If you ask me, Ford’s getting too excited about prospects of its small car in India. I know, it is a Monday morning and people reading my blog need to leave with a lot of positive energy (which is always the idea). But on this Monday morning, I’d like you all to leave with a question to answer.
Ford’s been in India for more than ten years now. It sold the Escort and then the Ikon, which to the Indian janta, were luxury sedans in its time. I remember there was very little competition for these cars, and Ford’s got their image carved back then as not an ordinary man’s car.
The Daewoo Cielo was a car on a similar lines, and the company’s second car was a mass market car, which we call as the Spark today. Another company which debuted subsequently was Hyundai who started off with the Santro.
Ford’s not sold a hatchback till date here. In India, a hatchback is the average man’s car – Its cheap to run, cheap to maintain, easy to drive and park. Ford’s Ikon as we found out last week, lacked some of those characteristics.
Listening to what Mr.Boneham had to say recently isn’t surprising -
“We were being seen as an expensive brand and, therefore, worked very hard for the last 18 months on the new car using the best benchmarks from competition”
Ford’s new small car might be easier to own, but how many customers would look beyond the competition to buy it? Ford’s been selling SUVs and sport kits for its products, which is very “high tech” for the average man.
Ford’s doing what Hyundai did, but partly in reverse. They’ve introduced all kinds of cars, and finally come to the small car chapter. Maybe in the 90′s this could have made no difference, but today, it does not feel that way.
The all-important “brand image” is playing against Ford on this small car project. Ford needs to market this small car intelligently, or else it’ll end up like the Fusion – customers never knew the strengths of it, which Honda understood and applied on the Jazz.
Come to think of it, Honda has followed a similar strategy and launched the hatch as the last of its line up and the Jazz has succeeded tremendously. Ditto with Skoda, in which case even more so. The Daewoo story was an aberration because of the financial health of its parent. Please put some thought before posting such critical comments on models that have not yet been launched!
@Nagendra – Yes, you are partly correct. But what is the price of the Jazz? It is a hatchback, but is it an economy hatch? It is placed just below the City. With Skoda, you can see that the Fabia sales is nothing to write about. They are doing well with the Octavia and Laura, but the Fabia is no match to the competition.
I think its d best move to start from expensive side of product portfolio, build a brand image, and then move down the product ladder. For eg, Volkswagen started with passat, built a brand and now it will be easier for them to sell Polo or Up. Conversely Renault started with Logan, and now it will be difficult for it to sell Megane in india because a image is built in Indian people mind that Renault is a cheap car maker. But one thing should be very clear that the product should be relevant to the market and after sale service should be to mark with special emphasis on peace of mind. If one brand is perceived for poor after sale service or exhorbitantly expensive to maintain, that image will be very difficult to erase from people mind, and the competition will always have an upper hand.
@Abhi – I agree. But what about the existing perception of Ford? This company has registered in the minds of the Indian people as a brand that isn’t selling cars that are cheap to maintain.