SYNOPSIS

A RESEARCH PROJECT ON BRAND POSITIONING OF MARUTI

SUZUKI : A CASE STUDY OF A STAR

 Introduction

Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL, formerly known as Maruti Udyog Limited) is a

subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan. MSIL has been the leader of the Indian

car market for over two and a half decades. The company has two manufacturing

facilities located at Gurgaon and Manesar, south of New Delhi, India. Both the facilities

have a combined capability to produce over a 1.2 million (1,200,000) passenger car units

annually.

The company plans to expand its manufacturing capacity to 1.75 million by 2013. For

this the company will be investing around Rs. 60 Billion (Rs 6,000 Crores) over the

period till 2013.

The company offers a wide range of cars across different segments. It offers 14 brands

and over 150 variants - Maruti 800, people movers, Omni and Eeco, international brands

Alto, Alto-K10, A-star, WagonR, Swift, Ritz and Estilo, off-roader Gypsy, SUV Grand

Vitara, sedans SX4 and Swift DZire In an environment friendly initiative, in August 2010

Maruti Suzuki introduced factory fitted CNG option on 5 models across vehicle
segments. These include Eeco, Alto, Estilo, Wagon R and Sx4.

In fiscal 2009-10 Maruti Suzuki became the only Indian company to manufacture and sell

One Million cars in a year.

Maruti Suzuki has employee strength over 7,600 (as at end March 2010),

In 2009-10, the company sold a record 10,18,365 vehicles including 1,47,575 units of

exports. With this, at the end of March 2010, Maruti Suzuki had a market share of 53.3

per cent of the Indian passenger car market (including C segment).

Maruti Suzuki's revenue has grown consistently over the years. (Rs. in Million)

Year Net Sales Year Net Sales

2004-05 1,09,108 2005-06 1,20,034

2006-07 1,45,922 2007-08 1,78,603

2008-09 2,03,583 2009-10 3,01,198

The company is listed on Bombay Stock Exchange and National Stock Exchange.

MARUTI from as a brand itself is seldom looked at, as a luxury brand. Maruti as a

brand is more linked with the mid segment rather than luxury. And over past many years

Maruti Has maintained and up till certain extent restricted its Target Market to same

segment.
This is quite evident that Maruti Suzuki is leading in its variety of ‘Hatchback’ cars.

These for all this while were targeting the group of people who are middle incomed, but

Maruti Suzuki has slowly entered and is steadily growing into the category of ‘Sedan’

Vehicles.

Maruti A-Star is a hatchback from Maruti which belong to the A2 category. Similar to its

counterpart Maruti Swift, A-Star has also been launched in three variants namely LXi,

VXi and ZXi. Apart from this, the VXi variant now also comes in the Automatic version

as Maruti A-Star AT. The ZXi version of A-Star is the high-end model of the car and

comes equipped with a range of exciting features like dual-tone interiors which have a

peppy feel to them, power steering, front electric windows, a console box, a nice looking

tachometer, fabric seats, rear parcels shelf as well as lots of other interesting features. The

ZXi variant of A-Star also comes equipped with high-end safety features such as ABS

with EBD and airbags. These three standard variants of Suzuki A-Star are priced between

Rs.3.5 to Rs. 4.5 lakhs, which is pretty reasonable in view of the features provided as

well as the promise of the brand Maruti.

The most recent development from Maruti Suzuki is the Launch of ‘Maruti Kizashi’. It

has been positioned as the sports sedan; it is fairly high on cost with a Price of approx 17

to 19 Lacs. This Sedan is targeted towards the high class with a luxury touch to it.

VARIOUS MODELS OF MARUTI SUZUKI IN MARKET:-

Hatchback: – Maruti 800, Wragon R, Alto, Swift, Estilo, Ritz, A-star

Sedan: – SX4 & Dzire.

SUV:- Grand Vitara, Maruti Gypsy, EECO

Brand positioning Strategies :

 POSITIONING BY PRODUCT ATTRIBUTES AND BENEFITS

 POSITIONING BY PRICE/ QUALITY

 POSITIONING BY PRODUCT CLASS

 POSITIONING BY COMPETITOR

 POSITIONING BY PRODUCT USER

Maruti as a brand over the years we can note a remarkable phenomena or strategy from

their growth in past years.

• It first became popular n still is with its launch of Maruti 800 many years back.

They targeted middle income groups, who were first time car buyers, looking for

low ownership cost with basic need of a family vehicle and the price was approx

2lacs.

• After this they never looked back. Then came the other various hatchback models

of Maruti like Zen, Wragon, and Alto etc. These Cars again targeted the middle

income groups, but this time the positioning was not as the basic need, it was

comfort at comparatively lower price, of 4 – 5 lacs.

• Then putting Yet another Step forward, they came into Sedan’s with a price of 8-9

lacs these Sedans targeted luxury segmented as well as mid level segment(up till a

certain extent)
The controversy which is attached to the Maruti A Star is that it has a problem in its fuel

tank due which the one lakh unit of the product was call back.

The future challenges in front of the Maruti is the competition from various other

companies. The major competitor is the Hyundai Motors, Toyota and Honda.

 Review of Literature

Maruti A Star was launched on October 2008 and A Star automatic was launched on

15th August 2010 As per the other research conducted individually by various persons

and the automobile review sites like the CarWale.com which take the first ride of the

A Star Automatic and the reviews written on the mouthshut.com by MR. Anand A

Star is a feel good car but there is less space for the luggage and there was a problem

in the fuel tank of the car due to which it takes back.

 Research design and Research Methodology

Objective of the study:

» Understand the brand positioning strategies.

» Study the controversies of Maruti A Star.

» Examine the future challenges for Maruti.

Research design and methodology:

To study the issues we use the descriptive method of the study and we use the

quantitative research methods

Sample size would be 100 and the quantitative techniques are :

Data mining, Pricing research, Segmentation, Data tabulation, Questionnaire

 Analysis and Interpretation of the data

The analysis is based on the data tabulation and other methods used for the study and

the data is placed in the form of the various types of the graphs and the charts.

Interpretation of the data is based on the study of the various charts and graphs which

we use in the analysis.

 Conclusion and Recommendations

The conclusion and the recommendations are based on the study and the methods

used in the study

 Bibliography

Websites, Magazines, Blogs, News papers

 Annexure

Questionnaire