If you ask me what is the most expensive sport in the world, I can tell you without hesitation that it is F1 Motorsports, and F1 is also recognized as the fastest in the world, best packaged, and the most successful in marketing. A sport. Indeed, when those steel monsters with a speed of 340 kilometers per hour whizzed along with the roar of the motor, it would undoubtedly bring an unspeakable shock to the spectators. In the high-speed movement, the battles between the debris and sparks coming out of the car body and sparks, the thrill of punctures, the skills and power of the bends, etc... F1 is the use of these classic images each year to hit more than 5.5 billion viewers worldwide.
In general, there are three most important factors that determine the outcome of an F1 race. The just-retired "car god" Schumacher proved that the first important factor was the driver with his amazing career achievements. The glory of his Ferrari team proved to be the second important factor - the engine. , Bridgestone company is nothing wrong to prove that the car tyre is the third important factor. Even many people think that the modern F1 race is actually a contest of tire performance. The high durability of the tires will reduce the number of times the car will change tires in the race, and thus reduce the pit stop time. Winning a one-thousandth of a second will lead to a big difference in the outcome of the race.
Bridgestone not only used its high-quality tires to achieve numerous championships for Schumacher and Ferrari, but also achieved its own quality myth. From the Champions on the field to the first in the market, Schumacher and Ferrari dominated the F1. Bridgestone also deserved its position as the king of the tire industry.
From two toe socks to F1 tires
The predecessor of Bridgestone Corporation is a traditional two-toe socks factory in Kurume City, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. Its founder is Shojiro Ishibashi. At the time, in order to revitalize the Great East Japan Earthquake, Shijiro Ichiro researched and developed two-toed socks with a rubber sole so that people can wear it while working. When the whole factory was delighted by the hot sale of its products, Shijiro Ishibashi had already set his sights even further. During the development of rubber-bottom two-toe socks, he had a keen interest in rubber as a raw material. At the same time, he discovered that the first American-made automobile tire he purchased in 1912 also used the same kind of rubber, and decided to manufacture Japan. His own car tires have since began his indissoluble bond with the automotive industry. After the unremitting efforts of Shijiro Jurojiro and the development team, on April 9, 1930, the first stone bridge tire was born in the tire research and development workshop of the two-toe socks factory. Do not rely on Europe and the United States technology, independent production of Japanese own tires, which makes Shiqiao Zheng Erlang became a legendary figure. One year later, he gave the Japanese another surprise, translating his brand Shiqiao into English and replacing it with BRIDGESTONE (Bridgestone) to enter the European and American markets.
As Bridgestone Tire Corp. matured, the war made its products become military-specific products, and Bridgestone almost degenerated into a specialized military production plant. The war not only caused Bridgestone Tire to lose all its overseas assets, but it also caused it to lose its head office in Tokyo. However, it is inconceivable that the main factories in Kurume and Yokohama are almost magically intact and quickly put into post-war production, which has laid a solid foundation for Bridgestone's future development.
With keen insight into changes in the world and one step ahead of the times to create better products, Bridgestone has become the undisputed business war magic. In 1951, Bridgestone rushed to develop and began sales of synthetic fiber tires before Other Japanese tire companies. At the same time, it initiated a five-year plan for the modernization of production facilities. In 1959, the promotion of nylon tires was introduced. In 1967, the high-strength radial tire (commonly known as radial tire) “RD10†was developed for high-speed vehicles. This series of measures has always put Bridgestone’s products ahead of the times. After publicizing the company's shares in 1961, Ichihashi Ichiro became the successor of the company. On the basis of the pioneering spirit of continuing the philosophy of the company, he boldly set up a factory in Tokyo and opened a technology center to further enrich the research and development structure. The establishment of the Bridgestone Tire Company of the United States in 1967 and the commissioning of the overseas plant in Singapore in 1969 marked Bridgestone's gradual growth into an international enterprise.
However, just as the F1 track will never be used to test drivers with only a sharp turn, Bridgestone has to face the new challenge once again - the first oil crisis. At the onset of the crisis, Bridgestone did not focus on corporate profits. Instead, it focused on the research and development of autonomous technologies for radial tires for high-speed vehicles. In 1978 and 1979, Bridgestone introduced super-filled radial tires and a new generation of high-strength tires. The radial tire "POTENZA", with its leading technology, guarantees the advantages of the market. At the same time, the profits brought by new products have made Bridgestone a strong player in the international arena, not only buying tire factories and chemical plants in Australia, but also establishing overseas factories in Indonesia and Iran, and also injecting capital. Taiwan tire company. Although founder Shijiro Sakajiro resigned in 1976, his famous quote still effectively guides Bridgestone in a sluggish, high-speed corner, and has successfully sailed out of this shadowy era in Japan’s economic history. In March 1981, on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of Bridgestone Tire Company, based on the strategy of strengthening the domestic market and vigorously expanding overseas markets, Ichihashi Ichiro proposed “to become the top three companies in the world of rubber product manufacturing. "The goal. In order to achieve this goal, Bridgestone took a decisive step by acquiring FireStone, the second-largest tire manufacturer in the United States, to enter the US market at its Tennessee plant. At the same time, it also established in Latin America and Europe through mergers and acquisitions. With multiple production sites, even in Turkey you can also find Bridgestone's production partners. This form of merger and acquisition is aptly referred to as wolf-style mergers and acquisitions. This merger and acquisition method has also shown its sharpness in China. It is precisely this capital expansion that has enabled Bridgestone to become a truly global enterprise. In 1984, according to the CI strategy, senior officials formally changed their names from Bridgestone Tire Co., Ltd. to Bridgestone Co., Ltd., bringing it closer to the status of a global company.
