CASE STUDY

IS CUSTOMER REALLY THE KING ?

Anand Prakash and his wife Malti are both dejected and angry today. Their anger and

frustration seem justified in contemporary times when businesses the world over are

trying to make out that 'customer is the king'. Anand (39) and Malti (34) are both

lecturers in a college in Yavatmal, a growing city with approximately 5 lac population.

Both of them have since the last 5 years collected every penny of their savings with a

single dream that of buying a new car. It was in September 1999 that they started

thinking of actually going in for one. Their initial excitement died out very soon when

they learnt that the city did not have an authorized dealer of any car company. The

nearest dealerships were at Nagpur but again getting the correct postal addresses of these

dealers at Nagpur proved quite a task. They were further disappointed when most of the

Nagpur dealers chose to ignore their queries. Phone calls to a few dealers at Nagpur only

solicited some very cold responses. Anand and Malti's self-image of being a valued

customer and of being treated like one was totally shattered. The few advertisements in

the local newspapers put in by the companies did not answer any of the questions of

Anand. While some friends suggested visiting the web sites of prominent car companies,

others advised them to run down to Nagpur to gather the needed information. Meanwhile

Anand happened to meet one Mr. Dodlani who dealt in cars. Mr. Dodlani who offered to

get the couple a brand new Maruti Car from Delhi also quoted a surprisingly low price of

Rs. 2,38,000. But the authenticity of his offer was greatly suspect since he was not in any

way connected to Maruti Udyog Ltd. A business house which claimed to have been

appointed the Maruti dealer for Yavatmal put the price at Rs. 2,74,000. When Malti

talked to her father at Jabalpur the price of Maruti quoted there was Rs. 2,55,000. These

price variations further confused the prospective buyers. Questions like: What was the

registration tax? What was the cost of insurance? What models and colors were available,

which models offered? What features remained totally unanswered. Resultantly Anand

and Malti were totally at a loss as to how should they make their buying decision.

Questions

1) Evaluate the marketing communications of big car companies particularly from the

point of view of non-metro buyers.

2) Suggest a corporate communication strategy for big car companies so as to avoid

situations like the one in this case.