[RaghuVis]

What I find so offensive about such posts is that The so called Herd Mentality is always associated with Cheapness.

1) If people buy Apple phones which are ridiculously over-priced, then that is "lifestyle choice".
2) Most of our Film actors with exception of few have absolutely no idea on cars. They just know the symbols of the German trio's and most buy that just to show off. Actors can't belong to Herd Mentality now can they.
3) Most of us are using JIO to get 1/1.5 GB per day which is one of the cheapest in the world, but hey we can't look at sky and spit(A famous Malayalam proverb).

Most of the MSIL buyers under 5-6L are first time 4 wheelers. They have through their hard work earned rightfully to splurge whatever little they have on a car which they have dreamt of. This would sound like a opportune time for some of you guys to belittle them nastily and associate terms that are meant for animals. Also, There is absolutely no amount of energy spent to understand what MSIL has done to get these many people's trust. Start a business and tell your friends and relatives to invest their hard earned money into your ideas. Maybe that will make some of you to appreciate what MSIL have done.

Then there are some who keeps telling that their friends/relatives bought MSIL cars because their parents insisted on that even when they personally liked some other brand cars. In a country where more than 80% of people do arranged marriages, buying a car as per parent's choice is the herd mentality now


PS: Neither do I have a MSIL car (Almost bought one) Nor do I have their shares (I should buy but cannot afford!)

[blorebuddy]

Well said. I was thinking in the similar lines. Apart from giving all the credits to the herd mentality, we also should give credit to Maruti as an organisation and their competent management. Inspite of being so large they are agile and nimble. Take an example of S Cross, we all know they did a blunder in pricing. What did they do about it is differentiating them. They accepted and reduced the price. Not only that there was a news of they have returned a fixed amount (I do not remember exact amount) to their first set of S Cross customers who purchased at a higher price (again forgive me for not remembering the numbers). I am not sure how many companies do this or did this in the past. Now compare this with Renault Capture and Toyota Yaris(may be little early to say). What’s the response and action taken by these companies?

Let’s come to the another example, same SCross did not sell as much as the volume which a typical Maruti should sell even after the price cut. They took the market feedback and came up with the facelift in short time frame and now SCross is a turn around story. I am sure who is part of large corporates appreciate how difficult to get the things moving and getting the priorities right among all the stuff you have to do. They are able to get their teams/departments work together rather quickly.

Next Product Strategy- Though Duster and EcoSport had first mover advantage, they are able to come up with a product in a reasonable time and address the gap in their product portfolio and able to capture that market - it’s Brezza for the herd.

Another strategy to retain/increase market share to have multiple products in the same segment and same price range. As long as Customer is walking in and walking out with a Maruti they are happy. No one else has adapted this so far.

Next Product refreshes- I do not think other than Hyundai and Maruti no one else is up to date.

Next Customer Orientation- I do not think no other organisation in India infact in any industry is taking/treating customer and their feedback as serious as Maruti is. I always wondered how they are able to do that, it’s in their culture. Oh man, it’s not easy to start, build this kind of culture and run a company with that culture for so long and with this size. How much of education, training you have to do from it’s own organisation to their dealers spread across India. It’s amazing.

Another instance why we should give credit to the Management is think of 10 -12 years back when all the other large global brands entered the market? Maruti literally faced threat and was loosing their market share also. They not only arrested it and also increased it. So IMHO, all credit goes to the company, it’s employees and their management.

Disclaimer- I am not from Maruti, not a share holder. Just a happy customer of Maruti for last 13 years. I am also a happy customer of Ford but not as much as Maruti though Ford is a superior product with lesser TCO. Maruti ownership experience is consistent for the last 13 years where as Ford experience started from unacceptable level 8 years back and improved to good today. If Ford continues this effort they will also become good to great.

[MaxTorque]

Well, I agree with you on almost all points.

But have to disagree with this one.

Originally Posted by RaghuVis

What I find so offensive about such posts is that The so-called Herd Mentality is always associated with Cheapness.

Herd Mentality is a term very much associated with human group behavior. Some excerpts from Wikipedia.

Herd mentality, mob mentality and pack mentality, also lesser known as gang mentality, describes how people can be influenced by their peers to adopt certain behaviors on a largely emotional, rather than rational, basis.

Social psychologists study the related topics of group intelligence, crowd wisdom, and decentralized decision making.


I believe this is what all members meant and not terming Maruti car buyers as animals.

