Everyday I drive home and notice that like half the cars on the road have under inflated tires. This is bad for fuel economy and the tires. So, I was thinking about how to get people to put air in their tires. It’s not like the cops can pull you over and tell you to put air in your tires. But then I realized that is gas stations where most people put air in their tires, and more gas stations are connected to big oil, and that gave me an idea. Most gas stations charge for air sometimes as much as 50 cents, if they have air at all. So here is my idea, ExxonMobil or Shell or who ever sponsors an “air up to save” campaign, complete with ads. This shows they care about people. They send people out into the community (grocery store parking lots, malls, etc) with little printer machines that can print out the proper inflation pressure for various makes and models, (they don’t actually check the pressure other than visually notice it is low and they collect no information.) Then they leave a little slip of paper that says “Your can has not been touched, but we noticed you tires seem low. Under inflation can reduce tire life and reduce fuel economy 10%. The recommended inflation pressure for a model X car made in Y, is Z. Please stop in at any Big Oil Company filling station for free air, because at BOC we care!” Yes there will be a couple of law suits, but over all the PR is positive. Plus from a marketing stand point when are people most likely going to stop in for air? When they need gas too, so you give them free air and they buy not free gas from you. Sounds pretty win win.
The tire companies could get in on it too, and get a little tent area in mall parking lots, since they could actually inflate the tires to the proper pressure right there, so people didn’t have to go somewhere to get their tires inflated or even touch their tires. Why would the NTB and the others want to do this? Because they would also be helpful, and “inspect” the tires before they did anything. This would mean they could tell people that they need new tires or an alignment or their wheels balanced, or brake work, or an oil change. Then to be extra helpful, they would tell the people that if they bring the slip of paper they got into any NTB or whatever location that they would get a 5% discount or something on services. The PR and marketing opportunity would be huge, since if the marketing was kept on the down low, the media could be used to make it seem like the company was being good a Samaritan, by helping reduce this country’s dependence on foreign oil and reducing pollution. (By media I mean have a radio or TV station send a crew to do a live broad cast, hand out t-shirts, and bottled water maybe even give out concert tickets and prizes. This will give the “event” a festive air to put people in a good mood, and plus a little hype never hurts!)
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