Same Car - Different Brands!


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First, it was "parts sharing" by a manufacturer between different models. FIAT, MARUTI, SKODA, TATA... everyone does it.

And now we have two different manufacturers launching the same cars with the same features, the same engine, the same dash, etc. under different names. Of course, with a few nips & tucks & their logo!

E.g. - Micra & Pulse, Sunny & soon-to-be-launched Scala.

Why this practice? What do you guys think about this?
 
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Re: Same car, different brands!

Only thing i can suspect it is that they might offer different after sales service. Other than that i cant Find a reason.
 
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Re: Same car, different brands!

Actually its a cost cutting [:)], if a car manufacturer shares a platform they can have some good savings on them. Ex: Vento & Rapid share a common platform. From what I came to know through a friend (he works for ZigWheels ) is its actually economic for them to mass produce a chassis/parts/accessories which are common in design and functionality.
 
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Re: Same car, different brands!

Even though these are different brands, they are from the same group.

Renault and Nissan has formed an alliance with cross share holding. Carlos Ghosn is the CEO and Chairman of both the companies.

Same is the case with Vento and Rapid.
(Volkswagen owns skoda)

While the sharing of parts was a simple straight forward method to achieve economies of scale, introducing same car in different brand names is a complicated mangement technique.

Car companies follow these kind of tactics to leverage on the varied preferences of customers.

In Indian market, due to the sudden surge of buying power, demand for exclusivity, and wide open preference range due to the large population, companies can afford to forget economies of scale and convinience in sales, distribution and after sales service and hope for selling more numbers with more brands.

{Maruti was following a variation of this technique by introducing several cars which were overlapping into segments and catagories}

I can explain the technique of these companies selling same car in different brand names with a crude or remote analogy.

When we were in Chennai, there were two shops - Kirana shops next to my home. Some times I have noticed some angry customers arguing with the shop keeper and telling him that tomorrow onwards he will buy from the other shop only. This shop keeper nodes (smiling inside). Other shop is also owned by him and managed by his relative.
 
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Re: Same car, different brands!

The technical term for this in the west is badge engineering, its an extremely handy thing to do reduce heavy investments in design and engineering/setup. There are many many examples of this and even between what you would call competitive automobile firms. GM has done with Toyota and so has Ford with VW. Helps when you are wanting to create brand awareness and also position yourself in a different segment in which you arent known or simply to reduce input costs and share profits.
 
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I think this is what is called competitor followup and doing what your competitor does, to give him tough fight in the car rat-race. After all its business & one needs to follow it rigorously to be in the game.
 
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First, it was "parts sharing" by a manufacturer between different models. FIAT, MARUTI, SKODA, TATA... everyone does it.

And now we have two different manufacturers launching the same cars with the same features, the same engine, the same dash, etc. under different names. Of course, with a few nips & tucks & their logo!

E.g. - Micra & Pulse, Sunny & soon-to-be-launched Scala.

Why this practice? What do you guys think about this?
this is not new.

Your car and the Opel/Vauxhall Corsa share the same platform.
The Ford Galaxy and The Volkswagen Sharan shared the same platform and were virtually identical. The Galaxy is built by VW.

The Fiat Panda/500 shares platform with Ford Ka.

Alfa and Nissan had a long time back shared the Alfa Arna/ Nissan Cherry Europe platform and looked virtually identical.

Peugeot produces a number of small commercials for PSA and the Fiat group.

The Peugeot 107, Citroen C1 and Toyota Aygo are built on the same conveyor belt being virtually the same cars.

Mercedes Sprinter and Volkswagen LT are the same chassis.

Suzuki Splash/Ritz = Opel Agila.

Opel Astra and AlfaGiulietta are the same car apart from engines.

The PSA 1.6 TD is also found in the Mini and Ford.

And the list goes on.

Platform sharing saves a lot of development cost, which is even more important with the more and more stringent safety demands by the law makers.
 
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First, it was "parts sharing" by a manufacturer between different models. FIAT, MARUTI, SKODA, TATA... everyone does it.

And now we have two different manufacturers launching the same cars with the same features, the same engine, the same dash, etc. under different names. Of course, with a few nips & tucks & their logo!

E.g. - Micra & Pulse, Sunny & soon-to-be-launched Scala.

Why this practice? What do you guys think about this?
The strategy is evident, may be sophistically called as Brand Engineering; Cost Cutting or Part Sharing or whatever it's strategically called as... But the question is, will they all Succeed or at least Survive?

