By Rahul Dubey
Even as growing fuel prices hit automobile-makers in the market, Dinesh Jain, CEO, Hover Automotive India - which handles sales and marketing for Nissan Motor in India - aims to touch a sales volume of one lakh cars in two years with his marketing strategy.
Q] Sales figures in the month of October reveal robust growth of Nissan Motor in India. What has been the response to the recently launched Sunny sedan? Can you share sales figures with us?
The response to Sunny has been very good. Sunny has already taken more than 4% market share within the first month of launch with only petrol version availability. The campaign – both on TV and in print – has had a very positive feedback from potential customers and others at large. We are very encouraged by the response and hopeful that this will only strengthen our position in the market.
Q] In two years, Hover Automotive India plans to touch a Nissan car sale volume of 100,000 units. What is your strategy build around to achieve this target?
The core of our strategy is built on three platforms – more products, more outlets and a bigger market share. We started with 11 dealers in March 2010 and have already done 47 dealers by now. We plan to expand it to about 70 by March 2012 and more than 100 in a year’s time. We will also be expanding our portfolio from our offering of five products as of now. Lastly, with greater impact, we would garner a greater share of the market to reach the targeted volumes.
Q] What are the key insights behind your marketing activities? What is the USP?
We follow the principle of ‘Innovation and Excitement for Everyone’. With this guiding principle, our strategy is to roll things out innovatively and engaging for our customers. This is applicable to our products, communication and operations. A strong motivated team followed by active skill enhancement will be the cornerstones of our strategy.
Q] What are the marketing activities that help build your brand? What is your media mix?
We are using a wide mix of media – TV, print, radio, outdoor, online, social media, events, customer engagement, DM and PR. We have a slight skew towards TV for now in our mix.
Q] Rising fuel price is a strong cause for concern in the auto industry in India. How do you plan to tackle it to achieve your sales target?
It is a dampener in the short term. The need for automobiles in a country like India is strong on a long-term basis. The current blip, we think and hope is transitionary and growth will bounce back sooner than later. The bigger issue is the widening gap between diesel prices and petrol prices that is skewing the customer demand for diesel and misbalancing the mix beyond logical reasoning. Petrol cars are economical for a person who does about 2,000 kilometers per month but the hype has led to a situation that such people are also looking at diesel cars as an option. High inflation and interest rates have a direct impact on the disposable income of customers and have impacted the growth of the car industry in the last year or so.
Q] India is one of the world’s fastest growing automobile markets. How do you see the market growing this year?
The current forecast is flattish for the industry. For Nissan, we are looking at nearly trebling our volumes versus the last financial year.
Q] What are your plans to target the luxury segment, which has seen a double-digit growth in the last three years in India?
We have a presence in the premium segment with our products Teana, X Trail (SUV) and 370Z (sports car). We are looking at communicating this more effectively. You would see the special collaboration we have with NGC for the X-treme Trails programme.
Q] Recently, Tier II cities have seen a significant growth in the number of car buyers. What are your campaigns to attract that market?
Our campaigns are designed to touch the chord for consumers across segments and geographies. We have used melodies of the past in our Micra campaigns that are recognized across the length and breadth of the country. Similarly, Sunny advertising uses a simple communication that is well understood right across geographies and segments. In our media mix, we look at a proper representation of Tier II towns.
Q] Where do you see the competition in the auto sector going?
Almost all the major players of the world have a presence in India. Everyone is looking at India for future expansion as India has been one of the fastest growing markets over the last decade and is expected to be the fifth largest passenger vehicle market soon. With all this, most OEMs have lined up a long list of launches for India. We think that competition will grow and at the same time, the market will expand.
Q] What is your biggest challenge today?
The short term biggest challenge faced by us is the high inflation and interest rates coupled with frequent petrol price increase. On the other front, expanding our distribution network is one area taking a lot of our attention.
Q] Which medium do you think works best for an auto brand?
All media have a role to play. However, for the mass segments of B and C, we think that TV and digital media serve the purpose well. I must add that the creative itself has a very big role towards the choice of medium.
