Analysing some of the marketing opportunities open to the retreading industry and how it might approach a common strategy. In doing so, the retreading sector, will initially have to face the fact that as an industry it has never been in a position where it has had to design a classical marketing plan before. Retreads traditionally were taken for granted as the budget option for the tyre industry. All tyre shops stocked passenger retreads and these were automatically sold to budget oriented customers. Budget new tyres did not form a viable competition to retreads at the bottom end of the market because retreads still enjoyed a significant price advantage and many budget tyres were of poor quality. To secure a sale all retreaders needed to do was to assure good prices, good product quality and good service to the retailer. Nowadays, it is clear that these attributes alone are no longer adequate. In the truck tyre market the situation is somewhat different. Retreads have long been part of the life cycle of the tyre. The market has always been considered healthy and so the question as to whether the industry’s marketing strategy was being efficient in reaching its message to as much of the potential market as it should was seldom raised. However, with pricing issues now becoming more relevant, the issue of the optimisation of the market is becoming more critical. The impact of the downturn in car tyre retreading has been particularly severe in the UK where sales by UK retreaders fell from 4.4 million units in 1995 to around a million today, with a number of high profile retreaders being forced into receivership. This situation was exacerbated by the strength of Sterling resulting in the almost overnight disappearance of vital export markets. It has to be recognised that passenger retreads are now niche products. There is still a place for passenger retreads in Europe but, unless the generic marketing of passenger retreads is improved, the fear must be that the market will follow a similar path to the United States, where it has now almost completely disappeared. To counter this, a sample marketing plan has been drawn up, the key elements of which are as follows: A scientific research programme to ascertain the performance qualities of retreads, using the results as part of a PR campaign. Direct lobbying of government departments and public bodies with a view to highlighting the environmental message that the retreading industry wishes to portray. At government level, the aim would be to persuade individual departments to accept retreading as the best practical environmental option and to include retreads in their purchasing policy. The incorporation of tyre dealer seminars and training days. This proposal generated some considerable thought as it was felt that there was not much point wasting money trying to change the views of tyre dealers and fitters whose minds were already set on opposing the sale of retreads. Instead, the idea would be to use funds to help in the training and support of dealers who had proved themselves to be positive towards retreads. Allied to this is the decision to create a “Green Tyre Dealer Scheme” backed up with the production of a retread buyers guide. This would allow the retreading business to channel sales through dealers who support the retreading industry, thereby reducing switch selling. A promotionally effective presence at exhibitions. This would include car and truck shows as well as events frequented by the environmental lobby. A comprehensive PR campaign is proposed, aimed at the tyre trade press, environmental magazines, motoring magazines, the national and regional press and other consumer interest groups such as women’s magazines. In addition, the incorporation of a press monitoring service to measure the success of the campaign. It has also been planned to introduce a response service to react to bad press in the same way as TRIB does. For the truck and bus market an informative newsletter is suggested dealing with tyre related issues in general but, allowing plenty of scope for promoting the argument in favour of retreads. This activity is based upon the knowledge that the regular truck press is editorially light on tyre related issues and indeed rarely covers anything concerning retreads. Other activities include the design of a campaign website, the increased use of environmental newsgroups on the internet to promote retreads, the production of brochures and presentation materials for use by fleet engineers, the police, schools and tyre dealers and the production of promotional merchandising items such as cab stickers, tacho holders, mugs etc. Finally, a comprehensive but highly targeted advertising campaign focused on environmentally friendly consumers. Part of this strategy would be the promotion of the “Green Tyre Dealer Scheme” mentioned earlier. These are the main elements of a package which could make a considerable contribution towards improving sales of retreaded tyres.
