Maruti plans to splurge Rs 1,000 crore to set up brand centres in India

Maruti Suzuki in an interesting move has decided to set up brand centres across the nation with a total investment of Rs 1,000 crore. India’s largest car maker has plans to open these brand centres at upmarket locations to showcase its products and new technology.

In the first phase, of this development the company has shortlisted places like Chennai, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Indore, Bangalore, Kolkata and Kochi. Exciting boutiques will be found in these places and will cater to only brands and will not transact any kind of commercial business. The overall list will include 16 important markets which generate half of the company’s revenue. 

"The company is in the process of acquiring land across different strategic locations, which are either state capitals or located in the vicinity of its regional marketing offices," a senior Maruti Suzuki executive said. "Based on the successful concept of the brand centre situated at our head office in upmarket VasantKunj in south Delhi, these 16 centres would purely engage customers to our new products and modern technologies that the company plans to debut in India."

This strategic move can also be credited to the first phase of its Gujarat plant which is now fully funded by Suzuki of Japan and will be a fully-owned unit. This left Maruti with a surplus of Rs 7,000 crore which could be used for further investments and developments. 

This is a decent move by Maruti as the company never had any such customer interaction initiatives in the past. The Kizashi failed to excite the Indian D-segment buyers because of the pre-conceived notion that Maruti is a small car maker. Maruti will hope to change that and like to keep No.1 car maker tag intact with this unique strategy which aims at boosting their brand image.