On the average there are more beautiful girls in Tatarstan than in the country overall. Probably because of the well-known rule of eugenics: in the areas of mixing of races, the percentage of smart and beautiful people is always higher purely due to genetics
BEAUTY IS AN ALMIGHTY POWER OF PROMOTION!
If you put Nastasya Kinsky or Cindy Crawford behind the counter, you can sell anything. This is how «Pirelli» has been selling its tires for almost forty years already. Of course, they have other girls standing behind the counters of their company stores and offices. But be it a construction worker buying tires for his «Mazda», or a wholesale customer from the Buckingham Palace garage ordering tires for the Range Rovers owned by the British royalty, in other words any client, if he is a man, can see behind the counter one of Pirelli girls, the most famous models in the world
In 1962, the company made an ingenious marketing move without even knowing about its potential. As a Christmas present, especially for the richest and most respectable customers from Great Britain, the company prepared a wall calendar for 1963. The calendar had pictures of beautiful girls in it instead of cars and tires. Terence Donovan from the Marketing Department hoped that the clients would hang the calendars in their garages, but he was wrong. Since 1963, Pirelli girls hang not in garages but in most of the major museums of modern art all over the world. The pictures are taken by the leading world-famous photographers. Every year the shootings are done in a new exotic place — in a Moroccan desert, in the ruins of the ancient city of Carthage, in a Pacific heaven like Bounty. These photo shoots are outrageously expensive. However, any potential tire buyer can't help himself but think, well, if «Pirelli» has such first-class beauties, their tires simply cannot be second-grade. Although actually they are no better or worse than tires from other manufacturers.
We've already commented on the quality of Nizhnekamsk tires in this issue of «Ogonyok». In any case, «Pirelli» would be quite happy to place part of its production on «Nizhnekamskshina» conveyor. However, selling a high quality product is a whole new story. This is a different profession. That is why three years ago the Nizhnekamsk Tire Plant opened its own «Kamskshina Trading House».
In our days the sales business, especially if you have to set up a dealer network from scratch, is a rather expensive undertaking. At that time, the tire plant did not have spare working assets to spend on it. Tatneft helped the plant find the way out. On June 22, year 2001, the General Meeting of Shareholders of «Tatneft» decided to include the Nizhnekamsk firm into its orbit. «Kamskshina» was renamed «Kama Trading House».
Rustam Shigapov, First Deputy Financial and Commercial Director of «Kama», said that from that moment on the Nizhnekamsk tire makers along with «Tatneft» had control over the entire market of their products, which is rather expansive. The plan for 2002 includes a sale of 9,400,000 tires for 9.7 billion rubles. This figure also includes supplying tires to automobile plants for new cars coming off the conveyor belt. «Kama Trading House» is responsible for providing tires for 100% of all «KamAZ» trucks and «Oka» economy cars, 70% of all Izhevsk Plant cars, for 6 out of every 10 «Zhiguli» cars. They also supply tires to Serpukhov Plant manufacturing «Oka» economy cars for the handicapped, to «Rostselmash» in Rostov-on-Don, and to Yaroslavl Car Plant. In the year 2002-2003 «Kama Trading House» plans to supply tires to a 100% of all new «Zhiguli» cars and to try them on «Ural trucks» from «UralAZ».
The downside is that tires wear out with time. Furthermore, in our country during the cold season regular tires have to be replaced with winter tires. Unfortunately, there is no way to sign an exclusive agreement with every user. The plant has to fight for every client in a tug of war. Right now Nizhnekamsk tires in Russia are the choice of every 3 car owners out of 10. This is a very good result, considering that there are 11 tire plants in the country. «Kama Trading House» is a leader in sales, but any good salesperson would want to have the entire market in his pocket. Although this goal is unrealistic because there are antimonopoly laws in our country, so far «Kama Trading House» has been able to continue steadily increasing its market share. First of all due to the fact that top managers of «Kama» are not trying to invent the bicycle, stick to the rules of the game and know their turf.
For example, if the majority of their customers are men, why shouldn't the company use the main quality of any male — his instinctive yearning for the beautiful, especially embodied by a beautiful girl? Considering that on the average there are more beautiful girls in Tatarstan than in the country overall. Probably because of the well-known rule of eugenics: in the areas of mixing of races the percentage of smart and beautiful people is always higher purely due to genetics.
Although Albina Ibragimova (86 — 63 — 92, 176 cm high), the calendar girl of Kama Trading House, never wondered how many races are mixed in her blood. She is 20 years old, she is beautiful and smart, or at least has a modern and a very pragmatic view on life. Her story is so much like the famous Andersens fairy tale The Ugly Duckling that you might not believe it. But life sometimes is so amazing that no storyteller would match it.
Everything started with a commercial aired by a local TV station. Albina came to a casting for the Kazan Fashion Theater Modeling School. The place was very crowded and the girls were coming up on the podium in groups of ten. Nobody knew their names, so the ones that were selected were announced by the color of their clothes. For example, wed like to talk to the girl in the red skirt. That day Albina was the only one dressed in all white, but she didnt realize that she also was announced and left home in tears with the rest of the crowd. On the second try, she finally got into the modeling school. But a month later she was up for another challenge: there was a casting for the theatre company, and they wouldn't accept a plump girl. Albina was given 2 months to lose weight. She had to give up grandma's cookies; she hurried to the gym every day after school, so she even fainted a couple of times. Finally, her efforts paid off. A manager from a Paris modeling agency selected Albina's picture for a job in Germany at «M4 Model Company». Later Albina won the first «Miss Tatarstan», was one of the five winners of the «Crystal Crown of Russia» competition, the Second Runner-up at «Miss Russian Radio» in Kazan, and Miss Audience Choice in the finals of «Miss Russian Radio». But when she was invited for a casting for Kamas calendar, she realized that this is the most important offer of her entire career.
A photo on the cover of a calendar or a magazine is very important for any models portfolio (by the way, this cover is now on the first page of Albina's portfolio). Kama's calendar can be found in the offices of many major companies and of government officials.
However, in terms of sales strategy it is more important to make sure that Nizhnekamsk tires are in demand on all levels, not only on the top. That is why «Kama Trading House» made another move, also a tried-and-true one. They divided Russia into dealership regions and built their own sales vertical, which can be easily and effectively managed. For example, «Kama-Center» monitors the situation in the markets in the Central Region and manages all sales there, and in the North-West the company relies on «Kama-Neva». The same system works in all Federal Regions and in Ukraine. As of today, the volume of export has reached 3,800,000 US dollars. Nizhnekamsk tires are most popular in the Middle East, in the Check Republic, in Germany and in Great Britain, as strange as it sounds. Although it might not be that strange, as the British gentlemen were always in favor of quality and never after external polish.
Recently the General Director of the company signed an order for developing a corporate retail sales network selling Nizhnekamsk tires. The company plans to open 12 shops only in Tatarstan, and then it would be the turn of other Russian regions and of foreign countries. Right now Kama's wholesale trade gives an average of 2.5 — 3% profit, while wholesale would ensure a profit margin of 17%.
In other words, Albina Ibragimova, the first Miss Tatarstan and a student at the Academy of International Tourism, has a great future ahead of her.
Sergei PETUKHOV