McKee’s “Carini Collection”

Just looked at the McKee`s web site to look over the collection. Since McKee`s left the PBMG stores I`ve kind of forgotten about them since I don`t see their products at any of the 3~4 places I buy detailing products. This despite having some of their products in my garage I still use!

I understand the idea of celebrity endorsement of a product, but I don`t get dedicating an entire line of supposedly different products tied to the celebrity. I`d think it diverts resources and attention from keeping your existing product line current and competitive. I`d also think you run a significant business risk tying a line to a celebrity. What happens if MotorTrend drops Wayne`s show and people quickly forget who he is? What happens if Wayne falls from public favor due to something he does/says (not that I`d expect that, but people aren`t perfect). You suddenly have a product line tied to an irrelevant personality or a PR nightmare.
 
"There is nothing new under the sun." So said the wisest man who ever lived, King Solomon in the book of Ecclesiastes 1:9 of the Bible.
Paraphrased, "Been there, seen that, done that"

Does Wayne Carini`s endorsement and using of McKee`e 37 products "exclusively" in his shop and on his collection of vintage and hi-performance collector cars give credibility to those products? Maybe. He is a big name in the collector-car world and his program Chasing Classic Cars on the Motor Trend cable channel does give him, and hence, McKee`s 37 some exposure and notoriety as well. But does that make McKee`s 37 products the best, or at least, the better car-care product for you to use? Hey, that is what marketing is all about; convincing the buyer that their products are just that; the best to buy and use because some respected and noted car collector does. Marketing by (buy) association.

Adams Polishes did this when it paid for the rights to be "The Official Car-Care Products for the Camaro and Corvette". Good, but priced accordingly, products for use on performance GM cars, albeit highly sold by volume numbers of performance cars! Again, marketing by association.

Now do I use products "endorsed" by fellow Autopians? I do if Sizzle Chest, Merlin, Detail 512, Mike lambert, ScottWax, Rasky1, David Fermani, Loach, BudgetPlan1, Ron Ketcham (AKA Grumpy), The Guz, WaxAddict, and a host of other Autopians All-stars use them. (Sorry Accumulator; I still have not tried Finish-Kare`s 1000P Hi-Temp Paste Wax)
 
I would try it, but then again I`ve been wanting to try a few of the things from Leno`s line for years now. The backlog of things I want to try`s pretty big. I recognize this guy from I think a few of maybe Mike`s AutoGeek videos, but I don`t own a TV or read magazines so I don`t really know who he is.
 
No idea who he he is. For some reason I shy away from endorsed products. They gotta pay The endorser for their name socthat cost gotta go somewhere.

In this case he’s part owner so this is a little difference.

Sad Mckee’s is gone from AG and Autopia. Some products I love of theirs I’m afraid I won’t find a replacement for.


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I find the “celebrity” endorsement of car care products a bit comical and can’t recall any of them that have found blockbuster success. Perhaps this marketing strategy works well in other industries (women’s cosmetics comes to mind), but call me skeptical that it will find success here.

I don’t fault McKee’s for trying a new (to them) marketing tactic though. They have many good products and I hope they continue to innovate and advance our opportunity set of choices.

Time will tell if this strategy turns out to be a good idea.
 
BadgerRivFan said:
I find the “celebrity” endorsement of car care products a bit comical and can’t recall any of them that have found blockbuster success. Perhaps this marketing strategy works well in other industries (women’s cosmetics comes to mind), but call me skeptical that it will find success here.

I don’t fault McKee’s for trying a new (to them) marketing tactic though. They have many good products and I hope they continue to innovate and advance our opportunity set of choices.

Time will tell if this strategy turns out to be a good idea.
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I agree, the barrier to entry was probably low for them. Wayne is a partner and the products aren`t new, so they probably just changed dyes and scents.

Celebrity lines do nothing for me, but i assume for them there is limited downside and they may pick up a new sales channel.

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I think the 37 in Mckees name is weird. IIRC Carini is a partner in McKees. I think the larger issue with a lot of these companies is product overlap and too many choices.

After looking at the Carini Collection, one thing I noticed is that all the product numbers are popular muscle car engine cubic inch numbers(427, 502, 350 etc) or car numbers (442). That`s kind of cool actually.
 
Lonnie said:
Now do I use products "endorsed" by fellow Autopians? I do if Sizzle Chest, Merlin, Detail 512, Mike lambert, ScottWax, Rasky1, David Fermani, Loach, BudgetPlan1, Ron Ketcham (AKA Grumpy), The Guz, WaxAddict, and a host of other Autopians All-stars use them. (Sorry Accumulator; I still have not tried Finish-Kare`s 1000P Hi-Temp Paste Wax)
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How much to be Lonnie`s Official Car-Care Endorsement Guy? hehe.

