Lamborghini recently opened its showroom in Mumbai and the Italian sportscar marque has come up with a brilliant strategy to target potential customers. According to TOI, the Volkswagen owned company has plans to utilize the Buddh international circuit to allow potential car buyers to test their machine.
The ‘Track Day‘ at India’s first Formula One track is scheduled during the winter season, between October to November. Lamborghini plans to invite about 10-15 possible buyers of the car and allow them to test-drive their dream machine for over 45 minutes around the 5.14 km racetrack.
This marketing strategy has been successful globally, and the Italian carmaker has been able to convert 15 percent of its ‘Track-Day’ participation into sales. Lamborghini is certain that the trick will work in India as well and plans to organize ‘Track Day’ once every year.
Lamborghini’s president and CEO, Stephen Winklemann believes that a track experience can give a closer understanding of the vehicle to the driver. On-track experience is more thrilling and the driver is emotionally connected to the car while having fun. With several other plans to promote sales in India, Pavan Shetty was appointed as head of operations of the National Sales Company, and the ‘Track Day’ is just a part of the initiative.
India has witnessed a downpour of sportscars from a variety of brands, including Lamborghini, Ferrari, Porsche and Aston Martin. However, due to substantially poor road infrastructure, the sales of these cars has been a nightmare to the dealers, coming in at just 100 units in the 2011 calendar with 14 Lambos sold. Whereas, China contributed to 342 units of the total 2,000 global sales of Lamborghini last year.
In the Indian portfolio, Lamborghini has the Gallardo, pegged at Rs 2.47-3.22 crore and Aventador, pegged at Rs 4.2 crore, with about 70-90 cars doing rounds on the Indian roads already. Lamborghini has a major rivalry against luxury car brands like Bentley & Rolls Royce. Customers buying these cars prefer taking the back seat, while Lambo owners prefer taking to the wheels.
Beginning as an annual event, the Track Day will further be organized more frequently depending on customer response. Apart from the radical marketing strategy, Lamborghini plans to reach out the Italian car lovers into various cities, unlike other luxury brands that have finite reach in tier-I and tier-II cities.
According to Lamborghini’s operational head, Pawan Shetty, the company plans to display the lineup of Lamborghini cars at 5-star hotels in Pune and Ahmedabad in the upcoming months. With response from the organized events, the car manufacturer will expand to other markets in the country. Moreover, the Italian carmaker plans to invite the car designers and engineers to interact with the customers for allowing them to better understand their machines. He further said that since the Lamborghini owners are well-educated car enthusiasts, allowing them to meet the creators of the car is a great idea.
Lamborghini targets selling 18-20 units in the 2012 calendar, about 50 percent higher than the 2011 sales figure. It further plans to reach an annual sales figure of 50 cars by 2015, as India emerges as an automotive market leader.
Previously, several automotive brands like Ferrari, Yamaha, Hyundai, Toyota, have utilized the racetrack to promote their brands. It costs about Rs 8-10 lacs to book the track for a day, which is a worthy investment looking at the prices of these machines. Jaypee Sports organizes track days, races and other events throughout the year, while it is booked for 10 days exclusively for Formula One.
If the event turns out successfully, Lamborghini plans to invite the owners of Aventador and Gallardo to participate in the Asian Super Tropheo tournament and get a glimpse of life in the fast lane. Shetty said that some of the customers got the opportunity to race in such an event last year.
