Ford set to launch marketing blitz

agencyfaqs! News Bureau

NEW DELHI, November 14

Ford India, the Indian subsidiary of US auto giant Ford Motor company, is all set to launch an aggressive sales and marketing blitz with an eye to develop the non-metro market for its mid-size IKON. As the first step, the company has identified the non-metro cities and towns for opening dealerships and is in the process of implementing a paperless, web-based software system for tying up its dealers across the country.

The company believes that it is in the second-rung cities and smaller towns where future growth is likely. The company hopes to encourage its dealers to implement a ‘hub-and-spoke' model for opening new dealerships in these areas. That is, the company will develop large territories with focussed group of dealers - who'll cater to the entire area -instead of a large number of dealers scattered all over the country. Currently, several Ford India dealers have more than one dealership in different cities.

The company is also planning to take its dealerships up to 66 in 54 cities from the current 51dealers in 44 cities by the end of this year. These dealerships are expected to cover about 96 per cent of the four-lakhs-per-annum domestic car market.

According to the company, about 33 per cent of the total IKON sales currently come from the northern and eastern parts of India, south India contributes 38 per cent, while the rest comes from west India. Ford India dealers would soon open "body shops" or workshops, which would be capable of servicing all car models.

On the web-based software system for dealers, a top company executive said, "It would help achieve overall connectivity between the dealers and the company for faster logistics movement."

To put things into perspective, Ford India sold 17,122 IKONs between January and October, against its target of 21,000 cars this year. The company recently started production of completely knocked down kits of the mid-size car at its plant near Chennai and has shipped 1,600 CKD kits in October. It has a target to export 20,000 cars annually and, for the next year, the company has set itself a target of Rs 165 crore as export revenue.

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