However, the successful acquisition did not make Bridgestone stop here, but immediately began to rebuild FireStone, the original second-largest tire brand in the United States. In this reconstruction plan, Bridgestone chose the most direct way, that is to participate in the most popular Indy race in the United States under the FireStone brand. While FireStone's car was firmly attracted to fans during the game, FireStone tires gradually gained confidence in the market. Undoubtedly, the Japanese are smart again. They know that it is easier for American consumers to accept an original local brand name again than to let them accept a new brand. As a tire manufacturer sponsors motor sports, Bridgestone also finds out that it has made publicity. His own effective method, after the Indian race, BRIDGESTONE's logo first appeared in F1 in 1997. While its brand was amplified by the motorsport movement, Bridgestone successively established new production bases in Thailand, Indonesia, India, Poland, China, and the United States, amplifying the pace of globalization.
Since the birth of the first Bridgestone tire, it has been making its own efforts to roll forward. Bridgestone is now a world-renowned multinational company with sales in more than 150 countries, 57 tire factories, 98 chemical plants, and Tokyo (Japan), Akron (USA), Rome (Italy). ), Wuxi (China) Four Technology Development Centers. In 2005, the Group’s total sales amounted to 2691.3 billion yen. According to the latest statistics from TireBusiness, the industry’s leading magazine in the US, Bridgestone topped the world’s top 75 tires and became the dual champion in the rubber industry and tire industry. Ranked 245th in the strong rankings.
From the traditional two-toe socks to the F1 tires that have transcended the times, Bridgestone has never allowed itself and its products to leave the solid ground in the process of making their own leap.
The most trusted navigator
There was an interesting statement that in an autocross race, it was not his wife but his navigator that was most trusted by the driver. Although there is no comparability between the wife and the navigator, it is enough for the driver to pay attention to the navigator.
Rick Schumacher also said that racing is a team project and that the entire team, including the technicians, is very important to me. Without them, I would definitely do nothing. The fierce competition in the tire market is like an endless race, so any company needs excellent navigators to guide its direction in the smoke-filled market. In the first place, Bridgestone is no exception. So, what is their team's outstanding market strategy?
In fact, the core of this team is Bridgestone's market intelligence analysis department, which can be attributed to a sentence - to grasp customer needs in a timely manner, and at the right time to supply the market with appropriate goods.
The tire market is actually far more complex than many people think, and the goods are also varied. From the perspective of the classification of the use of tires, the number of types of ordinary family cars, large and medium-sized transport trucks, buses, construction vehicles, special-purpose vehicles, and aircrafts can be as large as 15,000 or as many as 200,000 raw materials. Bridgestone’s sales network in Japan alone includes more than 50 first-tier retail stores and tens of thousands of retail stores, making it a huge sales system. Only by selecting valuable information from a large amount of information generated each day and analyzing it, can we truly grasp customer needs in a timely manner. Initially, Bridgestone established two data analysis systems, DOT (Logistics Data System) and SAPCO (Retail Shop Data System), as the basis for the analysis network. However, the two sets of data systems not only cause inconvenience in the analysis work, but also the two systems data cannot be shared. This is obviously not conducive to grasping customer needs. As a result, Bridgestone began a dual-system consolidation plan and completed the merger in 1997, establishing the current DWH (DateWarehouse) data analysis system. The so-called DWH data analysis system is an information analysis system that aggregates and collates various kinds of transaction data, and then performs index analysis on the correlation between these data. After this, Bridgestone upgraded the DWH data analysis system twice, introduced BI (Business Intelligence Analysis), and realized system data sharing. It seems that this information analysis work is particularly "infernal" and unresolvable. However, this analysis system is not as complicated as it seems. First of all, the daily distribution of various raw materials, the operating conditions of the production bases, and the consumption status, etc., are collected through the logistics data system. At the same time, each tire sold by retail stores, the specific data about this tire and the basic information of its consumers will be recorded, and the sales receipts and customer-level data of several hundred retail stores will be summarized by the retail store data system. sort out. These huge data are then transmitted to the DWH data analysis system through two sets of data systems. After being backed up, they are analyzed by the intelligent business analysis system to grasp the general trend of the market and the individual trends of the regional market. These results are stored in a terminal called BusinessObjects, with about 200 million data and 80 million sales details. Each retail store can access the network and obtain the results of intelligent analysis to understand the market trends in its own region to adjust its own operating principles. The successful operation of each retail store has also become profitable for Bridgestone. The guarantee.
