cars once, Grand Prix triple-soaps its customers’ cars. The management also refuses to service rusty cars in an effort to keep rust particles from finding their way onto other cars.

Grand Prix cleans with semi-touchless, soft-cloth equipment from A.V.W. Jacobs said the reason he chose A.V.W, aside from the quality of the equipment, is that the company is headquartered in nearby Maywood. If they need a part, it’s only a 40-minute drive away. The dryers at both locations are manufactured by Worldwide Drying Systems.

At the “Starting Line” of the Deerfield wash, customers don’t have to brave the elements when exiting their cars. The area is heated in the winter and cooled in the summer. But that isn’t the case at the Buffalo Grove location, where customers have to exit their vehicles outdoors. Keith says having the customers exit into a climate-controlled area is a great feature, and says he plans to incorporate it into all their future washes.

Other features customers appreciate are that Grand Prix crew members use pneumatic tools to blow any remaining water out of the windows and other areas of the car.

Like a real pit crew, Grand Prix prides itself on getting customers in and out fast. But that’s not always what customers want, Juli says.

“A lot of people like us to take our time. They appreciate how we care for their vehicles,” she says.

The look Even though the theme in both carwashes is identical, the two locations aren’t. The original Buffalo Grove location, located on 1.5 acres, includes a conventional 8,000-square-foot building with a racetrack feel, while the Deerfield location is more upscale—an 8,000-square-foot brick structure with a slate roof. The Jacobs built the Deerfield site to blend in with the renovated downtown area of Deerfield, which includes cobblestone walkways. Despite the difference in appearance, there’s no mistaking either location for a Grand Prix Carwash. The company logo and motto, “Redefining the Sport of Clean,” can be found throughout the carwashes.

One of Grand Prix’s most innovative concepts is its corporate sponsorship program. For an annual fee, local companies can have their logo embroidered onto the employees’ shirts. These shirts, which cost $150 apiece, are like those worn by professional pit crew members. The companies that sign up for a sponsorship receive free carwashes for a year for certain employees. And best of all, the company’s logo is exposed to thousands of Grand Prix customers. Grand Prix has as many as 20 sponsors each year. At the end of the year, sponsors received a framed copy of the shirt to hang in their businesses.

The high cost of the crew member shirts makes it necessary for managers to collect the shirts after every shift and return them to the employees the next time they come into work. The shirts are frequently sent out to be dry-cleaned.

If customers don’t get enough of the racing atmosphere outside, they can purchase some racing souvenirs inside at the gift shop. The Deerfield gift shop not only sells racing merchandise, but is known in the area for carrying the hottest children’s toys. The Jacobs have a friend who is a toy distributor. This makes it easy for them to get those impossible-to-find toys. At the moment, the hot products are Yu-Gi-Oh trading cards, bobble head sports dolls and mini toy racing cars.

Marketing

With her strategic marketing background, Juli is the perfect person to plan all the carwash promotions and events. One of the most-anticipated events of the year occurs during the month of October. The lobbies of both washes are covered in decorative spider webs and black lights, and horror flicks play continuously on the TVs. The first year, Grand Prix hosted a fundraiser for a local high school. Students came to the carwash dressed in costumes to help scare the patrons. The event is promoted heavily in the local newspapers, she says.

When Grand Prix opened its Deerfield location, crew members handed out Krispy Kreme doughnuts to all customers. The doughnuts were provided to Grand Prix at no cost because Krispy Kreme was new to the Chicago area and was trying to promote itself.

Needless to say, the doughnuts were a huge hit. Crew members handed out about 300 doughnuts a day during that promotion.

Other promotions include “Throttle Thursday,” where customers who buy a carwash get triple foam for free. Another popular option is the Wash Pass. Unlike many VIP programs, the Wash Pass never expires and patrons can keep it or give it to a friend. With the pass, customers can buy five carwashes and get the sixth for free.

Large local companies often buy hundreds of the passes and hand them out to employees during the winter holidays.

Grand Prix also gives out Pit Passes to local charities and to some customers. With the pass, customers can get a free carwash, a discount on detailing and several other options.

The carwash reaches out to people who are new to the area by sending four-color flyers to their homes. They get the names of new residents by subscribing to a service that gives them lists of home closings in the area.

The future

The Jacobs learned the carwash business by talking to operators all over the country, picking their brains to find out what works and what doesn’t. Their advice to new operators is to do research and don’t assume that operating a carwash is as “easy as it looks.”

Expect to see a third Grand Prix location in the next year or two. The Jacobs’ ultimate goal is to have a chain of 10 washes in Suburban Chicago. But for now, they’re cruisin’ right along with the two they have.

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