Conti stresses importance of dealers on Gold cruise

ABOARD THE NAVIGATOR OF THE SEAS — The importance of supporting and partnering with its independent tire dealers was among the topics covered during Continental Tire the Americas L.L.C.'s 2017 Gold Cruise.

The event was held March 28 — the third day of the six-day cruise, awarded to dealers who sold more than 2,000 units from the Continental/General Tire portfolio in 2016.

"We want to be more than a transactional supplier to customers," Bill Caldwell, vice president of sales and marketing, told the group at the business meeting, held March 28 aboard the Navigator of the Seas cruise ship.

"... Partnership with our customers is really important for us, because in the end, tire business is people business."

This year, 334 elite Gold dealers qualified for the 12th annual trip, including 67 first-time dealers. The cruise, which had stops in Nassau, Bahamas, and Cozumel, Mexico, included 640 dealers and guests, as well as Conti staff.

While Conti had rolled out some of the changes to its Gold program in January — including benchmark increases for three of the four levels of the Gold Retailer Program — Sean McDermaid, national sales manager, detailed some of the benefits to dealers.

The benchmark for Gold Elite status increased to 3,500 units from 2,000, while the reward per unit increases to $7 this year from $4 in 2016. If a dealer who sold 3,000 units in 2016 increases that number to 3,500 units in 2017, his financial reward more than doubles, to $24,500.

"The changes that we made were all designed to reward and hopefully assure your loyalty to us into the future," Mr. McDermaid told dealers.

"This is an effort to make sure all the dealers make the same if not more in 2017 than in years past. We hope this additional money and additional commitment shows you that we remain incredibly committed to independent tire dealers. We want to find ways for you to grow with Continental in the future."

Travis Roffler, director of marketing, said the tire maker has been pounding one drumbeat over the past three years: "We want to be your No. 1.

"We're producing world-class products that are rated by Consumer Reports as one of the best in the industry," Mr. Roffler said. "We give them a value proposition: they acquire those products at a lower price than other manufacturers, and they can sell those products at or near what other manufacturers are selling and make more money."

The portfolio of products will grow again in 2017. Conti is in the midst of rolling out four lines:

• Continental ExtremeContact Sport, an ultra-high-performance tire that launched in February;

• General Grabber HD, an all-season heavy-duty light truck tire for the commercial segment that launched April 3;

• General G-Max AS-O5, an ultra-high performance all-season tire that replaces the G-Max AS-03, launching in May; and

• General Altimax Arctic12 winter tire that replaces the Altimax Arctic.

Bob Liu, product manager, performance tires, reviewed the offerings for the dealers.

The marketing initiatives that Contintental has launched over the past decade have been successful, according to Mr. Roffler.

Conti has focused its efforts on three sports: the International Motorsports Assocation (IMSA) circuit; Major League Soccer (MLS) and U.S. Soccer; and college basketball.

Combined, the sports promotions drove nearly 17 billion impressions to the Continental brand's website, Mr. Roffler said, with soccer leading the way with more than 9 billion. He said Conti started its affiliation with soccer in 2010, and both parties recently extended the relationship to 2022, through another World Cup Soccer cycle.

Conti extended its reach in college basketball in two ways: It added four schools to its sponsorship lineup (University of Virginia, Florida State University, Michigan State University and University of Miami); and it hired national sports broadcaster Dan Patrick to shoot two commercials touting the brand.

Mr. Roffler said the sponsorships are designed to drive traffic to the Continental website. Once there, they are directed to find the size tire they are seeking, then on to the dealer locator page.

The Continental executives said the company is focusing on four areas: Strong product performance and portfolio; value composition; partnership with their people; and great people.

"We think we have charted the course for the Gold program for our sponsorships and for each direction were taking for the brand, in a very methodically, well-thought out situation," Mr. Roffler said. "That means we won't be changing directions in the near future."