Tire dealers depend on the tire brands they carry. Quality, innovation, fill rate, marketability, profitability – all help tire dealers reach customers, build a reputation and grow a business. So, just how do tire brands perform in the real world?
Click here to see the 2008 Brands Study
For the 16th straight year, Tire Review asked North American tire dealers to rate the performance of the tire brands – consumer (passenger, performance and light truck/SUV) and commercial (medium truck) – they carry and sell. Tire Review’s annual Tire Brand Study is not a scientific research project; it merely measures dealer opinions and perceptions about the brands they offer. This study examines both major (including associate) and private brands separately so that each group could be fairly and directly compared with each other.
Dealers were not permitted to comment on brands they did not carry, and consumers and end-users were not polled. No tires were physically tested. The results only reflect the expressed opinions and perceptions of independent tire dealers. Babcox Research conducted this study for Tire Review, analyzing tire dealer responses from some 700 completed telephone surveys. Every effort was made to obtain a fair sampling of responses and assure the number of responses gathered was consistent with accepted industry brand marketshare figures. Limits were placed on the number of dealers interviewed per geographic region, thereby restricting the impact of certain brands with strong distribution in one region or another.
A total of 2,160 specific brand mentions were collected for the Consumer Tire segment of the study, and another 535 specific brand mentions were obtained for the Commercial Tire segment. Quite clearly, the number of Chinese tire brands being carried by tire dealers is growing.
The results published here do not include all brands mentioned. To be presented in the final results shown here, a consumer tire brand had to have at least 20 mentions – up from 15 in previous years – and a commercial brand needed at least 12 mentions.
Dealers were asked to rate each brand of tires they carried on a 1 to 10 scale – 10 being highest – on a series of categories. An aggregate overall score for each brand was calculated, averaging the results from each category. The top brands, plus ties for the top, are shown in bold. Last year’s category winners are indicated with an asterisk.
Tire Review’s Brand Study results are available by contacting Bob Roberts, research manager, at 330-670-1234 ext. 252, or by e-mailing Bob at [email protected].
