What is involved in selling and marketing tyres?

Simply price and specification?
We all know that selling or marketing any product can be a simple function of specification and price? I have to agree that simplistically, selling or marketing tyre can be about specification and price. And when this function is right, a transaction can be concluded. The traditional trading channel thrives on this simple assumption. A good friend of mine, Mike Zhang of SD International in Shanghai, registers sales in excess of USD50 million annually by simply trading. There are many other examples of successful companies who started trading as one of its portfolio of business activities, and still maintain an active portfolio in trading for example Sumitomo, Mitsubishi, Itochu, and Mitsui- just to name a few from Japan. I do not even need to quote the magnitude of their trading activities to demonstrate how trading can be such a successful channel.

I will perhaps write an article talking about the various sales channels in the tyre industry in time to come.

How complex can it be?
If you have the patience to follow me to this stage of my article, I want to show you how it can be a whole lot more than simply price and specification- where Sociology, Economics, Business studies, Art, Engineering, and a whole host of specialized disciplines are involved. In my opinion, it is the combination and understanding of these disciplines in the simplest form, which will truly make a good manager, salesperson or marketer.

This is article 1 by Ler Hwee Tiong, Managing Director at Tyrepac Pte Ltd in his 7 part-series on Selling and marketing tyres- How difficult can that be?