Anonymous Case

Aquatred should be launched as soon as possible. It's innovative product, which could gain highest profitability only when being the first mover. For the problem of unavailable sizes of Aquatred for imported cars if it launched during the Winter Olympics, the company could solve this problem by let those customers make a reservation for unavailable sizes of Aquatred and give them special promotion for that.

Although price was an important factor to be considered when customers wanted to purchase tire, there were still customers who concerned about quality more than price. Aquatred should focus more on quality buyers and value-oriented buyers. In addition, Goodyear could acknowledge the customers that Aquatred was only $8.2 - 8.5 more expensive than the existing most-expensive tire.

Recommendations:

* As Goodyear was the market leader, being innovative and doing lots of researches to observe the trends and changing in consumer preferences were the right things.

* As it was estimated that 75% of all Goodyear tires sold in independent or company-owned outlets were sold on an average discount of 25%, it implied that the company might have too many promotions. Finally, the consumers wouldn't come to buy Goodyear tires at full price and it could affect company's image, too.

* Goodyear needed loyalty program to establish and retain relationship with consumers as soon as possible before they switched to other branded tires, like Michelin, or private label tires that had lower price than Goodyear.

* The company should find a way to compromise with independent dealers about competition in the areas, while expand more distribution channels and find more new retail formats, like Just Tires.

* In order to launch Aquatred effectively, Goodyear needed cooperation from every departments, especially marketing department. Integrated marketing communication was very important to create awareness of the customers. It should focus on the word "innovation" and "safety under wet conditions".

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