Discount Tire, Michelin earn Harris awards

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (April 6, 2015) — Discount Tire/America's Tire and Michelin have earned Harris Poll EquiTrend brand of the year honors from Harris Interactive Inc., which describes EquiTrend as a “premiere benchmarking tool” that analyzes the impact of consumer engagement on brand equity.

This marks the third straight year for both brands to earn top billing.

Discount Tire was ranked higher than the nation's other top auto service center brands by consumers nationwide, the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based dealership said.

The rankings for Auto Service Center brands are part of the annual Harris Poll EquiTrend study, a tracking study that measures and compares the brand health of more than 1,500 brands across more than 170 categories.

Discount Tire was rated ahead of Goodyear Tire & Service Network; TBC Corp.'s NTB/National Tire and Battery; Napa AutoCare Center; Valvoline Instant Oil Change; and others.

Other than Discount Tire and NTB, none of the 16 other auto service providers ranked by Harris Interactive was an independent tire or auto service dealer. Ten of the companies ranked are franchisors, so indirectly their independent franchise holders contributed the franchisors' ratings.

According to Discount Tire, the Harris study evaluates consumers' engagement and offers a complete diagnostic of a brand's position within and outside of its industry. The study derives its Equity score directly from consumer responses.

The Michelin brand was rated ahead of Goodyear, Pirelli, Bridgestone and BFGoodrich.

Harris Interactive said the results of this study, its 27th annual, were based on a sample of 38,670 U.S. consumers ages 15 and over, who were surveyed online in English between Jan. 8 and Feb. 2, 2015.

Each respondent was asked to rate 40 randomly selected brands out of a sample of 1,410 brands. Each brand received approximately 1,000 ratings.

(Discount Tire Co. photos)

Discount Tire's store in Olathe, Kan.

Separately, Discount Tire disclosed it opened three retail stores in the first quarter, inlcuding its second and third stores in Kansas.

The Kansas stores, in Derby and Olathe, are part of Discount Tire's push into the “Heartland” states of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska. They opened March 20 and Feb. 17, respectively.

 

Discount Tire's store in Derby, Kan.

The third new store, in College Station, Texas, is the third Discount Tire outlet in the College Station area and the dealership's 236th in Texas. It opened Feb. 6.

Discount Tire did not identify the new store managers nor say how many employees are at each location. Photos of the new locations show them all to be six-bay store designs.

The dealership did not disclose its investment in the new stores, which expand Discount Tire's network to 903 locations.

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