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INTRODUCTION
Hyundai Motor India Limited (HMIL) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hyundai
Motor Company, South Korea and is the second largest and the fastest growing car
manufacturer in India. HMIL presently markets 20 variants of passenger cars in six segments.
The Santro in the B segment, Getz Prime in the B+ segment, the Accent in the C segment, the
Elantra in the D segment, the Sonata in the E segment.
Hyundai Auto Service was founded by Ju-Yung Chung in April 1946. In December
1967, it was renamed as Hyundai Motor Company by Ju-Yung Ching and Se-Yung Chung.
The name Hyundai means Modern in Korean language.
Hyundai started its India operations as Hyundai Motor India Ltd (HMIL) on 6
th
May
1996. The company introduced its first car in Indian market, the Santro, on 23
rd
September
1998. Today, its annual production is about 600,000 units.

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MARKETING STRATEGY OF HYNDAI MOTOR INDIA
LTD

Hyundai Santro
Product:
The base model of the all-new Hyundai Santro i.e. Santro LP was fully loaded with a range
of exciting new features. Its unique design provides the car with more head room which
allowed for easier entry and exit. Visibility became better with Santro as the drivers seat was
higher. Also seating postures were improved by proper economic designs of the seats. In
addition to these design features, a number of safety features like rear door locks for child
safety, collapsible steerable column, and ultra-high strength steel bars for protection against
side collisions were also provided. This provided a look of stability, a sense that it is packed
with energy and ready to deliver a dynamic drive. It had features like heater, air conditioner
and power steering.
The next version of Santro i.e. Santro LE had additional features like central locking, back
wipers, power windows, body colored bumper, remote tail gate release and tinted glass
throughout the car. The most advanced model i.e. Santro GS has features like fog lamps, rear
defogger, waistline molding, full size wheel cover in addition to those provided by Santro
LE.

Price:
Hyundai decided to take Maruti heads on with the pricing of their upcoming Hyundai cars.
The reason being that they believed that customers would not be reluctant to pay a bit more
for value add. The base mode of Santro i.e. Santro LP was priced at Rs. 2.89 lakhs whereas
the next 2 models i.e. Santro LE and Santro GS were priced at Rs. 3.49 and Rs. 3.69 lakhs
respectively. The idea was that Hyundai with their extensive service network and brand
reputation for making reliable cars should get the customers nod over their competition.
Promotion:
As the strategy would be creating brand awareness, an advertising contract with Saatchi &
Saatchi was made, who then decided to use the Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan. The
first phase of the advertising campaign was an ad that concentrated on introducing the car by
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using humor to remove the ignorance. The second phase of the promotion concentrated on
clearing any queries that prospective buyers may have had. This was done once again through
an ad featuring Shah Rukh Khan. It mainly focused on highlighting the cars features. Also
Hyundai promoted the car through their existing customer base by running a customer
satisfaction campaign which televised existing customers experiences through ads. During
the latter part of 2002, Santro was repositioned as a sunshine car to target younger
consumers. Once again, new TV commercials were made to promote the repositioned Santro.
On the other hand, to tap the rural market, Hyundai joined hands with dealers in rural areas
and promoted Santro through road shows. Also to ensure that the rural consumers were aware
of the quality (which was the USP), they also promoted through test drives.
Place:
Santro was launched across India (both in urban and rural areas).

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SWOT ANALYSIS OF HYUNDAI MOTOR INDIA LTD
Strengths:
Growing brand reputation
Strong focus on R&D
Effective resource allocation
Growth in Europe
Successful marketing campaigns
Weaknesses:
Product recalls
Hyundai has no presence in Japans car passenger market
Negative publicity
Opportunities:
Increasing fuel prices
Global demand for ecological vehicles
Changing customer needs
Threats:
Exchange rates
Rising raw material prices
Decreasing fuel prices
Intense competition






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SEGMENTATION, TARGETING AND POSITIONING OF
HYUNDAI MOTOR INDIA LTD
Segmentation:
HMIL served segments starting from B to E. The cars which HMIL sold ranged from
Hyundai Santro to Sonata. In this way, Hyundai catered to the upper class of the society as
well. In the B segment, when compared to Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL), HMIL had only
one car Santro whereas MUL had 3 models to serve the same segment Zen, Alto and
Wagon R. Also from the case, it is evident that the B segment was the highest growing
segment in the Indian auto industry and by having only one car to serve this segment, their
overall market share was less when compared to MUL. This was even though Santro was
initially the highest sold car in the segment.
Targeting:
HMIL initially wanted to introduce a C segment car to target the upper middle class.
However their surveys indicated that the B segment (and hence demand for smaller cars) was
much more and hence they launched Santro to serve customers in the B segment. Initially
HMIL targeted customers from 35-45 years. With the increase in competition from 2002
onwards, HMIL started targeting consumers in the age group of 25-30 years as it believed
that the average age of car buyers had come down. It also targeted the luxury segments (D
and E) where MUL did not have a presence. Our primary consumer target is middle to upper
income professionals who need true value for their money and comfortable ride in city
conditions.
Positioning:
HMIL marketing strategy focused on bring out the differentiating factors when compared to
its competitors. Santro was initially positioned on the design aspect. Later on Santro was
positioned itself as a complete family car. The brand was targeting those users who wanted to
upgrade into the B segment. This was when the target group of consumers was between 35-
45 years. With the increase in competition in 2002, Hyundai repositioned Santro as a
sunshine car in order to attract consumers from the 25-30 years segment. Sunshine was
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communicating two intangibles: Freshness and youthful attitude. The brand was moving to a
Change your life positioning.

