Marketing Communications

KPI

  • Item

    Total number of violations of regulations and voluntary standards concerning marketing communication

  • FY 2016 results

    (Consolidated) 0

  • FY 2017 results

    (Consolidated) 0

  • Item

    Sales of prohibited products or products under dispute

  • FY 2016 results

    (Consolidated) 0

  • FY 2017 results

    (Consolidated) 0

Responsible Departments

Corporate Communications Department
* Each respective responsible department supports information concerning products and services from retailers, etc.

Stance and Target

Why is “Marketing Communication” a critical issue to be addressed?
Explanation of the reasons and background

Letting more people know about the products and services of the Group and providing them with an understanding of our business activities is our lifeline. In the event of a mistake in such PR or advertisements, it will not be possible to correctly communicate the value of the Group, and this could actually lead to a decline in the value of the Group. For this reason as well, we have selected appropriate marketing communication as a critical issue to be addressed, and accordingly we will aim to make improvements through the PDCA cycle.

Policies and stance relating to appropriate marketing communication

We strive to communicate the latest and correct information in a timely manner to all stakeholders through means such as our website and the distribution of news releases. As a member of the Tire Fair Trade Council, we actively participate in the activities of the Council in line with the principles of fair competition.
In addition, we promptly communicate the requests and opinions of customers and quality information to the relevant internal departments. We coordinate with the related departments to promptly resolve suggestions as we constantly strive to live up to the expectations of customers.

Vision (attainment goal) / target

We aim for a situation in which customers can easily obtain the accurate information that they need concerning our products through improvements to websites and catalogs, the content of which reflects customers’ views and comments.
In addition, we also aim to maintain a framework that incorporates the opinions and requests of customers in products and services in a timely and appropriate manner.

Measures for vision achievement

The Customer Service Center accepts inquiries concerning products by both telephone and through our website. Inquiries are responded to on a daily basis directly by the responsible department, and we conduct revisions so that PR and advertising methods and the communication media used are appropriate.
In addition, regular checks are conducted to ensure that the operational flow for providing feedback in relation to comments received from customers both in Japan and overseas shown in the flow chart below functions appropriately, and we create databases in order to collect all customer feedback throughout the Group.

Flow Chart showing our Customer Feedback and Notification

Tire Group

Flow Chart showing our Customer Feedback and Notification

MB Group

MB Group

Review of FY 2017 Activities

The Group always participates and cooperates with the council members of the Tire Fair Trade Council at each respective level responsible for the development and implementation of regulations and market field research in Japan and overseas, and it conducts PR and advertising activities based on the council’s regulations. There were no cases of violations of the regulations in 2017.

Collection of information on market trends

Information collected for each region and country is analyzed and used to make better products through means such as improvements of existing products and the planning of new products.
Because usage conditions for vehicle tires for construction and industrial use vary considerably depending on the customer, tires suitable for customers are selected and recommended after investigating the use environment of each respective customer.

Customer information for vehicle tires for construction and industrial use

Issues and Future Improvement Measures

Because the Group handles various products, the target for information communication is broad and it is currently difficult to verify whether the appropriate information is being sufficiently communicated to the appropriate persons. In addition to the communication of information using media, we believe that it is necessary to verify the approach towards effective information communication including comprehensive channels such as seminars, events, and retailers.

Furthermore, in addition to the communication of information, we will make further improvements in how we communicate information, accumulate this information internally, and establish and manage relevant databases.
Our corporate website ((https://www.y-yokohama.com/global/ ) features the latest information about Yokohama Rubber, and we also share information via our official accounts with social networking services.
Twitter feed:
https://twitter.com/YRC_Global
Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/YokohamaRubber
YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/TheYokohamaRubber?feature=mhum
Niconico (popular Japanese video-sharing service) channel:
http://ch.nicovideo.jp/yokohamarubber