WHAT I LEARNT FROM MY COMPETITOR(13)
“Consumers Told us what was
Missing in our Competitor's Product“
Rakesh Srivastava, Senior Vice-president, Sales and marketing,
Hyundai Motor India
CLAIM TO FAME: An auto
industry veteran, Srivastava spent 15 years at Maruti before joining Hyundai
THE LESSON: “For Hyundai,
the second-largest domestic car manufacturer and largest exporter of passenger
cars over the last ten years, the biggest learning didn't come directly from
its rival. Rather it was an indirect learning from the consumers of its
competitor's product in the SUV segment. The competitor's SUV was designed to
be tough, rugged, in-your-face looking with basic features,“ explains Srivastava.
Hyundai learned from
customers what was missing in the product as well as their changed aspiration:
to own a modern and premium SUV. These learnings resulted in the creation of
the Creta, an SUV with strong, stylish and rich features, claims Srivastava. The
success of Creta is largely due to the learnings from the customers, he adds.
Indirect learning is a more
general construct because it includes both vicarious learning as well as
learning through the experience of competitors in a fiercely competitive market
space with a sizeable presence of global brands, reckons Srivastava. “The
learnings are specifically in terms of technology, marketing, innovation and
business processes by observing the activities of developed market competitors
in domestic markets.“
(As told to Rajiv Singh)
ETM27DEC15
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