Renault India scouting for creative and media partners

After announcing its independent foray into India, French car manufacturer Renault is setting up the stage for an Indian launch. The company has called for a multi agency pitch for its creative and media duties and is also evaluating dealerships across the country.

Initial dealerships will be operational by mid 2011 in Tier I cities and, post the launch, Renault plans to open 70 dealerships across important Tier I and Tier II cities by the end of 2013. The company expects to have at least five of its cars on the road by 2013.

While Renault is a late entrant into the Indian market, which recently saw international brands such as Volkswagen carrying out high profile launches, Nassif says that the company is looking for agencies with innovative ideas.

"Renault has a detailed ramp up plan for 2010, which essentially sets the base for the products to come between 2011 and 2013. Branding becomes one of the key pillars to this challenge and we are looking for agencies that can work with our marketing team to come up with the most innovative and out of the box ideas to build the Renault brand in India," he says.

It must be noted that Renault already has had a slight taste of the Indian market in a joint venture with Mahindra that broke recently, with Mahindra buying out the Renault stake.

The first cars to hit the Indian roads will be Renault's luxury sedan, Fluence and a 4X4 crossover, Koleos. A hatchback is also on the cards as its full range from its global portfolio is unveiled.

The company has already invested about Rs 5,000 crore in setting up a greenfield facility to manufacture 4,00,000 cars per year and a global engineering and procurement centre in Chennai, jointly with alliance partner Nissan.

With pitch preparations already under way, Renault expects to zero in on the creative and media agencies in a couple of months.