They say that 'Rome was not built in a day,' and quite rightly so. To
build something endurable, one has to invest considerable amount of
time, thought and money. A similar story went into the making of Maruti Suzuki Nexa, the brand's premium dealership in India.
Maruti Suzuki is the most loved car brand of India for its great value, fuel efficiency and huge service network. As per reports, the brand controls over 45% of the Indian car market with its small cars. Some of its popular products involve Maruti 800, Zen, Swift, Dzire, Alto and Van (Omni).
Maruti Suzuki is the most loved car brand of India for its great value, fuel efficiency and huge service network. As per reports, the brand controls over 45% of the Indian car market with its small cars. Some of its popular products involve Maruti 800, Zen, Swift, Dzire, Alto and Van (Omni).
However, over the years, the brand has not been able to foray into the premium car segment despite repeated attempts with products such as Kizashi and Vitara.
Some of the reasons for this failure are attributed to reasons like Maruti Suizuki being known as affordable, fuel efficient and great value providing car brand. Secondly, it has not been positioned as high-end brand, and hence so people ask - Why should I pay such a high price for a Maruti Car?
However, lately, Maruti Suzuki has returned with a fresh attempt to enter the high-end car segment with the launch of first of its kind premium retail network - Nexa. In recent times, Nexa is one of the biggest bets from the Maruti Suzuki in the Indian market.
What is Nexa?
Nexa is a retail network from Maruti Suzuki that caters the high-end consumers who have gone beyond their first cars and are now looking for an experience. It offers a high level of sophistication and is based on the principles of exclusivity, pampering and listening to the consumer.
But creating Nexa was a mammoth task for both the brand and Hakuhodo India team, the agency entrusted with the responsibility of creating Nexa. On to the drawing board, the agency had to revisit the entire journey of customer's experience while buying a Maruti.
Elvis Sequeira, COO, Hakuhodo India, shares that they aimed at creating a different mindset and imagery for Maruti. "Nexa is for a well travelled consumer who is digitally savvy, updated and seeks a world class experience while buying a car. After research, we found that the Maruti's popular retail channel is not equipped for it and hence a separate channel was needed," adds Sequeira. S Cross was the first car launched at Nexa and was followed by Ciaz Hybrid and Baleno Hatchback. Sequeira points that the cars sold from Nexa will not be sold at the popular Maruti dealerships.
As Maruti Suzuki is a pan India brand, Nexa needed to have a similar presence. The thought posed several questions for the stakeholders as Nexa wasn't meant cannibalize Maruti's existing small car market and it shouldn't disturb the dealer-brand relationship.
Sequeira pointed that Nexa's idea got a great response from both brand and agency. "We had to get it completely right because if we did not, then it would have hampered the brand's image, which it had created after years of great services," shared Sequeira.
"The biggest problem in designing Nexa was that it could not just be better than an existing model. It had to be completely different, something that was never thought and done before," elucidated Sequeira.
The Hospitality Factor
After a research, it was established that consumers (while buying cars) missed on hospitality. Hence, the concept of Nexa was derived from the hospitality, banking and aviation industries, which knew well about one-on-one interaction with the consumers. "For Nexa, we roped in people from banking, aviation and hotel industries as they knew hospitality nuances. Later, we trained them in selling cars," shared Sequeira.
With product at the center and hospitality surrounding it, the designing teams were clear that the Nexa representatives will have to partner consumer throughout the lifetime of the car. "Consumer should know his relationship manager and vice versa," shared Sequeira.
The design team thought of consumer from the time he thinks of the car, visits the facility and purchases it. Hakuhodo India focused on 19 different aspects in this journey.
Nexa from Inside
It begins with the Valet Parking offered to every visitor. "Consumer mostly visits a car showroom with his family. While the entire family gets down, one of them is left to drive and park the car in the usual scenario. At Nexa, we save this trouble," shared Sequeira.
The agency trained people on how to greet consumers when they enter. It designed the area where they will sit, how they will see the car and what drink will be served, how the relationship manager will begin the discussion, and a private space to discuss the financial things.
"In our research, we found that the to and fro movement of the backend staff clutters the showroom, so we kept them away at Nexa. We designed the dresses of the staff at Nexa according to the ranks. While the theme of the dress was same, but there was a slight difference in the shades. At Nexa, no staff is allowed to be in casual. We had to manage the supply of cloth and design. It was a difficult task," shared Sequeira.
