Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.

Maruti Suzuki India is turning one of the most basic marketing principles. Despite record sales month after month and long waiting periods on almost all its models, it has increased discounts this festival season compared with last year. The company has increased discounts to keep competitors at bay even though it can hardly service the current demand. It has negligible inventories of about a week to 10 days, whereas competitors such as Tata Motors, Hyundai Motor India and General Motors have stocked up.

Maruti is enticing customers with deeper discounts even as it tells them to wait for buying cars. This is quite a unique situation, but in an intensely competitive scenario, Maruti has little choice. The Alto F8 and K-10 are facing stiff competition from Hyundai Santro, Tata Indica and the Tata Nano there is virtually no waiting period for these variants and on some, equivalent discounts are gradually being made available to customers. Similarly, the new WagonR has a stiff competitor in Hyundai i10.