MOTORING NEWS - The Michelin brothers appear to have intuitively understood the principles of branding and marketing long before there were textbooks on the subject. While their competitors sold tyres, their approach to building an enduring brand experience began by developing a more human-like brand icon and a much broader brand experience. Humanising a brand is now termed "brand anthropomorphism" and the Michelin Man or Bibendum is now a classic business school example.
He is also a venerable 121 years old.
Bibendum, as the beloved Michelin Man became known, has been with us almost as long as the automobile itself, communicating with human-like attributes, traits and emotions. Bibendum first appeared in public on 15 June 1898, the opening day of the Exposition Internationale d'Automobiles in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris. On the Michelin stand, the Michelin catch phrase "boit l'obstacle" was prominent with a concentration of bicycle tyres.
During this time there were very few cars on the roads and the bicycle was the first new personal transport machine. Organised by the Automobile Club de France (ACF), the exposition subsequently became Mondial de l'Automobile, the Paris Motor Show, which is the world's longest running automobile exhibition.
According to Brand Directory, Michelin was the most valuable brand in the world in 2018.
WHAT'S IN THE NAME?
The brothers Edouard and André Michelin founded the company in May 1889, just one year after the invention of the pneumatic (inflatable) tyre by John Boyd Dunlop. Up to that time, all tyres were solid rubber. The brothers ran a rubber products company in France and the Michelin Man was conceived for the Exposition Internationale et Coloniale in Lyon in 1894. Edouard noticed a stack of tyres and remarked to André that it looked like a human being without arms. Exactly what happened next is unknown, but the first image of the Michelin Man was finished in April 1898, for a poster.
Between 1894 and 1898, the concept of a humanised representation of Michelin's tyre business had grown with bicycle sales and the advent of the automobile. It is believed that André Michelin began working with a commercial artist known as O'Galop in 1897. A promotional poster is the only surviving relic of the develop-ment of the idea.
An early Michelin show stand.
The Michelin Man's name, Biben-dum, derived from this poster. The Michelin company catch phrase at that time was "Le pneu Michelin boit l'obstacle", meaning "the Michelin tyre drinks the obstacle", i.e. copes with it easily. The Latin phrase "Nunc est Bibendum" at the top of that poster means "now is the time to drink". Instead of what would customarily be served, the champagne glass in the poster contained the "obstacles" that tyres of the era had to contend with - errant horseshoe nails, glass, metal shards and rocks.
In 1898, 99,9% of European roads were unpaved. Road traffic consisted of horse-drawn carts and bicycles and automobiles were only for the fabulously wealthy. The pneumatic tyres they rode upon were made of real rubber, not the resilient and durable synthetics of today. Fixing punctures and changing tyres was commonplace given the deplorable conditions, and tyres were the weakest link in the motoring chain.
AUTOMOTIVE EPICENTRE
France was the epicentre of the global automobile industry prior to World War I and the ACF was responsible for organising the first international motor show and the city-to-city races of the time. The automobile had captured the imagination of the public, particularly due to the average speeds attained by the winning cars in the ACF city-to-city races in 1895.
All the cars used tyres and Michelin was on home ground at the centre of the action in the automotive industry.
By 1900, France was the world's largest producer of automobiles by far, producing nearly 5 000 cars a year, more than all the other countries in the world combined. Even Germany's largest car producer, Benz & Cie, sold far more cars in France than it did in Germany.
There were more than 100 car manufacturers in Paris at the turn of the century, ensuring that Michelin tyres were being exported across the world. By 1903, more French cars were sold internationally than domestically and one-third of more than 7 000 exported cars were sold in Great Britain.
AMERICA
America though, quickly loomed as an unstoppable competitor, overtaking France as the leading car manufacturer in the world in 1904 by volume and in 1905 by value. By 1907, America's 250 car manufacturers were producing 44 000 cars per year - more than France, Britain and Germany combined.
By the end of World War II, Europe lay in ruins while America was untouched - with 220 cars for every thousand people.
Production still continued to grow rapidly in Europe between 1900 and 1914, despite America's production numbers. The supply of automobiles could not match global demand.
Those early road races captured the imagination of the public with incredible point-to-point average speeds.
This was also an opportunity Michelin did not miss. The old adage of "win on Sunday, sell on Monday" worked for the manufacturer of the winning cars and even more so for the manufacturer of the winning tyres - relevant to everyone with a car.
"Drinking the obstacle" - one of the earliest promotion posters.
Once more, Bibendum's involvement ensured advertising awareness no competitor could hope to match. Michelin still had to win the races, which it did, but the Michelin man ensured the message was delivered to the public.
Bibendum was an ideal character to let loose into the real world for a bit of promotional fun. He appealed to children in particular and the population in general.
The evolution of Bibendum within a decade was remarkable.
The Michelin stand at the 1913 Salon de L'automobile illustrates the growing sophistication of Michelin's promotions. The inflated Michelin Man was shown protecting four children, while the much larger stand demonstrated both a child and a female changing a tyre. Numerous representatives were on hand to sign up distributors.
Just what France's automotive industry could have become, and how big Michelin might have become is now a matter of conjecture, because World War I soon destroyed the economies of all of the major European countries, plus much of the infrastructure and the industries that were restructured for the war effort.
A somewhat slimmer modern Bibendum.
MICHELIN GUIDE
The marketing flair of the Michelin brothers continued beyond inventing Bibendum. In 1900, the company began publishing a guide for French motorists. The Michelin Guide included maps, tyre repair and replacement instructions, car mechanics listings, car dealership listings, hotels, restaurants, post offices, telegraph offices, public telephone locations, petrol stations and Michelin suppliers across France.
Telephone systems were still in their infancy in the first decades of the twentieth century.
The guide proved an invaluable promotional item in enrolling devotees to the brand. It was given away free and became a companion for motorists across France with more than 35 000 copies of the first edition distributed. Despite the massive non-paid circulation, the publication more than paid for itself as it contained advertising from all the car and accessory manufacturers other than competitive tyre manufacturers.
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