How to find new customers

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Up and running

By John Healy

Building momentum

ECONOMIC STIMULUS, REOPENINGS FUEL SELL-OUT SPIKE

In my last column, I wrote that retail sellout trends are improving. More recent conversations with dealers leave us with the impression that sell-out trends have continued to improve on a sequential basis and have continued to gain momentum — not only year-over-year, but also when compared to pre-pandemic levels.

From a volume standpoint, surveyed dealers are reporting unit sales increases of 14.6%, on average, compared to prioryear levels.

And the net number of respondents to our latest survey report they have experienced a year-over-year demand increase of 68%.

Economic stimulus has been a benefit, as consumers with more money in their pockets are investing in vehicle maintenance, including the purchase of new tires.

And we continue to hold the perspective that volumes in the long run will become more closely aligned with the current level of GDP growth — with the months ahead likely to improve even more as more people receive the COVID-19 vaccine, state and local economies continue to open and COVID-19 fatigue increases.

Moving forward, this will invite easy comparisons to past activity as we continue to lap the depths of the COVID-19 crisis.

CHANGING PREFERENCES?

Our latest survey shows that tier-two brands continue to see the most significant amount of growth, as reported by our contacts.

This is a continuation of what we observed last month as consumers become more confident in their financial position and outlook.

Dealers also report that inventory levels are low, while price increases continue to be pushed through by many tire manufacturers.

We have seen throughout the pandemic that consumers seem to change their preference for certain tiers and products according to the current COVID-19 situation.

Reduced rates of COVID-19 infections and the vaccine roll-out will likely aid consumer confidence and could eventually spur a possible shift to more expensive brands.

We also believe consumers will seek a more balanced ratio of value to performance, whereas for many months, they have skewed toward value.

MILES ARE STILL UP

We continue to track a number of data points to assess the health of automobile travel and note that since we have lapped the start of the pandemic, year-over-year comparisons are being drawn from prepandemic levels.

Apple’s Mobility Trends Report indicates that the number of people who are searching for driving directions remains up.

Mobility trends bottomed out with a 62% drop in April 2020, when indexed back to January 2020.

As of May 10, 2021, trends in the United States are up 29% compared to the baseline,

Snapshot of Dealers’ PLT Tire Volumes (Year-Over-Year-Change)

Feb-20 Mar-20 Apr-20 Feb-21 Mar-21 Apr-21 Average

Increase 35% 29% 0% 0% 67% 83% 41% Flat 29% 14% 12% 20% 11% 0% 28% Decline 36% 57% 88% 80% 22% 17% 31%

Total 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%

while a month ago, they were up 39%. As noted in the past, there is a direct correlation between miles driven and the need for tire replacement.

CONSISTENCY IS EXPECTED

When examining the landscape from a longer-term view, we see that many of the trends listed in past columns continue to hold.

We continue to believe that the pricing environment in North America will remain rational and in-line with raw material costs.

We expect tire manufacturers to remain very disciplined in their efforts to manage the trade-off between volume and price in order to optimize profit rather than market share.

We are pleased with the continued disciplined approach to production schedules we have seen at the manufacturing level.

And global tire inventory levels remain relatively lean.

Moreover, tire dealers and wholesalers are being tactical with their approach to inventory allocation, in light of raw material prices, recent pricing actions on the part of tire manufacturers and possible legislative moves, like the application of tariffs on certain consumer tires.

Downstream players continue to direct orders in a way that helps them capitalize on the pricing spreads we currently see.

In addition, our dealer contacts maintain a very positive outlook for demand and volume trends going forward.

They remain excited about the role that the potential for more economic stimulus and continued consumer investment in vehicle maintenance will play in building even more sell-out momentum as the industry moves into the second half of 2021. ■

John Healy is a managing director and research analyst with Northcoast Research Holdings LLC, based in Cleveland, Ohio. Healy covers a variety of subsectors of the automotive industry.

Tom’s Tire Pros is investing in a full-throttle digital marketing plan, 80% of which moves through the store’s marketing liaison at Tire Pros. Left: Tom Ceniglis Jr., owner of Tom’s Tire Pros, is seeing results with an emphasis on digital marketing at his two stores in Texas. Year to date, one out of every three invoices in San Angelo have been for new customers, with even higher results in Abilene.

Below: Tom’s Tire Pros is a family-owned and operated dealership under second-generation ownership. The third generation is at work in the business: Austen, pictured, and his brother, A.J., both have “a big impact on the business,” their dad says.

How to find new customers

TWO DEALERS OFFER DIFFERENT STRATEGIES

By Joy Kopcha

About three years ago, Tom Ceniglis Jr. uprooted his entire marketing plan. No more radio ads. No more billboards.

“We changed over to an almost entirely digital marketing platform, except for some local broadcast TV,” says Ceniglis, the second generation owner of Tom’s Tire Pros, a two-store retail business in Abilene and San Angelo, Texas.

“We wanted to be in the mix when a potential client was in the decision-making phase of their buying process,” says Ceniglis.

“Between 70% and 80% who buy tires research them online first, and typically (they) will research the dealer a little bit.”

Ceniglis says the strategy is paying off. June 2020 was the company’s biggest sales month in its history — until the team broke the record again in March 2021.

“This March was much bigger,” he says. And in the last days of April, tickets were trending 30% above the previous year.

ONLINE STRATEGY

Priority one is for consumers to find his stores and website when they’re shopping for tires, says Ceniglis. That means search engine marketing and strategies with Google AdWords are important. But it’s also not a “set-it-once-and-forget-it” plan.

With the help of Katie Maddux, his assigned marketing liaison from American Tire Distributors Inc.’s Tire Pros program, Ceniglis focuses his Google advertising on different kinds of customers and searches.

Earlier this spring, when consumers had fresh stimulus money and tax refunds were hitting bank accounts, their spending was on more discretionary items, like lift kits, wheels and accessories.

“As we’re moving into summertime, the average customer is going to be a larger percentage of our business. They just want to take a vacation,” and might need tires or automotive services before a roadtrip.

Tom’s Tire Pros advertises on social media, too, though Ceniglis admits the dealership stopped this for a few months both during and after the 2020 presidential election season when “everyone was trying to control the dialogue” on Facebook and Twitter.

“We’re back on it now.”

Just like on social media platforms, Tom’s Tire Pros is targeting customers in the markets surrounding its stores via streaming television services.

Known as “Over the Top” or OTT, Ceniglis says “it’s a more cost-effective means of advertising on television, so we want to be there. We can target an age group, income level and geographic area. We could put it to one household if we wanted to. I know it’s effective.”

The stores also focus on reputation management and request a review from every customer — via a text message — after each sale. Those genuine reviews help pull in prospective customers who are shopping and searching online, he says.