Bridgestone Americas Holding, Inc.

1. What is the weighted average contribution margin (WACM) percentage for Bridgestone’s next annual budget?

Much of the company’s success has been attributed to its superior customer service, along with low process and a broad selection of products.

Wal-Mart Corporation is one of the largest retail stores in the world. They serve customers in meeting their needs with low cost saving items. On October 31, 1962, Wal-Mart was founded and incorporated by Sam Walton in Bentonville, Arkansas. Mr. Walton went into business because he felt that items sold were too high for the average customer to afford. His focus was to sell products at low prices to get higher volume sales at a lower profit margin. He bought bulk products from different suppliers so he could incorporate savings into his pricing to lower cost for customers. Under the savings cost concept, Wal-Mart grew rapidly and surpassed its competitors in sales and generating profits.

| * Highest Market share among competitors * Only Firm with a delivery vehicle * Strong hold on B2B market * Highest stock price among competitors * Highest dealer rating among competitors * Very high and consistent return on marketing

In order to achieve our first marketing objective, we recommend the following activities: Keep producing high quality, positive image products that satisfy customer’s needs. Secondly, the team must maintain direct and indirect sales force of no less than 140 and plan in advance in order to have the budget to do so. We also recommend offering employee fringe benefits to encourage long term positions

One of the strengths that the company has is its good quality brand and product. Their products are light and travel friendly as they are folding bikes making them very unique and popular with people who commute a great deal. This leads to the next strength which is the company’s wide target market. People who tend to commute daily to work or university, who have caravans and boats

Based on the amount of information they provide about cycling I am assuming it is one of the best sellers. Thy do not simply show bikes they are selling, they provide advice, how-tos, classes and general outdoor tips. They appeal to the true outdoorsman and to those new to the activity. Everything is easy to find and once a category like mountain bikes is selected, the filters make it easy to find exactly what you are looking for along with a compare button that allows you to do a side by side audit of each bike. The compare button shows the stars, use, number of gear, and other important info to someone looking for the perfect product.

The business has been profitable and has been able to gain a large market share because of those strengths.

Typically, our firms performance objectives was to be sustainable and profitable as a business while at the same time achieving customer satisfaction for our main consumer segments; singles, family, and enterprisers and value seekers. Our generic marketing strategy was focused around a balance of cost leadership, and product differentiation. Cost leadership was employed strategically for our economy and family car, executed with emphasis on efficiency and safety. In period one, our firm was positioned positively and strong; sales were at a profitable level of $20,516.

As a consequence of the president’s strategy to become profitable in two years, the senior vice president of sales and marketing and the vice president of advertising must formulate a marketing plan that will allow the company to achieve desired goals. This plan must take into consideration market segmentation, continuation of current marketing strategy, and sales promotions.

At tires by Kayuco, we do more than just sell tires. Tires are just one of our areas of service. We also repair vehicles. Our service technicians are well trained and certified so you can feel good about trusting them with your car or truck. We service residents from Auburn, MA, Worcester, Ma, Boylston, MA and various other areas around Massachusetts. We go above and beyond to work with you to give you the service you expect. We're strong believers in putting the customer first. If you're not happy, we've failed, and didn't do our job.

They are one of the few retailers that sell such high-end products in the whole of

The company vouches for customer satisfaction. For its sincere efforts it has been rated (by customers)first in customer satisfaction among all car makers in India for nine years in a row in annual survey by J D Power Asia Pacific.

Bridgestone/Firestone also has a deal with Saturn Corporation to equip every Saturn with Firestone tires. Some Saturn dealers say that customers have asked about the recall but that customers have not stopped buying them because of the recall. A spokeswoman for Saturn says that they are not even considering choosing a different supplier. This, along with the Honda deal and a strong commitment to Toyota helps Bridgestone/Firestone's image in that it shows that Firestone's non-Ford customers have faith in the Firestone brand (Chappell, 09/11/00).

The company has manufacturing presence in Asia, Europe and Africa, with 9 modern tyre facilities and exports to over 118 countries. Powered by its key brands — Apollo, Dunlop (brand rights for 32 African countries) and Vredestein, the company offers a comprehensive product portfolio spread across passenger car, light truck, truck-bus, off highway and bicycle tyres, retreading material and retreaded tyres.