Many Problems Are Faced By The Auto Industry Due To Online Counterfeiting And The Gray Market.

Counterfeiting is such a menace that even the Federal Bureau of Investigation has termed it the crime of the 21st century. If you dont believe this, perhaps some number crunching can shed some light on the kind of hazards that this activity creates for automotive businesses worldwide. For example, the global automotive parts industry suffers losses pegged as high as $12 billion a year, $3 billion of which is in the U.S. The total global counterfeit market is pegged at a whopping $350 billion. The Motor and Equipment Manufacturers Association (MEMA), realizing the grave situation of counterfeits affecting its businesses, formed the Brand Protection council to take matters of fake counterfeit products in the automobile sector seriously.

What are fake automotive parts? How does one distinguish them from the originals?

Some counterfeits are simply imitations of real automotive parts and look exactly like the original so as to fool the buyer into believing that they are buying the original. Other times, fake or counterfeit automotive parts are simply packaged to look like the original. Counterfeiters often utilize the same brand image, colors and font sizes to ensure that the packaging looks similar to that of the real product. Some of the most common counterfeit automotive parts are things like fan belts, spark plugs, engine mountings, wheel covers, alloy wheels, air filters, fuel filters and oil filters. Sometimes the products carry the logo of the original. Other times counterfeiters simply use outdated parts that have been thrown out by the original company or dealer, renew them with some work and sell them again in the grey market.

There are many problems associated with fake automotive parts.

Such grey market products affect the brand and the reputation of the original manufacturer. Despite being made to look like the original, these products are not the original product. Even though they may be sold at perhaps 1/4th of the original price, the worth is much less than the real product. The safety of your vehicle could be compromised, and it could have many different kinds of problems, from part failure to higher fuel consumption to higher levels of pollution. The most pressing problem with using fakes is that, while you might feel you have gotten a great deal in terms of price, you will never get the intended effect that the original product can offer. In terms of quality and durability, you will always be at a loss if you opt for counterfeit products.

Prestolite Meet For Upgradation- Battery Industry

The Indian automobile industries as well as the industry related businesses are experiencing unprecedented growth. Associated sectors of the automotive industry are also developing and growing in a manner where they are forming independent competitive markets and recognized industries by themselves. The battery industry is one of the leading sectors in this respect. While, in the past, the battery industry was essentially an ancillary of the automotive industry, today, the battery industry has become a full-fledged industry sector on its own.
Exide technologies continue to be the world-leader in the battery industries. It is one of the biggest producers, distributors, and recyclers in the field of lead-acid cells, and sells them in over 80 countries. The Prestolite brand of batteries is a part of Exide technology launched by Tudor India in 1997.

In Gujarat, Tudor India arranged a meeting of its dealers and distributors at La Meridien Hotel for this purpose. The meeting, held on 17th November was attended by Mr. Ken Honge, the Vice President of Exide, the company’s Sales Director, Mr. Jasbir Mata, and Marketing Manager, Mr. Rahul Sagre among others. The meet discussed the present situation of the battery industry and shared the future planning of the company with its dealers and distributors.
The meeting was opened with the speech of Mr. Harish Gandhi, the Regional Sales Manager for Gujarat, who introduced Mr. Ken Honge, and welcomed the participants. After the introductory speech, the thread was picked up by Mr. Rahul Sagre, who gave an in-depth briefing of Exide company’s present status and future vision to the distributors.

Mr. Jasbir Mata told the distributors that more aggressive marketing was needed on their part so that Prestolite could maintain its market lead and expand to new territories. He stressed upon the need of after-sales service and customer service.

The general industry perception is that while the automotive industry, as a whole, has well-recovered from the effects of the global economic depression and has returned to the fast-track, the lead-acid battery sector has fallen behind and is yet to catch up to the pace of recovery. It is principally to address this anomaly that the Vice President of Exide Technology, Mr. Ken Honge visited India on a business research tour.

Mr. Mata was of the opinion that with the strong brand leads the distributors enjoyed with Prestolite, and with the global leading position of Exide technologies to back them, the distributors were in a sound position to accelerate growth and forge ahead of competition. Mr. Ken Honge shared the history of Exide Technologies and provided information on new technologies in lead-acid batteries. He stressed on the importance of India as a growing economy and one of the fastest developing markets of the world. He stressed that without proactive steps taken by the distributors it would be difficult to experience the desired brand growth in a dynamic economy like India.

Tools Used To Conduct Automotive Marketing Research

Marketing research is conducted by almost very automotive industry to understand market trends and potential customers. A major purpose of marketing research is to find answers for questions and thus to acquire new or updated knowledge. Today’s automotive manufacturing firms conduct comprehensive marketing research to enhance management decision-making by using relevant, accurate and timely information. Automotive marketing research has thus become a crucial part in management decision making.
Automotive marketing research has been conducted to:

