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-   -   Maruti opens NEXA dealerships for premium cars (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/159943-maruti-opens-nexa-dealerships-premium-cars-3.html)

Have not seen the Maruti showrooms in the western suburbs of Bombay, but the Sai Service showroom in Pheonix mills is big, decently done up. One of the reasons why you think Maruti showrooms look cramped is the sheer number of car models that they have to display. Otherwise a simple comparison of the area occupied by Maruti dealierships v/s the competition will show that Maruti showrooms have a bigger area.

Their sales personnel are definitely presentable.

I've taken multiple test drives of over 10 kms easily, and they even came over to my office/home with their test vehicles a number of times.

Separate showrooms are fine. What about the service network? Will all Maruti authorised workshops cater to their more expensive cars sold by these Nexa outlets?

One of the biggest advantages of buying a Maruti Suzuki vehicle is the widespread, almost omnipresent service network. There are multiple options even in medium-sized cities, and a few present even in the middle of nowhere.

If they want to make their presence felt in the more premium segments, then they should ensure that such vehicles can indeed be serviced at any Maruti authorised workshop.

I guess they know the value of "Maruti" in India, its one of the biggest brands in India for last so many years now, that is why showroom clearly mentions "Maruti Suzuki". They sell 2 wheeler's only under Suzuki brand name, unfortunately that is not very successful when you compare it with Honda. They had good products like Access, Swish, Gixxer etc still they haven't got much success they wanted.

People might ignore if Maruti puts only "Suzuki" on there showrooms, some might think its 2 wheeler showroom. "Maruti Suzuki" makes more sense as its very familiar to all and people can relate it to cars directly. In my opinion they should keep "Maruti" in the name, it has big weight for sure, in India? Definitely big yes.

The picture shows the brand as Maruti Suzuki itself, so that means if a customer comes to buy a vehicle which is so called not a premium product at the brand store then the Sales adviser is going to say that "Saar this is not the Maruti Showroom you are looking for, this just has our brand and logo but is meant for elite people. As you do not look to be elite, therefore go to our non-elite showroom next door."

Something seems to be amiss, this just does not make sense. If they were going to differentiate between products and customers, they should have at least differentiated something in the showroom/logo itself.

Link: http://www.autocarindia.com/auto-new...ps-394862.aspx

The Indian car buyer is definitely not readily forthcoming to buy a "Maruti-Suzuki" branded car which costs a premium. Maruti-Suzuki might have to do the "Luxury Vehicle Division" as Acura is for Honda and Lexus for Toyota in other countries.

While a lot of people may disagree, but it does look like a promising move from Maruti. Setting up separate counters for 2 different categories of products has its own advantages.

From the management perspective, here are some that I could think of -
1. Greater accountability of sales team of the premium products, since they would be directly pitted against the rivals.
2. Get the true feedback of the market for the premium products, which can be measured in terms of the footfalls. Also would be easy to measure the conversion of the enquiry to actual sale.
3. Differentiating the business in two divisions would help create clearer competition with the market leaders of that segment.
4. Would be easier to implement the segment specific goals.

Their bread and butter business would continue at the same pace via regular counters (dealerships), so no impact on the bulk of the existing business.

And of course the cost difference will be like that of a Self-service and Service wing in Bangalore hotels :D

More Pics of the "Maruti Suzuki" Premium outlet. Sole car on display - Ciaz.

The premium dealership count is expected to grow to around 30 outlets, with a main focus on Tier I cities such as Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Cochin, Kolkata and Chennai.






http://indianautosblog.com/2015/05/m...lership-178678

The showrooms could be named Nexa too as per the rumour. See the below image. A word has been covered by the cloth, but the slight reveal of the first letter looks to be "N".

I wish we knew what data led them to this conclusion. I'm really interested in figuring out how, without differentiating their product/service (via a separate brand, for instance. Currently, it's only price point), they're planning to make a difference by differentiating their outlets, only.

I'm pretty sure, I'm missing something, here!

The customer segment that they hope to target is different from the regular Maruti Suzuki customer, in the sense that the usual customer buys Maruti Suzuki vehicles for the VFM.

The luxury segment customer buys a premium product where features and premium image are the major USP's, not cost.

Hence they demand a certain exclusivity, a certain amount of pampering, glitzy showrooms etc.

Thats what Nexa hopes to achieve. Of course, all these marketing gimmicks will work only if the underlying product really has the premium image, features & build quality too.

Time will tell how this pans out, but I think Maruti Suzuki seems to have a well thought out strategy to tap a segment that usually does not consider their products. If this strategy is successful, it will really pay off big time for MSIL.

IMHO, Maruthi Should also think of opening exclusive service centers, at least one, in each city of their operations. This would improve the way both SA and mechanics handle the premium cars with care. During the late 90's, Vitara was the one of most premium Maruthi offering and they were handled the same way as the 800's and vans. On one occasion, during my car's service, the floor technician while maneuvering brushed the car against another car and upon asking very casually replied that these were common within the workshop. Again, I would personally not tolerate that attitude and would prefer them to give the cars the care they deserve.

Maruti Suzuki Opens Its First Premium Dealership - Nexa - in India

SOURCE: http://auto.ndtv.com/news/id-763970

Here is a pic of Maruti Suzuki's premium car showroom - NEXA, the sales channel .




Pic courtesy - Mowtown