marketing Archives - Page 213 of 216 - Tyrepress

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.

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Michelin Truck Tires Are “The Best” According to Annual Driver Poll

Michelin truck tires were named “Best Tires” in the sixth annual Readers’ Choice poll conducted by The Trucker, America’s trucking newspaper. “It’s a real honor when U.S. truckers choose Michelin as their favorite,” said Randy Clark, vice president of marketing, Michelin Americas Truck Tires. “Michelin truck tires were rated ‘Best Tire’ in 1998, 1999 and now for the year 2001 in this one-of-a-kind poll.” The Trucker surveys its readers annually to find out their preferences in a wide variety of services and products. The publication is a semi-monthly national newspaper for the truckload freight industry.

5th February 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

New MD For Bridgestone/Firestone

John McNaught, 52, has been appointed managing director of Bridgestone/Firestone UK and will assume his role on Monday 4th February. He has worked in the UK tyre industry since 1976 when he started with Goodyear. He moved to Central Tyres, part of the Pirelli organisation, in 1985, rising to the position of operations director and then switched to National Tyre Service, part of Continental, as a regional director. Mr McNaught became the managing director of National Tyre Service in 1998 and managed the sale of the business in 2001. Since August last year he has worked as director of commercial products for Continental Tyres. Bridgestone’s marketing director, Chikuma Otsuki has been acting managing director since the retiral of Jim Wilson.

23rd January 2002/by Tyrepress Editors

Truck Racing Loses Its Sponsor Continental

Continental wants to guarantee the supply of race tyres for the Truck Racing Championship next season. However, the sponsorship activities will be finished at the end of this season. This cost saving activity is justified with the promise of “other accents on marketing”, by which fleet managers can be targeted more efficiently.

28th December 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Review Of 2001

This is a business on the move, this business is exciting. Tyres may sometimes be regarded as commodities in the eyes of marketing strategists, tyres seem to be boring, but insiders know that this is not correct. Tyres are high-tech products, the only problem is that most consumers do not realise this. Because of this we are looking for communicators who can whip up enthusiasm. The most important task of the tyre business must be to raise the image of the “round black things”. In reality this industry has for a long time collaborated with companies from the high tech electronics sector and there are many points of contact with the so highly-regarded IT companies. Applications in seemingly remote areas of science are checked for a possible transfer to tyres. In building tyres a revolution has happened, historical inventions since the first pneumatic tyre from John Boyd Dunlop as well as radialisation or the tubeless tyre, silica compounds or lamella technology in respect of materials or tread design, are all in the past and are only little steps in the history of the tyre. The dynamic of the tyre business in terms of technology is fantastic: a “brave new world” of tyres has begun. Unfortunately this feeling of progress and the many technical innovations which have had such an impact on the tyre industry and the tyre trade have not filtered through to everyday business. We – who deal with tyres day in and day out – ought also to be infected by this contagious enthusiasm which is rife in research and development departments, whose technicians are sometimes regarded by outsiders as somewhat staid. Let’s have a review of the year 2001: whoever reads the headlines of this business and comes from a totally different sector will envy us for being in such a dynamic industry.

28th December 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

ArvinMeritor European Director

Thierry Leblanc (41) is joining the ArvinMeritor group as European Sales and Marketing Director for the Light Vehicle Aftermarket division (shock absorbers, exhaust systems, catalytic converters and filters). Mr Leblanc joins from Valeo Windscreen Washing Systems where he was Aftermarket Director. He succeeds Fabrice Rosi, who remains a consultant at sales and marketing level to the ArvinMeritor Light Vehicle Aftermarket division.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Advertising To Be Boosted By Michelin USA And Goodyear

In order to expand its approach to marketing Michelin North America is reviewing its US advertising policy and will be evaluating new agencies after a 17 year relationship with New York agency DBB. At the same time Goodyear are set to increase world-wide advertising spend by 30 per cent. The annual advertising spend for Goodyear is estimated to be $60m.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

