The Washington herald., 1921-05-08
TIRE CUSTOMERS
Are QUEER PEOPLE
Washington Manager Tells of
Some of Their Quaint
lunches.

A modern version of the we'll
worn bromide that competition Is
the life of trade is submitted by
Frank Fickling. branch manager OF
the Washington branch of the Lee
Tire & Rubber Company. An
equally true aphorism is that preJu-
dice is the life of competition" he
claims. "As soon as a merchant
removes himself from competition
he finds himself out of business
and by the same token IL he wants
to turn a deaf ear to customers
prejudices, favorable or unfavor-
able, he will have to seek for HIM
self a lowly cabin in the woods.
II you are in the great and i'm
portant business of marketing
automobile tires, you count that
day wasted in which no customer
has expressed his own particular
'hunch.'
There are over $50 different
brands of tires sold in the United
States today. If you imagine that
the average motorist has an out
and-out favorite make of tire. just
watch the cars that pass on the
street Very few motorists. who
have worn out their original tire
equipment, use the same make of
tire on all four wheels. Thousands
of car owners in every city are so
open-minded and unsold that many
automobiles roll along on four diff
ferent brands of tire. The car
owner who does that Is born
shopper. He gives tire makers
every practical opportunity to COM
pete with one another-not through
Id - h.
| final analysis which the road gives
the tire
Some car owners are prejudicet
enough to think that their original
tire equipment is inferior as they
surmise that the car manufacturer
has placed upon the wheels tht
| cheapest tire he can get. Other
| motorists repeat on the make o.
their original tires and never tr,
/ another brand.
Then we have the elusive Gus
toner who is perfectly satisfied
with particular make but switches
to another for experiments sake
| This works both ways. We hav,
| had customers who were willing [,
/ change makes after getting as higl
as $4,000 miles from a competitlv
brand. Pleasure car owners, espe
Cially. will not always stay put
on one make.
Everybody who buys tires passe
through the experimental stage
Some never get out of it. but tn
wisest do. Customers have beei
known to buy a tire because the
like its tread design and not al
OF these are ladies. I have hear
motorists declare that certai
tread design was no good becaus
IL picked up nails. Others will oh
ject to another design because the
claim il sings Some tread de
signs are criticized on the groun
that they retard the car and loose
the tread itself. There is no en-
to fantastic lunches in the tir
business
81 have also noted several uuafn
and many dangerous superstition
as to tire ppkeep. The worst an
most expensive superstition Of a
is that underinflation causes Ionge
wear and fewer blowouts. No tir
maker ever prescribed such treat
ment-in fact. underiniation Is on
, Of the poison labels of the indus
try. As to the internal construc
tiOn OF tire. many people hav
the haziest ideas. Some few thin
, that tire Is entirely made Of rub
Der.
when II comes to the interns
economy Of a tire. which in its cor
: Hstruction is wide departure frol
standard makes. the casual Gus
Lee puncture proof tires lima gin