Ford India gets a makeover

Ford motor company is getting a makeover in India. The company is planning to launch its world famous brands like the Ferrari etal in India. Now this seems to be a sound strategy for a company whose market share has shrunk by 0.2% in the year 2007.

For me the company is following a similar strategy what Yamaha did for it motor bikes in India. Yamaha is known world over for its Racing bikes. It has launched bikes which have captured the imaginations of millions of bike lovers all across the world. But in India it was content in launching products which were suited for the 'Indian conditions'. But in doing this the company launched the products it was not good at, I mean the products were not the core competency of Yamaha, in India they were launching 100 cc bikes wheres as they have their competencies in Racing bikes. so here in India they just launched products which were suited for the Indian conditions , the products were based on obsolete technology as far as Yamaha was concerned, but these products were not exciting for the youngsters.

Now coming back to Ford , it was also following a similar strategy, it was launching products in India which had reached the 'maturity stage' in the other developed market. It is to be noted that the marketers adopt these strategies to extend the product life cycle of the brands which are reaching the 'decline stage' in their life cycle.

but Indian customers have changed a lot over the period of time, they are well read, well connected and are aware of the latest technologies from all across the globe. They want to use the latest technologies , use fancier gadgets and use the best products which people across the world use. Their wants are also backed by their purchasing power, so to expect that the Indians would be happy using second rung products or service would be stupidity.

Now is Ford doing a right thing? well to answer this i have already mentioned about the changing Indians , their higher disposable incomes and above all the availability of a market segment for the luxury cars. So for me it sounds a good strategy , but would it affect the sales of other car brands of the same stable , well i think it should but yet they need to innovate and launch the products with the features which are latest in the world and not Indianised as they call