After witnessing a wonderful 2014 in India, the luxury auto giant Mercedes Benz is geared up to make 2015 another year of excellence in the country. And for that, the carmaker has announced its ‘15 in 15’ strategy for the Indian market. Proclaiming the 2015 as company’s Live the Best year, Mercedes will focus on five core principles that include Best products, Best-Touch-points, Best Customer Experiences, Best Operations and Best Corporate Citizen. Under this new philosophy, company will concentrate on offering new products and new services to Indian customers.
To provide meaning to its first strategy, the luxury carmaker will introduce 15 new cars that are purely aimed to keep the reliable customers connected with the brand and allure the young blood to increase the buyers count further. Coming to the second strategy of Best touch points, Mercedes following its go to customer attitude will instate 15 new showrooms in existing as well as tier II and tier III cities. This will indeed help the carmaker to make luxury accessible to every Indian aspiring for high end car. In its third strategy of Best Customer Experiences, Merc will launch the Luxe Drive programme in different Indian cities. The programme aims to bring customers close to the Merc brand and will include a series of functions including fashion show, epicurean food and electrifying driving activities. The carmaker will take ahead the fourth strategy of Best operations by investing a whooping amount to expand its Chakan facility. And for the final strategy of Best corporate citizen, Mercedes Benz will start new road safety initiatives along with some other social responsibilities.
Apart from this, the carmaker is ready to launch a new special service package for its next generation cars that will help customers to enjoy low service cost of just Rs.1.99 per kilometer on their vehicles. Moreover, the special financial plans with 9.99% on new cars will also be in the offer.
Announcing the future plans of Merc India, Eberhard Kern, Managing Director and CEO, Mercedes-Benz stated that the company will adhere to its aggresive growth plan in year 2015 following the philosophy of the brand – Best or Nothing. The five pillar strategy of Merc from best customer experience to best corporate citizen will certainly help the company to achieve its goal. Mercedes surely wants its customers to ‘Live the Best’ in 2015 with rich variants to be put at right place at the right time, he added.
If we talk about the new launches from Mercedes stable, the New Year for the auto group will be kicked off with the introduction of Merc CLA sedan on 22nd January. This car is likely to come into the country through CKD route and will be assembled in the Merc’s Chakan plant. Until now, the carmaker needed to pay heavy import duties on vehicles brought down through CBU route that resulted in heavy pricing of Merc cars in India. But the local assembly will surely help the company to put low price tag on its cars so as to make them ready to compete with the likes of their rivals.
So, it is obvious now that the German automaker Mercedes is clear about its expansion plans in India and perhaps knows it well how to set things right amid burning rivalry in the industry. After Audi, which is prepping up for a number of new launches and the BMW, which has its own plans to snatch market share, Merc India will surely stand on its words and offer a miraculous customer experience throughout the year 2015. Now it is to see, will the five pillar strategy of this luxury giant be successful in increasing customer numbers in the country or not. We have to just to wait and watch.