[srishiva]

Originally Posted by MaxTorque

Well, I agree with you on almost all points.

But have to disagree with this one.


Herd Mentality is a term very much associated with human group behavior. Some excerpts from Wikipedia.

Herd mentality, mob mentality and pack mentality, also lesser known as gang mentality, describes how people can be influenced by their peers to adopt certain behaviors on a largely emotional, rather than rational, basis.

Social psychologists study the related topics of group intelligence, crowd wisdom, and decentralized decision making.


I believe this is what all members meant and not terming Maruti car buyers as animals.

If buying MSIL products is not rational then what is ? Look at the number of models they have catering to wide requirements, expansive service network, service that is still very good for the numbers they handle. What is emotional is going for cars that sell in single digits even when you know they have pathetic service and might pack off their business any day.

[MaxTorque]

Originally Posted by MaxTorque

Very true. But unfortunately, we don't have the registration data accessible to analyze the actual monthly sales.

Setting up dealerships/service centers/sales points in every nook and corner of our country is a commendable effort. Also, I doubt dealers will carry excess inventory for a very long duration. Ultimately (my understanding is) the dealer has to buy cars for inventory from the company at a wholesale price and have to pay the amount in an agreed timeframe (in many cases one month). The dealers will be cautious while carrying excess inventory so that they have better working capital.

I feel Maruti is smart enough to bring products that appeal to their customers. They smartly entered other players market with appealing products like Brezza and Ertiga and exited segments that are not worth (Kizashi). While some of the products are decent, the rest are not. But again they manage to bring the product as a complete package at a somewhat reasonable price point. Also, there is a myth that Marutis are cheaper to maintain. But again it a debatable topic.

We have seen GM exiting from our market, while VW, Nissan and a few more on the verge of exiting or scaling down their operations in India. These companies have a better technical, monetary back up compared to Maruti Suzuki. But they are struggling in our market. Same story with Toyota.

I think the real challenge for Maruti would be Kia. Once they start their operation in India, the sales may drop slightly. I have driven some of the Kia products, I feel they are perfect products to compete with Maruti. One of Kia's USP is 7 years unlimited warranty.

While I appreciate the dominance of Maruti in our market, I am equally worried about the reduction of the options for us in coming years.

Originally Posted by srishiva

If buying MSIL products is not rational then what is?

Mate, I have always appreciated MSIL as a business. I had mentioned this before. I was just explaining the Herd Mentality is very much related to human and not just animals.

Now when buying a car or for that matter anything there are many considerations which vary from individual to individual. No doubt Maruti is successful in tapping the potential customers in the Indian market. It is simple as that.

In my opinion, there are no 100% right cars, what matters is whether the product is appealing to a prospective customer or not?

[volkman10]

Two Mass market cars in India finds places in the Top 50 Global sales for H1 2018.
Suzuki Swift at 43 and EcoSport at 50. complete the chart.

[S.MJet]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Two Mass market cars in India finds places in the Top 50 Global sales for H1 2018.
Suzuki Swift at 43 and EcoSport at 50. complete the chart.

And out of those 1.9L swifts, 1.11L (58%) were sold in India.

Compass at no 33 sold 2.13L in H1, averaging 35590 per month, very impressive. I never thought Compass doing such big volumes world over.
In right hand drive countries, for which India is the base, comparative numbers seems very ordinary considering their India plant capacity at 40-50K pa.

[acidkill]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Thanks Aditya for the July sales data.


- Toyota fails to impress buyers with its Yaris and now will be looking to launching cars in JV with Suzuki. Toyota’s Y-o-Y de-growth was at a massive 23%.

I think the impress and trust part is in place. It is the price that they have gotten a bit wrong.

[vharihar]

Originally Posted by RaghuVis

What I find so offensive about such posts is that The so called Herd Mentality is always associated with Cheapness.

Not at all sir. I am not associating it with cheapness at all. As I said, Maruti does make very good products. All I am saying is that their goodness is not as much so as to justify the lead it enjoys over the runner-up. I myself owned an SX4 until last year, and was extremely happy with it. Super reliable, super comfortable, superb seating position and ride and handling.

Originally Posted by RaghuVis

1) If people buy Apple phones which are ridiculously over-priced, then that is "lifestyle choice".

That too is herd mentality, in my humble opinion (and a bit of a (unjustified) desire for "status symbol" too)

[Dhruba_Nazira]

I can also see the Polo at number 13 in the list. Isn't it the same Polo that we get here in India?

