Since there is no accurate research on consumer behavior of tires in Thailand, so this research focuses on the factors that implement consumers to purchase a replacement tire. The result of the discovery could be practical and beneficial to the tire and car companies. According to this figure, the sales volume of the tire can be estimated based on the maximum consumption that was recommended by the main tire manufacturer, which is 5 years.
This means that 3 million cars need to change new tires per year and assuming that 80% of car owners decide to buy pre-owned tires, so this will be the result as 9 million new tires can be sold every year. There are two main types of tire service shops in Thailand, which are modern tire shop and local traditional shop. Some people also change the size of the tire which is different from OE (Original Equip) tires.
This research will focus on the factors why consumers believe they are important in choosing tires to fit their own vehicles. The approach to finding the theory and literature to support this research are factors that influence the consumer's purchase decision. There is a relevant journal that quantitative research was about tire buying behavior in India which aimed to find out tire customer satisfaction and factor for making the decision to buy a replacement tire (Natarajan, Sounddararajan, & Jayakrishnan, 2013).
From the results of this study, customers were satisfied with purchasing Bridgestone in terms of service more than brand image.
Consumer behavior
Internal Influence
The perception of a product can be influenced by various attributes such as brand name, price and appearance of the product (Natarajan, Sounddararajan, &. Jayakrishnan, 2013). Learning from past experiences that become relevant to the customer's judgment of those products and perception. Previous research shows that 98 percent of consumers are aware of a brand through their own experience, and only 2 percent rely on their friend for brand awareness (Natarajan, Sounddararajan, & Jayakrishnan, 2013).
But brand image is not all the most concern factor of tire choice as very small number of customers of Bridgestone (14.28%) care about brand image while 52.55% of customers prefer good services (Prabakaran & Panchanatham, 2013). Memories are not like copies of our past experience that are deposited in a memory bank, but they are assembled at the time of retrieval (Shoemaker, 2008). Lars Perner defines consumer attitude as a composite of a consumer's beliefs, feelings and behavioral intentions towards some object within the context of marketing.
According to the Bridgestone brand value study, the number of consumers who choose Bridgestone because of service is more than double the number of consumers who choose because of price. From the recommendation of the research said that increased service quality could gain more brand value (Prabakaran & Panchanatham, 2013). Hierarchy of Needs is often used by marketers to send messages about segmenting their product's advertisement to the customer (Schiffman & Kanuk, 2004).
In early 2014, Yokohama motivated a customer to film their car with the tire on Yokohama's #RidePride Facebook page. Thus, marketers will develop their products, advertising and campaign according to the personality of their target customers (Bhasin, 2006). Personality can be identified by personal activities, interests, and opinions (Sarker, Bose, Palit, & Haque, 2013).
It can be hypothesized that the factors of tire choice can be from the driving style (fast or slow) and the purpose of using the car for the driver or car owner. There were good examples from the customer review for Michelin users that cares about the handling and. No worries about hydroplaning.” while Ted Lowe, who really cares about driving comfort said: “I decided to try Michelin.
External Influences
Purchasing Decision Process
Bridgestone also has their guide for the customer to select tires using the product positioning method, which contains 4 positions on the chart (Premium, Sport, Touring and Standard).
Purposed Framework
What matters is how consumers compare the price of tires, as well as the source through which consumers can get information about the price and whether they can trust it. The key point is the brands that the consumer has an impression, prefers or positively comes to mind.
METHODOLOGY
How do you feel about the tire brand that you have never heard before. For further understanding of attitude and perception, by showing a graph of tire positioning to the respondents.
RESEARCH FINDINGS
- Problem Recognition
- Overall
- Gender Differentiation
- Representative Quotes
- Discussion/ Implication
- Price
- Overall
- Gender Differentiation
- Representative Quotes
- Discussion/ Implication
- Brand Perception
- Overall
- Gender Differentiation
- Representative Quotes
- Discussion/ Implication
- Performance
- Overall
- Gender Differentiation
- Representation Quotes
- Discussion/ Implication
- Influencer
- Overall
- Gender Differentiation
- Representative Quotes
- Discussion/ Implication
- Service
- Overall
- Gender Differentiation
- Representative Quotes
- Other Finding
- Rechecking
- Conclusion
- Marketing Suggestion
- Limitation
Some male respondents also listen to the expert person's recommendation about the time to change tires as most of the female respondents on the other hand some females can notice it even from driving. Although some of them don't know about car and tire technique, they are willing to change the tire for safety reasons. Everyone looks for the price of the brand and series they prefer to buy first and then find the store where it is the cheapest.
Most women can accept a little high, but need better service quality, while few of them think it is not fair to them. If it's cheaper and not far from my house, I'll go to the cheaper one.” Since the tire is not the same as other products, it must be installed on the wheels with special equipment, and specific knowledge is also needed during the installation process. Price is not always important when selecting the selling store.
More than half of the respondents heard about the tire brand from their friend, but few of them got information about the brand from the store. As a handling and traction concern for driving safety, every respondent understood that tire performance should be handling and traction as the normal basis they prefer. So it means that women who go to buy tires can choose high-quality tires with additional functions, while men can only buy standard series of tires.
The tire is the only part of the car that makes contact with the road, so everyone expects that the basic performance of a tire should be safety while driving. Advertisements for tires in all media do not influence the selection of respondents, but only brand awareness. For Porsche I have to use “N-Spec” as a recommendation, but for Mercedes “Mercedes-Original tire” is nonsense” (Man, owner of 7 cars).
Thai people feel uncomfortable when the car manufacturer recommends tires that fit their car because they think the car manufacturer can get sales commission from the tire company. Some respondents who had ever seen a tire shop service would like the tire manufacturer to service them for them. But regarding the franchise store, only 3 male respondents would go to the franchise for convenience reasons while 6 female respondents out of 8 females prefer these types of stores for the same reason.
According to the research, tires are the high involvement product and consumer buying behavior of tires is dissonance reducing, so the marketer should take care of the price and promotion strategy to complete the competition. Finally, as you find out that women also understand the importance of tire performance and quality, so the dealer should note that the female customer will go to find a lot of information before choosing and buying which leads to the method of creating the advertising campaign should set more details and performance for each. genders.
