Extensive Marketing Strategy of Michelin – With Detailed Overview

Updated on: Aug 15, 2022
Marketing Strategy Of Michelin - Featured Image

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In our previous article, we did a detailed analysis of the SWOT analysis of Michelin. Today, in this article we’ll try to dissect the marketing strategy of Michelin, which is one of the most well-known tyre brands in India and around the world.

Today’s objective will be to gain insights into Michelin and how it became a world-renowned tyre manufacturing company providing reliable mobility service to people.

By attracting the attention of users all around the world, digital marketing helps to establish a brand’s visibility. Any organisation may attract a flood of clients if sound digital marketing ideas are set as a basis. Check out IIDE’s Free Masterclass on Digital Marketing 101 taught by our CEO and founder, Karan Shah, if you’re interested in learning those basics from the ground up.

Let’s learn about the company’s history, target market, and online presence before diving deeply into the marketing strategy of Michelin.

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About Michelin – Company Overview

Marketing Strategy of Michelin - Founder - The Michelin Brothers
(Founder – The Michelin Brothers, Source: Michelin.com) 

Whenever you want to travel, what you expect is comfort and luxury and Michelin is one of them which provides comfort on roads and withstands any situations for the passengers inside the vehicle. 

Till now Michelin has produced 166 million tyres including space shuttles, aircraft, automobiles, heavy equipment, motorcycles, and bicycles, through its 117 manufacturing facilities which are located all over 26 countries.

Most MotoGP fans have seen and heard the name Michelin as it is the official tyre supplier in the MotoGP. This shows the people their market presence and it was not easy for a company to sponsor a MotoGP League. Being one of the largest and leading tyre manufacturers, they also marked their presence in lifestyle and travel through Tabel Hotels.

Quick Stats on Michelin
CEO Florent Menegaux
CMO Yves Chapot
Area Served Worldwide
Industry Tire Manufacturing & Travel assistance service
Market Share/ Revenue $24.94 Billion per year
Vision To offer customers the best tyre experience at the best price in each segment of the market and set the standard in quality of service.
Tagline A better way forward

 

Marketing Strategy of Michelin 

Let’s discuss the marketing strategy of Michelin and find out about its marketing campaign, target audiences, etc.

Segmentation, Targeting and Positioning

With a vision of producing tyres in every segment, Michelin’s tyre production is in different countries such as France, Europe, India, China, America, Japan, and several other countries. From the demographic point of view, it produces a variety of tires for vehicles ranging from bicycles, bikes, and cars to heavy-load vehicles such as trucks, trains, and aeroplanes. 

Michelin has covered a huge range of audiences from individuals to industry-level consumers. Michelin has created a good position in their customer’s minds not only about tyres cause no one thinks of tyres unless they have been punctured it’s about their Michelin guide. 

Their main production is sure tires but through Michelin red guide customers find their perfect dining restaurant.


Marketing Campaigns

Marketing Strategy of Michelin: Michelin’s Time For a Quiz Campaign on Twitter

Michelin holds a Twitter Quiz Campaign regularly, in which participants are questioned about the events regarding Michelin’s history. In this campaign, users tell the answer and tag their friends to solve the quiz. The winner receives Michelin goodies, which is an effective marketing strategy for increasing brand recognition and followers on social media.

Marketing Strategy of Michelin: Michelin’s SafeOnMichelin Campaign on Twitter

Another successful campaign, Safe On Michelin, has had over 170 million views. The initial portion of the campaign consists of a mysterious puzzle in which consumers must guess the city. The second portion comprises a Michelin tyre safety awareness film that was created in partnership with youtube personalities from certain towns. 

These YouTubers raise Michelin tyre safety awareness and teach people about the safety characteristics offered on Michelin tyres, such as their ability to run well on bumpy roads, provide better grip in terrain regions, and provide higher quality to consumers.

Such campaigns build a positive image of the brand in people’s minds, allowing the company to build a closer relationship with them.

Marketing Strategy of Michelin: Michelin’s Red Guide for Top Restaurants 

Michelin’s marketing strategy is unlike any other company’s. They sell tires but also offer premier restaurants where consumers can dine and relax while on the road. This Red Guide is a gourmet book with almost 400 pages that first provides tyre installation tips and then lists the top 300 restaurants in various cities and towns. This type of marketing tactic not only grows Michelin’s consumer base but also encourages people to purchase their tyres.


Social Media Marketing

Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn are Michelin’s social media accounts. Michelin has 70.4K Twitter followers and uses the platform to promote numerous events and projects. With 308K followers, Instagram is the second most active social media account. It has a LinkedIn account as well with more than 608k followers.

