Tyres, magazines and the quality dichotomy

What do tyres, websites and a new cover design have in common? It is all a question of quality. In the British tyre industry everyone talks about price versus quality. Almost as often the debate broadens out before settling in the amorphous arena of “value”. More often than not this means the narrowing of the gap between two perceived opposites. In practice it could mean a customer buying a high quality product for a lower than expected price.The classic example of this is the customer that buys a higher priced product that performs beyond either their expectations or what the competition has to offer. In either case both propositions are predicated on the basis of product quality. Without this there are only short term pricing and sales strategies. And this in turn leads to the key difference highlighted by the age-old business adage: “sales are vanity, profits are sanity”. Without a properly considered quality-focused market approach, businesses struggle to make sense in the long-term, whether the macro-economic environment provides wind in your sails or an adverse gale.

But what has this got to do with magazines and websites? Well, this has always been a key part of Tyres & Accessories’ approach, but recently it has all come further to the fore. We recognise the need to continue to develop both the content we offer our readers and customers as well as the way we present it. And in order to ensure we are serving the tyre industry professionals that make up our core readership, we have to do this whatever is taking place in the market environment. Indeed it is the only approach that treats our readers with the respect they deserve. And it is the only approach that makes business sense.

Investing in quality

With this in mind you will soon see two key improvements to the print and online products we produce for the market.

The big news is that at the end of September – not too long after this magazine will have reached your hands – we will be launching a completely overhauled and upgraded website. This takes account of your feedback, the latest online reading trends as well as cutting edge technology. Our introduction to the new website is on page 56, so you can find more detailed information there. Suffice it to say that modern design, improved mobile/tablet reading, upgraded search and better social network integration all figure in this upgrade.  It was also one of the most international projects we have embarked on, drawing together the skills and expertise of our German and Italian sister titles (Neue Reifenzeitung, which produces Reifenpresse.de, as well as Pneusnews.it respectively). What this means is that we now share both highly professional internet technology and market coverage from around Europe and the world.

And finally, at the risk of stating the obvious, there is our new cover. You will have already noticed our re-designed front page. But it is worth pointing out that, for us, it is about much more than simply refreshing our logo and rewording our strapline – it is a statement of intent. Like our circulation, prices and anything else we mean what we say – in this case the fact we are “the magazine for tyre and wheel professionals”.