With regard to the other models, Hyundai Accent was positioned as a next generation car and
this was highlighted by its base line The Next Step. On the other hand, Hyundai
positioned Sonata as a luxury/premium car and emphasized on the same with the base line
Dreamt by everyone. Owned by a few.

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STRATEGY OF HYUNDAI MOTOR INDIA LTD
Entry Strategy:
Prior to the presence of Hyundai Motors in India, the country had its own share of car
providers ranging from Indian companies like Maruti Udyog Limited, Fiat to foreign players
like Ford Motors, Toyota Motors, and Honda Motors etc. So rather than just entering the
market and then deciding on which segments to serve, Hyundai Motors did a careful analysis
of the Indian automobile industry. This was done through discussions and surveys with
dealers, consumers and vendors. It was only after analyzing these results did HMIL release its
first car. This analysis helped them as prior to this, they had planned to release a car in the C
segment but the analysis told them that the most profitable and growing segment was the B
segment due to which they went ahead and released a car in the B segment.
Operation Strategy:
To ensure that they have maximum profits, HMIL focused on creating a low cost strategy.
For this reason, they set up their own manufacturing plant in India to take advantage of the
low labor and manufacturing costs. This was opposite to what the competitors were doing as
they only had assembly units in India. Also in comparison to other car companies, HMIL
entered India by starting its own subsidiary whereas other companies had entered through
joint ventures with Indian companies. HMIL was able to provide higher quality cars at lower
prices when compared to its competitors. This was as they were able to use better and the
latest technology while at the same time were able to use the low cost labor and other
manufacturing facilities available in India.
Product Strategy:
While competitors imported their existing successful models from abroad for the Indian
market, HMIL went against the trend by developing models especially for the Indian market.
This allowed it to design cars suitable more for the Indian environment and hence Indian
tastes.
Also HMIL launched products in the segments where there was lesser completion from MUL
(who at the time was one of the biggest competitors) i.e. in the D and E segment. This was
through proper understanding of the Indian consumer requirements.
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Distribution Strategy:
To ensure that Hyundai was able to react quickly to changing market needs, HMIL followed
a formal and meticulous procedure for choosing dealers. The main criteria were to select
dealers who would react quickly to changing market needs. The procedure included dealers
having to give their educational background, financial background, notes on current future
trends in the automobile industry etc. This elaborate procedure allowed choosing those
dealers through a scientific procedure that were best suitable for a location.
On the whole, HMIL followed innovative marketing strategies as they focused more on
understanding what the consumers wanted and then promoting and placing their products
accordingly.

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ALTERNATE SOLUTIONS OF HYUNDAI MOTOR INDIA
LTD
The major challenges that HMIL currently faces is how to regain its leader status and market
share. We believe that HMIL needs to take multiple measures to achieve their target. These
measures are:
Continue to innovate
Emerging markets are a fertile ground for innovation. The challenge of reaching
dispersed, low-income consumers in emerging markets often spurs significant
innovation. These innovations will become the basis for 'attacker' strategies that can
be used to challenge the competitors. Innovations and improvements in technology,
design can help to manufacture higher quality cars at a lower cost. This will help to
attract more consumers. HMIL should focus on its strengths of delivering excellent
quality and performance.

Diversify
To ensure that it has its presence across multiple segments, HMIL should look to
manufacture and releases new models to compete with Maruti etc. They should add
new cars to their product line and get more into and within segments like the B and C
segment which are one of the fastest growing segments in the Indian auto industry.
HMIL should leverage on its ability to launch technologically superior products and
its innovative marketing strategies to come up with new models in the existing
product segments. This might cannibalize on the market share of their existing cars
like Santro and Accent but the effects of the same can be advantageous to HMIL as it
can attract competitors customers. They should look to exploit the customer value
perceptions concept that they have used till now.

Penetrate into the rural markets
The rural markets are one of the largest untapped markets in India. HMIL should look
to target these segments by introducing lower cost cars. This will help them to
increase their market share and thereby to retain their leadership status.


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Expansion of production capacity
HMIL should expand its production capacity in order to produce the required number
of cars to be released into the market. HMIL had a production capacity of 2,00,000
cars per year as against 5,00,000 cars churned by MUL in a year. It should make sure
that the production crunch that happened in 2004 due to the release of its new model
Getz should not repeat again. The lack of enough production capacity is expected to
affect the companys market share as it would not be able to fulfill increased demand.