Identify customers

Understand needs and requirements of customers

Find out how and where the customers want the products or service

Discover at what price customers will purchase products

Finding answers for these questions helps automotive manufacturing firms to formulate appropriate product development strategies. Information gathered from marketing research need to be analyzed and used while designing and manufacturing new products or before making any modification to existing product line.
Lack of time and strict time schedule always restrict manufacturing firm to conduct automotive marketing research before launching a new product. Mostly, manufacturers develop products without understanding the actual needs of customers; this might result in the fail of products in markets and thus impart huge loss to manufacturing firm. However, service of marketing research companies can be effectively utilized to carry out marketing research. These companies conduct marketing research and find answers for research problems on behalf of their clients.
Marketing research companies collect data from potential customers by conducting or participating in:
Car clinics – Car clinics are the most effective automotive marketing research tool used by marketing researchcompanies to collect data. These companies conduct car clinics in various parts of countries to collect useful information from large numbers of show attendees.
Drive studies – Marketing research companies design and execute open course drive studies and closed course drive studies to collect feedback related to comfort, ride and handling, and powertrain issues. These kinds of feedback are highly valuable for new product development.
Auto show research – Automobile event research is one of the cost effective tools used to collect information on display evaluations, new product designs, feedback on concept vehicles and new technologies etc.
Online research – marketing research companies conduct different kinds of online surveys to collect information related to topics like new product development, pricing research, styling studies, customer satisfaction and so on. They mail a well designed questionnaire to potential customers and thus seek answers to various research questions. Online research is one of the cost effective and efficient automotive marketing research tool used to collect feedback from large number of customers instantly.
Along with the above tools, marketing research companies also collect information over phone. All these automotive marketing tools have high relevance in obtaining accurate and updated customer feedback. Moreover, information thus collected provides a complete knowledge on the likes and desires of potential customers. This knowledge helps a manufacturing firm to design and develop new products by incorporating new features. Launching products with required features helps manufacturing firm to achieve competitive advantage and also to improve sale.

Ford Fiesta Classic A Affordable Priced In India

Ford had been quiet on the release of the brand new Fiesta model. Many people believed that it could be the same automotive with just a few changes with some new trims. Nonetheless, the silence from Ford did take folks with storm, with their new Ford Fiesta Classic. The brand new Fiesta Classic had not been given upgrades. The truth is, the entire automotive has been changed. The modifications are so massive, that it could not be honest not to name Fiesta Classic a new car.

The new Fiesta Classic has the Kinetic design that Ford had introduced in Polo as well. The design permits fluid driving at highways. The automobile seems to be fairly daring with the air vents and the grills at the front. The headlight and the nostril are also very appealing. Some components of the car get chromed, particularly the excessive finish SXI variant. The inside of the automobile gets a very unusual combination of two-tone colours. The Fiesta C gets a leather-coated steering wheel for higher gripping. The automobile seats are all cloth covered. A number of the excessive degree trims get the driver seat peak- adjustment’s possibility as well. The best variant additionally will get the MP3 player with a help of 6 speakers. The stock trim doesn’t have the MP3 player support.

All the Fiesta automobiles have are missing the leg room for the rear seats, which is being considered as a critical let down. Other than that more features embrace energy managed windows in all variants. The rear-view mirror could be controlled via a central console, however only in the excessive end trim. The boot capability is quite good with 410 litres, which could possibly be increased by the folding of rear seats. The symptoms are able to find their place within the rear-view mirrors.

The Fiesta Traditional has two engine choices, a 1.4- diesel or a 1.6- litre petrol engine. The Traditional comes in three models; LXI the fundamental, CLXI, the medium and SXI the highest of the range. There are other two variants as effectively, referred to as EXI and ZXI. These two variants include a mixture of options and engine power. The diesel engine is outclassed by the petrol engine in every way, i.e. higher brake horsepower, higher acceleration and better most speed. Nonetheless, the diesel engine produces more torque than the petrol engine, i.e. 160Nm to 146Nm. The diesel engine can also be a bit extra gasoline environment friendly than the petrol one, with 16km per litre. All trims bought a simple to handle gearbox. It’s indeed very light and the gear shifts with just a bit push.

The Fiesta Traditional has all the necessary safety equipments available. The ABS and the EBD, available with the top range variant, permits faster and safer drive. The automobile has additional options like anti-theft system, central locking. Nevertheless, one thing that consumer received like is that there are many options that Ford had limited solely to the SXI variant. Which means the basic or the medium-vary variants aren’t safe to drive. However, the costs are nonetheless truthful sufficient and there is a good amount of difference between the essential and the highest range variant.

Which Motorcycle Brand Is The Best

When it comes to the leading motorcycle brands on the market, the list appears endless. However, when you take a closer look, the motorcycle brands that stand heads and shoulders above the competition are motorcycle brands like Harley Davidson, Yamaha, Honda and Ducati. These four motorcycle brands are just a few in a fast growing field of motorcycle machinery and technologically advanced motorcycles around. Harley Davidson continues to build performance-wise motorbikes with 117 horsepower engine.

Harley Davidson’s VRSCAW V-ROD reaches an impressive 0-100 KM/H in approximately 3.5 seconds. While the Ducati 900 is considered a classic raw power packed with Italian innovation and design. The technology behind the making of this classic machine has blow the competition away with a 2-cylinder and 78 horsepower engine. Ducati is the one to go for when you want the ultimate motorbike experience.

For a quality and reliable motorcycle, the BMW motorcycle is second to none in its category. BMW motorbike insurance is always necessary when handling a bike of this kind. Especially, when you are taking on the power of the BMW motorbike machinery. Fast and powerful definitely describes this motorcycle. For a chic look, tried and tested reliability, the BMW motorbike will not let you down. As one of Asia’s leading manufacturers of motorbikes, the Yamaha motorbike is ingenuity and motorcycle advancement combined. Yamaha motorbike insurance is definitely required for a machine packed with so much more than your standard motorcycle.

Get an online insurance quote for your motorcycle insurance to ensure that you get the best quote available. Honda motorcycle insurance scheme provide you with everything you need. Some motorcycle insurance schemes even offer helmet and leather cover. Once you have confirmed your Honda motorbike insurance for your Honda motorbike you are ready to take to the open roads with the wind in your hair. The power of the Honda technology has span decades. The track record for this esteemed motorcycle manufacturer has legions of customer loyalty behind it. It is definitely a name in the world of motorbikes that you can trust and enjoy to the maximum.