Smaller Cities Spur The Growth of Luxury Car Market, Study by MICA Faculty Dr Varsha Jain Reveals

An article titled “Marketing luxury cars in India” authored by Dr Varsha Jain, Assistant Professor, MICA and Kruti Patel, Chairperson, Dernier Cri was published in Warc – January 2013.

Ahmedabad, Gujarat (I-Newswire) February 13, 2013 - The research article studies how companies like Mercedes, BMW, Audi etc have been marketing to the Indian consumer.

The paper highlights aspects of the Indian luxury market and how that relates to sales of luxury cars.

The paper presents data about the Indian luxury market, and what it means to the luxury car market. It outlines the segment that consumes luxury products. This segment has two million households in India, earning US$100,000 annually, and is expected to grow by13% per annum. These affluent Indians travel abroad for business as well as for leisure very frequently, and hence are exposed to luxury items by various lifestyle TV channels, upmarket magazines, and online sources.

It derives deep insights into the market like “Indian consumers in the 25-34 age group account for 57% of luxury purchases. And luxury brands are primarily purchased in Delhi and Mumbai, which account for half of all luxury sales in India.”

The paper focuses on showcasing trends in the luxury car market, the most important one being that car makers are focusing on smaller cities as well as the metros. Luxury car dealers have been setting up in smaller cities such as Jaipur, Kochi, Chandigarh, Nagpur, Pune, Amritsar and Ludhiana. Another trend which was observed was that promotional strategies such as events, training sessions, and private parties, have been undertaken by luxury auto brands in the smaller cities. The focus was getting the potential customer acquainted with the brand. These efforts paid off – the largest single order from Mercedes-Benz in India came from Aurangabad, a relatively small city in Western India; the city's residents ordered 150 Mercedes cars.