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.
SD International reports that it is showcasing its full product portfolio and introducing several new tyres (including the firm’s latest winter ranges in both the Pace and Zeta brands) at CITExpo 2012. The company will also be launching its all-new Briland range for which it holds global distribution rights.
The Starco Group reports it has established a new entity in South Africa. The Danish-based company shares that a partnership agreement was signed in July with Mac & Tirecity – a major South African distributor that operates three strategically-located distribution centres in the region.
An upgraded version of the free internet fuel saving calculator Goodyear Dunlop first launched in February 2012 is now available. Among the improvements in the new 2.0 release are EU tyre label grades, updated data, more truck configurations and additional languages.
The growth Deldo reported when Tyres & Accessories visited the wholesaler’s headquarters in Antwerp earlier this year (as covered in our March 2012 issue) has continued throughout the first half of this year, Rutger Veerman related during Reifen 2012. And the international sales and marketing manager said its experiences at the show were equally positive. “We’ve had a good show,” Veerman shared. “We have seen a lot of existing customers, mostly customers from within Europe but also from outside, and we have had contact with a number of new customers. We’ve had interest from places as far away as Australia and New Zealand. We have had a lot of interest and now have plenty to do.”
The Reifen show is a meeting point for both long-established and new companies; Shamrock Marketing Inc. belongs – at least in Europe – to the second of these groups. The US-based trading company, which was founded in Louisville, Kentucky twenty years ago by Douglas Conley, now seeks to enter the European market. The firm began life as a distributor of vulcanisation envelopes, and although this remains a core element of the company’s business activities in the US and other markets, Douglas Conley Jr. told Tyres & Accessories that Shamrock has added many additional products to its portfolio during the last 20 years. Shamrock Marketing’s current range covers accessories, tools and equipment such as autoclaves, monorails, buffers and envelope spreaders, plus tyre mounting equipment – everything needed in a cost-efficient retreading facility.
Upon visiting Hankook Tire’s global website, one of the first things to be seen is a positions vacant advertisement for PT. Hankook Tire Indonesia’s new factory in West Java, indicating that a start to production lies just around the corner. A senior Hankook manager has now confirmed to local media that commercial operations at the Lippo Cikarang plant will begin in the last quarter of 2012 with a workforce of around 1,200.
Goodyear Dunlop has used a ‘Speed Dating’ approach to explain the tyre development process and offer additional information relating to the new EU Tire Label to top technology and motoring journalists from around Europe. But the key message was, as we heard from several manufacturers as Essen just a few weeks ago, that the EU Tire Label will highlight a tyre’s performance in three areas while leading manufacturers such as Goodyear Dunlop analyzes over 50 criteria during development.
Materials company Styron reports that its R&D/TS&D Rubber Team has developed functionalised Solution Styrene Butadiene Rubber in response to the European tyre label, and the team is “continuously working” to introduce new grades that will deliver even better performance. “Let's give you one example which speaks by itself to demonstrate how powerful the technology is," commented Styron sales and marketing manager Olivier Véron. “With the introduction of Styron's generation two SSBR 4602, compared with our generation one SSBR 4601 for the rolling resistance we can move from the rating C to B, while maintaining all the other properties identical like the grip and the handling."
Continental Tire will serve as the “official tyre” of 2012 Herbalife World Football Challenge in the US following the signing of a sponsorship deal. Under the agreement, Continental Tire will receive field board signage, end board signage, in-stadium media, hospitality, and category exclusivity at all the championship, which will take place across North America between 18 July and 11 August. This latest deal is in addition to the company’s official status sponsorship of Major League Soccer (MLS). Last year Bridgestone was a sponsor of the event.
No particular surprises awaited Tyres & Accessories at Continental’s Reifen 2012 stand. The German tyre maker presented its full consumer tyre range, including several key new products also seen at the Geneva Motor Show in February – the recently launched ContiPremiumContact 5, the ContiWinterContact TS850 and the Conti.e.Contact Winter.
According to Lyssa da Costa, manager of marketing at Hercules Tire’s Canada and international divisions, Reifen 2012 was a “busy, productive show” for the wholesaler. At the exhibition, the company displayed a wide range of its products, including three recently launched winter tyres in the Hercules and Ironman ranges.
During Reifen 2012 Toyo Tire launched its NanoEnergy 1 and Nanoenergy 2 tyres which represent both the company’s latest technology and a unique response to the labelling challenge. With the addition of the new tyres and the AB rating that comes with the NanoEnergy 1, Toyo now offers some of the highest European labelling rated products currently available in the market. With both being production ready products rather than concepts tyres, Toyo appears to be communicating that it is aiming to compete at the very top of the market.
Few tyre companies quote Ruskin, Aristotle and Henry Ford in the same piece of promotional literature. But B&J Rocket does in an effort to communicate what its Quality Plus seal stands for. And as John Ruskin said: “Quality is never an accident. It is always the result of intelligent effort.” Tyre & Accessories recently met with managing director Andreas Mueller to find out more.
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Bridgestone has renewed its sponsorship of Copa Sudamericana, the South American football cup. On 2 July the tyre maker confirmed it has signed on for a second year with the championship that is contested by 47 clubs from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. Bridgestone’s title sponsorship is again reflected in the event’s name – Copa Bridgestone Sudamericana.
Continental states that it tested around 500 truck and bus tyres in preparation for releasing its European label results on 1 July. The German tyre maker says it has now integrated all measured tyre data into the company’s existing internal and external SAP-supported computer systems and made it available to retailers. Unlike passenger car and van tyres, no physical label will be affixed to individual truck and bus tyres, however. Instead, Continental and its sales partners will list the data in the technical documents for the products, at points of sale, on the internet and on invoices.
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