9 posts tagged “car manufacturers”
In a recent study, it has been revealed that the mobile phone advertisements have a bigger share in influencing the buying needs of the Indian car buyer.
Leading Indian car manufacturers such as Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Tata who are more into small cars have taken the help of mobile phone advertisements to lure their customers. Indian consumer of today’s being more information hungry has contributed to this innovative method.
Anytime the consumer needs to buy a product, he goes online to check the options available are and what existing buyers are saying about it.
This stands true for Cars and that is the reason, car makers in India who are more into small cars are taking the help of digital medium like the Internet (Social media - Facebook, Twitter; comparison sites), mobile phone based ads to promote their products among customers.
A recent survey showed that mobile phone ads constitute 31% of buying decisions when it comes to Indians; globally this number is just 8%. Internet and mobile phone based text ads are low cost forms of advertising that are reaping benefits for the car companies.
As a result of rising input costs and weakening Indian Rupees most of the car manufacturers have withdrawn car discounts announced in response to the excise cut.
All the car manufacturers have now raised car prices by 2-3% across a range of Indian cars. Hyundai has announced an increase of 2% price of all its car models while Honda is all set to increase the price of its leading SUV, Honda CR-V by Rs 1 Lakh.
Following the trend, General Motors have also revealed a price hike of Rs 10,000 across all its car models. This price hike would be effective from January 10, 2009. With the announced price hike, Chevrolet Spark would be available at an additional cost of Rs 3000 whereas the Optra would become costlier by Rs 10,000.
Further in line are Toyota and Ford have also announced price hike while Maruti and Tata are soon to follow the trend.
Here is the latest trend in the Indian car industry. Now the car manufacturers are launching ‘Made in India’ cars. These cars would be developed in India using the technical expertise and creative Indian engineers. The designs of these Indian cars will completely match the Indian condition and the buyers taste.
Some of the car majors who are working on ‘Made in India’ cars are like General Motors, Maruti Suzuki (MSIL) and Volkswagen. General Motors is expected to introduce this compact car in India by 2009.Maruti Suzuki has already working on it .The company is also planning to increase the head count of the engineers for this new project and is expected to roll our by 2010. Volkswagen, the German car major is still under the development stage with this new project.
Recently A-star from Maruti Suzuki launched. Though this global car was produced exclusively in India, we cannot call it as completely Indian as lot of Japanese technology involved.
The latest bug bites Indian car industry. Now we can see car with ‘made in India’ tags.
The economic pressure has slowed down the growth of Indian car industry. Every car manufacturer is struggling to sustain in the market but surprisingly the luxury car segment has something else to say. As we all know that despite the global crisis the luxury car market is experienced growth in India.
Many car manufacturers are cutting down the production and some have even shut down the plant. The new car launches are on hold, until the markets functions normally. But, one of the oldest car player from the luxury segment, Daimler (owns the Mercedes brand) is planning to launch 6 new model to India by this year end.
These luxury models would carry an expensive tag ranging from Rs 1.25 Crore to Rs 3 Crore and will be custom ordered and delivered directly from the land of Merc. At present Mercedes-Benz models for India rolls out nine models comprising sedans, coupes, convertibles, sport utility vehicles and multi-purpose vehicles.
Every car manufacturers are experiencing a slow growth due to the financial crunch. Many car majors are even cutting down the production and some production plant is said to be shutdown.
People are holding on to their investment and the car sales is almost stagnant, with out any growth. But despite the sales commotion in the Indian car industry, it is surprising to know that luxury car segment is segment is rejoicing sales in India.
Audi, renowned luxury car manufacturer from Germany recorded a sales growth of 203 percent. From Audi India’s stable Audi A4 and Q7 are the highest selling models in the country. Even other luxury car manufacturers like Mercedes-Benz and BMW also experienced a good growth during this economic pressure. This is the clear example stating that the high-class society.
Previously the car manufacturer had introduced these services in nine major cities including metros. Now with the addition of four more cities, the total number of cities having such facilities has increased to 13.
This service programme comprises of Ford fleet of two types of vehicles including flat bed trucks and emergency response motorcycles. The flat bed truck allows customers to get vehicle carried to the service centre and get them repaired without the damages generally experienced during the towing of cars.
Ford believes that customer’s satisfaction is the most important step for success. Therefore, with the introduction of this service in four more cities the company will cover 60 % of Ford car owners in the country.
Now this sizzling new Corolla is coming in September with a much better look this time when compared to the present model.
After the launch of the Honda Civic there has been a tough competition for Corolla. So with this new launch of Corolla it might again increase the sales.
This new car is going to rock the Indian buyers with its spiky new designs which is an extension of the Toyota’s product entity across its line up and will add even more elegance to this new Corolla.
Toyota seems to have come out with all that which will attract more buyers to their brand showrooms. However this dashing car might give a good competition to Honda Civic, Volkswagen Jetta and Skoda Octavia.
Volkswagen is all set to make its presence in the Indian market. The auto manufacturer is now ready to launch an array of compact cars in India. Although the auto manufacturer has made a late entry, it has planned to make a remarkable pace in the Indian industry.
Like many other car manufacturers even Volkswagen thinks that India is an important market for it. The company also wants to create brand equity for Volkswagen in India before stepping in for mass volume segment.
However the main target would be to launch the premium cars first and then stride into the small car segment. Presently the company also has many brand stores in the country.
Moreover Volkswagen has been selling only premium cars in the Indian car market. Now it’s equipped to hit the Indian roads with its compact cars also. However the company has made an investment of Rs 2400 crore for a Greenfield plant at Chakan in Maharashtra. This manufacturing plant would be the main capability for its forthcoming cars.
Due to the ever mounting interest rates and saturation in the Indian car market the company might not obtain the same numbers this year.
Owing to the vendors program the staff bought good sales to the company last year where it sold 4000 cars during the three month period ended July 31, 2007. Maruti Suzuki has carried out numerous focused marketing schemes in the recent past to push it sales in the sluggish market.
Maruti has also offered financing to vendor employees at 8.25 % last year to help them purchase its cars. The principle behind the scheme was to build a strong relationship with the vendors.
The company has also offered numerous discounts that ranged from Rs 12,000 on Maruti 800, Rs 11,000 on Alto and Rs 18,000 on Wagon R and Estillo to promote sales. An exceptional discount of about 4,000 was also offered to its employees.
The auto manufacturer has taken good steps to perk up it sales. It is tied up with Axis Bank that tenders financing at 10.75 % with repayment periods of 3 to 5 years where the current market rates are at 14 -15 %.
