General Motors India has wonderfully steered away from effects of bankruptcy in its parent company in United States of America. Thanks to the dynamic leadership of it managing director Mr. Karl Slym worked hard to remove a feeling of being down.
GM India introduced a campaign ‘There for India, There for you to reach out to Indian car buyers. The company dropped its brand Ambassador Saif Ali Khan and thought that it was best if Karl Slym addressed the problem himself. It was identified that the existing costumers would be worried about the supply of spare parts and that the re-sale value of the car.
Even before the global economic meltdown had started, last year Karl Slym increased dealerships in India. He devised low cost dealerships which require less investment and can easily operate with two or three models at their disposal. This strategy has helped General Motors sell more cars and reach out to more number of consumers. Today, nearly 80 percent of them are making profits. Ideally, it would take six months to get these volumes through mainstream dealerships, but the low cost dealerships made it possible to sell new cars easily. Karl Slym also pushed for rural dealerships in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
He initiated the three year free service on new Chevrolet Spark. Buyers of other cars could also purchase the same services, at a price. The scheme also guaranteed a maximum of expenditure on services for a buyer for three years on a car. Anything in excess the company promised to reimburse. In order to instil confidence among car buyers in India, GM India started a pilot scheme Chevy OK at 11 of its critical dealerships to address re-sale value of their cars. Customers were allowed to sell and exchange cars here. These outlets have also seen pole exchanged the old Opel Corse and Astra for brand new Chevys. It helped the company sell more number of new cars in exchange for used cars.
Even as the General Motors in US filed for bankruptcy, Karl Slym launched mega service camps in major cities in India. This service camps will be on till the end August. Instead of a serious atmosphere, the camps wore a festive look with lots of food and music and food made available for car owners and their families. Slym was banking on the positive word of mouth from consumers to a larger audience to conver that all was well with the Indian subsidiary.
At least 35 key officials were stationed at critical GM dealerships which fetched them the highest volumes to address consumer queries. Consumers were free to interact with these officials about their problems and fears about General Motors.
Compared to Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Honda, General Motors is not considered yet considered a big player in India, eventhough it has six cars selling in India. They include the Chevrolet brand of Spark, Aveo, Aveo U-VA, Optra Tavera and Captiva. In the last fiscal year, GM India sold 1.55 million units of cars which helped it gain 4 percent of the market share. Sales are falling drastically, but General Motors India thinks it has space to grow, more than ever before. India has been a major market for GM cars and it has invested over US$ 1 billion in India. There is too much at stake for the company to let go off India as an irrelevant market.
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