[JediKnight]

Originally Posted by MaxTorque

I was just explaining the Herd Mentality is very much related to human and not just animals.

Never underestimate the intelligence of the market. When a market rewards a certain manufacturer there is always a solid reason behind it. It is just not the product. It is also about the service, support and the trust earned which takes years to build. Attributing this to "herd mentality" is the most naive thing to say and smacks of ignorance and hubris.

[dark.knight]

Originally Posted by RaghuVis

What I find so offensive about such posts is that The so called Herd Mentality is always associated with Cheapness.

I do not know the context in which people use the term "herd mentality", but to me (a marketing enthusiast) it is very much an inoffensive, legitimate term for most accurately describing the "situation where optimal leverage of marketing+PR+business decisions done in the past is happening today".

Herd mentality is beyond pricing or brand positioning. For example :

1) I watched Gillette's adverts "the best a man can get" when I was hardly 10 years old.. it symbolized a bond of father-son, a rite of passage of a teen into adulthood. Perhaps the best ad campaign ever in my eyes.. I grew up buying the Gillette Sensor Excel, graduated to the 3 bladed Mach 3 and presently the 5 bladed ProGlide Fusion. Do I need it, no.. but hey its a tradition, its a Gillette.. the best a man can get. It costs a bomb, but I blindly buy it, be it shaving cream or razor cartridges.

2) Thanda matlab Coca-Cola.. this ad has so much recall that even today thanda means Coca-Cola. Coke might've entered the Indian market late but the way they penetrated the market, acquired Thums-Up and made a pitch for making the way into every parched throat in the sunny afternoons of India is impressive.

3) Apple-Smartphones - Technically no company is guilty of throwing more dust into the eyes of people than Apple. There were PDA's by HP and Blackberry before Apple had phones, Nokia and Sony made retractable phone keyboards behind large screens that were capable of any business task of that era. Apple marketed the "smartphone" and won the marketing war even though they were a decade behind the competition at a point.

Most of our Film actors with exception of few have absolutely no idea on cars. They just know the symbols of the German trio's and most buy that just to show off. Actors can't belong to Herd Mentality now can they.

Sure they are? One look at the Bollywood car thread in this very forum will show you that many members consider the Bollywood industry an Audi Q7 worshiping tribe.

Most of the MSIL buyers under 5-6L are first time 4 wheelers. They have through their hard work earned rightfully to splurge whatever little they have on a car which they have dreamt of. This would sound like a opportune time for some of you guys to belittle them nastily and associate terms that are meant for animals.

Its a forum meant to share opinions.. members are only doing so. I hope we try not to read too much into personal views and make of them into such that it turns out insulting. If I were to do the same I'd say that we are animals too, mammals.. and NOT comparing ourselves to other mammals would make it seem like we're superior to them which we're not (my view anyway).

Then there are some who keeps telling that their friends/relatives bought MSIL cars because their parents insisted on that even when they personally liked some other brand cars. In a country where more than 80% of people do arranged marriages, buying a car as per parent's choice is the herd mentality now

Our Indian parents are best known for playing it safe, keeping things to the most trustworthy, reliable and efficient choices (be it cars, mixer grinders or brides/grooms) and we all love them for that. In a way its good to listen to them more times than not and its more to do with respect than herd mentality.

At the end of the day no one argues that, in order to create and sustain herd mentality.. a product should surely have an X-factor(s), be it in reliability, pricing, convenience or trust and no one argues that Maruti doesn't have them all. However, upon realizing the apex of herding.. a product lets its guard down and goes on cruise control irrespective of how good the competition gets, which may be its only down-side so to speak.

[jpcoolguy]

A look at Top 25 cars, by volume, historically (for last 8 years), for the month of July:

[blackasta]

Originally Posted by volkman10

Just two vehicles they need to bring to India:

1. Suzuki Jimny
2. Swift Sport ( 1.4 L)

None of those two are coming to India anytime soon

https://www.rushlane.com/maruti-gyps...-12276371.html

https://www.cardekho.com/india-car-n...ndia-22343.htm

[CrAzY dRiVeR]

Originally Posted by Dhruba_Nazira

I can also see the Polo at number 13 in the list. Isn't it the same Polo that we get here in India?

No its not.

We get the 5th generation of the car revealed first time back in 2009. The rest of the world has moved on to the sixth generation, based on the MQB platform.

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/intern...berlin-14.html