[powercrzy]

Ralliart, Mitsubishi Motor Corporation’s (MMC) flagship motor sports and merchandise outfit will soon make its way to Indian malls.
Vice President and Business Head, Chennai Car Plant, Hindustan Motors, YVS Vijay Kumar said, while talking to Auto Monitor exclusively at the inauguration of the first Autodrome, a 100 percent Hindustan Motors (HM) initiative to sell red-tier Mitsubishi products. However, its still not clear whether Ralliart will be a standalone MMC initiative or with some help from their Indian tech-partner.


Both, the Autodrome and Ralliart as strategic initiatives indicate a secondary attempt at imminent diversification into retail and promotional verticals for HM and MMC. Earlier, HM tried to revive its presence by consolidating its auto components and ancillary business under Avtec, which now supplies engines and powertrains to OEMs. The move was touted by analysts as inevitable yet wise and has been a documented success, especially with Avtec supplying to Ford and other prominent OEMs.
Ralliart is a 100 percent subsidiary of Mitsubishi Motors and has established itself as a unique motor sports agency diversifying into FIA rally team back ups, management and planning of racing events and driver safety schools, developments of performance parts for Lancer Evo series of thoroughbreds and marketing of rally paraphernalia for MMC.


‘The sub-continent is opening up to the big business of motor sports and auto-merchandise sector looks all set to grow exponentially over the next few years. We want to enhance our brand equity by emphasising MMC’s long-standing association with the Dakar and WRC. We may look at Ralliart outlets in premium malls in metros where the target audience can be reached with appropriate visibility,’ informed Brand Manager – Communications, HM, Mir Hyder.

Mitsubishi to set up Ralliart outlets - Automonitor

[Cyrus43]

This is extremely good news. I hope they also sell merchandise and Models in these stores.

[Torqueguru]

Awesome! i just hope that it really happens and that too fast!

[ram_hyundai]

Good news there and what are they going to sell there.is it merchandise or cars.I dont think it would be cars maybe a brand building exercise before the launch of our dear EVO X.Anyways good to see the initiative.
ram

[mav2000]

man this is great news. i wish they add stuff like boday kits as well as performance kits and other stuff for the interiors. great news for us.

[GTO]

A high-end brand selling performance parts in a mall is a stupid strategy! Maybe it has some value on the awareness front but thats it. What they ought to do instead is build an online model, open independent stores (even within HM showrooms) and tie-up with established tuners / performance part stores.

[jesal]

tell those idiots to first make more and proper showroms and workshops then bother with all these

[madan80]

Originally Posted by GTO

A high-end brand selling performance parts in a mall is a stupid strategy! Maybe it has some value on the awareness front but thats it. What they ought to do instead is build an online model, open independent stores (even within HM showrooms) and tie-up with established tuners / performance part stores.

I suspect its more to do with brand recall. With the footfalls in malls gaining by the day - the brand recall of Ralliart (associated with speed and action) will allow for the Mitsubishi brand to also get eyeb@lls. this will have a trickle down effect with the brand first gaining acceptance.

I think its good, with the popularity going up ,we might start seeing the cedia's and other mitsu cars also gaing acceptance first and this in turn converts to sales.

[nitrous]

^^ I beg to differ,Madan70. GTO's right.
For publicity, they can have stalls at malls during weekends. And how many of them know what "Ralliart" is before entering a mall store.

[mav2000]

Thats just the point Nitrous, how many people know what is Ralliart, or Mitsubishi. Brand awareness has to be created and this is probably one way of doing it. Just my two bits.

[cediafan]

Originally Posted by GTO

A high-end brand selling performance parts in a mall is a stupid strategy! Maybe it has some value on the awareness front but thats it. What they ought to do instead is build an online model, open independent stores (even within HM showrooms) and tie-up with established tuners / performance part stores.

Well, in an age where we see a lot of high end products sell in the mall, I don't see anything wrong with this. This will create a better brand recall.

[GTO]

With the footfalls in malls gaining by the day - the brand recall of Ralliart (associated with speed and action) will allow for the Mitsubishi brand to also get eyeb@lls. this will have a trickle down effect with the brand first gaining acceptance.

Sure, it will get the Ralliart name across to those footfalls. But who are they? Are they the target customer? This is like shooting blindly with a machine gun *hoping* to hit the right spots. Targetted marketing is far more suited to a high-end sporty brand like Ralliart. Consider this:

1. Mitsubishi is not exactly a hot seller in India. Translated = small potential market to begin with.

2. Because of point no.1, their budget will not be the largest.

3. Because of points 1 & 2, they must use the $$$ where there is maximum ROI.

[maxbhp]

Thats a great news .RALLIART will sure find lot of followers but like GTO had conveyed even I feel its not a great idea to start them in Malls.

What I would do is start new better show rooms in Metros coupled with a RALLIART outlet.
Moreover they can represent RALLIART in go karting track events , national races with stalls . This way it can enter a much wider Media.
Couple of make shift stalls in life style malls will definitely be a welcome idea.