Michelin China: With Fast 2007 14 February 00:50 Sales and Management Magazine.
The competition among giants has been escalating, from single tire service to comprehensive services such as automobile decoration, automobile maintenance, automobile inspection and replacement of worn-out products.
Text/reporter Xie Haifeng
The annual growth rate of China's automobile market of more than 20% can be said to be "amazing" for the global tire giants-it not only directly brought countless fruits to the original tire distribution market, but also bred the tire replacement market (retail market). Now, the replacement market has produced more attractive fruits: on the one hand, the first batch of car buyers have started to repair replacement parts, and the tire replacement market is also opening up (in 2005, the growth of the entire retail market exceeded the original distribution market), and the demand is coming one after another; On the other hand, in order to transfer the cost pressure, the upstream vehicle manufacturers have "slimmed down" the profits of the original tire distribution market.
The demand blowout brought by market transformation, competitors want to take the lead, which of course makes every tire manufacturer unable to sit idly by; However, the tire replacement market has long had "pioneers": two or three years ago, international tire giants such as Michelin, Goodyear and Bridgestone began to lay out retail networks in the tire replacement market in China, such as Michelin's "Chi Jia Store", and Bridgestone's "Wings of Cars" is one of the representatives.
After attacking the city, the competition among the giants has been escalating, from single tire service to comprehensive services such as automobile decoration, automobile maintenance, automobile inspection and replacement of worn-out products.
From channel expansion to service upgrade
Gao Andong, vice president of Michelin (China) Investment Co., Ltd. and director of Michelin China car and light truck tire replacement market and sales, had the opportunity to announce Michelin's impressive performance when he met reporters for the first time in less than a year: in the first half of 2007, the sales of Michelin China car and light truck tire increased rapidly year-on-year, much faster than that of/kloc-0.5%-/kloc-0.7.
According to Gao Andong, brand, product and service constitute Michelin's "iron triangle" strategy in China, striving to achieve the best in these three aspects. This seems to explain one point-the channel (retail store) is the point of direct contact with users, and Michelin should exert its strength on the channel. Is that so? In fact, the implementation of Michelin strategy has started from many aspects.
In the first half of 2007, the tire market output in China was 247.69 million, up 23% year-on-year. "China is not only the country with the highest growth rate of automobile sales, but also the second largest country with new car sales after Germany. Therefore, in the medium and long term, the capacity of the tire replacement market in China will become the first or second in the future." Gao Andong values the tire replacement market in China.
Such a market makes Michelin now face two challenges: "First, the capacity of the tire replacement market is growing rapidly, which requires Michelin to continuously increase its investment in brand and marketing;" Second, Michelin should continue to increase its investment in services, so that users can feel the brand value in receiving services. "
"Growing at a speed higher than the average growth rate of the market" is Michelin's attitude towards this challenge, and Michelin hopes to stay ahead of the market.
However, the challenge Michelin faces is also the challenge of Goodyear and Bridgestone. The speed that Michelin pursues is also what Goodyear and Bridgestone crave.
In terms of channel expansion, Goodyear has gathered 300 retail franchisees in six months, and even recruited Michelin dealers with preferential franchise conditions. The average speed of opening two stores a day is really amazing; Bridgestone also increased the number of various retail stores to 65,438+0,500 in just three years.
Michelin adjusted its franchise policy for this purpose. Gao Andong said, "Now Michelin franchisees don't charge joining fees, Michelin provides free training, and also helps franchisees to upgrade (from primary to intermediate to advanced) to jointly develop and consolidate the market with Michelin."
So far, Michelin has more than 400 Chi Jia stores in China (Chi Jia store is Michelin's top retail service network) and 3,000 designated retail dealers; At the same time, Michelin also established business cooperation with 14 brand 4S stores, and completed more than 1400 training for 4S stores. Not only that, "Michelin's Chi Jia network will increase 100 every year." Gao Andong told reporters.
But Michelin is still wary of the pursuers behind him.
Following the launch of 24-hour free tire rescue in 2004, on March 28th, 2006, Michelin announced the launch of "Walk with You" service in China: in major cities in China, any consumer can register as a Michelin "Walk with You" member by purchasing two Michelin tires from the designated retailer of Michelin "Walk with You" service, and enjoy five well-designed exclusive services for members, including.
Gao Andong said that China is the third country to launch "whatever you want" service, and the first two countries are French and German. As a top Michelin service brand, "Walking with You" was introduced to China, which reflected Michelin's emphasis on the China market. But the next day, Goodyear announced that it would soon launch the "car nanny program", including one-stop free car service, lifetime free tire inspection service, nanny file tracking service and exclusive preferential products and services for members.
