Are there buyers waiting to buy things with a waitlist of 4-6 months in the current times? Honda Hybrid's recent action and response both have left me with more questions than answers! A 38% discount leads to a jump in sales by 100 times (30 cars in 4 months vs 100 in 4 days) and that too for a future delivery to be completed by March 31, 2009. Takeouts - - Honda has been able to liquidate all the stocks imported into the market - will have these cars run on Indian roads and give complete inputs on the performance on an ongoing basis - tested the price elasticity for the car - a similar multipoint research would have costed at least 50 % of the cost incurred by this method (assuming hiring Booz or McKinsey or so) But are consumers buying it because it is "cheap" or "value for money" or because there is a hefty discount and so a great short term bargain to flaunt! Time will reveal what is the insight but I am keen to know. Comments welcome.
Moving on from the core theme of only consumers to a broader Indian complexity. An amazing country that can be challenging to understand due to its diversity - economically, socially, linguistically, racially and what not. Enjoy the THALI as they say....