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Old 21st June 2015, 19:25   #61
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re: Maruti opens NEXA dealerships for premium cars

This is a great move by Maruti. Somehow I feel they are spying on our forums and taking our feedback's very seriously.

No wonder Maruti is in the no.1 spot all these years and will remain so with such kind of decisions.
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Old 22nd June 2015, 04:24   #62
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re: Maruti opens NEXA dealerships for premium cars

Separating the showrooms alone would not change the image..if they need to change that commoner friendly image, they need to change the Badge.

That being said, if they plan to go with a new Badge I wonder how Nexa would look like , some fancy "N" may be.
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Old 22nd June 2015, 07:08   #63
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re: Maruti opens NEXA dealerships for premium cars

Maruti = Value for any Indian. Their promise and value proposition is crystal clear.

They have forayed into higher segments before but have failed miserably because the "value promise" is so deep seated in the Indian consumer psyche and very few consumers want to buy a "Premium" product from a "value" brand.

In branding, the upward journey from "value" to "premium" is always very tough but the reverse journey down the ladder is far easier.

However, saying this, there are some other examples of value brands in the Indian context who tried to go "premium" through launching a fresh brand itself - notable example is Titan who came in with their Swiss Made Xylys which was priced similar to entry level Swiss Brands.

But the Indian consumer is very smart and actually very discerning - going by the lack of success of Xylys, it seems apparent, that when an Indian consumer pays for a Swiss Brand, he/ she would simply switch to a real authentic Swiss brand, like Tissot, provided the pricing is right and the value proposition is right.

Maruti can launch all the Nexa's that it wants to - I am still very skeptical about the potential success, especially if they try charging a good sized premium for their "premium positioned products."

Saying that, the fresh branding strategy works nicely abroad - Toyota with its Lexus, Nissan with its Infiniti and Honda with its Acura are excellent cases in point. If I lived permanently abroad, I would most certainly consider any of these because the equivalent offerings from these brands, when compared to similar European or other Brands, is truly exemplary in terms of value/ features/ quality.
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Old 22nd June 2015, 07:19   #64
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re: Maruti opens NEXA dealerships for premium cars

Quote:
Originally Posted by shankar.balan View Post
In branding, the upward journey from "value" to "premium" is always very tough but the reverse journey down the ladder is far easier.
Hyundai has pulled off that trick. It started at lower end, but now sells Verna at 10 - 14 lakh price band.

So far, Maruti did not have any product that justified premium pricing (E.g. SX4 v/s City or Vitara v/s Fortuner).

New launch Ciaz is not doing that bad (~5k per month). If Maruti can fix its anemic Engine, it can come closer to City (~7k) which is current segment benchmark in terms of sales.
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Old 22nd June 2015, 09:24   #65
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re: Maruti opens NEXA dealerships for premium cars

Are they also going to have separate service centers or at least dedicated 'premium' staff/bays/services within the existing service centers?

What is the point of premium showrooms if the service does not match?
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Old 22nd June 2015, 10:23   #66
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re: Maruti opens NEXA dealerships for premium cars

Having premium outlets for higher end cars is a good thing, but if they are going to restrict the sales of premium cars to those premium outlets, it will seriously hurt the sales. If i have to drive 100kms to reach a Nexa outlet just to test drive the car, i would immediately start looking to other options.
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Old 22nd June 2015, 11:07   #67
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re: Maruti opens NEXA dealerships for premium cars

The focus towards making the brand feel premium (not only to Ciaz customers) but also to other category customers is a good one generally. A more premium brand would command a higher margin than one perceived as a 'junta' brand.

Having said that my opinion is that this strategy of Maruti may not work unless it builds a completely distinct brand identity for the Ciaz (and other upcoming premium models). As of now the Ciaz is badged and sold as a 'Maruti Suzuki Ciaz' with the same Suzuki logo, jingles, colours as any other Suzuki offering. An 'exclusive' showroom for this product (however premium it may be) will still be a 'Maruti' showroom and I feel send a confusing message to existing and future customers as to where the brand is positioned.

