Assignment on Industrial Marketing

Product: Apollo Tyres.

Submitted by
Mallikarjun R B.
MBA09001016

To
Mrs Afreen N.
Characteristics of Apollo Tyres:

Apollo tyres,
 Delivers premium mileage with enhanced comfort
 Excellent traction in both wet and dry conditions
 Strong steel belts stabilise tread for high mileage
 Ideal for moderate load applications
 Excellent traction for both on/off-road applications
 Strong steel belt with flexible sidewall for longer tyre life
 Reinforced radial construction for long life
 Light truck construction for moderate loads
 Good traction on highway terrain
 More tread rubber mass delivers high mileage
 Dual-bead construction for heavy load applications
 Very strong casing allows higher load-carrying and multiple retreads special casing
design with dual beads for heavy-load applications
 Optimised shoulder mass ensures cooler running and improved performance
 Extra deep tread with cooler running for high mileage
 Superior cut-resistant tread compound ensures smooth wear and high casing     value
 Designed for highway applications with excellent traction in wet and dry     conditions
 Provides good cornering and braking
 Design material provides longer life and wear-resistance

Type of Customers:

There are mainly 2 types of customers for tyre manufactures.

1. Industrial Buyers: These customers are also known as original equipment

manufacturers (OEM) thus as name indicates the manufacture of automobiles are the
direct customers for the tyre industries. Like Bajaj, Tata, TVS, Ashok Leyland,
Mahindra, Eicher are the industrial buyers of tyres as they manufacture the
automobiles which requires tyres to run. Thus for any tyre manufacturer industrial
buyer will be the major customer.
2. Repetitive Buyers: Repetitive buyers are those who purchases tyre to replace the old
one for their existing vehicle. Hence repetitive customers will comes under consumers
 as the process of purchase will goes through retailing. Hence the prices of the same
tyre will vary for industrial buyers and repetitive buyers. The other customers are
STU, Defence and Exports.

Industrial Buying Process:

The buying process in case of tyres is a typical one. It’s a classical example for the
concept of derived demand. So the buying process involves a huge amount of
negotiation as the industrial buyers are very few. So the demand for tyre depends
upon the forecasted number of different types of vehicles to be produced by the
different manufactures.

Environmental influences on organisational buying process:

The environmental factors influencing the organisational buying process are as follows,

 The increase or decrease in the production of automobiles or vehicles.

 Increase in the per capita or consumption power of the people.
 Growth of GDP.
 Availability of raw material mainly rubber.
 Huge competition within the industry with the similar products.

Criteria for the evaluation of potential supplier for tyre industry:

The evaluation criteria will be,

 Installed capacity of production: If any automobile manufacturer has the plan of

producing 1000 vehicles then that co. will surely search for the supplier of tyres who
has the capacity of producing the required amount tyres.
 On time delivery.
 Quality of the product.
 Price per tyre.
 Credit facility availability.
 Trust.
Thus these are the major criteria for selecting any tyre co. as a potential supplier
MIS:

The marketing Information System of a tyre co. will be mainly depending on the changes in
the automobile industry. If there is any major change in the automobile sector then it
indirectly affects on the marketing strategy of the tyre co. So the professional sales persons
who can quickly gather the information of the changes in the other sectors will be the front
line system for marketing information.

Industry and Customer segment Identification:

Segmentation of Customers:
Technology generation in the Indian tyre industry has witnessed a fair amount of expertise
and versatility to absorb, adapt and modify international technology to suit Indian conditions.
This is reflected in the swift technology progression from cotton (reinforcement) carcass to
high-performance radial tyres in a span of four decades. Globalization has led to the linking
of the economies of all the nations and therefore major Indian players in the tyre industry are
pursuing global strategies to enhance their competitiveness in world markets.  The present
section broadly undertakes an overview of Tyre industry in which the products are sold to
both FMCG consumer and industrial customer segments.

The total size of domestic market (4 wheeler tyres) can be estimated around 19.4mn
tyres/annum for the FY03 and is expected to go up to 28.4mn tyres/annum by FY08. In
addition, the tyre industry exports Rs13bn of tyres across 6 continents and over 60 countries.

Developing Marketing Channel for Tyres:

 Extensive Sales and Distribution Network

This marketing channel can be adapted to Apollo tyre co. For extensive Sales and
Distribution Network, they should have a fleet management programme for nurturing,
educating and caring the needs of transporters, the ultimate customer of Apollo commercial
tyres. The fleet management programme also comprises of the fleet management software, a
tool to manage Apollo Tyre customer’s vehicles and tyre maintenance including maintaining
data records related to tyres, spare parts, fuel and servicing. In order to bring further
efficiencies and promptness in servicing to their customers, they should also have to
implement the ERP in their regional offices.

 Marketing and Distribution Arrangements

Apollo Tyre has to enter into certain arrangements to expand reach and promote their
products with few third party alliances.

Pricing across PLC:

 The prices of the Apollo tyres varies from Rs.3000 to Rs.30000 depending upon the
type and size of the vehicle required as the co. manufactures tyres for almost all type
of vehicles. The co. follows the competitive pricing as the market is so competitive.
 As the company is in growth stage, so it has only passed through 2 stages. For every
new type of tyres they follow pricing with penetrative strategy than in the growth
stage it slowly increases to competitive pricing.

Advertise and Promotion Strategies:

As the product is having both industrial as well as repetitive buyers so both media advertise
and the personal approach are important. But more promotion activities will be in the form of
trade promotions like, bulk discounts and catalogues. Along with that a media ads and bill
boards can be included in the promotion strategy.

Personal Selling Approach by Apollo Tyres:

For any tyre company the front line sales force is very important to get business by personal
selling. As there are limited numbers of industrial buyers so the process of personal selling is
very crucial for the company. Hence like others Apollo tyres is also focussing more personal
selling who needs to be more professional than any other sales force. The sales force will be
divided into different teams depending upon the number of OEMs than each will be assigned
with few companies and his job is to set the meeting with that respective company purchase
manager and try to set the deal with them.

Hence the sales of the tyre company will be mainly depending upon the personal
selling process where a customer can be explained each and every feature of the product.