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Originally Posted by Roadster17 It is so amazing to see the same old story being repeated month after month after month. This shows 3 things.
1st - There are manufacturers lie Kia, MG, Hyundai which are cut above others in their marketing skills.
2nd - There are manufacturers like VW, Skoda, Tata, Jeep, Ford which despite making better cars are poor in their marketing skills.
3rd - There are manufacturers like Nissan, Renault which have neither good cars, nor good marketing team.
* Editors note - Team bhp readers do not constitute any meaningful chunk of car buyers in India. Here we can fill up forums by mentioning poor build quality of Seltos, Poor driving dynamics of Hector, How well 2020 Harrier has evolved, Altroz having 5 stars, Jeep Compass being so good in build quality and ride and handling, Nexon having great road stability, Engine heating issues in Seltos.... The list wil go on.
People are and will buy cars which has good marketing teams. "Internet inside", " Badass SUV", "Brit Dynamics", Mood lighting, Air purifier, ....the list goes on and it will sell. Manufacturers will continue to dish out tin cans with DRLs and Sunroofs to people until there is a law in place which forces these manufacturers to prioritize safety over anything else. Till then there is no point analyzing month on month data. This is going to be same. |
Its a challenge to understand the minds of the consumers and those who do, get to be successful. R Gopalakrishnan who was a top honcho in Hindustan Lever and then joined the Tata Group had once explained how his IIT professor was very cross with him for having left technology to become a marketing expert. He went on to explain how he convinced his prof that without good marketing even the best of tech would not sell, leaving the entire bunch of tech experts and innovators in the lurch.
The feature bundles that are selling today in the sub 10 lakh segment (60% of all cars are in this price bracket) are
1. Basic safety - 2 airbags + ABS/EBD is good enough
2. Great Looks - this is a MUST
3. Great Service with a strong perception of being inexpensive. Ford is cheaper than Maruti in the Figo/Aspire segment but its initial reputation refuses to leave it!
4. Good feature listing like climate control (Maruti pioneered this in the Swift way back in 2005), at least basic automatic options like AMT, rear parking sensors, alloys, bling (chrome!) etc
5. Good inner space. This is where Aspire/Figo lost the game and almost ALL Maruti cars win
The feature bundles which are selling in the 10-20 lakh price band are the above PLUS
1. Great safety that spells 6 airbags, ABS/EBD, NCAP Ratings - Tata/M&M talk about this extensively, Advanced High Strength Steel (AHSS) - Hyundai/Kia talk about this touting that 65-75% of their cars are built of AHSS. We had a post where we saw that Ultra HSS was avoided by them in India whereas the ones exported had UHSS as well.
2. Comfort Features - Here the Koreans have spoilt us with features like ventilated seats, electrically adjustable seats, leatherette seats and connectivity features. Others would be Apple/Android connectivity, UV Cut Glass, Cruise Control, Great Music Systems whose brands are advertised openly like BOSE, JBL, Infinity etc
3. Cosmetic and feelgood features such as Panoramic Sunroof, Voice Command, Diamond Cut Alloys, Digital Meters, etc
4. Excellent power in engines. Most manufacturers today vie with each other to offer turbocharged petrol engines. Most people who buy cars in this price segment usually refer to their cars as the "BEAST"
5. The best of choices in automatic technologies. Dual Clutch systems, CVTs or 6 + speed TQs
Very important to note that ABILITIES (Not features) such as great steering, awesome handling, brilliant ride, terrific build etc are YET to be appreciated the way the aficionados would want them to be!