Auto companies in the country are looking for new grounds for business and boosting their sales, which so far this year has remained sluggish. Tier II and III cities have emerged as their favourite destination to sell cars. While Maruti Suzuki has already started targeting Tier II cities to lure buyers for their recently launched Alto 800, similar strategy is being adopted by BMW India. Mercedes Benz, too came up with their first dealership in Lucknow way back in August 2012 and recently BMW announced the opening of its Speed Motorwagen, Lucknow.
Talking about their new strategy of targeting small town buyers, Philipp von Sahr, President BMW group India said, “Growth for luxury and premium car makers would now come from non-metros. While the metro cities still provide large chunk of the sales volume, the demand from smaller cities has grown rapidly. With income levels soaring many of our customers are coming from non metro towns and we seek to get closer to them by opening more dealerships in tier-II cities."
Sahr further pointed out that a prime reason for BMW leadership position in India has been its great dealer network across the country at important commercial centres and the opening of one such dealership in Lucknow is a part of the same strategy.
Earlier in October, Ram Suresh Akella, General Manager, Commercial Business Head (South), Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. had said that the company is eyeing small towns and a distinct segment in the market like turmeric farmers in Tiruchengode in Tamil Nadu, apple growers in Himachal Pradesh and spice farmers in Kerala to achieve a growth of 25 per cent in rural market this fiscal.
Maruti Suzuki has taken various steps to increase its presence in smaller towns and has also opened extension outlets. At present the company has 500 extension outlets out of its 11,000 sale points.
Akella further added that Alto cars being quite fuel efficient, is in great demand and the company had sold 25,000 cars in a month in 2011.
Auto companies have certainly hit the bull’s eye by targeting small towns and rural areas for their sales. This should help companies to boost their sales and make some trusted buyers. With Maruti Suzuki and BMW India taking the Initiative, it is very likely that other companies too would follow suit.
