Fuel Duel will run and run...
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by Brian Weatherley • The Fuel Duel, which started as a totally cynical attempt to put bums on seats—ERF's own words, not ours—has the potential to go much further, believes marketing manager Matt Thompson. "We've homed in on an area that will never go away. If you look at the current state of an operator's costs, fuel will continue to be a major factor. It's not something we'll stop doing."
The Sandbach-based truck maker has every reason to keep its foot on the marketing pedal. If its Fuel Duel data is to he believed, its Cummins-engined EC II tractors have been delivering the goods compared to rival marques (see table right). To date ERF has won 187 Duels, lost three—all to Scania—and tied two. There's plenty more to go (see table left). When Fuel Duel was launched ERF pledged to publish all the results.
However, there have been some rumblings, naturally from other manufacturers, over how many it has lost. MAN says it has won a duel with an 18.372.
Thompson's response is to throw down the gauntlet: "Tell us who the operator is and we'll investigate. From the start Fuel Duel has been about supplying something tangible—we're not prepared to be proved wrong unless we have the proof."
Whatever the pros and cons of Fuel Duel there's no doubt it's created interest in the EC artic. More than 320 vehicles have been quoted for as a result of Fuel Duels and 91 sold directly off the back of it. And a number of Duellists have been keen to buy the winning ERF tractor.
But will ERF get all its money back from Fuel Duel? The investment in vehicles (28), advertising and mar keting is hard ly small beer.
ERF FUEL DUEL
Make duelling Foden Iveco Ford Leyland Daf MAN Mercedes-Benz Other Renault Scania Seddon Atkinson Volvo Thompson dismisses suggestions that ERF has spent rashly. Most Fuel Duel vehicles belong to the distributors—only 10 are ERF's own stock. And as for advertising: "We're not spending any more this year that last year, or the year before, with the exception of inflation."
For the record, up to the end of August ERF ran 63.3 advertising pages in trade magazines compared to 61.7 for the same period in 1996 (source: Media Monitoring Services).
Meanwhile, Thompson asserts that Fuel Duel is: "The most accountable campaign I've ever been involved with—I'll admit it I had sleepless nights but we're already monitoring advertising space and editorial space and measuring it on a cost per enquiry basis and that figure—L150—is going down."
According to one advertising expert CM spoke to the value of that figure depends on the quality of the enquirer. More importantly, will operators get their money back from an EC? Some cynics have suggested that the Fuel Duel tractors are "special" and that regular production line models could not match them.
"The thinking was we'd be embarrassed by subsequent figures. We're going back to all those fleets who bought off the back of Fuel Duel and there are no reports of dissatisfaction," says Thompson.
After fuel economy the next step on the campaign trail is durability and reliability. "There's little point in getting people in your truck if you let them down afterwards," says Thompson. "Three years ago driver comfort was an issue— we addressed that. We've also spent an enormous amount of time on build quality. Our `Satisfaction Guaranteed' programme was all about that. We made a pledge that if you had a problem on a new truck and weren't satisfied we'd replace it—nobody returned a vehicle."
Thompson's not alone in believing that ERF's residual values quoted by the trade guides "do not represent the real life price". ERF boss John Bryant told CM his dealers have "no problems retailing used ERF's—the problem is selling on the other marques!" However, the company will be stepping up its used vehicle advertising, making it more effective.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of Fuel Duel is that ERF is "now being considered. We're among the top three—we're really chuffed with this," says Thompson. It will still have to go some if it is to achieve its aim of taking 10% of the 16 tonneplus market—currently it's holding 8.7%. However, while the market has experienced a fall of 33%, ERF has only dropped 3%.
What Fuel Duel has done is put a mark in the sand, says Thompson. "We're moving on to identify the other issues and strengths within ERF. We've no intention of taking our foot off the gas."