The bigger the tyre brand, the more important marketing becomes in order to communicate its values and its worth. With this in mind, the “marketing” tag collates all the latest marketing-related news and analysis into a single place. This reverse-chronological list of thousands of articles is your go-to source of tyre industry, marketing-related news and information.
German exhaust specialists, Eberspächer, and Japanese automotive component supplier, Calsonickansei, are to “intensify their collaboration” by setting up a marketing joint venture in Paris. The company will operate under the name of ACE Alliance CalsonicKansei Eberspächer S.A.S.
The Tire Retread Information Bureau (TRIB) has announced David Kolman as its new associate director.
Based in California, the TRIB is associated with the recycling of tyres through repair and retreading. Mr Kolman will operate from Baltimore, giving the bureau its first office on the East Coast and adding to its existing group of over 400 members in 28 countries worldwide.
Exide Technologies is supporting the Championship of Great Britain, which is set to take place this Friday, 9 July, at Oxford Stadium.
The British speedway event will feature former world champions Mark Loram and Gary Haverlock who will be challenged by rising contenders Scott Nicholls, Lee Richardson and Joe Screen.
For Exide, the sponsorship deal re-establishes its links with the sport, as it was previously a supporter of the Coventry Bees team in the 1990s.
“Exide is delighted to sponsor the Championship of Great Britain which represents an excellent opportunity to promote Exide and its brands. The company is proud to renew its special relationship with speedway and lend its support to a prestigious event,” commented Craig Everett, Exide Technnologies’ UK marketing manager.
Toyo Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd., has announced that Toyo Tire Corp, a US tyre marketing subsidiary of Toyo Tire & Rubber Co., Ltd has been honoured with Manufacturer of the Year Award at the International Auto Salon in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Toyo Tire Corp is the first company in the tyre industry to receive the award. The Sport Compact Council of host organisation, SEMA, presented the award.
The Manufacturer of the Year Award is presented to one automotive parts maker each year and is awarded to the manufacturer that has made the most significant impact in the sport compact field.
Sumitomo Rubber Industries Ltd., will increase production of Falken Tyres, Mordern Tire Dealer has reported. The company is “increasing capacity in all of our key areas,” said Richard Smallwood, Falken’s vice president of sales and marketing. Mr Smallwood continued by describing the scale of the increase in terms of units shipped, “this year we’ll be triple what we were in 1999. We have a number of large dealers who 100 per cent over last year.”
In the same interview Mr Smallwood also revealed that Sears Roebuck & Co., is again carrying Falken tyres. “Sears is a good representative of the brand,” said Mr Smallwood. “They do a good job selling our tyres and don’t create any conflict with our dealers.”
In a bid to reward loyalty, UK based Euro Car Parts has sent more than 800 garage owners, specialist repairers and workshops on an African Safari.
The promotion, sponsored by Lion Batteries, targeted more than 10,000 UK customers operating in the car aftermarket sector.
Individual sales targets were set over a six-month period with the incentive of winning a trip for two to Kenya. The holiday included safari to the Masai Mara game reserve and five star accommodation, all courtesy of the independent supplier of car parts.
Chris Barella, group marketing manager at Euro Car Parts, said: “We have built up long term working relationships with customers across the UK, based on trust and quality of service and wanted to reward the loyalty of our customers by offering them something extra special. From the feedback we’ve had it looks like we achieved this.”
In keeping with the current atmosphere of tyre industry trade events, exhibition organiser, ECI International, has released further statistics in response to both its Tyrexpo Asia and Brityrex International events.
In a move designed to strengthen the brand’s “personality and profile”, Lassa has announced that Martin West will be the company’s new European marketing manager. The ex-Goodyear employee will join another ex-Goodyear man, John Westwood, in the European team’s central London operation. “Within the European arena, Lassa has remained a reasonably well-kept secret. The quality of the product is endorsed by all of the Lassa customers and the expanding range now provides an ideal platform to replicate the improved brand position enjoyed in the home market, where Lassa competes directly with the premier tyre brands,” said Mr West.
SmarTire Systems Inc., in conjunction with is master distributor in China, Beijing Boom Technology Co. Ltd., closed a deal to supply the Taiwanese tour bus industry.
Cooper Tire and Rubber Company has announced that Michael Cati will be the company’s new director of sales and marketing for Asian operations. This means that Mr Cati, who was European marketing manager until recently, will now be responsible for sales and marketing in China.
