Tyrebrand is a world-renowned company in the tyre industry.

It is a French company with a rich

heritage spanning over 125 years across 170 countries. It is one of the largest tyre manufacturers in
the world and has been looking to expand its footprint through organic and inorganic means.
Companies such as BFGoodrich, Kleber, Tigar, Riken, Kormoran and Uniroyal (in North America) are
now under the Tyrebrand umbrella. In addition to this the company has diversified into the domain
of travel and lifestyle. It has come out with the famous Red and Green guides for the benefit of
backpackers interested in exploring new places. The Tyrebrand star hotels are known all over the
world for their delectable cuisine and it is considered an honour for a hotel to be rated by
Tyrebrand.

India as a market is extremely important for Tyrebrand due to the huge window of opportunities it
provides in terms of growth. The company has been in the country for about 10 years and has an
unenviable 4% market share in the tyre industry vis-a-vis the 19% market share it enjoys globally.
There are two key business segments in the tyre trade: The Truck Bus Radial segment (TBR) & The
Passenger Car Radial (PCR) segment. I would like you to concentrate ONLY on the PCR segment while
doing your analysis. There are a couple of reasons for this:

a) In the tyre industry Tyrebrand is positioned as a premium brand akin to Apple in the smart
phone space. Hence when it comes to the price points in this trade we are right at the top by
a margin. Our closest competitor in India is Bridgestone in terms of pricing. Despite this
today Bridgestone enjoys a market share of about 20% second only to MRF which is at 21%.
India is a price sensitive market and the end users are looking for a product that gives them
maximum VFM. Tyrebrand is not very big on doing ATL activities simply because we believe
the ROI would not be worth it. So we wish to first establish a very strong network through
dealers and other alternate channels before we explore that area. We are open to BTL
activities and have been doing the same frequently.

b) The level of competition is increasing exponentially. Every year there are at least 2-3 new
brands that are making inroads into the market. This means that the share of the pie gets
reduced. These competitors can manufacture the tyres at prices that are half of what our
prices are and hence the consumer does not hesitate much to loosen his purse strings.
c) Tyres unfortunately are a low involvement product. People usually look at the car not the
tyres. And this right here is a key challenge. Hence it gets difficult to get a customer to buy a
premium tyre.

It is known by the key stakeholders in this industry that when it comes to the quality and
performance of the tyre there is none second to Tyrebrand. The day we bring down our prices we
will dominate the industry. However, we do not wish to dilute the “Premium-ness “of our brand. We
still wish to maintain our price point (right at the top). Keeping this mind we wish to grow by 20%
and increase our current market share by about 2%. One of the ways we feel we could do this is by
playing around with the pricing of our SKUs.

I would like you to explore the pricing option keeping in mind whatever I have stated above.

Formulate a B-Plan to increase Tyrebrand’s market share by 3% in the next 12 months. The plan
should cover strategies pertaining to the 4Ps of marketing along with a Supply Chain strategy for
distribution.