Their posts on Instagram are promotional and promote tires manufactured by Michelin, tires installed in sports cars, racing events sponsored by Michelin, materials used to make sustainable tires, features and benefits, MichelinMan anniversary and back-in-time posts etc. and many more. The captions, hashtags, content & design are accurate and to the point to get enough engagement.

They mostly strive to engage with their users by providing information about their products and upcoming activities. The posts on LinkedIn are different from what is posted on Instagram and Facebook. The posts on LinkedIn talk more about Michelin’s commitment to ensuring sustainability, corporate responsibility, leaders and C-level initiatives towards protecting the environment, their talks, discussions, webinar announcements and much more.


SEO strategies

Marketing Strategy of Michelin: Michelin’s SEO Strategies

To understand the SEO Strategies of Michelin we need to know SEO ranking first, the number of keywords below 500 is bad, above 1000+ is good, and 10,000+ is amazing. 

As a result of this technique, Michelin’s keyword count has reached 25K, indicating that their marketing plan is working, as they have 162K visitors, making it harder for competitors to achieve such numbers on their website.


Influencer Marketing

Marketing Strategy of Michelin - Influencer Marketing

As we have seen earlier they are very active on Twitter, and Instagram. Michelin collaborates with various events such as LeMans24, MotoGP, and many influencers to educate viewers about Michelin’s sustainable tyres mission. They also provide a Michelin Red Guide that describes the top restaurants to dine at. 


E-commerce Strategies

When it comes to their E-commerce strategies, they have websites for India, France, the United States, Poland, and other countries. These websites provide details on all of the many types of tyres available for any car. They also sell their products through local dealers. Their products are also available on Amazon, Flipkart, and other online marketplaces.


Mobile Apps

Marketing Strategy of Michelin - Mobile App

Many Mobiles apps such as The Michelin Guide, GPS Route Planner, and apps to buy tyres are also available to users.

Michelin TIRE CARE is a handheld connected application for the Michelin TIRE CARE suite of applications. Subscribed customers can quickly track all tire-related operations using handheld devices and leverage the RFID technology built into Michelin Tires.


Content Marketing Strategies

Michelin is very active on social media and keeps its audience engaged about the launch of its new product, sustainable development of tyres, any collaboration with racing events, or keeps quizzes to make users aware of their historical journey. 

Michelin keeps updating users via various sources such as WashingtonPost, Times of India, and business-standard. Their website is also quite informative, publishing articles, blogs, updating newsroom sections etc. and many more. If we talk about the overall content marketing strategy of Michelin then it is top notch from every corner, they are very well active on social media platforms and keep their digital game on the top.

Marketing Strategy of Michelin: Michelin’s collaboration with Bamford Lond

Recently, Michelin has collaborated with Bamford London which is a watch brand famous for its sporty watches. The design of the pilot sports watch tells us about Michelin’s Pilot Street tyres used in racing events.

This ends the elaborative marketing strategy of Michelin. Let us conclude our learning below from the marketing strategy of Michelin.

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Conclusion – What is unique in Michelin’s Marketing?

In Michelin’s marketing strategy we saw a lot of unique ideas that they have adopted to make the brand visible. For all these years Michelin has created a need for tyres by conducting various campaigns as we saw above. They have made a strong foundation of their brand over these years making them a tough competitor for other brands. With such effective marketing skills, they have gained a huge crowd of people towards them and they are still trying to do more and progress more with people.

From this case study, we learned that digital marketing is a pillar of any company that can provide a good image. The right marketing strategies can make or break a company’s identity. So a strong foundation in digital marketing is a must. Through such campaigns as we saw earlier, we can make a unique marketing strategy as Michelin did and create the popularity of any brand around the individuals. To learn such skills check out IIDE’s 4-Month Digital Marketing Course to learn more.

If you would like to learn more and develop skills, check out Alternatively, you can enrol in one of our free online masterclasses led by IIDE’s CEO, Karan Shah, to gain insight into the field of digital marketing. 

We hope this blog on the marketing strategy of Michelin has given you a good insight into the company’s marketing strategies.

If you like such in-depth analysis of companies just like the marketing strategy of Michelin check out our IIDE Knowledge portal for more fascinating case studies.

Thank you for taking the time to read the marketing strategy of Michelin, and do share your thoughts on this case study marketing strategy of Michelin in the comments section below.

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Aditya Shastri

Lead Trainer & Head of Learning & Development at IIDE

Leads the Learning & Development segment at IIDE. He is a Content Marketing Expert and has trained 6000+ students and working professionals on various topics of Digital Marketing. He has been a guest speaker at prominent colleges in India including IIMs......[Read full bio]

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