Brief history -- In 1897, the first car ran on an Indian road.

Through the 1930s, cars were imports

only, and in small numbers.

An embryonic automotive industry emerged in India in the 1940s. Hindustan Motors was
launched in 1942, long-time competitor Premier in 1944, building Chrysler, Dodge,
and Fiat products respectively.[4]Mahindra & Mahindra was established by two brothers in
1945, and began assembly of Jeep CJ-3A utility vehicles. Following independence in 1947, the
Government of India and the private sector launched efforts to create an automotive-component
manufacturing industry to supply to the automobile industry. In 1953, an import substitution
programme was launched, and the import of fully built-up cars began to be restricted.[4]
1952, the government appointed the first Tariff commission, one of whose purposes was to come
out with a feasibility plan for the indigenization of the Indian automobile industry. In 1953, the
commission submitted their report, which recommended categorizing existing Indian car
companies according to their manufacturing infrastructure, with licensed capacity to manufacture
a certain number of vehicles, with capacity increases allowable, as per demands, in the future.
The Tariff Commission recommendations were implemented with new policies that would
eventually exclude companies that only imported parts for assembly, as well as those with no
Indian partner. In 1954, following the Tariff Commission implementation, General Motors, Ford,
and Rootes Group, which had assembly-only plants in Mumbai, decided to move out of India.[5]
The Tariff commission policies, including similar restrictions that applied to other industries,
came to be known as the "license raj", which proved to be the greatest undoing of the Indian
automotive industry, where bureaucratic red tape ended up causing demand to outstrip supply,
with month-long waiting periods for cars, scooters, and motorcycles.

However, growth was relatively slow in the 1950s and 1960s, due to nationalisation and
the license raj, hampered the growth of Indian private sector.
The beginning of the 1970s saw some growth potential and most of the collaboration license
agreements came to an end but with option to continue manufacturing with renewed branding.
Cars were still meant for the elite and Jeeps were largely used by government organizations and
some rural belts. In commercial vehicle segments some developments were made by the end of
the decade to cater improved goods movements. The two-wheeler segment remained unchanged
except for to increased sales in urban among middle class. But more fillip was target towards
farm tractors as India was embarking on a new Green Revolution. More Russian and eastern bloc
imports were done to increase the demand.

But after 1970, with restrictions on the import of vehicles set, the automotive industry started to
grow; but the growth was mainly driven by tractors, commercial vehicles and scooters. Cars still
remained a major luxury item. In the 1970s, price controls were finally lifted, inserting a
competitive element into the automobile market.[6] However, by the 1980s, the automobile
market was still dominated by Hindustanand Premier, who sold superannuated products in fairly
limited numbers.[7] During the eighties, a few competitors began to arrive on the scene.
The OPEC oil crisis saw increase need to installing or redesign some vehicle to fit diesel engines
on medium commercial vehicle. Until the early 1970s Mahindra Jeeps were on Petrol and
Premier commercial vehicles had Petrol model options. The Defence sector too had most trucks
on Pertol engines.
Eventually multinational automakers, such as, Suzukiand Toyota of Japan and Hyundai of South
Korea, were allowed to invest in the Indian market, furthering the establishment of an
automotive industry in India. Maruti Suzuki was the first, and the most successful of these new
entries, and in part the result of government policies to promote the automotive industry
beginning in the 1980s.[7] As India began to liberalise its automobile market in 1991, a number
of foreign firms also initiated joint ventures with existing Indian companies. The variety of
options available to the consumer began to multiply in the nineties, whereas before there had
usually only been one option in each price class. By 2000, there were 12 large automotive
companies in the Indian market, most of them offshoots of global companies.[8]**********

Export-----India's automobile exports have grown consistently and reached $4.5 billion in 2009,
with the United Kingdom being India's largest export market, followed by Italy, Germany,
Netherlands, and South Africa.[80]
According to the New York Times, India's strong engineering base and expertise in the
manufacturing of low-cost, fuel-efficient cars has resulted in the expansion of manufacturing
facilities of several automobile companies like Hyundai, Nissan, Toyota, Volkswagen,
and Maruti Suzuki.[81]
Exports
In April-March 2017, overall automobile exports declined by (-) 4.50 percent. While Passenger
Vehicles and Commercial Vehicles exports registered a growth of 16.20 percent and 4.99 percent
respectively, exports of Three Wheelers and Two Wheelers declined by (-) 32.77 percent and (-)
5.78 percent respectively in April-March 2017 over April-March 2016.

Production
The industry produced a total 25,316,044 vehicles including passenger vehicles, commercial
vehicles, three wheelers, two wheelers and quadricycle in April-March 2017 as against
24,016,599 in April-March 2016, registering a growth of 5.41 percent over the same period last
year.

DomesticDomestic Sales
The sales of Passenger Vehicles grew by 9.23 percent in April-March 2017 over the same period
last year. Within the Passenger Vehicles, Passenger Cars, Utility Vehicles and Vans grew by
3.85 percent, 29.91 percent and 2.37 percent respectively during April-March 2017 over the
same period last year.
The overall Commercial Vehicles segment registered a growth of 4.16 percent in April-March
2017 as compared to the same period last year. Medium & Heavy Commercial Vehicles
(M&HCVs) grew by 0.04 percent and Light Commercial Vehicles grew by 7.41 percent during
April-March 2017 over the same period last year.
Three Wheelers sales declined by (-) 4.93 percent in April-March 2017 over the same period last
year. Passenger Carrier sales declined by (-) 8.83 percent and Goods Carrier sales grew by 12.75
percent in April-March 2017 over April-March 2016.*”””””””
Two Wheelers sales registered a growth at 6.89 percent during April-March 2017 over April-
March 2016. Within the Two Wheelers segment, Scooters, Motorcycles and Mopeds grew by
11.39 percent, 3.68 percent and 23.02 percent respectively in April-March 2017 over April-
March 2016.

Abstract___In today’s competitive era the word ‘Strategy’ is very crucial for
all business organizations. Presently organizations started
realizing that customer centric and aggressive marketing
strategies plays vital role to become successful leaders. Though
globalization has opened the doors of opportunities for all, the
market is still crowded with some unknown risks and a lot of
competition. Because of this competition, a marketing strategy
must aim at being unique, differential-creating and advantage-
creating.
Therefore, at the heart of any business strategy is a marketing
strategy. All the marketing strategies are based on the right mix
of 4P’s, only those can be ahead which have the right marketing
strategies because it increases the chances of better market
penetration with proper utilization of resources. Marketing
strategies include all basic and long term activities in the field of
marketing that deal with the analysis of the strategic initial
situation of a company and formulation, evaluation and selection
of market-oriented strategies and therefore contribute to the
goals of the company and its marketing objectives.