What's Next for Continental's GOLD Program

At this week's Continental GOLD dealer meeting in Mexico, MTD had the opportunity to sit down with Chris Charity, senior vice president of sales and marketing, Continental Tire the Americas LLC; David DeRonne, vice president of sales for Continental Tire the Americas LLC; and Brian Beierwaltes, the company's head of marketing, U.S. PLT replacement, to discuss the GOLD dealer program

MTD: After 20 years, how would you characterize the true impact of the GOLD program on both Continental and on the dealers who rely on it?

DeRonne: It's constantly evolving every single year. Our sales team is always bringing back feedback from our customers and we take that into consideration. We continue to try adding value to our GOLD dealers. As a result, you see all the repeat customers coming on the GOLD trip. So that's proof right there that it's resonating with them. These independent GOLD dealers have had lots of choices, so it's a great way for us to get feedback from the market directly from the retailer. It's a great way for us to continue to support them. And consequently, I think we both win together.

MTD: As you look ahead to 2026 and 2027, what would you say is the single most important strategic shift you're going to be making with the program?

Charity: I think we've talked about this for the last couple of years, but I think what's really strategic for us is not a shift, but staying to what's been true for the GOLD program and what's been true for our strategy in the U.S. market. And what's resonated with our customers is that we provide a really consistent package on an annual basis, where we're trying to add value to their business. We're trying to be a really strong partner. We bring products every year ... either refreshing (lines) or we add to our existing lines. And we try to bring really strong people into the organization who understand why our customers are really important to us and go work with them every day to grow the business. So there won't be a strategic shift in the GOLD program. What we will do is continue to listen to our customers. And if there are areas of the program that they say, 'You know what? This is a pain point or a little clunky or we could do this a little better,' we try to listen to those things and find a solution.

MTD:Any near-term changes or updates to the program that are on the table as you move forward?

DeRonne: We want to get to the 95% line coverage. Our Continental SecureContact AW tire really gets us there. We really are trying to focus on ease of doing business. We’re really streamlining our communication methods with our customers through our GOLD app and we continue to grow its functionality there. So those are the short-term initiatives that we're working on.

MTD: Looking out for five years, what will a successful GOLD program look like?

DeRonne: I think it's very similar to what it looks like today. We might have some changes in who's on the program, but continuing to grow the program. I think we've done that over the past 20 years, so there's no reason to see that it can’t continue. We can't predict necessarily what's going to happen in the future in the market, but what we can do is be a really reliable partner and stable force. These dealers have to have confidence in the GOLD program. Our stability, I think, has done that over the past years. And that's helped us to grow.

Charity: I think if anything we've learned over the last five years in all the dynamics - starting from a pandemic, all the way through - is that we have to work with our partners and be, I would say, even closer and stronger with our partners to understand, 'How do we tackle this thing together? If there's a problem, how do we find a solution?' That would, I think, continue to get faster and faster over the next five years. The things that we talked about in (today's) presentation: listening to feedback, understanding what our customers are going through, some of the dealer business suite things that you've seen added over the last couple of years, direct feedback from our customers that they had a need and we were trying to help that, (and) all the way up through some of the recent software integrations and things that we're working on are all feedback to make sure that we're doing it a little better, a little faster and providing that value to our customers.

Beierwaltes: I think really one thing you'll hear us talk about is consistency. From a partnership standpoint, it’s the consistency in the way that we do business. You will see tweaks along the way. We have a person in our team who mentions, 'One-percent better every day.' And I think that's really kind of a mentality. 'How do we incrementally make ourselves 1% better as we go and provide more value to our customers?' And the way that we get that - and find those opportunities - is by listening. So I don't think it's like a big, monumental thing. We feel like what we're doing is working and continuing to build upon that foundation.

MTD: What are the themes or concerns that dealers bring to you on a continual basis as they look at the GOLD program?

Charity: We've made some changes to make sure that we were competitive and working from a dealer perspective, but also with all of our partners in mind. 'How do we go to market and bring the GOLD program to the right place for the next couple of years?' We're getting a lot from dealers (who are saying), 'Hey, what you're doing is working. Please keep doing what you're doing. Let's not take a really fast turn right or left. Just continue doing what you're doing (and) get a little bit better.' And what we're finding is we're continuing to grow and find new opportunities with dealers we've done business with for a while who we have an even deeper relationship with or we're finding new dealers who are looking for that consistency moving forward.

