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Maruti Set For Image Makeover

Details of plan 2.0

• A whole new corporate identity as a premium automotive company.
• Brand repositioning exercise spread across all 3 verticals.
• Maruti Suzuki channel, Nexa channel and True Value, used car channel.
• All showrooms will be upgraded. First 100 already identified.
• Premium feel of Nexa showroom will trickle down to Maruti Suzuki showrooms .
• Stand alone Nexa service centers.
• True value showrooms also to be upgraded.

Why now?

Last three years Maruti Suzuki was pushing the premium products (look and feel) like the Ciaz, Scross, Baleno, Brezza, Ignis. The second part of the push is to bridge the retail experience to complete the 'premium brand' image.
Also preparing for the loss of cost advantage in the bread and butter small car category due to the implementation of safety norms from October 2017 and BS VI in 2020.

My take

• Maruti will have no problems in pulling this plan off.
• We as consumers may have to alter the cost perceptions of owning a Maruti.(Will stick to my 2000 Maruti 800 5 speed for a little longer)
• Will be greeted by hi-tech showrooms, with ipads to show the price and customizability. (As in Nexa)
• The premiumness will even trickle down to the quality of the products. (A better Kwid competitor)

• The dealers will be running four showrooms - Maruti Suzuki, Nexa, True value and Maruti Suzuki commercial showroom.
• And two service centres - Maruti Suzuki and Nexa.
• The high investment cost, more working capital and aggressive retail outlet expansion with the help of the land bank may see many dealers shutting shop.
• Long term margins of the company will be improved.
• The dealer will be forced to sell more vehicles to keep their return on investment constant.
• Thus future proofing the market share.

• Better pricing room for competitors products and faster adoption of newer technologies. (New MQB platform Polo might come faster)

If Maruti becomes premium, who else remains non premium?

Toyota-Daihatsu could be the new entry level player(non-premium):)

Not yet. These are nothing but speculations of the plan 2.0

The actual plan is yet to be announced by MSIL.

All I can say is, God bless competition!

You have to give it to Maruti Suzuki. Despite leading almost every segment they are present in and dominating the market, they aren't just sitting on their laurels.

On a side note, what's this obsession with the 'premium image'? With Maruti and Hyundai going premium and Honda all set to revive their premium image, will the word 'premium' have any meaning left?

This could work in the short term but in the long term they WILL have to improve the build quality of their cars which I dont know how they will pull off considering this time even the Baleno sold in Europe is light and flimsy. Apart from build quality more money definitely needs to be poured into R&D since even slightly 'premium' products like their S-Cross, still come with touch screen head units that look like an after thought.

Oh how I wish they began all this when they were toying around with imported Grand Vitaras and Kizashis. Suzuki needs to shift their focus from light weight small cars and back to what they were onto with the Kizashi. Without the parent company aligning their focus atleast slightly with these 'premium' aspirations, Maruti won't be able to fool the Indian audience for too long.

Perhaps the brands like Datsun, Daihatsu or even we will see even some Chinese automakers filling the void.

True, but a new Maruti Suzuki retail point coming up in the outskirts of Mumbai is incorporating many of the new plan points.

There is one thing Maruti knows best that is Marketing and the market share just proves it. No other country in the world where a single automaker sells one out of every two cars in such a significant market.

The 'premium brands' as such was in line for a makeover, especially considering the automakers would have to rebrand themselves prior to newer technologies like electric powered vehicles and Chinese brands entering our market.

Totally agree on the point of quality. I use a 2000 model 800 and still doesn't feel that VFM proposition in their entry level cars as well as their 10 lakh+ Brezza. Even a less costly vehicles like Ecosport and Figo gives me that assurance and durability. It's only when it comes to the number of service centers and residual value, that Maruti brand raises its head.

Those cars were a little ahead of its times as the Indian cost structure paid spoilsport. Maybe this premium brand push will see automakers adopting technologies and quality products at a faster pace in India. Thereby giving Maruti a tougher competition push to improve its products. The supplier base and marketing poweress strengths of Maruti would still give them an added advantage.

This change was reported by member volkman10 back in May itself.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...ml#post4208090

However, the actual announcements are still a mystery (might include some of the above points for sure) and the above points you posted are only the speculations by the news channel.

Well it seems all the points which were so called speculations , was included in the plan that Maruti has just made public today. (Maruti Suzuki Arena & True value revamp)
The above was from more than just news channel sources.

Maruti Suzuki showrooms to be christened "'Maruti Suzuki Arena'.

Somehow I feel refreshing the showrooms, adding more comfortable chairs there or in service stations and rebranding the outlets - only results in a hike in the price of the products & services. We as customers visit these places once when getting the car & then about 1 or 2 times an year for service requirements...I'd rather pay less instead of getting a cozy chair.

This re-positioning as PREMIUM player is really about revisiting price-lists generally. Nothing else.

This upgrade to a Premium car manufacturer will obviously mean that the cars themselves will come at a premium i.e. they will be overpriced just like the Ignis. Hopefully we will get better quality vehicles for the increased cost.

There has to be a balancing between premium and economic models. Maruti is in this position because of the volume it generates out of economic vehicles. Maruti had that good balance of economic vs premium by introducing Nexa showrooms but there seems to be too much focus on shifting the perception of Maruti as a premium brand. In a pursuit to achieve premium image, Maruti shouldn't end up passing on such upgrading expenses to customers.

The initial thought looked good and should persist as it's-continue the economic dominance and attract premium customers.

I can't help but notice that Suzuki has been desperately trying to get rid of the Maruti moniker since getting a controlling stake in MSIL. First the M in the logo was dropped to leave just the Suzuki S logo in all cars. In newer models on the badges the font size of MARUTI is smaller than SUZUKI (except maybe in the EECO where it is equal). Wherever the Maruti Suzuki on top of each other, the font size of Maruti is invariably small. It is usually the same when the words are written side to side, but I have noticed in some places, the word Maruti having a thinner font.
I think the NEXA is nothing but an interim strategy to get people used to not seeing the word MARUTI on the cars. Once this happens, Suzuki will drop the word Maruti from all the cars and we will only only see SUZUKI everywhere. The transition will be complete.
Check images for how the badging has changed.

As per inside information I got from a little birdie, the Maruti moniker will be dropped from all Maruti cars by 2020 definitely. Suzuki will align their global strategies to make all cars be branded alike globally.