'Brand association': Sin Hup Huat associates its brand with the Michelin man. Picture: BT File Photo
Saturday, May 17, 2008
EVERY consumer has a favourite service provider, one that she or he trusts for value of money. One such company who has built its empire on both product and service is Sin Hup Huat Company, where each staff member realises the value of a customer's trust and how it leads to loyalty.
"What really sets us apart is the service we offer including the full range of complimentary ones we have. It is value added service and most of our staff are retained for over 30 years, so they come with very strong knowledge and experience in this field,"says Nicholas Ling, general manager of Sin Hup Huat Co.
The sole distributor of Michelin, BFGoodrich and Nankang tyres, started out its automobile servicing company in 1967 as a tyre rethreading enterprise. "Basically we used to collect second hand tires and remould and rethread them, and this carried on for about 10-15 years," he says.
They diversified into being a sole distributor when the prices of new tyres started to get more affordable.
"The move was made by our managing director's father, who was the pioneer of Sin Hup Huat," says Nicholas.
Sin Hup Huat since then has evolved to be one of the most recognisable automobile servicing companies in Brunei, largely due to aggressive advertising and marketing. The Michelin man is now one of the most recognisable icons in Brunei and is very much associated with Sin Hup Huat.
"On advertising, we would spend about 5-10 per cent of our annual turnover, because we need to continually advertise the features and benefits of the tyres we sell. We always brand Sin Hup Huat with the Michelin man," he says.
"It was our fortune that we captured a (big part) of the continental car market, especially BMWs and Mercedes, and corporate identity to us is very important."
Nicholas says the safety aspect plays a big role in their product promotion. "You notice in a lot of our advertisements, we focus on safety, and we also associate our safety campaign with Nankang and BFGoodrich, to show people that we have a more affordable range, but we do not compromise on the quality." Everyone assumes that Michelin is a very expensive tyre brand, but not many realise that Michelin has a range of tyres that cater to every type of budget.
One of the challenges the marketing team in Sin Hup Huat Co has to hurdle over now has to do with pricing.
One of the solutions to allow people to afford better quality tyres was Sin Hup Huat's initiative to have loan financing at its establishments, giving people an option to stretch their payments up to a year.
"I think the direction that we are moving into is to deploy more professional customer service and the value added service ... because now it's not just the case where people come in and say they want to buy tyres, people are getting busier and the time is very limited, so they want to drop in one place and get everything done in one go, so we are basically selling convenience," he says.
"We do not only supply tyres, we do underwheel carriage repairs, alignment, and we have our contractors doing audio. There's quite a large range of services we offer where we specialise in body kits, and alloy sports rims as well," he adds.
The direction that Sin Hup Huat has taken brought them a long way from their tyre rethreading business in the 60s. It now has a market share of 17-20 per cent of the new tyre market, which accounts for half of the total tyre market. "The other 50 per cent is occupied by second-hand tyres."
The company now has four branches with corporate headquarter in Jangsak, and other districts are supported by outlets which they use as their distribution outlets.
The Brunei Times
"What really sets us apart is the service we offer including the full range of complimentary ones we have. It is value added service and most of our staff are retained for over 30 years, so they come with very strong knowledge and experience in this field,"says Nicholas Ling, general manager of Sin Hup Huat Co.
The sole distributor of Michelin, BFGoodrich and Nankang tyres, started out its automobile servicing company in 1967 as a tyre rethreading enterprise. "Basically we used to collect second hand tires and remould and rethread them, and this carried on for about 10-15 years," he says.
They diversified into being a sole distributor when the prices of new tyres started to get more affordable.
"The move was made by our managing director's father, who was the pioneer of Sin Hup Huat," says Nicholas.
Sin Hup Huat since then has evolved to be one of the most recognisable automobile servicing companies in Brunei, largely due to aggressive advertising and marketing. The Michelin man is now one of the most recognisable icons in Brunei and is very much associated with Sin Hup Huat.
"On advertising, we would spend about 5-10 per cent of our annual turnover, because we need to continually advertise the features and benefits of the tyres we sell. We always brand Sin Hup Huat with the Michelin man," he says.
"It was our fortune that we captured a (big part) of the continental car market, especially BMWs and Mercedes, and corporate identity to us is very important."
Nicholas says the safety aspect plays a big role in their product promotion. "You notice in a lot of our advertisements, we focus on safety, and we also associate our safety campaign with Nankang and BFGoodrich, to show people that we have a more affordable range, but we do not compromise on the quality." Everyone assumes that Michelin is a very expensive tyre brand, but not many realise that Michelin has a range of tyres that cater to every type of budget.
One of the challenges the marketing team in Sin Hup Huat Co has to hurdle over now has to do with pricing.
One of the solutions to allow people to afford better quality tyres was Sin Hup Huat's initiative to have loan financing at its establishments, giving people an option to stretch their payments up to a year.
"I think the direction that we are moving into is to deploy more professional customer service and the value added service ... because now it's not just the case where people come in and say they want to buy tyres, people are getting busier and the time is very limited, so they want to drop in one place and get everything done in one go, so we are basically selling convenience," he says.
"We do not only supply tyres, we do underwheel carriage repairs, alignment, and we have our contractors doing audio. There's quite a large range of services we offer where we specialise in body kits, and alloy sports rims as well," he adds.
The direction that Sin Hup Huat has taken brought them a long way from their tyre rethreading business in the 60s. It now has a market share of 17-20 per cent of the new tyre market, which accounts for half of the total tyre market. "The other 50 per cent is occupied by second-hand tyres."
The company now has four branches with corporate headquarter in Jangsak, and other districts are supported by outlets which they use as their distribution outlets.
The Brunei Times