Maruti to lure rural buyers with Gramin Mahotsav

With auto sales figures in India going down following the slowdown in the economy, car maker Maruti Suzuki India has unveiled a special campaign, Gramin Mahotsav,  to lure rural buyers in the eastern region to its dealerships. Maruti Suzuki boasts of a 51 per cent market share in passenger vehicles in the region.

Company sources said Maruti Suzuki is targeting sales of an additional 15 per cent in rural areas of West Bengal and is targeting 25 per cent growth in the second half of the current fiscal. With this aim, the automotive major is speeding up its existing Panchayat scheme by kicking off a ‘Gramin Mahotsav’ in all the districts in West Bengal. The Panchayat scheme was begun by Maruti Suzuki around 18 moths ago to enable itself sell more cars in the far flung regions of the country. Maruti has sold around 32,000 vehicles nationally through the Panchayat scheme, including 1700 units in West Bengal.

With the Gramin Mahotsavs rolling with a definite aim, Maruti Suzuki has already organised six fairs in the first half of the year including one at Singur, where the Tatas found themselves in a political muddle at its proposed Tata Nano facility.

Maruti Suzuki brass believe that rural sales account for around 30 per cent of total domestic sales, and in West Bengal, the car major has seen a 60-65 per cent surge in rural sales since the launch of Panchayat Scheme, and the Gramin Mahotsav scheme would improve upon that.

The Gramin Mahotsav has zeroed in on who should be the customer too. According to company officials, the plan is to target the doctors, teachers, tractor owners and traders, apart from Panchayat functionaries through this scheme. Ever since the Panchayat Scheme went on stream, the company has seen sales in rural areas and tier-III cities of eastern India grow considerably.

The custmers had also shown a special preference to models such as Alto, Omni, Zen and the Wagon-R , while the bread and butter model Maruti-800 lagged in finding more customers. With this mind, the company is now said to be looking at a better performance from the Maruti-800 LPG and Uniq variants, which are seeing good bookings.