Maruti Suzuki now wants to do a Honda

I guess selling a cheap car is a sin after all.Now the people's car manufacturer is all set to follow the footsteps of its more illustrious japanese rival,Honda.

Yes Maruti is planning to ditch the volumes game and is focusing more on margins and the premium segment.This comes in the wake of competition in terms of pricing from the Tata nano.Maruti now no longer will enjoy the pricing advantage.It instead is looking at selling sedans and other vehicles in the premium segment[upwards of Rs. 7 lakhs] and wants people who buy cars like the Nano to aspire to buy a Maruti one day.Maruti themselves have realised that one day people buying these cheap cars could easily afford the more expensive cars which would help Maruti in terms of margins a strategy maruti used well with the SX4 and now with the Dzire too.Moreover demand for the cheap cars is reducing as seen by reduced demand for cars like the maruti 800 wheras the more pricier swift is doing much better.

As far as the back end is concerned the parent company suzuki has shown the way forward with concepts like the Kizashi.The Kizashi would be targetted at D-segment customers and should be out by 2010.Maruti on the other hand has tied up with US based Raytheon to create a team of special sales executives who would look after the premium segment customers for dealers.Maruti has also hired more than 1000 engineers for R&D towards high-end products..Perhaps advertising less is part of this strategy for oflate Maruti ads have come down drastically.

The good old Maruti as we know may just seize to exist.What remains to be seen is whether Maruti spins off the premium segment into an altogether different division[like lexus for toyota].

However it is not as easy as it sounds Maruti Suzuki have to go a very long way before it can come anywhere close to a premium car company.

Ps: All SX4 owners are being personally thanked by maruti on the first anniversary of the sx4.

[source:Hindustan Times ]