Close on the heels of BMW(which opened studio), Skoda Auto India of Volkswagen has plans to come out with boutique showrooms. The move is to promote the brand awareness, where one car will be at display and the remaining space will be filled with Skoda T-shirts, kit-cars, fashion and car accessories. By the end of this year there may be 15 such boutique showrooms in addition to virtual product tours and test drives.
The boutique shops will be different from the regular dealer showrooms where the cars alone will be displayed. These boutique shops will be the first such ones for Skoda and are to be implemented in other major countries. The feedback will be assessed from the point of view of the customers’ satisfaction for these shops and not for the cars. Further, negotiations are on with some fashion designers to showcase their feats in these shops for retails too.
The shops are meant to project the contemporary fashion and style concepts and enhances the product image among the customers, said the board member of Skoda Auto India. The erection and maintenance of these shops rests with the Skoda dealers at their cost. The personnel looking after these shops will be under the supervision of Skoda. In the 8 years of marketing presence in India, Skoda could muster a sale volume of 80000 units of its models.This meager amount is due to its non presence in the fast moving compact cars available at Rs3-4 lakhs.
The imminent future will see the roll down of Yeti (SUV), in a bid to fight against Toyota Fortuner, Chevrolet Captiva, Honda CR-V and Ford Endeavour (all in the price range of Rs16-20 lakhs). Moreover, the hatchback with new engine and style, Fabia is in the offing and all these new launches are intended to boost the company’s share in the market. the sale till December 31, 2009 the net sale of Skoda cars is 11,992 units making a growth of 6%(out of the overall industry growth of 24%).