The 10th annual Bizcon, in Bridgestone Corp.’s 75th anniversary year, attracted the largest group of dealers in the event’s history.

Approximately 800 trucking professionals, including more than 530 dealers, traveled to Washington Apr. 20-22 to attend Bridgestone/Firestone North American Tire’s (BFNAT) yearly commercial dealer meeting.

The conference included new business-building seminars, a CEO meeting on the future of trucking and speeches by Joe Theisman, former Sen. Fred Thompson and Dr. Martin Regalia, chief economist for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Mark Emkes, chairman and CEO of Bridgestone Americas Holding Inc. (BAH) and BFNAT, began the conference with a review of 2005 and a vision for 2006.

“Last year, BFNAT made a small, but significant operating profit,” said Emkes. He told dealers that sales in the Americas reached $10.15 billion, an 11% increase over 2004. Parent company Bridgestone Corp. saw a 58% increase in profit after tax to $1.53 billion on sales of $22.87 billion, an 11% increase over 2004.

“Our game plan for 2006 is a consistent, responsible extension of our plan for 2005,” Emkes said. “It was that plan that allowed us to turn the corner of profitability at BFNAT and continue our string of profitability and growth at BAH.”

BFNAT will continue to improve customer, teammate, government, media and community relations, enhance quality, processes and systems and generate positive cash flow, Emkes noted.

“Our focus on those fundamentals hasn’t changed,” he said. “The focus is just more intense since our business goals this year are even more challenging due to the continuing increase in raw material and utility costs, the impact of low-cost production coming into the Americas and increasing healthcare costs.”

Despite those cost hurdles, Bridgestone Corp. will invest more than $5.2 billion over the next three years, Emkes told dealers. The funds will go toward “building brand leadership with new generation-next technologies, new generation-next manufacturing facilities and new marketing strategies,” he said.

At the heart of BFNAT’s new marketing strategies is the creation of “a dominant selling idea for each brand,” said Kurt Danielson, executive director of commercial tire marketing. And, that was the inspiration for the theme of Bizcon 10 – “Brand Independence.”

“Brand independence is about all of us building our brands in ways that matter most to the customers we seek,” explained Art Campagnoni, executive director of North American commercial sales. “We intend to specialize, not generalize,” said Campagnoni. “We’ll focus our efforts, not scatter them. We don’t want to be all things to all people.”

BFNAT’s “declaration of brand independence” is critical as fleet customers become more sophisticated and, more than ever, seek specialized tire solutions for specific needs, Danielson explained.

Further, “the lines of buyer perception between the Bridgestone brand and the Firestone brand have begun to blur in a competitive environment with a growing number of brands,” said Danielson. “In such an environment, no leading brand can afford anything less than the utmost brand clarity and a leading preference in the mind of the fleet.”

Brand strength requires brand distinction, and that is the philosophy underpinning the new brand positioning.

The Firestone brand will be marketed as the “number one authentic American original,” according to Danielson. “The dominant idea for Firestone is an authentic heritage, value and understanding of what matters most to the small fleet and owner operator,” he said. Target customers are “people born to truck, with independent, entrepreneurial spirits and honest, hard-working values.”

Conversely, the Bridgestone brand will target “leading fleets that are looking for much more than the best truck tire value,” Danielson emphasized. These customers want “a total tire solution,” he said, which includes “state-of-the-art technologies, innovative tire management solutions, exclusive, patented long-lasting designs and best lifecycle performance.

“Whereas Firestone technology is now, Bridgestone technology is future,” he added.

To support the new branding strategy, BFNAT launched two independent Web sites for the Bridgestone and Firestone brands. BridgestoneTruckTires.com targets large- and medium-sized fleets, while FirestoneTruckTires.com focuses on small fleets and owner operators. The tiremaker also debuted two separate Bridgestone and Firestone ad campaigns and said that new support programs would emerge in the coming year.

“Leading brands must be clear and meaningful in the minds of the customers they’re designed to reach,” Danielson told dealers. “A brand that stands for everything stands for nothing. And a brand that stands for nothing can never make money.”