However, Michelin's service network is already quite large: 1700 Michelin retailers have joined the "Walk with You" service plan, with 250,000 users; "Walk with you" service has covered more than 200 cities across the country; The Warrior Raiders service covers 52 cities across the country.
In July 2007, Goodyear also announced the launch of "24-hour free road rescue service", expanding the rescue scope from tires to vehicle services. As a result, the service upgrade war of domestic tire industry has also begun. In this regard, Gao Andong did not want to comment on the performance of competitors, only said: Michelin will regard it as a long-term value-added service for consumers, whether it is "walking with you" service or "Warrior Raiders 24-hour road rescue service".
Infiltration and subdivision
The battle between channels and services continues, and the further step is to compete for internal strength.
For the influence of users' purchase intention, channels and services are only one link in the chain. In other aspects, Michelin has not only penetrated and promoted its brand, but also developed technically subdivided products for China consumers, striving to be in the leading position in this China market competition.
In the China market, which still needs consumer education, Michelin believes that it is as important to promote tire knowledge to consumers as to promote Michelin brand to the public. Michelin still insists on providing free training services for consumers, such as providing training courses for driving schools and fan clubs. Michelin professionals teach drivers about safe driving and automobile tires and their use, repair and maintenance. Michelin also carried out universal tire safety education in big cities, and even distributed "little yellow hats" to primary school students.
Michelin even did something that looked "unusual". The guidebook not only provides practical information for drivers, such as vehicle maintenance advice, driving route recommendation, garage address and hotel and restaurant address, but also focuses on the relevant data and information of various tourist attractions. This has become another weapon for Michelin brand penetration.
"bibendum", a cartoon villain created by Michelin, always has a round face and big eyes, and is ubiquitous in various marketing activities and advertisements of Michelin. For Gao Andong, he wants more people to remember Bibidum's face than himself. In order to take care of the address habits of China people, "bibendum" has been given a specific address in China-Mr Michelin.
Faced with such a large market space in China, Michelin is also listening to the voices of consumers in China and developing tire products that meet the needs of consumers in China.
Although Michelin's three brands-Bailuchi, Michelin and Warrior * * * cover multiple price systems from high-end products to low-end products in product structure, Michelin insists on "providing different products for different market segments and different consumer groups for the tire business of cars and light trucks".
Michelin has launched "green" tires, winter tires and road sports/comfortable SUV tires, and "two new products this year-'Energy XM 1+' 0+' tires for the economical car market and Michelin Latitude series tires for the high-end SUV market, all of which were developed in combination with the situation in China".
According to Guo Hui, brand manager of Michelin, when the previous generation XM 1 tires were launched, Michelin considered more safety and handling, but less service life of tires. But after selling for a period of time, it realized that consumers' demand for economy was not fully considered. "XM 1+" tire has at least 25% more mileage than the previous generation product "XM 1".
Obviously, this market segment needs technical support to launch tires with specific performance according to users' needs. Gao Andong believes that "innovation is the core competitiveness of Michelin 100 years". This way embodies the true meaning of enterprise development, but it certainly works for other enterprises. When Michelin cultivated users' habit of using summer tires and winter tires, and promoted winter tires in China market, Goodyear introduced "all-weather tires", which can be used in both winter and summer. Not long ago, Michelin introduced the "self-regenerative tire", which will have new grooves and rubber blocks on the tire surface after wear, and its service life will be 30% longer than other driving tires on the market. The contest of technology also reflects the state of chasing and being chased between competitors.
Under the excellent situation that the tire replacement market is in urgent need of development, competitors want to grasp the trend quickly and get ahead, and on the other hand, they want to avoid being overtaken. This is the state of Michelin China Company's "making fast with fast".
In the first half of 2007, Michelin ranked first in the tire replacement market for cars and light trucks. "Michelin's brand awareness has reached an astonishing 97%, far higher than any other competitors," Gao Andong said. "Such market performance has helped us to stabilize our market leading position."
Michelin also paid a high price for it. Michelin has invested more than 400 million US dollars in China, including 250 million US dollars in two factories in Shanghai. The investment in Michelin Shenyang Tire Co., Ltd. is $65.438+0.5 billion, and the investment will further increase by $300 million, making Shenyang base the largest tire production base in the world with an annual output of 6.5438+0.2 million tires. If other investments are added, Michelin's investment in China is quite amazing, and it can be said that Michelin is determined to win.
Gao Andong stressed: "The goal in 2007 is simple, that is, to maintain a level far higher than the average market growth rate."
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