Team-BHP - Audi, BMW & Merc In India - What They Are Up To & Their Strategies (ET Article)

How BMW, Mercedes & Audi stack up and what their strategies are - Economic Times

Highlights:

BMW India:

- Marketshare moved up from 9% in 2006 to 42% in 2011 in the premium segment.
- 3 Series, X1 and 5 Series are CKDs while the rest are CBUs.
- Will start sourcing components from Indian vendors soon. Have identified 20 vendors so far.
- Part of marketing strategy is to interact with prospective customers at golf tournaments, wine tasting events and fashion shows
- 60 dealers by 2015

Mercedes India:

- Setup India ops in 1994
- Sources 34% of components from Indian vendors
- Plans to invest Rs. 350 Cr by 2015 to introduce its lineup of premium small cars
- Considering CKD assembly of SUVs like M and GL class.
- Hopes to increase sales by 8 times in the next 8 years.

Audi India:

- Intends to unseat BMW as the No.1 premium brand in the next 3 years.
- Q3 launch to take it to No. 2 slot this year.
- Hopes to increase sales by 10 times in 8 years.
- Localization and sharing of infrastructure with other VW brands part of overall strategy.

To me, BMW will retain it's crown unless Audi & Merc does something really out of the box. BMW has been striking the right chords or they took exceptional efforts in understanding the Indian customer mindset. Of the three, I see Merc losing it;s grip in-spite of being established long time back, in India! Audi would easily shoot past these guys if they bring in some solid warranty offers, they have great products in the line up.

Quote:

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious (Post 2726444)

Audi would easily shoot past these guys if they bring in some solid warranty offers, they have great products in the line up.

agree: rightly said about their products. I am also a Audi fan and feel that Audi cars have the right mixture of Class, Comfort and Peppiness. They can strike the right chord with young and senior customers both. Q3 will be a big decider for the market share of Audi as it will be their trump card and answer to the X1.