Contrast with the VW group and its distinct brands of Audi, Skoda and VW. Although they use similar body designs and share many interchangeable parts and of course, are under overall common management, the brands have been built so carefully distinct that a customer of a VW small car and a buyer of an Audi will not feel they belong to the same 'club'. The distinct showrooms and branding are reflective of this (VW will not use its own logo in the Audi range). A similar situation exists with Tata Motors and JLR.

So it is a different matter whether or not Maruti has the inclination to spend cash building up a separate dealership chain for the Ciaz. But assuming it does I feel it will prove to be difficult to sustain so long as it is still a Maruti.
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Old 22nd June 2015, 11:25   #68
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re: Maruti opens NEXA dealerships for premium cars

We cannot compare VW group with Maruti because most of the VW group companies existed independently before VW acquired them over time.
For e.g. Audi was established in 1885 and pre-dates VW, which was started in 1937. Tata-JLR is also similar - they existed separately. Toyota-Lexus and other such cases are more comparable. But yes the way they have kept the brand identities distinct is something admirable.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kumar R View Post
Contrast with the VW group and its distinct brands of Audi, Skoda and VW. Although they use similar body designs and share many interchangeable parts and of course, are under overall common management, the brands have been built so carefully distinct that a customer of a VW small car and a buyer of an Audi will not feel they belong to the same 'club'. The distinct showrooms and branding are reflective of this (VW will not use its own logo in the Audi range). A similar situation exists with Tata Motors and JLR.
In any case, how the customer will react to the showrooms will be clear only once they open them and we see how they operate them and the response. Good that Maruti is trying something different.

Last edited by jetti : 22nd June 2015 at 11:29.
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Old 22nd June 2015, 12:29   #69
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re: Maruti opens NEXA dealerships for premium cars

Maruti Suzuki has successfully confused all of us BHP-ians here with its 'Nexa' strategy. I am sure, them being 'Maruti Suzuki', have a very clear plan on this. No way are they going to sacrifice their market with a new strategy. It is very clear we are missing something here, leading to all these confusions. I definitely do not think 'Nexa' is a badge that is going into the vehicles - i.e. it is not a premium brand name. I can think of some possibilities, listed below.
  • Exclusive Nexa showrooms for premium cars - This means Premium cars will be sold ONLY in Nexa showrooms and Nexa showrooms will sell ONLY premium cars. This would mean, Ciaz, S-Cross, YRA, etc will be available only in the Nexa showrooms and the buyer will have to visit these to buy them. The problem here is cross-shopping will take a huge hit. For e.g. A Swift / Dzire buyer cannot be pushed to YRA / Ciaz by a Maruti showroom - simply because they will not have one to show the buyers. Similarly a Ciaz / YRA customer cannot be pushed down to a Dzire / Swift if they feel they cannot afford the premium cars. Asking the customer to move over to a different showroom altogether will create a lot of chaos and eventually the buyer will move over to a Hyundai or Honda.
  • Nexa division in each showroom to deal with premium buyers - In every showroom, there will be a premium area and better trained sales guys selling Ciaz and other premium offerings. So, if a buyer wants to check out the premium offerings a different sales team will take over. The premium cars cars and buyers will get premium service as well. Even though this will be in the line of Mahindra's Purple Club, this will be a huge deviation from the Maruti principle. The buyers will feel discriminated within the same showroom and will feel those with (or ready to) spend more money being treated differently. I mean, I may be a guy owning a Merc visiting the Maruti showroom to buy an AMT Celerio for my teen daughter - and I being treated lesser than a Ciaz buyer will make me feel VERY VERY bad.
  • Nexa as an extension for premium offerings - This means, Maruti showrooms will sell every car from Alto to Kizhashi. But Nexa showrooms will be exclusive for the premium offerings. For the premium customers wanting premium offerings and ready to pay premium "handling charges" will visit the Nexa showrooms and want to be pampered and distinguish themselves from the "Mango People" visiting Maruti showrooms. These will be very few and only in Tier 1 cities - more like experience centers with cool interiors huge on space and with a lot of technology put in. Will make sure premium buyers feel the premium and will stay with the brand.
I feel third one seems to strike a balance and might be the route Maruti is taking. Let us wait for a few more weeks when the whole strategy will come to light
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Old 22nd June 2015, 13:35   #70
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re: Maruti opens NEXA dealerships for premium cars

