Introduction post from Rekha

[Rekha]

hi BHPians ,
this is Rekha, a newbie to the group. i've joined this group only today and here is my intro post. i'm in my final year MBA (major marketing and minor operations). i'm basically from Hyd, born and bought up in TN and now here in Bangalore to do my MBA. i'm an Electrical and Electronics engineer. so really dont know that much technical stuff as mechanical or automobile engineers know. but i'm learning all that now since i want my career in automobiles. i dont know when my passion for just driving (but had driven only A and B segment cars) became so strong that made me decide my career in automobiles. i like PCs,SUVs n of course F1 models(i'm trying to learn more about F1 vehicles).

i did my internship project (on Innova) two months back in TKM(Toyota Kirloskar Motors) and while discussing that, my professor (who is already a member of this forum) suggested me this site. n so i'm here on the 1st day itself. i saw articles from lots of guys and this forum is quite informative for me. lots of energy and the members are rocking .keep up the good work. oh! i've forgot to answer a question. i dont own any car at present since i've decided to get one after landing up in a job(hoping to get into automobile sector). i still rate myself a beginner who had just started to sail in the ocean of automobiles and so i'll take sometime to post a thread. but will be a regular follower of this forum. i've gone through "few points on posting information" and hope i've given a elaborate intro about me and stuck to the rules....

waiting to hear from Bhpians,
Rekha

[normally_crazy]

Welcome Rekha,

Good to have more of the fairer sex joining in and sharing the passion for automobiles.

Thats a nice intro and I see you have read rules of posting. Do tell us a bit more of your project on the Innova at TKM.

Have an enjoyable stay.

[khaadu75]

Originally Posted by Rekha

hi BHPians ,
this is Rekha, a newbie to the group. i've joined this group only today and here is my intro post. i'm in my final year MBA (major marketing and minor operations). i'm basically from Hyd, born and bought up in TN and now here in Bangalore to do my MBA. i'm an Electrical and Electronics engineer. so really dont know that much technical stuff as mechanical or automobile engineers know. but i'm learning all that now since i want my career in automobiles. i dont know when my passion for just driving (but had driven only A and B segment cars) became so strong that made me decide my career in automobiles. i like PCs,SUVs n of course F1 models(i'm trying to learn more about F1 vehicles).

i did my internship project (on Innova) two months back in TKM(Toyota Kirloskar Motors) and while discussing that, my professor (who is already a member of this forum) suggested me this site. n so i'm here on the 1st day itself. i saw articles from lots of guys and this forum is quite informative for me. lots of energy and the members are rocking .keep up the good work. oh! i've forgot to answer a question. i dont own any car at present since i've decided to get one after landing up in a job(hoping to get into automobile sector). i still rate myself a beginner who had just started to sail in the ocean of automobiles and so i'll take sometime to post a thread. but will be a regular follower of this forum. i've gone through "few points on posting information" and hope i've given a elaborate intro about me and stuck to the rules....

waiting to hear from Bhpians,
Rekha

Rekha, WELCOME ABOARD .... Nice and interesting Intro , seems you will get a whole lot of questions answered around here though not necessary that they will be in the Automotive sector in any way !!!

Also u in the right town , Bangy has plenty of knowledgable guys who are members of this forum . Hang around and ENJOY urself ...

Cheers

[Rekha]

thank u guys for ur warm welcome.
i'm not sure whether i should reply to the mails from quick reply as i'm doing now. and how will i know whether i got any new mails for me?
Mr.normally crazy, i understand you are one of the moderator and can you help me out in this? and i see u've asked for more details on my project. but my project is a marketing project(since i want my career in that) and will that be a value addition? thatz why i dint give any info on project

[jango]

Welcome to team bhp Rekha, hope u enjoy ur stay here......

[F50]

We have Brothers on our fourm, Father and Son and now Professor and Student.
Amazing this happens only on Team-Bhp.

Welcome Rekha and very nice intro.
And yes I would be interested in that project of your as I will be pursuing my MBA in Marketing.

[Rekha]

well, my project is - "Analysis and promotional plan for petrol innova in Indian market".
As u all know, innova petrol is not selling that much compared to innova diesel. so i was supposed to find out the reasons as why there is decline in sales and suitably devise a promotional plan. Toyota launched Innova all over the world simultaneously and Innova is a new offering to Indian market and is positioned as a combination of "MPV and PC". so my anaysis took into account both MPV and PC players.(MPV - Tavera, scorpio and PC - City and Optra). This research was basically designed to find out the fuel type motivation of buyers.

you all know that, diesel Innova is ahead in the race, followed by scorpio and then tavera. so my promotional plan is to draw more volumes from PC segment and i designed the strategic promotional plan focussing PC customers

[Shan2nu]

Hi, welcome to team-bhp.

Yeah, the Petrol Innova sure doesn't sell. We bought on in Sept 2005 and it was the first and the only petrol variant (so far) in Hubli.

Guys at the fuel pump would react as if they'd seen a Ferrari, coz they never really get to see a petrol version.

Shan2nu

[Rekha]

yup, waiting for Toyota to come up with an offering in B category. thatz d only way Toyota can increase its market share in India through petrol variant

guys, i've a doubt. may i know what "BHP" stands for? dont mind if this question strikes silly but i really wanna know

[Ram]

Originally Posted by Rekha

guys, i've a doubt. may i know what "BHP" stands for? dont mind if this question strikes silly but i really wanna know

BHP stands for Brake Horse Power.

