Recently i just went through the Honda annual report.. (there financial year is from April to March) .. and they reported over 3 ruppee per share loss.. while last year they reported 9 ruppee per share profit...
So seeing Dewan here with faltering sales of Santro is not surprising.. The reason is that when a person is ready to spend over 500k, then he has so much variety and options that either you need to have a very strong brand name (whether you agree or not but Hyundai is not a very positively strong brand name) or you need to have a very good repute...
For 2 people Santro is a good car... but please don't feel offended when i say that for the rear passenger its like sitting in a rickshaw..
So keeping in view your previous posts what i will suggest is that:
Scrap all current Santro Models and introduce two new model one in 800cc category and other in 1200cc category...
Make the 800cc category priced around 300 - 350 k... don't try to push it too high... thats what you did with Santro first pushed it slowly and steadily high and high on price and now you are competing in MY VIEW against City...
Have a very good engine in this 800cc car and basic features... nothing extra to keep the price low and competitive..
Price the 1200cc car around 700k and have lots of features in it... and in choosing the feature try to stress on these which makes more importance in the eyes of the customer... like i think having a high end Stereo system is not as worthy as having the power features in the car assuming both are costing equal for the company...
After a year or so from these two model relaunch the 1000cc Santro under a new name and new shape and prices around 550k.
I don't think its going to get implemented.. but this is what i believe i would have implemented had i been the CEO of DEWAN...
honestly speaking its the only the price which is most important now in Pakistani market especially if you are going for higher volumes... and as long as the recoditioned cars are coming into the market i don't expect you can match them on features and quality...so only thing left is price.