AUTOEXPO 2012 - Memoirs

Better late then never. This post was written long back...didn't get to post it.
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We chose to go there on non-media and non press day, primarily to see how consumers react to the new launches and experiences created by the emerging biggest auto market of the world. And just to put on the record, people/consumers didn’t disappoint us, but the new products on display did.



Queue to get into the Autoexpo- of those, who had a valid ticket



Car colors are spilling over to LCVs now

One of the eye-catcher styling- Renault Dezir

Real-Virtual integration at Maruti Stall- LIKES
on facebook are displayed instantly on the large screen at the entry and exit

Camera styling now crossing over to scooters- TVS Qube

Affable styling of Maruti XAlpha concept- reminds of Swift- the hot seller
hatchback small car

BMW stall- Launching the Mini - Thanks for lifting it up for public view- Crowd swelled to unbearable levels later

Entering the expo at 11am in the morning, we were on our toes till 6pm in the evening. Seven hours of visual blitzkrieg and several pulls and pushes in the crowd, left us utterly tired. We entered through gate seven, and headed straight to Maruti pavilion. Lack of proper signage is not something new to Indian eyes. While malls, roads, airports and hospitals are getting the due upgrades which India didn’t think, will happen to it so fast, signage and navigation guidance is a missing piece in the puzzle. Western best practices of certain distance, and certain signage are followed, but the kind of crowd that swells up in India is something unforeseen under ‘global best practices’. We need bolder and bigger signboard that can be read from 30-40 feet away. Signboards that are placed below 10 feet height get obscured by the people themselves. Once inside the venue, you are literally left to guide yourselves by looking at the tallest hoardings/banners of the halls. Later, I noticed some people passing by the hall, where huge banner of Mahindra was hanging (though the brands like Renault, Enfield, Hero, Bajaj were also present), saying “arey chal, Mahindra ko kya dekhna ( hey, let’s skip Mahindra)”.  Searching for toilets was not so difficult. One can just ask any guard and he promptly points the direction. However, there were no sign of the signage here, which is assumed to be a basic mandate for any event of this size.

Maruti, stall stood out, in my opinion on several counts. It did present an aggressive styling stance in the new concepts, missing so far in vanilla mode it has been running. The small SUV styled on the lines of Swift, appeared to have got the elements of bold and robust styling along with elegance of the Swift. Indian sensibilities are not tuned to the extremes. Or I would say, there is a feminine touch to styling that Indian mind seeks. XUV of Mahindra has been styled with ‘prancing leopard’ as an inspiration yet it does appear ‘feminised’ in several elements. I also overheard that though Maruti presents several new ideas and refreshing styling in the concept models, but fails miserably in translating them into real products.  Maruti’s application of new color scheme on the existing models was refreshing. Use of multi-hued matt-metallic colors was refreshing. It was a sort of déjà-vu for us, as we had forecasted these colors for mobile phone two years back. Trickle down of trends from accessories to automobiles takes this much time. Another interesting element common to many stalls but more aggressively used by Maruti was using Facebook registration desk and fingerprint terminals at each display that picks up your ‘likes’ and runs a scroll on a giant screen at the exit. Exhibition design today is getting digital more and more. TVS stall had a giant cylindrical screen (360 degree), of around 10 meters diameter, with a co-ordinated projection through several projectors, creating a seamless experience of giant screen around you. Later, I met the MD of Insta Group in the flight on way back to Pune, the company who designed and executed the stall. I did congratulate him for the good work here and how his small company, which has acquired a  few companies abroad, is trying to make an Indian dent in the global exhibition industry.

In 2006, when we conducted the first ever Mega-trends conference in India, along with Style-Vision of France, the film ‘Dhoom’ was just released. The trend ‘Magic Kingdom’ took note of the economic and infrastructure revolution in the country and predicted that everything mega, over sized, super-powered and over designed is about to come to the country. One can see the power-bikes on display at Autoexpo and can see that this trend has matured. From TVS to Suzuki to Hero, all had put up ‘power’ version of the bikes. Polaris had put up the off-roaders on display. As the Trend ‘Hypershift’ predicts the boom in ‘activities’ rather than ‘relaxation’, in the times to come, off-roaders and SUVs or SUV looks are a foregone conclusion in automotives.

My personal favorite in styling was Renault’s Dezir. The sensuous curves of Ferrari legacy were well contrasted with Techno-fluid grills. Bionic design of seats,  gull-wing doors,  combined with magical use of LEDs were some of the interior elements that complemented the styling. Pixel from Tata was another refreshing styling. Reva redesign proved to be disappointing. Rear treatment of Reva made it look more boxier than it currently looks.

Bajaj’s RE-60 seemed to have lost the sheen it originally envisaged. People commenting on TV “arey, auto ko ek wheel aur laga diya hai (just another wheel added to the autorickshaw)”, had already toned down expectations.  We got to know that the primary market for RE-60 may actually be south-east Asian market rather than India. My own calculation with regards to Indian auto-market is that Bajaj is committing the same positioning mistake that Tata did with Nano. For an autorikshaw owner, Nano might now appear a worthwhile option after spending few more bucks. Indian consumers still get driven not by absolute virtues, but with relative comparisons. In my opinion, Bajaj should quickly plan another upstream product in small car range to fully utilize the potential of the innovation they have cobbled together without a foreign partner.

One of the noticeable things this time, at least for me, was presence of ‘Brand accessories’ by Enfield and Yamaha. Though the Enfield stall was badly designed the write-ups and the display of brand accessories was impressive. India is just about beginning to get the taste of ‘brand cults’, which are a purely western phenomenon.

We could not see the BMWs, Volkswagen, Merc stalls closely as the crowd swelled to a level where you are guided by the push and pulls of the crowd. One of the things common between them was that unlike others, despite having a large exhibition area, they enclose the stalls from the top also and use empty spaces and lights to maximize the appeal.

Overall, this year’s autoexpo proved to be standing at a lower alter than I expected. It did not have enough inspiring content- products, displays, event management and the perennial hunt  ‘India Insights’ – all seemed to be wanting. Probably this is the reason that this blog post I wrote immediately after coming back from the expo, yet it is being put on the net after four months.