First Stop – 100 Partners Have Joined Since Its Foundation Two Years Ago

Barely two years ago, Bridgestone/Firestone Deutschland GmbH introduced the First Stop System to the German market with the intention of inviting tyre dealers to join this new form of cooperation. Since then, 100 dealers have already joined this system in Germany. And with more than 1,000 partners all over Europe, the system has spread across 16 countries, so far. In Germany, Prignitzer Falas GmbH in Pritzwalk (Brandenburg) is First Stop partner N° 100. With 24 employees serving customers’ needs, this shop is not only successful in selling tyres, but it also deals with passenger cars, agricultural and industrial machinery, as well as selling and renting trailers. Moreover, a driving school is also included. Passenger cars, trucks and tractors each contribute one third of the turnover. This company has been a Bridgestone/Firestone customer since 1993. The First Stop idea is very simple: enhancing their line by the house brand “First Stop”, Bridgestone/Firestone grants exclusive selling rights for this economically-priced tyre to its partners. Thus, both the summer tyre “FST 2000” and the winter tyre “First Stop Winter” were born. Furthermore, the First Stop package also includes a uniform image and individual training programmes, covering technical and business know-how. Dealers who opt for cooperation will be furnished with substantial marketing support, which covers the complete advertising and POS segment, as well as training programmes. As their commitment to the tyre manufacturer, First Stop partners promise to always use up-to-date equipment to cope with the latest tyre technology, to join training programmes regularly and to always offer a proficient and friendly complete service for customers.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Receivers Called In At Just Tyres

Just Tyres Holdings, the group consisting of the Just Tyres retail chain, the Southam Tyres wholesale business, Autostop and Autostop fleet network, has called in the Administrative Receiver. 40 of the 90 Just Tyres depots were closed down immediately, resulting in 100 job losses, or one third of the total group workforce. Autostop Fleet has also closed down. The Receiver is looking for buyers, either for the group as a whole or its component divisions separately and reports “considerable interest”.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

MMS Annual Poll 2000/2001: German Tyre Retailers Have Missed Their Targets

In the German tyre retailing business, the mood has swung towards the negative side over the last year. This is the main result of an annual poll carried out by the Marketing + Management-Systeme (MMS) among 2,400 German tyre retailers. According to the MMS-report, 80 percent of tyre retailers have been disappointed in their economic expectations. Among the co-operation members this is even higher at 85 percent. The main reason for the depressed mood has been the disaster of the winter tyre business in 2000 and there is no sign of any compensation in the form of new business activities. For 80 percent of the companies questioned, their central goal is to improve their service quality during this year. One year ago 30 percent of the retailers had stated that their expectations had been more than fulfilled, for 49 percent the expectations had been fulfilled. This time there are just three percent for whom the expectations have been more than fulfilled and another 17 percent who had achieved their aims. The most serious problem is the high quantity of winter tyres in stock. They block the capacities for the coming summer tyre season and cost a lot of time and money. First calculations are that 28 percent of the winter tyres have been not sold, which means a volume of five million units. With an average worth of 85 DM this adds up to an amount of approximately 400 million DM up to 425 million DM.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Reifen Gundlach: Successful Marketing of Gajah Tunggal Tyres In Germany

The two managing directors of Reifen Gundlach, Gebhard and Joachim Jansen, once again invited a number of important guests to visit the Gajah Tunggal factory in Jakarta. This journey was to make it clear to everybody that, with the German wholesaler on one the side and the Indonesian tyre manufacturer on the other, two promising partners have been found to make progress in the hotly-disputed home market. The official reason for visiting the company was the introduction of the latest uhp tyres GT Radial Champiro HPZ 40/45 and the Maxmiler CX, which could also be tested on the Sentul racing track. For the management it was important to keep in touch with the world’s leading tyre manufacturers. Referring to marketing, GT was already cooperating with the German wholesaler Reifen Gundlach before the Japanese world trading group Itochu acquired a majority holding in the trading enterprise from Raubach, in September 1998, which is said to be have since grown to 75 percent. Reifen Gundlach’s market acceptance has grown so far, because being part of Itochu has been very important, not least, for the cooperation with Michelin. This is a strategic partnership selected by Reifen Gundlach, in order to bring those customers to the tyre manufacturer that it finds difficult to reach, and to help Reifen Gundlach itself to successfully expand its tyre range.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

