The remarkable story of how two brothers--Edouard and Andre Michelin--turned the sleepy family rubber firm in the heart of rural France into one of the most innovative and successful tire makers in the world. Edouard, a landscape painter, displayed an engineering genius for tire making and product innovation, while Andre, trained as an engineer, displayed an artistic genius for advertising and marketing. Together they kick-started the world's automobile industry and gave us one of the most famous and best loved company logos--the "Michelin Man." In their relentless search for new ways to publicize and market their products, they created a tourist industry around the motor car and their now-legendary Michelin Guides.
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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Lottman (Man Ray's Montparnasse), former European correspondent for PW, delivers an intriguing history of the French family-controlled tire company that had its beginnings in 1832, when two cousins opened a factory in the small central French town of Clermont-Ferrand. Two of the founders' grandsons, Edouard and Andre Michelin, took over and began manufacturing rubber bicycle tires. They later expanded to the production of tires for automobiles and planes, advertising their wares by sponsoring long-distance races and, in 1900, publishing the first Guide Michelin, which encouraged travel by car. Even more successful promotion occurred when Bidendum, the rotund company logo, was created. Considering that Lottman did not have the cooperation of the Michelins, renowned for obsessive secrecy in product development and finances, his readable account is surprisingly detailed about the inner workings of the business. He presents the positive aspects of their enterprise, including a reputation for quality and innovation (they invented a detachable tire in 1891 and the radial tire in 1946) that insured dominance of the international tire market. Their highly popular, incorruptible travel guides still advise travelers where to eat and lodge. Lottman, however, does not neglect Michelin's less attractive activities. The company has always been paternalistic and virulently anti-union, and, in the early years, fired labor activists. Lottman explains that before WWII, some family members were involved in a right-wing terrorist bombing and, during the war, the company cooperated with the Vichy government and produced war materiel for the Nazis. Photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Lottman's saga of the Michelin family and the tire and travel guide empire it built begins with a preceding operation, which by 1833 had evolved into a producer of rubber products. Brothers Edouard, an engineering mastermind, and Andre, a marketing and advertising genius, revived the small company, located in the Auvergne region of France. While car production grew and changed radically after 1900, rubber tires remained a necessity, and the Michelins were prepared to take advantage of that fact. They searched relentlessly for new ways to publicize and market their products, in the process creating an automobile-based tourist industry with guidebooks sporting the world-famous logo of the Michelin Man. With a legacy of growth and flexibility built upon a companywide commitment to quality, by the end of the twentieth century Michelin dominated the world tire market. This fascinating story was written without the help of company management, enhancing its objectivity. Mary Whaley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
In the spring of 1900 - in time for the Paris World's Fair that would draw visitors from all France and much of Europe that summer - a motorist waiting to be served at a petrol station or mechanic's workshop would have had to notice the pile of little books in flexible and impertinent red covers stamped Guide Michelin, given away without charge. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
tyre sales, making tyres, red guide, tyre company, automobile tyres, truck tyres, travel department, battlefield guides, radial tyres, green guides, automobile show, third star, new tyre, factory grounds, plan technique Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Edouard Michelin, Guide Michelin, New York, Robert Puiseux, South Carolina, Pierre Boulanger, New Jersey, Arc de Triomphe, Aristide Barbier, Boulevard Pereire, First World War, Grand Palais, Jules Michelin, Michelin's American, Second World War, Alexandre Varenne, Andre Michelin, Bernard Loiseau, Financial Times, Grand Pierre, Mary Evans Picture Library, Popular Front, War Ministry, Free French New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
In the spring of 1900 - in time for the Paris World's Fair that would draw visitors from all France and much of Europe that summer - a motorist waiting to be served at a petrol station or mechanic's workshop would have had to notice the pile of little books in flexible and impertinent red covers stamped Guide Michelin, given away without charge. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
tyre sales, making tyres, red guide, tyre company, automobile tyres, truck tyres, travel department, battlefield guides, radial tyres, green guides, automobile show, third star, new tyre, factory grounds, plan technique Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Edouard Michelin, Guide Michelin, New York, Robert Puiseux, South Carolina, Pierre Boulanger, New Jersey, Arc de Triomphe, Aristide Barbier, Boulevard Pereire, First World War, Grand Palais, Jules Michelin, Michelin's American, Second World War, Alexandre Varenne, Andre Michelin, Bernard Loiseau, Financial Times, Grand Pierre, Mary Evans Picture Library, Popular Front, War Ministry, Free French New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 5
books:
- The Michelin Magic (Modern Automotive Series) by Jan P. Norbye in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- European Automobile Industry by James M. Laux in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- The New World by George Evans on page 168
- The Mirror Makers: A History of American Advertising and Its Creators by Stephen Fox in Back Matter
- Burgundy Stars: A Year in the Life of a Great French Restaurant by William Echikson in Back Matter
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