Michelin

Is it easy for customers to buy tires for their automobile as compared to shopping of other products? The answer is no. In this age of modernization majority of them own an automobile and thus tire is a very essential product for all automobile owner. However, the customer is still away from having the luxury of buying the tires as per their wish. This is majorly due to lack of proper setup.

I believe with the status of the Michelin in the tire market, their sales network is still not that strong. And due to this we might be losing some of the potential business. There are different traditional means of logistic distribution like Specialized dealers, Franchised multi specialist dealers, garage automobile dealers etc. However, for all dealers to do good business, their needs to be a proper supply platform.

In order to have more market shares, we need to have a good sales network having tie up with the dealers in the different location. And also company owned outlets needs to be opened at different strategic locations to provide a different buying experience to buyers which other types of dealers will not be able to provide due to lack of infrastructure. By having company owned outlet, all technical information can be passed on to the customers. This will help customers make more informed decision and thus increasing the company goodwill in the customers. This will also make customers feel assured, they are getting what they are paying for. It’s being rightly said, market goodwill for any company always helps any company to have good business and increase their revenue.

Also by having our own outlet, this can also serve as a distribution centre for other authorised dealers. This will help company to reach in different corners of the region and have customer base everywhere. Also, Forecasting- an important aspect for any company which is done considering and analysing different parameters. And one of the parameters of the forecasting is previous sales data. And by having our own network of sales outlet will help us in getting more refined sales data. Thereby reducing the dependability on the authorised dealers to provide us the data. On the basis of forecasting, company decides the annual production plan. As forecast can never be fully accurate, so I would say by having forecasting near to accurate will help us in not having excess or less inventory. And this will help in reducing the working capital in the excess inventory. On the other hand, this savings can be channelized into supply chain management and increase the service level.

The other market which is a biggest customer to the company is the Original equipment (OE) manufacturers. A great significance should be given for the business with the OE automakers, as they are the one who are supplying the main product to the market in which retail customers can use our product i.e tires. Also by having automakers as one of the important customer is, because it plays an important role while replacing a tire once the original tired is worn out. Since the customer has used the tire for long time, it is natural for them to go for the same tire at the time of replacement. Also tire is a product which can be replaced from one brand to another brand. Because of which we might also get new customers by hearing good feedback from the old customers. But there is lot of competition in the market, in