Ford India hopes to maintain better than the industry growth rate as the US car maker is gaining on its new initiatives under growth 2.0 strategy.
“We believe that our growth rates will be faster than the industry. We will continue to have product action and engage customers with the 2.0 plan,” Vinay Raina, Executive Director - Marketing, Sales and Service, Ford India, told BusinessLine .
The company is seeing growing domestic volumes and increasing enquiries about the brand at its dealerships.
“With the same set of products, we have been growing at the rate double that of the industry. This is an indication of our latest efforts paying dividends,” he said.
In 2016, Ford India’s sales grew by 12 per cent at 86,460 units against the industry growth of 6-7 per cent. It hopes to repeat similar performance in 2017 too.
Ford India has been focusing on efforts to reduce the cost of repair and maintenance for its cars and to enhance dealership experience through various customer engagement initiatives, including social media connect. Ford cars were perceived as expensive ones and that was a major factor affecting its volume growth.
Special editions“Some of our internal research works have shown that all our efforts have had a significant impact on customers.
“More people are wanting to touch base with us as they are feeling more comfortable with Ford brand,” said Raina.
While the company will come out new product introductions, it has been rolling out special editions of its existing models with significant value propositions.
“In special sport editions of existing models, we had to tweak the suspension to help customers get a sporty experience. So, we undertake some engineering changes too, while offering special editions,” he pointed out.
“Safety is an area where Ford is better known for when compared with other brands,” said Raina adding, “growing awareness and upcoming government norms will fuel our volume growth in the coming months.” The company provides up to seven airbags in some of its vehicles sold in India.
Ford India will stay focused on building its brand through competitive costs, customer engagement, supported by its safety promise and value propositions, in the near term.