Last Night there was a Photoshoot of S-CROSS at NEXA DWARKA SECTOR 9. We did take couple of photos. The staff wanted us to delete those photos.
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Old 22nd June 2015, 13:53   #71
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re: Maruti opens NEXA dealerships for premium cars

Quote:
Originally Posted by desideep View Post
Last Night there was a Photoshoot of S-CROSS at NEXA DWARKA SECTOR 9. We did take couple of photos. The staff wanted us to delete those photos.
Where is this Nexa in sector 9? Near the metro station? I remember there was a true value dealer there earlier.
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Old 22nd June 2015, 14:12   #72
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Where is this Nexa in sector 9? Near the metro station? I remember there was a true value dealer there earlier.
Yes sir the same showroom has been converted you just cannot miss it.
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Old 22nd June 2015, 20:18   #73
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re: Maruti opens NEXA dealerships for premium cars

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Originally Posted by jetti View Post
We cannot compare VW group with Maruti because most of the VW group companies existed independently before VW acquired them over time. For e.g. Audi was established in 1885 and pre-dates VW, which was started in 1937. Tata-JLR is also similar - they existed separately. Toyota-Lexus and other such cases are more comparable. But yes the way they have kept the brand identities distinct is something admirable.

In any case, how the customer will react to the showrooms will be clear only once they open them and we see how they operate them and the response. Good that Maruti is trying something different.
I take your point that both examples I cited were independent brands before common management. However I cannot think of any instance where the same brand was differentiated for different customers.

Coming back to the Ciaz. Based only on the ad campaign and also my own perception after speaking to friends, mechanics, prospective car-buyers, new car owners, etc. the Ciaz is clearly positioned as an offering from the Maruti-Suzuki stable with all the advantages that it brings (huge service centre / dealer network, relatively lower cost of maintenance, familiarity of indian mechanics and engineers with Maruti-Suzuki car technology). If the dealership and service experience was to be made truly new, distinct and watertight (no sending 'extra' Ciazs to the MSL A.S.S.) would the average Ciaz customer still go for it? Besides it is now probably too late to build a distinct brand out of the Ciaz.

The car itself may be a big / premium car relative to the other MSL siblings but at its price range and considering its competition (Vento, Linea, Verna, City, etc.), it is not a particularly 'premium' car. There is no brand differentiation with Ciaz as there was with Lexus and its emphasis on luxury and new technology (at the time of its launch in the US, it was positioned at competing with genuine luxury models).

I found this interesting article online re the Lexus branding strategy and why it succeeded and found myself doubting whether the same can be repeated by MSL for the Ciaz. Had I booked a Ciaz I might actually prefer that the company not segregate the brand and post-sales service.

Last edited by Kumar R : 22nd June 2015 at 20:19.
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Old 24th June 2015, 19:34   #74
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re: Maruti opens NEXA dealerships for premium cars

Quote:
Originally Posted by desideep View Post
Yes sir the same showroom has been converted you just cannot miss it.
Thanks to the pointer by desideep, I passed by it just to get a look. Here's what my dashcam captured. Only car seen on the showroom floor was Ciaz. Lots of black and chrome.

Maruti opens NEXA dealerships for premium cars-nexa.jpg

I was hoping to get a better shot while return but unfortunately one side was closed due to road work, plus it was raining. Will try to get a better shot tomorrow.
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Old 24th June 2015, 19:47   #75
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re: Maruti opens NEXA dealerships for premium cars

Couple of photos from myside.
Attached Thumbnails
Maruti opens NEXA dealerships for premium cars-20150624071522.jpg  

Maruti opens NEXA dealerships for premium cars-20150624071530.jpg  

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