The complete and effective intelligence analysis system also brings information resources to Bridgestone's product development. Information feedback from retail stores and production bases can obtain information from the frontline of production and the first line of sales, so that they can adjust their own The production line and product structure and the direction of the development of new products are one of the secrets of the company's usual technical advantage. It's no wonder that Schumacher was ridiculing when assessing his Michelin staff's snatching of tyre debris when he tested Bridgestone tyres in Monza, Italy. The Michelin man wanted to understand that the Bridgestone tyre formula used in Ferrari was almost crazy. It seems that this system is indeed a heart disease for competitors. With trusted market leaders, it's no wonder that Bridgestone is always at the top of the competition. Relatively, some domestic companies complain that their information is slow-paced and do not know whether Bridgestone can give them a vivid lesson...
Enter China with F1
It should be said that Bridgestone entered the Chinese market relatively late and did not have a predominance, but the strategy of brand amplifying using the F1 event not only made up for this, but also came from behind and the development momentum far outweighed the opponent. It is not difficult for you to find out that these "brilliant" Japanese people have outstanding business strategies in the Bridgestone F1 strategy in China.
Although Bridgestone only provided Ferrari, Sauber, Jordan and Minardi with the tyres for the F1 team, the Laoqi family was 6 teams, but in Shanghai, the winner was Lonestone. Almost every season, Bridgestone’s total sponsorship is around US$29 million and ranks 19th among all F1 sponsors. Assuming that Bridgestone's investment in each station in F1 is evenly divided, F1 will have 18 stations. Then it will cost more than $1.6 million to invest in the 16th station. But each time Bridgestone supplies at least 1400 tires to F1 China, the market price of these tires is about 3,000 US dollars. Then the cost of tires alone is up to 4 million US dollars, and the investment is far greater than expected.
Where does confidence in such bold investment behavior come from? Confidence comes from the fact that after Bridgestone entered the F1 sponsorship list in 1997, its tyre popularity in the European market has risen from 13% to 34%, and the economic benefits in Europe have risen significantly. Operating results. Today, Bridgestone hopes to increase its share of the Chinese market to 20%. How can they abandon the annual F1 China station?
For the F1 China station, Bridgestone's (Guangzhou) store's "Wings of Wings" door, F1's large-scale promotional posters will be affixed to the wall early. Promotional prizes are tickets for the Shanghai F1 Contest. On the eve of the opening of the game, Bridgestone usually took the red Ferrari to the downtown area. People lining up to line up to get a commemorative shirt marked with Bridgestone, and more consumers are more interested in it. Ferrari racing photo. The car raced from Beijing to Tianjin, Qingdao, and Guangzhou, and finally reached Shanghai. At the most prosperous locations in major cities, Bridgel’s tires were created in the name of F1. Obviously, successful tour events have made it virtually natural for F1’s ignorant people to link Bridgestone with F1. Facts show that Bridgestone is not blindly betting in China.
When Bridgestone made its brand deeply rooted among consumers, they began to create their own circulation system. Although entering the Chinese retail tire market is relatively late, this does not prevent Bridgestone from building a unique retail outlet “Car Wings†in Shanghai. This dual-structured store includes a number of services that make it look more like a brand image store. Bridgestone has invested 1.6 million yuan in this, and Michelin and Goodyear's brand stores have invested only 300,000 yuan. . So, is this kind of shop in China practical? The representative of Odori Oda, the head of Bridgestone China, explained that before Bridgestone entered China, he originally intended to imitate the Japanese chain operation method, but according to China’s national conditions, he discovered that this old one had Mode needs improvement. In Japan, tire business can survive, but in China, selling tires alone cannot win the competition, and many services must be added.
Another important reason why Bridgestone promotes such retail outlets is to create a Bridgestone-owned circulation system. In China, tire wholesalers are found in most cities. The wholesalers pay attention to the circulation speed. They rely on the control channels to seek maximum profits. There are many brands in their hands. Those tires with low prices and high discounts sell faster, but Bridgestone's main high-end products may not be able to take advantage of this system. In order to break this approach, only self-built channels. Once the "Wings of the Car" network was opened, Bridgestone formed its own sales network and was more operational in terms of logistics and management. Bridgestone is also preparing to introduce the heirloom DWH data analysis system to China. Afterwards, the direct store owners can use the computer to inquire about their own stock at any time, so as to grasp the market direction and direct orders to Bridgestone. At the same time, four logistics bases have been established in Shanghai, Shenyang, Guangzhou and Xi’an, and Chengdu bases will be added in the future. In the face of price wars, not pursuing the speed of opening a store, the strategy of opening a profitable company fully demonstrated the calm and calm of Bridgestone in the face of new markets. The latecomer’s strong momentum and accurate marketing strategy, with the continuous improvement of F1 Shanghai Station, Bridgestone’s goal of leapfrogging from 10% to 20% in China’s market share is not difficult to achieve. The Chinese dream is being realized step by step...
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