Make the World Need More Tires Before Selling Them

"Another initiative to popularize the House and its products: maps and guides. In 1900, one year after the first Tour de France by car, Bibendum made its first big move: the publication of the first Michelin tire guide, which informed new motorists—wealthy people accustomed to a certain class—about well-kept hotels, good restaurants, and ways “to communicate by mail, telegraph, or telephone.” André Michelin, who created it, intended this red-covered guide for chauffeurs and cyclists, to whom it would be offered free of charge if requested. As it would appear each year in the early days of spring, it would soon become, in the House’s advertising, “the motorists’ Easter egg.”"

"It’s a success. The signage commission of the ministry adopts the corner marker at intersections. Michelin will be able to mark thousands of kilometers of roads with thousands of markers, direction posts, signals, orientation tables that constitute exceptional advertising material for the brand[22](private://read/01jkqdqdgs7t399cyecbezrhj0/#ftn_fn22)."

"The next step is to push hard for the development of the automobile. In December 1922, Michelin launches a major “National Survey of Popular Automobiles.” Thousands of posters are pasted on the walls of major cities, thousands of flyers are distributed. Michelin explains that in the United States there is one car for every ten people; in France, one for every one hundred and fifty. Across the Atlantic, it is a work instrument, manufactured in large series. In France, it is an external sign of wealth. A Michelin brochure, printed at the same time in tens of thousands of copies under the title The Automobile Will Increase the Productivity of Our Commercial Travelers, demonstrates to its readers—based on the experience gained by the Manufacture whose representatives make their rounds by car—that “using the automobile will increase your turnover and consequently your profits.” A new brochure follows in August 1923, printed in six hundred thousand copies: They Want to Kill the Automobile."

"To aid in the development of hospitality — an essential complement to the automobile — André Michelin heavily subscribes to the capital of the new National Hotel Credit, which proposes to offer long-term loans to professionals wishing to increase the capacity and comfort of their establishment."