MTD: Are you seeing the same kind of dealers wanting to participate in the program or has there been a demographic change?

DeRonne: It really hasn't changed for us. The GOLD program has really been designed from the start for the independent dealer - you know, family-owned businesses, five stores or less. I mean, of course, there are some exceptions to that here and there, but generally speaking, those are the dealers who are successful on the program and find value in the program and we do some great things together.

MTD: You discussed your marketing plans for Continental, in general, during your meeting, but how are you tweaking things?

Beierwaltes: I think in today's day and age, the way marketing is working, it's about agility. It's not about big, giant changes. I think that's consistent to our approach to business. It's the same type of thing. Certainly, we've made some changes over the years. We've really looked at  'How is the consumer behaving?' And we know that is driven a lot from the digital side of it. And so we've invested in the digital side of it and we've made sure that we're a leading innovator from that side in order to be able to drive the traffic to our customer stores. And like I said, we've got those metrics that we really look at that entire bucket through, whether it's Continental or General. That's how we look at success. There's certainly a ton of other metrics and data that we look at from an optimization and efficiency standpoint. I think really the only other change - but it really is an agility in how we invest our dollars - is around soccer (partnerships) and the all-in approach that we're taking, moving forward with that. We really see the opportunity, we see the growth and we see the return on investment for us and for our customers by participating in that. And it's an extremely loyal group. We've been there for 16 years now. And so we're part of the culture.

One of the greatest examples I have around that is around the (Major League Soccer clubs') supporters groups ... the fans who are crazy at the end of the stadium, who are setting off flares. And they're a very, very difficult group to make a connection with. And so we've (been able) to become part of that culture, which then permeates into all of the other fans. And we've been able to do it by being authentic and genuine with that. And so it really is about just this full approach around soccer. That's why you'll see us in the other places because it's such a great platform that continues to expand. We're only going to see it further this year with that little competition that's coming here, the World Cup.

MTD: So soccer is the big thing with Continental. Is ARCA your big thing for General?

Beierwaltes: I think at the moment that's what we're using as the platform for brand recognition. I mean, it's part of the NASCAR ecosystem. And so it's a great opportunity for us to be able to gain brand recognition through that. There is good viewership around it. It's also a chance for us to be able to engage with our dealers. So we're hosting customers there. And it's just an audience that resonates well and stock car racing resonates well with the General Tire audience. Where that goes in the future, I can't foresee into the crystal ball. There may be a day that we look at some other opportunities, but for now, it's in ARCA.

MTD: Have you been discussing trying to put a lower-tier tire into the GOLD dealer program?

Charity: I mean, for right now, we're spending all of our time executing (upon) Continental and General. It's not that we've never had a discussion there, but it's a matter of timing. And right now, we still feel no different. That's job one and that's where we've been focusing. So no plans to do anything different in the future. Right now, we're continuing to really make sure that the offering that we have with (our) Continental and General brands is the strongest one we can bring. We spend an awful lot of time to make sure we're doing that right, so that we can make sure that those two brands are really solid.

MTD: What message would you like to deliver to dealers?

Charity: We want to continue doing what we've done for the last eight or 10 years ... (with a) really strong strategy around our four pillars with customers in the middle, but continue to do that in a really consistent way over the next three to five years and beyond to make sure that we're going to be a great partner for our customers, continue to bring strong products and continue to bring a strong value proposition. We know we need to earn the business every single day - and then bring people (into) the organization to understand exactly how we're trying to take care of our customers and how we try to take care of each other internally. That's not going to change. But we do try to do that a little bit better ... listen to the feedback and understand what our customers are telling us. We need to work within the market. So if changes are out there, we need to find a way to tackle them and continue to grow this thing as we do it together. That's what we're going to continue to get a little bit better on and continue to make sure that we're meeting that promise. Customers make a choice of who they do business with every day and we try to spend our time on the things that help them make that choice, and we do it together as a partner. But it's something that we have to earn on a daily basis and we try not to forget that. And it's in all the areas that we just discussed.

Stay tuned to www.moderntiredealer.com for more coverage of this week's Continental GOLD meeting.