Luxury Car Marketing
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Luxury cars are a very small part of the pie in the total Indian automobile markets. However, they are a potent weapon for an automobile company to have in its arsenal. When effectively deployed by focused positioning, winning strategies aimed at the right target, they have the ability to produce “super-normal” contribution margins and wealth for the company.
Dominated by Mercedes Benz till a major part of the early 2000s, the luxury car market started picking up momentum fueled by many growth factors. More and more luxury segment cars are available in the Indian market today and the competition is ever growing to grab the biggest piece of the cake as early as possible.
This paper is an attempt at studying the past and present trends and strategies in luxury car marketing and understanding how these trends will morph themselves in the future. It aims at developing strategies and big ticket ideas that will help any automobile player present or aspiring to be present in this lucrative segment to be the leader of the pack by far.
The paper, in principal attempts to address some of these issues:
• Volumes in luxury car segments are wishful thinking – reality or myth?
• What is luxury and who defines luxury – is it a commandment or can the rules of the game be changed, bend and broken?
• Wealth = Volumes X Contribution Margin – can luxury car makers bake their cake and eat it too?
To achieve this we follow a methodology which focuses on a market and situational analysis with prime focus on
• Data, numbers and inferences
• The perceptions of luxury
• Who are the players and what they are doing?
Taking it forward, we define our Triple market concept which serves as base for our further strategies.
We then delve into the dynamics of the markets, behavioural patterns of the consumer, local intricacies etc. and other factors to come up with strategies which we believe can put luxury cars on the road to
Luxury cars are a very small part of the pie in the total Indian automobile markets. However, they are a potent weapon for an automobile company to have in its arsenal. When effectively deployed by focused positioning, winning strategies aimed at the right target, they have the ability to produce “super-normal” contribution margins and wealth for the company.
Dominated by Mercedes Benz till a major part of the early 2000s, the luxury car market started picking up momentum fueled by many growth factors. More and more luxury segment cars are available in the Indian market today and the competition is ever growing to grab the biggest piece of the cake as early as possible.
This paper is an attempt at studying the past and present trends and strategies in luxury car marketing and understanding how these trends will morph themselves in the future. It aims at developing strategies and big ticket ideas that will help any automobile player present or aspiring to be present in this lucrative segment to be the leader of the pack by far.
The paper, in principal attempts to address some of these issues:
• Volumes in luxury car segments are wishful thinking – reality or myth?
• What is luxury and who defines luxury – is it a commandment or can the rules of the game be changed, bend and broken?
• Wealth = Volumes X Contribution Margin – can luxury car makers bake their cake and eat it too?
To achieve this we follow a methodology which focuses on a market and situational analysis with prime focus on
• Data, numbers and inferences
• The perceptions of luxury
• Who are the players and what they are doing?
Taking it forward, we define our Triple market concept which serves as base for our further strategies.
We then delve into the dynamics of the markets, behavioural patterns of the consumer, local intricacies etc. and other factors to come up with strategies which we believe can put luxury cars on the road to