Aftermarket Insider Issue 79 - (Page 28)

T EC H n o l o G y U P DAT E brAnd AwAreness Data Standards Begin With Your Brand_ID asset you have. Your brand is how customers recognize your product – whether it’s on the shelf or on a Web page. They associate a level of quality, value and performance with your brand. And, brand is the first thing you need to define if you are going to share standardized product information electronically with your trading partners. How many examples of a brand name with the words “Champion” or “American” can you think of? It’s not uncommon for brands to share a word or be known by an acronym as well as the proper name. For this reason, the AAIA Technology Standards Committee developed an industry-standard Brand Table as a key for making product information and electronic catalog data unambiguous. If you are going to send or receive a huge volume of data, it would be helpful to know exactly what product that information applied to. AAIA Brand ID is required in every ACES and PIES file that gets sent anywhere. This four-character alpha ID is completely unique and associated with a Brand Owner (the company that markets the product bearing the brand) and a Parent Company (a corporate entity that may own multiple Brand Owners). Brand ID is the only field that gets sent, but the Brand Owner and Parent add context and make it perfectly clear what brand the accompanying data relates to. Your brand is the most important retailers, program groups and other data receivers place great importance on the Brand ID and depend on this code to keep hundreds of brands from getting confused. Retailers, program groups and other data receivers place great importance on the Brand ID and depend on this code to keep hundreds of brands from getting confused. Every supplier doing business in the aftermarket should make verification of their Brand ID code a first-step in complying with industry data standards. AAIA has prepopulated the Brand Table with thousands of brands for parts, accessories, chemicals, tools and more. When additions or changes to the Brand Table are required, an online interface is available to make the process fast and efficient. Go to the Brand Table interface by navigating to http://aftermarket.org/ Technology/BrandTable.aspx. The home page features a familiar search bar to help you find existing Brand Codes with just a few letters from the name. Contextual links on each page guide you to what you can do from that page, such as, Search for a Brand, Request a Brand or Download the entire Brand Table. Training and educational videos are available to answer your questions in the Technology Learning Library at www.aftermarket. org/technology/learning.aspx The road to compliance with industry data standards involves many steps. But the first of those is to learn the AAIA Brand ID for your products. Just as the brand and logo are critical to marketing your physical product, the AAIA Brand ID is critical to marketing your product in the digital aftermarket. For more information about any of the AAIA standards, write to technology@aftermarket.org or call 301-654-6664. 28 | AFTERMARKET INSIDER | VOLUME 79 http://www.aftermarket.org/Technology/BrandTable.aspx

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Aftermarket Insider Issue 79

Aftermarket Insider Issue 79
Contents
President’s Message
Campaign Update
Industry All-Stars
An Aapexceptional Event
Member Profile
Toolbox
Technology Update
Campaign Update
Head of the Class
Impact Award
Market Intelligence
Government Affairs
Inside Technology

Aftermarket Insider Issue 79