For many of us automobile aficionados, BHP supercedes every other metric as the prime value creator in a car.

BHP measures an engine's horsepower, without the loss in power caused by
accessories like alternator, power-steering pump, water pump,
nor the loss in power caused by powertrain components like gearbox, differential, etc.

So the actual horsepower delivered to the driving wheels is less.

Originally while testing power-output of an engine, a leather band or "brake" around a special water-cooled flywheel, would be progressively loaded with weights
until it slowed the engine down by a certain amount.

Thence the name BHP.

And welcome to Team-BHP, Rekha!

Ram

[condor]

Welcome, Rekha. And you'll learn a lot of stuff here. Like you would have seen, and will see, we discuss a lot of stuff here, so your project will not stand apart. Do let us know about what you have found ..

IMO, an owner profile analysis could give you some hints about the petrol version not even trying to play catch-up with the diesel version.

[nitroxx]

Rekha I see youre one of the few of the fairer sex ,who wants to drive her own car rather than being chauffeured so I guess youre in the right place so happy driving
P.s. If you need drift tips I'm always there,oh and econo driving N_C's always glad to help...cheers!

[Mr.Bangalore]

Hi Rekha..

Welcome .. i think you have an intresting project.. what i think is you should start a new thread or change the topic of the thread so that more people have a clear idea of what you are looking for..

[ravibhat]

Warm Welcome,

About Innova Petrol I feel its just buyers mind set, most of the people don't calculate and just buy the car based on FE, I feel 5 years downthe line Petrol and Diesel going to cost almost equal or may be max. 10 RS price diference unless government brings some policy to make Diesel cheap, to boost Diesel vehicles sales.

Petrol Innova has more power and real smooth and has long life I feel than Diesel for some extent and 80,000 RS cheap as well. So first 25,000 KM usage both won't make any diference. If some one is going to use the vehicle in long run I personally feel Petrol is right choice, If you consider resale value right now in Indian market Diesel has better value than Petrol version. But I feel 5+ years old petrol vehicles have good resale value than Diesel since people think after using Diesel vehicles few years they gets exausted too much... in terms of their capabilities.

I also heard few Petrol owners complaining poor FE like 6 to 8 even with better driving conditions, But I didn't hear from any Diesel Innova owners about bad FE. few complained about faulty vehicle. Last week had been to Nandi toyota @Bangalore they said Petrol Innova now has 1 month waiting period since sales is very very less..

Regards,

Ravi.

[rohitbagai]

Welcome Aboard!
Interesting project too.
Innova is first three-row seating passenger car in India. It’s one of the 5 models of IMV project……
Ok ..ok lets start with the project here
The target market that it’s made to cater is something Toyota guys should redefine. Infact Innova should make effort to make its own segment. The PC and MAV segment that it’s bound to cater should expand. I am not discussing the diesel version as its segment can be bit different.
Two parts of your projects are …Firstly…why sales are dropping
Secondly ..what promotional strategies should be adopted.
Sales may be dropping because of various reasons but since marketing is our focus I will say that sales are dropping because of lack of promotion….Yes you heard me right.
The Innova marketing exercise has been through out good with “All You Desire” tag. It has a great recall. BUT it’s for the brand Innova and not for PETROL Innova. As both cars have different set of customers to target the marketing campaign should also focus on them differently. Like the Indica XETA started it for the petrol variant or Accent is doing for its CRDi.
So the first mantra is product differentiation. …
Product differentiation can be done by branding…
for branding we need a name ..
What do you call a diesel Innova?....Answer:--Innova (I know technically its D4D)
What do you call a petrol Innova?...Answer…Innova (I know technically its VVT-I)
As you must be aware of there are two types of strategies (Push, Pull). Both strategies are needed always! But in case of Innova we should focus on the pull strategy after all you can’t push a customer who has come to buy a diesel innova to buy petrol innova…right? You need to pull customer to come and ask for petrol innova.
For that you need to define segment. I would like to segment it on the basis of Usage. As it’s the only thing that will be different in profile of person buying Diesel or a petrol Innova. The heavy user would prefer to go for Diesel Innova because of obvious reasons of economy offering of a diesel car while the light user would use the car occasionally like on weekends taking whole family/friends out. Since the car would run around 500-1000 Km per month they won’t mind spending few extra amounts in exchange of better refinement, low maintenance and more peace of mind.
So now we have a defined target segment.
Its time for implementation. So we need advertisements?.
Oh Ok we also need brand ambassador. …what??.... Amir Khan???
He is alone in that big car?? Driving alone? …well no way…wrong person as a brand ambassador. For a car this big we can’t go with a single person who does not have an image even as a family man(no offence). …We need a whole family or a group of friends. All should be familiar faces. Easy option can be Indian cricket team. Present them as busy guys who are taking their free time to enjoy life with Innova. Or you can take the crew of saas bhi kabhi bahu thi!!!! lol.
Anyways one thing is for sure….Petrol Innova is not a mass market product. It’ll have a niche market. Even Maruti Versa had a tough time finding that market….Hope with better offering and premium brand image Innova can find one.
Best of luck...and have a good time at t-bhp
Rohit