It’s sad how a Giant like Mitsubishi has almost Fallen by The Wayside in The India Auto-Sweepstakes, with much of it being its Own Undoing. B&E does a to-date-legacy Summary on The Death of a Brand…in India.
Yes again, Mitsubishi is reportedly exploring a joint venture with France’s PSA Peugeot Citroen SA and Nissan for its small car manufacturing plans, but even these plans are unlikely to benefit their India strategy in the short-run. Worse, now the India problems for the Japanese automaker have now gone beyond the product mix – its partner (Hindustan Motors) is also facing severe challenges on its end. It is now even being reported that the Mitsubishi is now firming up its plans to part ways with Hindustan Motors. While the company has a long history of managing partnerships, it also has had bitter experiences with names like Chrysler and Mahindra in the past (Currently, the company leverages 20 business partner facilities in about 10 countries apart from eight of its own in six countries).
“But another area that Mitsubishi has been facing issues within India is that of distribution. While the product strategy for any company is very important to ensure a successful journey in any market for that matter, distribution is equally so,” says Abdul Majeed, India Leader for Automotive Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers. In this regard, breaking up with HM might actually be a blessing in disguise. And that’s because once Mitsubishi is out of the stifling HM alliance, it could well attempt to join hands with its global partners like Peugeot and Nissan in India as well. This, quite obviously, would have the two required benefits – one, Mitsubishi’s product portfolio could get an immediate boost; two, Mitsubishi could immediately synergize its cost portfolio in production and distribution with its alliance partners and work more efficiently.
There’s also this lingering suspicion that all Mitsubishi lacks in India is visionary and energetic leadership. Take this for example. As the company launched the Lancer Evolution X model in the country last year, it was able to generate a lot of buzz in the Indian market. However, as there were no follow up efforts from Mitsubishi’s end to keep the excitement going, the consumer interest also vanished in the meantime. Be it the Lancer, Cedia or the Pajero, while the consumer is aware of these products – and might even be intending to buy them en masse – Mitsubishi itself doesn’t seem too excited of getting the Indian consumer to buy its cars (PwC’s Majeed even says, “Mitsubishi isn’t much interested in India. The company is happy selling in other parts of the world.”).
There’s also this fatalistic conjecture that Mitsubishi is actually planning to leave India in the near future and focus whole heartedly on China. Well, while we’re sure that this is only a conjecture, the fact is that if Mitsubishi even now doesn’t show extreme aggression in its India strategies, we could well be witnessing the demise of an iconic brand... in India, to say the least!
“But another area that Mitsubishi has been facing issues within India is that of distribution. While the product strategy for any company is very important to ensure a successful journey in any market for that matter, distribution is equally so,” says Abdul Majeed, India Leader for Automotive Practice, PricewaterhouseCoopers. In this regard, breaking up with HM might actually be a blessing in disguise. And that’s because once Mitsubishi is out of the stifling HM alliance, it could well attempt to join hands with its global partners like Peugeot and Nissan in India as well. This, quite obviously, would have the two required benefits – one, Mitsubishi’s product portfolio could get an immediate boost; two, Mitsubishi could immediately synergize its cost portfolio in production and distribution with its alliance partners and work more efficiently.
There’s also this lingering suspicion that all Mitsubishi lacks in India is visionary and energetic leadership. Take this for example. As the company launched the Lancer Evolution X model in the country last year, it was able to generate a lot of buzz in the Indian market. However, as there were no follow up efforts from Mitsubishi’s end to keep the excitement going, the consumer interest also vanished in the meantime. Be it the Lancer, Cedia or the Pajero, while the consumer is aware of these products – and might even be intending to buy them en masse – Mitsubishi itself doesn’t seem too excited of getting the Indian consumer to buy its cars (PwC’s Majeed even says, “Mitsubishi isn’t much interested in India. The company is happy selling in other parts of the world.”).
There’s also this fatalistic conjecture that Mitsubishi is actually planning to leave India in the near future and focus whole heartedly on China. Well, while we’re sure that this is only a conjecture, the fact is that if Mitsubishi even now doesn’t show extreme aggression in its India strategies, we could well be witnessing the demise of an iconic brand... in India, to say the least!
Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM Best B School India
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri
and Arindam Chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM Best B School India
Management Guru Arindam Chaudhuri
Rajita Chaudhuri-The New Age Woman
IIPM's Management Consulting Arm-Planman Consulting
