Tata Motors’ new president for passenger vehicles, Mayank Pareek, is on a mission to turn the automobile maker around. Pareek, formerly the Chief Operating Officer at Maruti Suzuki, is betting on new products, segmented marketing and a robust dealership network to make Tata Motors the most consumer-centric company in the world.
“A new breed of young customers has started visiting the company’s showrooms. Earlier, it used to be mostly fleet owners that used to come in. Now, about 58 per cent of our customers are under 38 years of age. We are preparing our dealers to deal with the new segment of customers — they have to be treated well,” said Pareek.
Pareek should know all about creating a customer-focussed organisation as he is credited with Maruti’s entry into the rural market and with its segmented marketing initiatives.
He has already started doing things differently. For example, Tata Motors has recruited a completely new force of 1,276 personnel called the ‘Bolt Force’ ahead of the launch of the Bolt hatchback next week. These personnel have been trained on soft-marketing skills to deal with retail customers.
In a bid to broaden its footprint, the company plans to increase its dealership by three times from 460 now.