Let’s look at the luxury car brands. Audi has a strong presence in India with over 30 authorised dealerships and service centres across major cities, offering sales and support for models like Q3, Q5, Q7, A4 and A6. It has dealers spread out right up from Vijayawada to Visakhapatnam, Jammu, Ranchi, Lucknow, Dehradun, Raipur, Bhopal and Indore to Goa, Chandigarh, Ludhiana and Udaipur. It does not stop here.
Audi has dealers in Rajkot and Mangaluru, Coimbatore and Madurai, Faridabad and Gurgaon and Nagpur and Nashik. This is apart from its presence in the major metros, such as Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad, Surat, Pune and Kolkata. The brand Audi is surely going places.
This surely shows the spread of the purchasing power of the Indian consumer and the desire of the brand Audi to penetrate the Indian market across the length and breadth of the country.
Not to be left behind – actually, far ahead – is the luxury car brand Mercedes. It uses the full demographic and the geographic dividend of India, increasing the width of distribution through its dealerships, which is quite astonishing for an outsider who may consider India to be a poor or a developing country. They call it an emerging economy. But I totally disagree.
India has emerged. In the eyes of the world, it was submerged. But today, it is growing by leaps and bounds, which can be reflected in the luxury car brands going places. Not only the major metros, but even the mini metros and other small towns have multiple dealers; they have the presence of these luxury car brands through their dealerships, because they have the desire and the purchasing power. And the luxury car brands are obliging. They are not only catering to the luxury car market, but also creating a luxury car market and going places.
Let’s go back to the most widely spread luxury car brand in India! Mercedes. It is amazing to note that there are 69 Mercedes-Benz luxury car dealer showrooms across 53 towns in India. Mercedes-Benz has one of the most extensive dealership networks in India.
It, of course, has presence in the towns which have been discussed above in the context of Audi, but its penetration goes far beyond and is growing rapidly. Mercedes has reached the North-east with dealer showrooms in Guwahati in Assam; it has also reached Patna in Bihar, Panchkula in Haryana, Jamshedpur in Jharkhand, Mysore in Karnataka, as also Thiruvananthapuram, Thrissur, Kozhikode and Ernakulam in Kerala.
In Maharashtra, Mercedes has dealer showrooms in Sambhaji Nagar, Aurangabad, in addition to all the towns mentioned in the context of Audi. Not to be left behind, Odisha is represented through Cuttack, and Punjab has dealer showrooms in Jalandhar and Mohali, in addition to those towns where Audi has presence. Clearly, the luxury car Mercedes has been able to penetrate the country deeply.
Mercedes is also present in Uttar Pradesh, the largest state in the country, with dealer showrooms in Agra, Ghaziabad, Kanpur and Noida, apart from Lucknow.
In many major metros, Mercedes has multiple dealer showrooms, as is the case in Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Bengaluru and Surat. It covers 96 locations in India across 21 states and territories – a total of 53 towns. In contrast to this, BMW has 54 car showrooms across 43 cities in India.
These are just a few examples of select brands which clearly bring out the geographic dividend that can be gained by companies and brands in this wonderful consumer opportunity. This land offers a great opportunity for your brand. This line of invitation from India to brands across the world, including luxury brands, across categories, and not just for cars, clearly represents the growing potential of India.
Now, with the recent signing of the EU-India FTA, you can imagine what a boost it would give to the brands, which will be coming in from Europe, with the benefits that they bring along for deeper penetration for the Indian consumer.
It does not matter what happens in the world. Maybe it is a gloomy time in the world, but in India, it is boom-time!
Now, what are the brand marketing lessons that come to the table as you face the positive reality in the geographic dividend of India?
First, do not ignore any market. You may not be familiar with the market, but the market could be familiar with your brand. If you ignore markets, the markets will ignore you. They will move on to the next brand that is available. In this case, to the next luxury car brand. Just because you do not understand the consumer behaviour of that particular market or town and may never have visited it, does not mean that there is no potential for your luxury brand in that location. A big mistake being committed by brand marketers today is the ignoring of markets. Mercedes, BMW, Audi, etc, are not making such mistakes, which is why they are gaining.
Second, you may plan the roll-out in a phased manner. Some markets may be ready today, but you are ignoring them. Some markets will be ready tomorrow, but you’re not studying them. Some markets will be ready the day after tomorrow, but they are not on your radar. But you will be caught by surprise when your competitor steals a march ahead, and you are left behind, wondering what happened.
You need to plan your horizons one, two, and three, because all markets can’t be seen clearly at the same time. Just like when you stand at the seashore, you are able to see the horizon at a distance, but as you go further, you are able to see the horizon appearing anew; similarly, phase out your plan and keep fine-tuning it as you go along.
Third, you should open your mind to open the market. Do not go by other people’s accounts. Experience it yourself. Many an opportunity gets missed because you do not open your mind. So, keep your eyes and ears open. You may say: ‘this is basic’ – but brand basics are what are not to be ignored, if markets and opportunities are not to be missed out.
If we go beyond the luxury car brands and look at what is happening in this brand-new world in India, Starbucks has crossed 500 retail outlets and is moving forward; my prediction is that it will cross 1,000 outlets in a few years. Raymond has already crossed 1,500 showrooms and is moving forward rapidly. It could move towards 2,500 showrooms or even more.
Apple has already opened five stores in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Pune and Noida. I feel that, in a few years, Apple will cross 50 stores in India. Marriott Hotels, using geographic diversification, has already crossed 150 properties in India across its various brands. I am sure that it will cross 300 properties in various locations in the next few years.
Taj Hotels are already in 77 locations in India. Across its brands, I would say, it would cross 100 locations shortly.
Thus, in India, brands are going places. Dear brand manager, what are you waiting for?