Maruti Suzuki drives way to villages

Maruti Suzuki is amongst the few auto majors to had made an attempt to tape the potential customers in the rural India. No one imagined that the back country would respond so well that the sales figures from the rural areas contribute 1/4t of the total sales. As said by the Managing Executive Officer, Marketing and Sales of Maruti Suzuki, three years back the sales from rural India were only 3 percent.

Over these three years, the marketing strategy of Maruti for the rural areas has hit exactly on point, such that the Rural sales now contribute to a roping 18%, which is huge. It is evident that the car maker approached with a different and absolutely unique marketing and research strategy for the rural areas that has made this possible.

Mr. Pareek shared the companies research that witnessed the fact that there is no big difference between the customers from a rural and that from an urban background. The major difference lies in the perception and outlook towards automobiles for the two. For rural people buying a car happens to be a big deal and a big reason to celebrate.

Maruti Suzuki went into researching the needs of rural customers and found that there was a growing demand of luxury cars in small towns and villages of India. It took some time for the auto maker to realise the fact that villagers find it tedious to reach nearby dealers in big cities and also get intimidated as they feel alieanated in plush showrooms.

Maruti took pains to hire local occupants and appointed them as their sales representatives. Mr. Pareek suggested that these local representatives shared a greater connection with the local residents and could understand their needs and priorities well. This effort from Maruti helped them gain confidence amongst the villagers and small town inhabitants, thus reaping tremendous profits from the areas less expected.

Apart from hiring the local residents as sales executives, Maruti Suzuki also did its research by taking help from the local opinion leaders that included the school teachers, Panchayat heads, regional and spiritual leaders and also the employees of rural regional banks. Apart from these, Maruti Suzuki also organised village fairs and events whenever, there were 6-8 cars bought from the nearby outlet by a particular village. According to Mr. Pareek all these extra efforts taken by the comnpany and its employees have reaped exceptionally good results that have turned into good sales figures.