If they were thinking people are Fools or will probably overlook the similarities, then I would say they are fooling themselves. Rather, I see this as a strategy of competing one product with other of same brand. EOD, I gain it whether I sell A or B, which doesn’t matter much. (Typical Kirana Shop example shared above).

However, today Indian automobile market is so dynamic and the customer is delighted with wide available options. Moreover, customers are turning smart as well to choose what they want. One may choose Micra over Pulse (or vice versa) due to various reasons (Eg. Color; Waiting Period etc.), but won’t keep both in wish list while contemplating with a different brand (Eg: Figo; Swift etc.).

So to answer the earlier question, these “Auto Giants” today are just trying to survive the market with either A or B rather than trying any innovations and inventions. But the critical question is, why India? [frustration]
 
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Platform/Parts sharing and badge reengineering are two different things :-
1) Innova/Fortuner is an example of platform sharing
2) While Pulse/Micra is an example of badge sharing

I think this thread is about badge reengineering(not platform). Yes Aygo/C1/107 is a classic example of different badge same car.
 
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The technical term for this in the west is badge engineering, its an extremely handy thing to do reduce heavy investments in design and engineering/setup. There are many many examples of this and even between what you would call competitive automobile firms. GM has done with Toyota and so has Ford with VW. Helps when you are wanting to create brand awareness and also position yourself in a different segment in which you arent known or simply to reduce input costs and share profits.
this is not new.
Platform sharing saves a lot of development cost, which is even more important with the more and more stringent safety demands by the law makers.
Platform sharing defenitely help companies to save on development cost and time too.

However, in this example shown in the first post by Raj, its not the classic case of platform sharing. Badge engineering is there but again in a different way.

When Micra is already in the market, a group company is introducing the same car with a diffrent brand name with minor cosmetic changes. Same is the case with Vento and Rapid.

Thats why I was trying to see this in another angle.

Its nothing but leveraging the market dynamics to increase the numbers (as explained in post 5) for the group as a whole even though it may be some sort of cannibalism.
 
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I wouldnt term and Vento and Rapid in the badge rengineering category as there is considerable difference in body panel and interior quality etc. Its more a case of platform reuse/parts sharing.

In micra/pulse thing there is a small cosmetic add on otherwise they come out out the same conveyor belt.
 
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Sometimes I feel auto cos are becoming more of udipi hotels, use same sambar & chutney & use it for multiple dishes [;)].

But due to this, the premium brand looses weightage.
Eg. Several parts of Audi now can be seen in VW. Passat & Phaeton are good egs. for this. The rear of Jetta is similar to outgoing A4.

Parts from Lamborghini comes in Audi sports car.
Eg. Audi R8.

All in all, the brand at bottom of pyramid & at the top suffers as no one wants to buy something which is cheap & no one wants to pay more for same things which are available at less price.

Eg. Skoda > VW > Audi.

VW wins.
 
Thread Starter #14
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Platform/Parts sharing and badge reengineering are two different things :-
1) Innova/Fortuner is an example of platform sharing
2) While Pulse/Micra is an example of badge sharing

I think this thread is about badge reengineering(not platform). Yes Aygo/C1/107 is a classic example of different badge same car.
Exactly.

Friends, this thread is not about parts sharing like Fortuner-Innova, Swift-Dzire, Punto-Linea. Altleast these cars are different.

What I am talking about is badge re-engineering like Vento-Rapid, Pulse-Micra, etc. I agree that manufacturers benefit from this but launching same cars with different badges is stupidity according to me.
 
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Exactly.

Friends, this thread is not about parts sharing like Fortuner-Innova, Swift-Dzire, Punto-Linea. Altleast these cars are different.

What I am talking about is badge re-engineering like Vento-Rapid, Pulse-Micra, etc. I agree that manufacturers benefit from this but launching same cars with different badges is stupidity according to me.
Platform sharing and badge re-engineering are very close together and have the same reasons behind them. It is all about saving development cost.

What seems to be stupidity to you doesn't bother the majority of consumers. And this is why manufacturers can do it.

A large percentage of the buyers is loyal the brand. This might have all sorts of reasons. They are not bothered who designed the car.

Another large percentage of the buyers are looking to buy in a certain price category. They neither are bothered of badge re-engineering.

The to my knowledge largest enthusiast forum in India does not even have 1lakh members. They do not even all come from India. And quite a number of them are less bothered with who else makes the car than what ICE, alloys etc to buy. This is the perspective of the manufacturers.
 

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