Independent tire dealers will feature prominently in Nokian Tyres Inc.'s marketing efforts during 2010. In this exclusive interview, Marc Bujold, Nokian's business development manager, discusses those plans, including the company's social media strategy.
MTD: What are Nokian's North American marketing plans for 2010?
Bujold: We will continue to focus our efforts on the leading influencer in tire sales -- the person behind the counter. We will run our seminar program to educate them on the true value of our unique product and the margin-generating opportunity it presents. We also will use digital marketing to generate consumer interest in our brand and specific products.
MTD: Will Nokian make use of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook?
Bujold: Nokian Tyres already has a presence on both Facebook and Twitter. We also post content onto our YouTube channel, and have many followers who like seeing our updates. These are effective mediums for getting the word out and are precisely the tools we need to go up against the big brands that have huge marketing budgets.
MTD: Nokian is pushing into new markets like the southern U.S. thanks to its new eNTYRE all-season product, which began shipping in December 2009. What are your marketing plans for these new regions?
Bujold: Our focus with eNTYRE has been to expand our business with our current dealer base by giving them something to sell year-round. That said, eNTYRE also has enabled us to offer a more complete line to dealers, which has gotten us in the door to new dealers in regions we had not yet penetrated. In areas where the brand is unknown, we run aggressive co-op advertising programs as a way of enabling dealers to build brand awareness. Also, we will focus on educating the dealers very well, so they can talk intelligently to consumers about the unique products we offer.
For an in-depth look at Nokian's newest tire, the Hakkapeliitta 7, see the April issue of MTD, available now!
