HERCULES TIRE

Bob Jesenovec, Sep 3, 2018

HERCULES TIRE:

SINGLE SOURCE SAVINGS AND COST EFFICIENCIES

Situation:
Despite Hercules Tire’s marketing program being well-received in the field, the ever-increasing cost of providing the print and promo materials was proving to be too much for the budget to bear. In addition to the rising cost to produce the items, it was oftentimes costing the company more to ship the items than to produce them.

Challenge:
Hercules Tires, a leading marketer of replacement tires and an associate brand of Cooper Tires, had previously partnered with Leaderpromos to develop a promotional products and apparel program for its dealer network. Leaderpromos created a custom web store where dealers could order Hercules-branded promotional pieces for their independent stores.

Expanding on that previous successful partnership, Hercules was now calling upon Leaderpromos to create a solution and workflow to efficiently produce and distribute their marketing collateral to those same dealer stores.

Strategy:
A deeper look into the current ordering and fulfillment practices showed that most of the print and promo items were all coming from different vendors and shipping from different locations – a logistical and accounting nightmare.

Following a complete review of our findings, it was clear that our strategy would need to include and draw upon multiple aspects of Leaderpromos’ capabilities and expertise. We would need to educate Hercules Tire to our full-service printing capabilities and then incorporate our state-of-the-art technologies to offer Hercules Tire a single portal to order and fulfill both, standard as well as sophisticated, print projects.

Additional efficiencies that would need to be implemented included our print-on-demand capabilities, taking advantage of going with a single-source provider and our proficiency for regional shipping and distribution.

Outcome:
Leaderpromos built and curated an online store for Hercules Tire from which their managers could access, shop and place orders for a variety of marketing materials. In all, Leaderpromos worked with Hercules to produce more than 200 unique print pieces—from point-of-sale items like brochures and table tents, to catalogs, banners and posters. Most appreciated though, was that instead of placing multiple orders with various vendors for their print and promo materials, everything could now be ordered from one convenient web site.

In addition to this new, user-friendly print-order platform to submit requests, Hercules managers could also review proofs and check order status.

Leaderpromos created the marketing pieces, warehoused them in our owned/operated and centrally located facilities, expedited the fulfillment process of packaging each custom order, and completed the shipping logistics to Hercules dealers nationwide and throughout Canada.

By procuring all their materials through a single source, Leaderpromos, ordering became streamlined and Hercules Tire was also able to take advantage of group buys as well as receive rebates.

Further, by incorporating strategic warehouse locations and regional distribution, the costs associated with shipping the marketing materials decreased exponentially.

Compared to its previous costs, Hercules saved more than $42,000 annually using Leaderpromos strategic and more efficient ordering, production, fulfillment, and logistics services.