Interestingly, unlike the other popular showrooms, the design team decided to keep only one car per model. "We designed the technology to show the consumer on how different color looks on the car," shared Sequeira.
While technology was at the centre in designing Nexa, the design teams worked towards a paperless outlet. The idea was to provide information around the market and the car on digital platform.
A Hakuhodo team from Japan helped in setting the lighting in the showrooms right. Instead of using the flat light, they focused the spotlight on the car using professional light to give a majestic look to the car.
In usual situations, the car is delivered outside the showroom but at Nexa the design teams in association with Japanese Hakuhodo team, decided to do it inside the showroom as they wanted other customers to get the feel of it. "Some of the points that were discussed and raised while designing the delivery were about emissions, space, oil stains, health effect on the staff and heat measure. We installed filters that sucked Carbon Monoxide, managed the cooling systems and employed other measures to ensure that the car could be delivered inside Nexa," shared Sequeira.
The teams also designed a protocol to escort a consumer with least inconvenience to the nearest Nexa if he lands up in a popular Maruti dealership for purchasing a car that was sold at Nexa.
And finally, the theme of the outlet was kept black and white prestige monochrome. The idea was that the only spot of colour in the showroom should be the vehicles displayed in its full glory.
Overall, the Nexa experience has been designed to be less intrusive, less red-tape, less paperwork than what is absolutely mandatory. It has been designed to answer customer's questions and not push information through. "We understand our customers want a seamless experience across web, call centre, showroom and service centre. He wants to be able to define how, when and where he interacts with NEXA. He is slowly rejecting a colourful 24 pager for an e-brochure and is very protective of how much information he wants to share with a brand. Today, a customer asks, 'why do you want to know my address and full history when I have come just for an enquiry?'" shares Sequeira.
The first Nexa prototype was created in Delhi and the brand was very careful about not revealing on it before the launch.
Promotions
The real challenge before Maruti was that people should not confuse Nexa with a new car, which honestly, people did in the beginning. So, in order to avoid that, Hakuhodo India used exterior of the showroom in the teasers. "This is the first time in the Indian scenario when a brand is promoting its retail network via advertising," shares Sequeira.
Nexa launch campaigns
They launched three teasers along with three films in order to build around Nexa. The campaign showcased about the grand experience that a consumer gets at Nexa.
The teams claim to have achieved half the positioning and now the brand knows which product will go to Nexa and which will not.
Late Move?
While other players have established its dominance in the premium and high-end cars market, Maruti aims to re-enter with Nexa. Is it the right time or is Maruti late?
Sequeira points that now is the right time for Maruti to enter this segment. "Today people have enough disposable incomes and are ready to dispose money. Five - ten years, Indians were not ready for such an experience. And secondly, earlier people kept cars for a longer duration, today they keep it for a shorter duration, which keeps the brands on the heels to connect with the consumer," shares Sequeira.
He further adds that for a giant like Maruti Suzuki to decide on whether to go for Nexa is not an easy decision to make. "Nexa was a big decision that involved many stakeholders. It involved huge funding and hence the brand waited for the right time before going with a differentiated product. Also Maruti had to be completely that the new idea does not disturb their current systems, which is already successful," shared Sequeira.
They launched three teasers along with three films in order to build around Nexa. The campaign showcased about the grand experience that a consumer gets at Nexa.
The teams claim to have achieved half the positioning and now the brand knows which product will go to Nexa and which will not.
Late Move?
While other players have established its dominance in the premium and high-end cars market, Maruti aims to re-enter with Nexa. Is it the right time or is Maruti late?
Sequeira points that now is the right time for Maruti to enter this segment. "Today people have enough disposable incomes and are ready to dispose money. Five - ten years, Indians were not ready for such an experience. And secondly, earlier people kept cars for a longer duration, today they keep it for a shorter duration, which keeps the brands on the heels to connect with the consumer," shares Sequeira.
He further adds that for a giant like Maruti Suzuki to decide on whether to go for Nexa is not an easy decision to make. "Nexa was a big decision that involved many stakeholders. It involved huge funding and hence the brand waited for the right time before going with a differentiated product. Also Maruti had to be completely that the new idea does not disturb their current systems, which is already successful," shared Sequeira.
Source: http://www.adageindia.in/marketing/cmo-strategy/the-story-behind-designing-nexa-marutis-premium-dream-in-india/articleshow/49795243.cms
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