The Hindu Business Line : Big sales force to back Maruti’s D’zire in the market

Bangalore, April 7 Maruti Suzuki has lined up a massive sales force behind its newest car model D’Zire as the country’s leading car maker tries to push its luck in a segment which has seen a flat growth over the last couple of years.

A spokesperson for Maruti Suzuki told Business Line that the company has trained over 10,000 salesmen across the country to push the sales of D’Zire, and perhaps for the first time for an automobile company, it has even got together a few artists to compose a song exclusively for the car.

The spokesperson said that their survey revealed that customers of the A2 segment — comprising models like Palio, Spark, Aveo-U-VA, Getz, Wagon R and Indica with collectively sales of over 5 million car units — were ready for an upgrade, but “the decline in the A3 segment was rather unexplained”. The entry level A3 segment which has shown the decline consists of models such as Logan, Ikon and Indigo.

The premium A3 segment consisting of City, Verna and Fiesta has, however, seen a steady growth during the past three years. “Esteem for years had been the most popular car of the segment but was being seen as ‘basic’,” the spokesperson for Maruti Suzuki said. He said that the customers desired not just a bigger car but a car that’s also luxurious, comfortable and exciting; but were beginning to show signs of dissatisfaction by being forced to trade off.

Grant Thornton’s partner and lead of the auto focus team Maruti Suzuki, Mr Mohan Ramakrishna said, has learnt that commitment to the market alone is rewarded the most. “Maruti also has plans to focus on tier II, III cities in India where the information technology, retail, entertainment industries and other effects of general economic boom are catching up. Selling vehicles here would require more of one-to-one contacts by a sales force rather than selling via Internet and other media publicity methods deployed in tier I cities,” Mr Ramakrishna said.

Possible canIbilisation

But another auto analyst who did not want to be named said Maruti Suzuki will have to be careful while promoting D’Zire as it could in fact take away a large chunk of Swift as well as SX4 customers. “When a manufacturer launches a car flanked by equally strong models, there is always a fear of canibilisation. Hopefully Maruti Suzuki will be able to steer clear of such pitfalls,” he said.

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