Bob Bostrom
This article describes the life and career of Bob Bostrom '71. This and other articles may be found in the University Archives.
Citation for this article is: "Bob Barstrom," ECU Report , Spring 1989, Volume 20, No. 3.
When Bob Bostrom '71 first came to work at Chappell Ford, an automobile dealership located between Raleigh and Wake Forest, gross sales were about $950,000. Today, Bostrom owns the business which bears his name, has expanded it to include a satellite operation in Zebulon and enjoys gross yearly sales of almost $20 million.
Although dedication, hard work and business acumen helped, Bostrom says it was a rabbit costume that really turned the business around.
The rabbit was the first of many likable characters that Bostrom created for use in television commercials that advertised the dealership. Bostrom had a hunch the friendly characters could deliver a hard sell message in a much more agreeable way than a man who ranted and raved to the camera. He was right.
"Knowing that a lot of dealerships would be closed, we ran a one-day sale on Easter Monday and used the rabbit to advertise it," Bostrom says. "The rabbit was just a nice guy who would hop around the lot. He'd pop his head up through the sun roof of a car and say, 'Buy this care and save $1500.'"
Bostrom couldn't get anyone else to do the commercial, so he did it himself."Nobody else wanted to put on a rabbit suit and go on TV," he says with a laugh."I couldn't get the guy who owned the place to do it; he told me I was crazy."
The sale proved to be so successful that more characters were added. All were played by Bostrom. "George Washington does our George Washington's birthday sale commercials, a goblin does our Halloween sale, and we let the little old lady -- she's kind of like Jonathan Winters' Maude Frickard -- appear three or four times a year. She says, 'Come and see my nephew Bobby and get a good car deal.'
"We'd sell from 35 to 50 cars -- a month's worth of business at that time -- in one day," Bostrom says. "That's what helped us to grow from where we were to where we are."
Other characters have been used from time to time, like Santa Claus and Flying Uncle Bobby, but were dropped because "we didn't feel like they were that effective," says Bostrom, who still portrays the characters. "After doing it for about five years, it got to the point where it'd be dumb to let somebody else do it because I had the face recognition."
And after 12 years of television commercials, recognition -- particulary from children -- is what he gets."I go in the grocery store and a kid will come up to me every now and then and ask for my autograph," Bostrom says."A lot of times children will come in the showroom with their parents, and they'll break away from them, run up to me and start talking. Or I'll be sitting at my desk working, and they'll come right in the door and stand there until I speak to them."
Bostrom says he enjoys the recognition but admits that it doesn't happen enough to be aggravating. "It's certainly not to the point where I have to wear dark shades when I go anywhere," he says.
The commercials have also inspired children to write to Bostrom, some of whom make suggestions for future promotions. "One little boy who lives in Raleigh wrote this past year to tell me that he enjoyed my commercials on television, and that he thought I ought to have a sale on Valentine's Day and dress up like a cupid," Bostrom says. "I really thought it was a terrific idea, but the date for it interferes with George Washington's birthday, which has become somewhat of an institution for us.
"So I wrote him back and told him that if I did the commercial, I would make some arrangements with his school principal so he could come watch us shoot and give us some suggestions."
Bostrom, who keeps a bag of stuffed animals in the showroom to give away, enjoys children, especially his own. "Ginny is 14, Cristy is 12, and Mary Margaret, named after her two grandmothers, is 4," he recites with pride. "Even though my wife Connie would tell you that I don't do my share of helping to look after them, if she would consent, we would probably have 20."
He was an active participant in the YMCA's Indian Princess program with his two older daughters and says he can't wait for Mary Margaret to become old enough to join. The program provides opportunities for fathers and their daughters to get together for weekly meetings and activities without their moms. "It's a great program for busy fathers," he says.
Bostrom also enjoys putting on one of his costumes every Halloween to take Mary Margaret trick or treating. Last October it was the rabbit suit, an event that was documented in The News and Observer with an article and photo.
A Raleigh native, "and proud of it," Bostrom attended a junior college for two years before transferring to ECU. His inspiration? "Let's just say it was a female attraction and let it go at that," he says with a laugh.
Once enrolled, Bostrom focused his attention on political science and history courses that he hoped would get him into law school and campus politics. He was elected during his junior and senior years to serve in the Student Government Association (SGA) legislature as a day student representative. During his senior year the SGA president appointed him chairman of the appropriations committee.
"At that time ECU had what I recall as being the largest or second largest SGA budget of any university in the country," he says."We had a lot of money under our control."
Bostrom put himself through school, sometimes working more than 40 hours a week. During his senior year he put his resonant voice and articulate diction to use at WNCT-TV as the booth announcer."I was the guy who said during the breaks, 'First in television from the capital to the coast, this is WNCT-TV, Channel 9, Greenville.'"
Tired of living on $50 a week, Bostrom abandoned all thoughts of law school after graduation in 1971 and took a job in Greenville at an employment agency. "By helping others find jobs, I knew I'd be able to talk to those who do the hiring, and find out what turns them on.I'd also be the first one to see what jobs were available," he says. "That's how I got my first job in the automobile related field."
Bostrom spent the next five years traveling around the country helping automobile dealers develop profit centers. Afraid his infant daughter would grow up and not know who he was -- "I was gone sometimes 21 days at a shot" -- Bostrom asked a friend for help.
"I told him that I didn't have any money, but that I wished I could find an older dealer who would let me be his arms and his legs, who would let me come in and work my butt off and give me the opportunity to buy into the business a little bit at the time," he says. "In about a month he came back to me with three opportunities. One of them was at Chappell Ford."
Bostrom joined Chappell Ford in December, 1975, as general sales manager, and eventually worked his way up to vice president. "I was using a great deal of my income, more than 50 percent, to buy stock into the company," he says. "My partner decided to retire in 1981, and I became the president of the company."
Bostrom continued to operate the business as Chappell Ford for about a year before changing the name to Bostrom Chappell Ford. "In 1984, we dropped the Chappell part of the name altogether and became Bostrom Ford," he says.
In recent years, Bostrom has expanded his business interests to include Bostrom Ford Leasing Inc. and the New J.O. Green Motor Company, a Dodge dealership in Franklinton he purchased last year. "To my knowledge it is one of the oldest continuously operating automobile dealerships in the state," he says."It has been in business since Jan. 7, 1912."
In addition, Bostrom holds partnerships in a consulting company, a real estate management and development company and a management company.
Earlier this year the Wake County Automobile and Truck Dealers Association elected Bostrom their president. He also serves on the board of directors of the Carolina Automotive Supply Corp., a co-op owned by automobile dealers in North and South Carolina, and the American Cancer Society's Wake County unit.
