Alpha Tyre Company

Case is intended to be a part of instruction material developed for teaching at a Marketing class in Business Schools. Alpha is not a real company any resemblance to a real corporation is co-incidental. Case facts are for discussion only and are not intended to be a demonstrator of correct or incorrect handling of management situation.

Alpha Tyre Company A!"#A$ is engaged in the manufacture and sale of car tyres. Most of A!"#A%s business is conducted primarily through the &' &riginal '(uipment$ route) selling to automobile manufacturers such as Maruti) #yundai) Tata) #onda) Toyota and #industan Motors. The company has a strong presence in the &' market and it *ants to protect its dominance in this space. #o*ever) A!"#A is lagging behind in the replacement market *ith minimal brand recall in the market place. +n the overall tyre market) A!"#A has a small share since it speciali,es in car tyres only. The big +ndian players in the market like M-.) C'AT and /0 *ield a *ide range of tyres for t*o*heelers) three-*heelers) cars) utility vehicles) and commercial vehicles i.e. trucks and buses. The company%s ne* C'&) *ho has recently been brought in from a Consumer 1urables company) fears that a lo* brand recall in the replacement market *ould adversely affect their &' market share and therefore *ants to develop a gro*th strategy to e2pand the company%s replacement market share. The Marketing department at A!"#A did not have a consistent and researched understanding of *hat drove tyre sales and ho* customers *ent about buying car tyres. "ast research findings by A!"#A on consumer preferences have been sketchy and market information has been collected on ad-hoc basis. There is no evidence of any e2tensive study conducted on consumers and most of the theories going around in the company are based on hunches and 3gut-feel%. 4arious strategies *ere used in the past to reach the customer target groups. The tyre-dealers *ere targeted through a rigourous sales process along *ith target-based schemes. Mechanics and Car Service Stations *ere reached through direct schemes. Mass Media and "- *ere used to communicate *ith end users. The Sales department has a different approach on *hat needs to be done in the replacement market they believe that pushing the product *ith better dealer margins is the *ay to go and that the Marketing department is *asting time *ith "ositioning and Brand Building. The (uality of tyres is 5udged) among other factors) on the *ear rate of the tyre) *hich *as measured *ith a calibration device after certain specified usage intervals. A!"#A has a modern tyre testing lab and most of their tyres compare *ell vis-6-vis their competition in lab tests and road tests conducted by the company.

To formulate a marketing strategy) Alpha needs to understand a$ 7hat drives each type of customer to buy a particular brand of tyres. b$ 'ach type of influencer that impacts a brand. c$ The relative impact of customers and influencers on sales. d$ 7hat cues a good tyre and a good tyre company e$ The gaps in the Strength and 7eaknesses of its brand vis-6-vis the competition in the &' business and in the replacement market. 8ou are doing your internship at Alpha tyres and the Senior 4" of Marketing and Sales has asked you to build a marketing and sales plan9