Golden opportunities CONTINENTAL DISCUSSED EVS, MARKETING AT GOLD DEALER MEETING

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on Dealers

Greg Smith By

Updates on key Continental Tire the Americas LLC marketing initiatives and the company’s approach to tires for electric vehicles (EVs) were hot topics at the recent Continental Gold Dealer meeting in Playa Mujeres, Mexico.

Chris Charity, vice president of sales, U.S. PLT replacement business for Continental, said roughly 300 dealers representing 782 locations qualified for and were invited to the event. In total, there are 3,500 dealers who participate in the Continental Gold program.

In most cases, according to Maher, tires were not the contributing factor to range. (He estimated that tires had up to a 10% influence on range. The compromise when designing a tire is how to maintain tread life, impact resistance and wet weather handling, while addressing rolling resistance, he explained.)

Marketing Update

Travis Roffler, Continental’s director of marketing, told dealers everything his team does is aimed at “driving the consumer to you.” He used the marketing phrase for the Continental brand, “The Smart Choice in Tires” as an example. The intent behind the campaign is to drive consumers to tire dealers.

“Technically, people don’t understand tires. They do understand what the tire delivers.”

A major marketing initiative for Continental continues to be its partnership with Major League Soccer (MLS), which the company started in 2010. Roffler said the league is the fastestgrowing professional sports league in the U.S. and has expanded to include 29 teams. Continental has a contract to be a sponsor through 2025.

Continental is continuing its sponsorship of NCAA college basketball, with 30 separate schools, as well as pre-conference tournaments in November and December of this year. The season will end with sponsorships of conference championships — including the Big East, Big Ten and Big 12 — in March 2024.

Continental’s sponsorship of the new Toyota Gazoo Racing (GR) Cup series started at the end of March 2023. The road racing series takes place at seven venues and is held during IndyCar