With the popular perception that Maruti makes just budget small cars, the company wanted their new premium cars to be a hit. In came the Nexa branding. With the S-Cross being their first product (the dealerships were not ready during the time of the Ciaz), the company got a new platform to show off with style.
However, that was easier said than done. Thanks to the high pricing and the SX4 lineage, the S-Cross failed to kick off. The country’s largest car maker though could not be discouraged by one product failure. In came the Baleno, their answer to the premium hatchback segment. The hatchback did wonders for the Nexa brand with sales quickly picking up. So one year down the line, how many cars has the Nexa brand sold?
More than 1 lakh units! The initial aim was to have 100 Nexa dealerships by the end of March 2016. Today Nexa stands 150 outlets strong, spread across 94 cities with over 3,500 relationship managers manning them. They comprise of about 10 per cent of Maruti’s total domestic sales and the management wants to raise it to 15 per cent by 2020.
Maruti does not want to stop at just this. In fact they want extend the experience to a new level previously unseen in the Indian market. Here’s what Mr RS Kalsi, Executive Director, Marketing and Sales had to say on this:
“To further enhance the purchase and ownership experience, we plan to provide customers enriching experiences beyond the showroom as well. We will curate new experiences around fashion & lifestyle, music and travel. These experiences will touch the lives of customers through international music festivals, fashion/styling sessions and long distance drives. Rather than limit ourselves to selling cars, our aim is to forge relationships over the period of ownership.”
Interestingly 51 per cent of the total sales have been with folks who did not have a Maruti car at that point of time. Yes, the brand Nexa has certainly managed to expand the brand Maruti to a new dimension. Building a customer base which values on attention to detail, is living a digital lifestyle and expects 5 star experience everywhere has not been easy but Maruti has certainly showed the world how to do it in style!