Continental Emphasizes Partnership at GOLD Meeting
The recurring theme of Continental Tire the Americas LLC’s GOLD dealer meeting this week is partnership.
Chris Charity, senior vice president of sales and marketing for Continental, set the tone early in the meeting by telling attendees, “We absolutely understand you have a choice of who you do business with, how you do business on a daily basis and that does not go unnoticed by anybody in Continental.”
During the company’s GOLD dealer meeting, which is taking place in Costa Mujeres, Mexico, Charity added that “we've got a representation of about 765 GOLD dealers from across the country. We also have around 80 first trip attendees attending this year with us.”
Last year, 735 dealers attended the GOLD meeting.
Ron Sinclair, sales, marketing and operations executive at Continental, told GOLD dealers “at a high level, our strategy is built on four pillars and they all center on you, our customers.
"The first pillar is people. We believe investing in our teams is also an investment in your growth because it helps us show up better, support you better and ultimately helps you build your business.
"The second pillar is products and our overall value proposition. The third pillar is partnership, and that’s where the GOLD program comes in. Many of you know GOLD well. It’s a cornerstone of how we partner with independent tire dealers and with our distribution partners.
"Products and value propositions go hand in hand. It’s not only what we develop. It’s how we bring it to market. When we talk about value proposition, we’re talking about taking globally developed products and making sure they succeed here in the U.S. and specifically, in your locations. That includes performance. We do extensive testing to validate how the product performs in the real world. It includes marketing. We invest significant resources in building the brand because awareness and consumer preference matter. We want customers walking into your stores asking for our products.
"And as you know, we’re different from some competitors,” Sinclair told attendees. "We don't operate company-owned stores and we don’t operate company-owned distribution. Your success is our success. GOLD is one of the primary ways we support both our distributors and our dealer partners.
"We believe we’re making real progress. Over the past few years, we’ve increased GOLD enrollments without lowering requirements just to drive participation. We’ve stayed consistent in our go-to-market approach and that consistency, paired with strong distribution partners and exceptional dealer partners, has helped fuel growth. We’re not a partner that changes direction dramatically year to year. We aim to be reliable and predictable. We believe that consistency is part of what’s driven results. So those four pillars center on you and on helping you grow. If you’re successful, we’re successful. If you’re growing, the GOLD program grows, as well. And we’ve been fortunate to grow over the past few years, even in softer markets, which tells us we’re doing many of the right things and that you continue to choose us.”
Marketing efforts
Brian Beierwaltes, head of marketing, U.S. PLT replacement, Continental told GOLD dealers that Continental's "mantra within marketing is, 'At the end of the day, is this selling tires?' A lot of people can look at marketing and go, 'Oh, it's fun and you guys get to do cool things.' But it's got to deliver a return on investment. It's got to help sell tires and it's got to help drive trafffic to our dealers' stores.
"When we go back to the communications portion of it or the advertising portion of it, we're really trying to do two things - one is making sure that when customers enter your store, they know who our brand is and two, driving people into your store.”
Beierwaltes explained that the company’s new brand ambassador was a result of research that shows that “characters help bring personality to your brand. And that's really what we're trying to do ... being able to help do that through an individual and help answer those questions in a reaffirming way that helps close sales and helps at the end of the day, drive success for our dealers So you'll start to see him in multiple different places. You'll see him in Major League Soccer through all of our signage.”
He added that Continental is “going to double down and we're going to grow within soccer. We wanted to have something that we could own that was a destination that consumers wanted to go to. And so we worked with Major League Soccer and also Apple TV to create Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental.”
He also said the company will continue to invest in the General brand. “One of the key ways that we're doing this is we're continuing in 2026 with ARCA. We are the official tire of the series. We've been there for a while now. We have four race entitlements across the United States.”
Beierwaltes revealed Continental’s research shows that 70% of consumers do research before buying tires, with 90% of those doing so online. With that in mind, the company is investing in marketing automation in this area with three goals, including offering a dealer locator search, plus a tire selector search which is designed to bring foot traffic into the store.
While Continental did not introduce new products at the meeting, Bjorn Glaeser, head of product management, PLT, Continental, told dealers that the company “wants to cover all of your product needs.”
He said in the last year, the company has introduced the SecureContact AW, an all-weather tire; the VikingContact 8, a premium winter tire; and the General Grabber Justice A/T, a pursuit tire for law enforcement use.
Glaeser also told attendees that “95% of the time, when a customer walks into your store, we have a (Continental) product that fits that customer's vehicle and it covers that customer's need. We continuously monitor the market and monitor for new vehicles coming out and as we see new vehicles with new tire sizes coming on the block, we bring out tire sizes. In our existing products in the last year, we brought out 130 new sizes for our Continental brand and 60 new sizes for our General brand.”
Ece Erol, GOLD program manager, discussed programs that are available for GOLD dealers, including warranty programs for both brands, the Continental Total Confidence Plan and the General SHIELD+ Advantage Plan.
Erol pointed to the company’s relationship with Auto Integrate, a web-based fleet maintenance authorization company that works with several fleet management companies. Erol said the companies they are working with “control 1.3 million vehicles. Capturing even a small portion of them is a major opportunity for your business and stores.”
Dave DeRonne, vice president of sales, Continental, wrapped up the meeting by telling dealers, “If there is one message I want to leave with you today, it is this: the GOLD Program is designed to deliver meaningful value to your business so that you can, in turn, deliver greater value to your customers. At Continental, we firmly believe that partners win together and that philosophy guides everything we do. You have a choice in who you partner with and the fact that you choose Continental means a great deal to us. We are honored to work with you and look forward to celebrating the days ahead.”
MTD interviewed DeRonne, Charity and Beierwaltes on the first day of the Continental GOLD meeting. Click here to read the Q&A!