Kidding aside, yeah that list of guys is in line with my own. Accumulator is also on my list. Everything I`ve tried at his suggestion has been met with great results.
 
JustJesus said:
How much to be Lonnie`s Official Car-Care Endorsement Guy? hehe.

Kidding aside, yeah that list of guys is in line with my own. Accumulator is also on my list. Everything I`ve tried at his suggestion has been met with great results.
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Why would you WANT Captain Obvious` endorsement??

I have mentioned this before (several times, to honest), but my best detailing "tool" is all the detailing product and equipment reviews and tips on how to use them properly that I read about in this forum by fellow Autopians who have taken the laborious time to post pics and type text of their detailing exploits and experiences. For that I am greatly-indebted and ever-thankful to a host of you, including you Just Jesus, for making my detailing hobby more enjoyable and a lot less trial-and-error as well as cost effective. I am sure I speak for a lot of lurkers and Autopian hobbyist detailers who read this.
 
If this strategy is working for them, good for them. Speaking for myself, it doesn`t attract me one bit. I don`t know who these various "celebs" are, and I don`t care. Even assuming they deserve the credibility that is trying to be sold to me, it still does nothing for me. The instant any detailing product manufacturer starts paying someone to use their name, I can no longer trust that person to be unbiased. I`m super disappointed that just making one (maybe two if you want to have a budget and a premium line) line of products composed of just enough products to do all the jobs required to detail a vehicle completely isn`t enough.

Furthermore, M37 was already getting questionably bloated in their product line and especially so with their complete, separate "Ceramic Series." Now in addition to those other products, there`s a "Carini Collection." Sigh. I don`t want to have to use a decoder ring to understand which products are the best products to be using and which ones are being marketed to Autozone shoppers on a budget who get impressed by buzzwords, and which products are being sold at a premium to people who get impressed by big price tags even if the products aren`t really that much better than a cheaper version.

I used to love McKee`s 37 to death, but over the last year or three, they`ve just been getting harder and harder for me to bother with.

I used to love their 360 AIO, but they went and "SiO2`d" that up and made it WAAAY more expensive in the process. I switched to Meg`s D166 instead now.
I still do love their interior protectant, but I`m just sick of getting broken jugs with lotion-thick product that makes a mess when I try to pour it. I switched to Nextzett Cockpit Premium instead after I used my last bit which I can get in larger bulk size as well which is always a plus. If M37 could dial their interior protectant in to be a little thinner so that it can spray and pour easier, I`d buy it by the 5-gal (if they sold it in a 5-gal).
Their wheel cleaner was/is my favorite in terms of how well it does its job, but I`m sick of destroyed sprayers and having to filter solids out of my jugs. I`ve been promised this problem would be fixed multiple times, and it hasn`t. Gonna have to settle for a different wheel cleaner. For all I know they`ll stop making it anyway and just push their "Carini Collection" wheel and tire cleaner.
Which brings me to liking their tire cleaner because they`ll sell it in gallons of concentrate--effective and economical. Hopefully they don`t mess with that or I`ll have to find an alternative for that as well.

I`m still buying the APC and their foam soap because those are still simple products that do their respective jobs well and nothing more at a good value in 5-gallon jugs, and I still do love me my N-914, but I`m just struggling to even want to bother with anything else as they get more and more Adams/Chemical Guys with their business. It`s just becoming an overlapping mess that I don`t have the energy to decipher.
 
Here he is -- https://www.f40.com/Meet_Wayne_Carini
He has had a show -"Chasing Classic Cars` for a few years.. I think its the MTD MotorTrend Channel.
Wayne is this rich guy living in Portland Connecticut, who has been a car guy since a child.. His Dad was also a car guy, and collected cars..
This guy goes all over and buys a lot of those "garage finds, etc.," cars, restores them, and then either keeps them or sells them at the big car auctions that are also on TV..
Dan F
 
Stokdgs said:
Here he is -- https://www.f40.com/Meet_Wayne_Carini
He has had a show -"Chasing Classic Cars` for a few years.. I think its the MTD MotorTrend Channel.
Wayne is this rich guy living in Portland Connecticut, who has been a car guy since a child.. His Dad was also a car guy, and collected cars..
This guy goes all over and buys a lot of those "garage finds, etc.," cars, restores them, and then either keeps them or sells them at the big car auctions that are also on TV..
Dan F
Click to expand...

I used to watch his shows, but I lost interest because he rarely revealed what he paid for the cars.

As for the product lines, I was never a big McKee’s fan, so putting Carini’s name on the product won’t change my opinion.
 
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