Word: bmw
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Dates: during 2010-2019
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...plenty of traffic jams to navigate, Indian consumers, unlike their Chinese counterparts, often opt for function over form. Those who want a stylish ride pay for it dearly: import duties of more than 100% essentially double the sticker price of all foreign cars. To get around that, BMW and Mercedes assemble some of their models locally, cutting the taxes in half. When BMW first arrived in India, it discovered that the customers who could afford a luxury car were not used to going out of their way to buy it, says Peter Kronschnabl, president of BMW India. In the past...
...long ago, the only time luxury-car brands like Audi or BMW made an appearance in India was in movies or at auto shows like this one. Not anymore. As the economy has grown, so has India's appetite for luxury automobiles, making it an important target for foreign automakers looking away from Western markets mired in global recession and whose streets are already bumper to bumper with cars. "India is one of the markets of the future," says Paul Blokland, managing director of Segment Y Automotive Intelligence, an automotive-consulting firm based in Goa, India. "Manufacturers are looking...
...only 1% of the 1 billion-plus population owns a car. Although India trails the world's largest emerging car market - China - its sheer size gives it untapped potential that carmakers can't ignore. A decade ago, Mercedes-Benz was the only luxury-car brand in India. In 2006, BMW opened up shop, and it was soon joined by Audi. Though high-end business still only constitutes 0.5% of the overall Indian car market, the brands are already selling more cars than in smaller countries like Malaysia and Thailand, where Mercedes and BMW have been active for 50 years...
...Because having a hired driver is also common practice among India's socioeconomic élite, BMW also had to change its sales pitch to suit a buyer who might never even sit in the driver's seat. "When we get in contact with a customer, we show the backseat as well," says Kronschnabl. "We don't only focus on the driving experience because the [hired] driver experiences the driving; the owner experiences the backseat." Because the backseat rather than the driver's seat is a big selling point, unlike in most markets, bigger and more expensive BMW 5 Series sedans...
...aromatherapist. "She blended some oils for me to put under my shaving cream so that the razor glided over the skin and didn't grab hair," Malka says. "It worked magic for my skin and was the catalyst for starting the shaving business." They sold their BMW for $12,000 - "We were broke," Malka says - and opened up a small Manhattan store in 1996. The company sells its own Art of Shaving-brand products in its stores and other high-end retailers like Bloomingdale's, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Saks. (See the best pictures...