New UK Truck Servicing Network For Continental

Continental Tyre Group is to set up a new UK truck network, comprising independent businesses with exclusive territories, managed by Continental. This will obviously affect the commercial division of Conti’s subsidiary National Tyre Services. Some will be sold, while some will be taken over by existing staff – a number of these are expected to join the new truck network, which will be called ContiNetwork.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

Wheel Specialist Brock Has Its Own Production In Bosnia

The Brock-Group is known across Germany as an alloy wheel marketing company. Successfully marketing an assortment covering everything from commonplace to extravagant wheels, the group has gained the reputation of a quality supplier. Although it wasn’t carefully planned for future business, it cannot be purely accident that the group has owned a wheel factory in Bosnia for two years now. Meanwhile, nearly 100 machines are working in the factory 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 50 weeks a year, with an annual production capacity of some 500,000 wheels. However, this figure alone does not say very much; equipment and machinery, as far as it has been replaced, is state-of-the-art, and it is obvious that within only a few months this factory will be run exclusively by new and modern machinery. E.T.R.T.O, KBA, TÜV, SF 1 JWL and Jaso standards are fulfilled in order to guarantee quality. The qualification procedure of the factory will take place this August. In the interview with NEUE REIFENZEITUNG, Claudia and Elisabeth Brock point out that in the future the Brock-Group will go on putting emphasis on the upper level, i.e. the high-tech level. The assortment consists of very nice and very costly wheels, which are in demand all over Europe and the marketing of which is very interesting for manufacturers and for both wholesalers and retailers. High class segments consisting of aesthetically designed wheels and many special sizes form the mainstay of the Brock-Group, well-known by the names Brock Car Fashion and Rad Center Derkum.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

New Leader For Goodyear’s Global Marketing/Brand Management

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company has elected Cathryn M. Fischer, vice president and chief marketing officer. Fischer, 39, will be responsible for the world’s largest tiremaker’s global marketing and brand management efforts. She will report to Robert J. Keegan, president and chief operating officer.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

New Tenneco Vice President

Jean Pierre Dolait has been appointed as Vice President Sales and Marketing, Aftermarket Tenneco Automotive ( Monroe brand suspension products and Walker exhaust systems). Previously at Valeo, Dolait reports to Tenneco’s General Manager, Aftermarket, Don Miller.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors

ETRA-Conference In Leipzig

A year ago, the conference of the European Tyre Recycling Association (ETRA) was held in Schwerin, dealing with the present situation and future perspectives of scrap tyre disposal in Germany. Many questions and problems that were left unanswered in 1999 were also discussed at the following conference in Leipzig, which took place at the beginning of last December. Also this time there were few new answers to be found concerning the well-known problems in this area. Why is it so difficult to solve these problems connected with the recycling business? Some answers: the participants in this market are very diverse – and so are the individual aims. In addition, the market situation for recycled scrap tyres is still not the best, and new ideas for sensible and economical applications are few and far between at the moment. Even if they exist, they may still be blocked in many cases, e.g. the use of rubber in road surfaces. On the other hand there is a requirement for European quality standards for products which are already distributed. Furthermore, the knowledge of some companies in this sector is quite limited: it is either the tyre-, disposal- or the marketing-know how that is missing. In many cases the financial backing for new projects is insufficient. Not to mention a number of scandals concerning illegal landfills, which has negatively influenced public opinion about this business sector. Finally the serious market participants, as well as their association ETRA, have run up against a wall of disinterest on the part of the state and the tyre manufacturers.

30th November 2001/by Tyrepress Editors