If I Was a Chief Marketing officer @ Mahindra Reva

If I was a Chief Marketing Officer @ Mahindra Reva

Introduction

Mahindra Reva, formerly known as Reva Electric car company is an Indian company based in Banglore. The REVAi electric car is the USP of this company, available in over 26 countries. It was founded by Chetan Maini in 1994 with the sole aim to develop and produce affordable compact electric cars. Reva was acquired by Indian conglomerate Mahindra & Mahindra in May 2010. In 2013, MAHINDRA REVA was selected as one of "The World's 50 Most Innovative Companies 2013? by Fast Company (magazine).

Today, Global emission rates are unavoidably high and fuel prices are sky rocketing. REVAi , the first electric car venture seems very promising. However, ever since its launch in 2001, REVAi sold a mere 4750 units in India. This very issue urged me to choose Mahindra Reva

Lets talk straight. What is it that is hindering Mahindra Reva to capture the automobile market? With rising fuel prices and economic recession at our foot how can it be that a product with such innovation be completely disbanded. Rigorous survey studies have identified below mentioned 9 problem areas of our company. I have arranged them and rated them on the basis of their criticality to our company.

Sno Problem Criticality

1. Low Aesthetic Appeal Highest

2. High Price Very High

3. Low consumer awareness Highest

4. Small size and design Highest

5. Low Top Speed High

6. Small driving Range High

7. Safety concern Low

8. Huge capital investment Very High

9. No edge over gasoline Vehicles Very HIgh

Problem Discussion

So lets draw our focus to each of these problem areas and try and arrive at solutions to them.

Our top rankers in List are –

? Low Aesthetic Appeal

? Low consumer Awareness

? Small size and Design

Low Aesthetic Appeal

Customer evaluates appeal based on below three criteria listed in the order of importance.

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Strategy For Aesthetic Appeal / Size and Design

Cool Factor¬¬¬ - How does Mahindra Reva look to our customers? Do we look cool??

Survey suggest a No No for above. Gee!! We need to think about this. Every automobile is backed by a celebrity ambassador and Mahindra Reva is is just banking on the fact of being Environment friendly. Now C'mon!! Where on earth will a customer think about global warming stuff while making purchase decisions. So Cool is Not equal to environment friendly.

We need to have massive publicity campaigns. With Govt. supporting EV vehicles, this perhaps should seem no cost barrier.

Affordability

Next accountant to appeal is the affordability. Customers like to evaluate their coolness factor with their budget. Given their budget constraints , they'd like the maximum coolest thing available. Cool need not be sporty, it can just be trendy and in fashion. We need to evaluate the cool to price ratio correctly.

At the price segment we stand now, for E20, consumers have fairly cooler options like i10, i20. So given the market equation, its highly unlikely Mahindra Reva can capture the market with launch of E20.

Necessity - In most markets, Car is a luxury item preferred over a two wheeler with much lower capacity and cool quotient. So even a nano consumer is happy with a nano coz he can drive his entire family. Reva's new launch E20 however is a 2 door car offering a substitute over 2 wheeler. So the point is if purchase appeal is need driven, won't the consumer opt for a trendy high end 2 wheeler than a low end electric car?

The need of a car is more of a family vehicle. Previous/Current designs of Mahindra Reva fail to identify that.

Strategy to improve Low Consumer Awareness

Poor advertising strategy and low social media coverage has led to poor brand awareness. Most of the advertising is based on eco – friendly agenda which has a single digit popularity percentage among consumers. Facebook and Twitter can add to brand awareness. Also television commercials are rarely showcased at a very low frequency. We need to enhance our customer base and create brand awareness. The agenda for advertising should be generation ahead modern car and not save environment car.

Strategy to tackle High Prices

Mahindra Reva E20 is priced at 6,86,637 (starting). With government ready to provide subsidies, we should aim at lowering our prices immediately. EV vehicles in Europe and US enjoy considerable subsidy grant. Our poor appeal has led to low demands and low demand has further discouraged already reluctant govt to increase subisidies.

Addressing manufacturing concerns

Launch of E20 is our first biggest launch in Indian market. Below, specs can however can be a barrier to our sales.

? The E2O has a top speed of 81km/hr

? With 5 hours required for fully charging your Mahindra e2o –will be ready to be driven over 100 kms.

? Lack of charging mechanism in