Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.’s 2016 Dealer Conference was its biggest yet. More than 2,100 people attended the tiremaker’s “Breakthrough”-themed conference hosted just outside Washington, D.C., on Jan. 27-29.
The three-day conference featured a trade show, educational sessions, new product announcements, and speeches from Goodyear execs. The executives outlined the tiremaker’s ongoing business strategy and how Goodyear is helping dealers grow their businesses. Additionally, CEO Rich Kramer challenged dealers to think differently in the evolving marketplace.
Merging Businesses
Kicking off the event was Steve McClellan, president of the Americas, discussing recent business changes at Goodyear.
The biggest change came just before the conference in December with the merger of Goodyear’s North American and Latin American businesses.
McClellan noted that even though there is a new business structure in place, the change does not affect Goodyear’s strategy.
“We are confident that the new Americas business will serve [dealers] and your consumers better by combining processes, such as product development, market forecasting, and – yes – product supply,” he said. “This new organization will be a huge advantage for all customers and consumers throughout the Americas.”
Kramer reiterated McClellan’s message, emphasizing the change in structure was made to better serve dealers.
“The reason we did it is because all of you,” he said. “We saw a new model that’s going to allow us to leverage our scale and be a better supplier to you… Our focus will still be to work from the market back to deliver to you the tires that you demand the most.”
Another important change at Goodyear was the combing of its commercial and off-highway businesses.
“The market is creating more opportunities for commercial customers to add some off-the-road tires to their product offerings, so it made sense to combine the two,” McClellan shared.
Reaching the Consumer
When it comes to the consumer, Goodyear wants to influence buyers to seek out Goodyear dealers for tires, according to Ryan Patterson, president of Goodyear North American consumer.
“We accomplish that by getting on the right OE fitments; delivering great products to the replacement market; strengthening our brand leadership; providing you the tools to succeed; and engaging consumers in the interactive space,” he shared.
Goodyear is working to drive consumer demand through its advertising and social campaigns, sponsorships and other promotional events.
In 2016, the tiremaker plans to leverage its Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic and college football sponsorships. The tiremaker is also strengthening its partnership with NASCAR, signing Dale Earnhardt Jr. as a brand ambassador. Earnhardt will be the featured in a series of broadcast, digital and print ads, the tiremaker said.
Patterson noted that with the changing North American tire consumer, there is untapped opportunity.
“The growing Hispanic population is a good example,” he said. “They already represent 17% of the population and will grow approximately 150% over the next several years.”
Goodyear is launching targeted marketing and advertising to reach this population in 2016, Patterson shared.
Patterson also noted that millennials also represent a significant business opportunity.
“There are more millennials in the workforce than any other generation. That’s why these 18- to 34-year-olds represent more than $200 billion in annual buying power,” he said.
“Together, we have a significant opportunity to win the trust of this generation and become their brand of choice.”
Recapping the first year of its online sales program at Goodyear.com, Andy Traicoff, vice president of sales and customer development, reported successes.
“Of the customers that are walking through your doors from a Goodyear.com online purchase, almost 70% are new to the location,” he shared. “Best of all, nearly 85% said they planned to return to the store for future business; 50% purchased additional services at the time of installation; and that average service bill is nearly $300.”
“Consumer needs continue to evolve, and the installer program clearly represents a huge opportunity for [dealers] to break through like never before,” he continued.
New Products
Unveiled during the conference were three passenger/light truck tires – the Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3, Kelly Edge HP and Wrangler TrailRunner AT – and three commercial tires — the Endurance RSA, Endurance WHA and Fuel Max RSA.
The Eagle F1 Asymmetric 3 has been added to the Eagle lineup as a new premium, ultra-high performance summer tire.
The tire is currently available in six sizes with an additional 19 sizes rolling out throughout 2016.
Goodyear also announced the addition of the Kelly Edge HP to its line of Kelly-branded tires. The Kelly Edge HP joins the Kelly Edge A/S and Kelly Edge AT and helps the Kelly Edge Power Line to now cover 85% of target segments, Goodyear said.
The Kelly Edge HP will be available in 20 sizes, ranging from 195/55R15 to 245/45R18.
The Wrangler TrailRunner AT joins Goodyear’s Wrangler light truck line for on- and off-road driving.
The Wrangler TrailRunner AT will be available in 41 sizes, ranging from 225/75R16 to 275/60R20.
For regional and urban delivery fleets, the new Goodyear Endurance RSA, offers a tire for highway and city driving, fuel efficiency and retreadability, the tiremaker said.
The Endurance RSA’s casing is retreadable and the tire will be available in 11 sizes, load ranges G and H.
Designed as the company’s longest-wearing waste haul tire, the Endurance WHA will become the go-to tire for waste haul fleets, Goodyear said. Also offered is a matching Endurance WHA retread.
The tire is available in size 315/80R22.5, load range L.
Goodyear also unveiled the Fuel Max RSA.
The SmartWay-compliant tire features Goodyear’s Fuel Max Technology to lower tire-rolling resistance and improve fuel efficiency.
The Fuel Max RSA is available in size 11R22.5, 295/75R22.5 and 11R24.5 in load ranges G and H.
Disruption
Concluding the Goodyear Dealer Conference, like he does every year, was CEO Rich Kramer.
Kramer spoke about disruption. Specifically, how technology is driving disruption in business.
“Disruption’s not simply an incremental innovation or an improvement of something. Disruption is something that changes an industry forever,” he said. “Disruption is usually something that starts very small, is widely ignored or we miss it, it gains a foothold, and then it grows into something that becomes a real competitive threat.”
One example of disruption Kramer gave is Uber.
“Uber upended those businesses in a way they couldn’t have imagined, and they didn’t see it coming,” he shared.
Uber took advantage of existing technology to connect drivers and users in a faster and easier way than it would be to use conventional transportation, such as a taxi.
“The lesson of Uber is that it demonstrates that the traditional ways of doing things are going to continue to be challenged,” Kramer said.
In the face disruption, Kramer gave dealers four things to think about.
The first piece of advice Kramer gave dealers was to keep executing.
“We have a unique advantage, in that consumers have to come see us to install tires in your stores. They have to do it. And in that environment, remember, you are the leaders. You are better in this industry than anybody else. And no matter how tires are bought or delivered, nobody is going to take your place as experts,” he said. “Keep executing, never forget that.”
The second piece of advice was for dealers to be aware of the disruptions around them.
Kramer gave several suggestions as to how dealers could disrupt themselves: going paperless at work; downloading Uber and using it; pay bills online; shop online; and more.
One major challenge Kramer gave tire dealers is to try purchasing tires online.
“How do you know what it feels like for your customers to do that if you don’t have the experience yourself? Go out and do it. Go to our website. Go to someone else’s. See how the experience worked,” he said.
Kramer challenged dealers not only be aware of what’s disrupting the industry, but learn to embrace it.
“The last thing I want you to do is just to embrace disruption and say for all of us together, let’s go figure this thing out. How are we going to be able to connect and provide value to our customers in completely different ways, in ways that we can’t even conceive of today? That’s what we have to do,” Kramer said.
“Competitive advantage is not just figuring out how to sell a tire better; it’s going to be defined by the speed and effectiveness of our organization and your organization to change,” Kramer shared.