Mr Cati originally joined Avon Tyres shortly before Cooper Tire and Rubber Company acquired it in 1997 after graduating from the school of European Business studies at Swansea University. During this time he was a territory sales manager in Europe and was responsible for achieving operational improvements at Cooper-Avon, France.
Cooper Tire and Rubber Company and its subsidiary company, Oliver Rubber won a 10-year contract to retread US Postal Service tyres across the United States. Oliver Rubber produces and distributes tread rubber and retreading systems through a large network of licensed dealers. The company plans to use this network exclusively in order to service the 208,000 vehicles that the Postal Service maintains. 142,00 of these vehicles are considered long-life vehicles, which will undoubtedly provide additional retread opportunities for the company.
“The Postal Service speculates that they are currently using retreads on 20 percent of their fleet; however, they want to increase that number to 70 percent,” said Phil Boarts, Oliver director of retread sales and marketing.
“While the size of this whole project seems to be growing daily, we are making good progress in learning what we need to know about the current Postal Service operations,” continued Boarts.
The company plans to use precure and mold-cure technologies. Mold-cure technology will be employed on the majority of long-life vehicles and will, according to the company, “allow for improved ride characteristics.”
Bridgestone has appointed Steve Howat as technical training manager in a bid to strengthen its training department for First Stop and Truck Point dealerships. Andy Dingley, senior marketing analyst for Bridgestone UK, said: “It’s great that Steve has joined us. His knowledge, experience, and enthusiasm will be of great benefit to both Bridgestone and the members of the First Stop and Truck Point schemes.”
Bert Stellinga has now been installed at Vredestein’s Wellingborough UK headquarters for two years. In that time Vredestein have launched new high performance tyres and taken steps to develop the brand awareness in the enthusiasts market in the UK, whilst at the same time developing their share of the agricultural tyre market. It has very much been steady as she goes for the Dutch tyre manufacturer.
Bert Stellinga told T&A that the UK is a major market for Vredestein and that progress was being made in both the UK and the Irish markets. However, to get a better picture of the company it was important to understand the wider position of Vredestein as an organisation.
2003 saw Vredestein’s year on year sales on the increase and the company managed to record a profit, very close to that earned in 2002. During the year there was also a stock reduction exercise which released funds and made the whole business more profitable. “The fact that Vredestein is making a profit,” says Stellinga, “enables the company to invest in people and product, to develop new services. For instance, in some markets in the European Union we have our new Internet Ordering facility in place. This allows customers to access stock records, place orders and arrange delivery on line, at their convenience. The strength of being in profit also allows us to develop our marketing with advertising and of course attendance at events such as the Autosport International Exhibition.
“One of the biggest developments for the company last year was the return to private ownership. Having removed the obligation to the shareholders that put the company in a position where it could increase its flexibility and invest in research and development. At present we are in a transitional period but the move will have positive consequences in the future. This will be seen in the investment in new lines this year with a new winter tyre arriving later in 2004.”
One question that arises about Vredestein is its ability to stand alone. Other smaller manufacturers are working together with off-take agreements to fill capacity, or enable ranges to be extended. There is a deal of technology exchange and shared product development. As an independent, manufacturer can Vredestein continue to develop its own products as a stand alone business?
“Vredestein is very much a self contained operation and I don’t think that we would envisage such close co-operation with competitors. Our own R&D facility swallows a considerable element of the finance budget but we need to develop products that the market appreciates and wants. We produce niche products that appeal to specialised markets – Sportrac and Ultrac are the only designer tyres in the world and our cooperation with Giugiaro Design is proving to be very successful, for instance. We do not need vast volumes because we are selling premium quality products where we can maintain good prices for everyone in the chain. We do not deal with OE in passenger car tyres, so we can survive on our limited capacity. Our OE market is strictly agricultural and again, we offer a premium brand tyre to a specialised market,” says Bert Stellinga. “We are determined to go it alone and I can’t see any reason why we shouldn’t.”
As from April 2004, Minekazu Fujimura has taken up the position of Chairman, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and President of Bridgestone Europe (BSEU).
SmarTire Systems Inc. (OTCBB: SMTR) announced the commercial availability of SmarTire for Motorcycles and delivers already the first shipments to its U.S. distributors. SmarTire for Motorcycles is the latest addition to the Company’s family of products designed to meet the specific needs of selected target markets.
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