[RavenAvi]

Tata Motors is planning to strengthen it's main base for marketing it's passenger vehicles by introducing new showrooms in key metro cities, which will be virtual-reality based.

Chalked up for a launch by H2 2017, these exclusive VR showrooms will provide customers with a 5D-like experience, similar to some Disneyland parks where visitors can actually feel and smell the ocean water through a complete, immersive virtual reality experience. These showrooms are being planned to be self-operating, with minimum staff in them to receive customers and collect their personal data and feedback.

(Image used for representational purpose only)

Mayank Pareek, president, passenger vehicle business unit, Tata Motors:

"It is a technology platform where you can almost have a 3D experience of the car and try various permutations and combinations. With augmented or virtual reality you can also get a drive experience of the car. You can actually sense the car, you can feel the car, you can smell the car.

The new set of technology led showrooms will aim to "excite" the customer enough for him/her to go for a test drive. When that happens half the battle is won, because the prospective customer will then definitely buy the product if it is good.

You need to go as near as possible to the customer. The times are gone when you expect the customer to come to the showroom and buy a vehicle, or any product."

For this last part, Pareek said that the company is also in the process of expanding it's conventional dealership and workshop numbers throughout the country. Tata Motors has reached a collective dealership count of 540, which Pareek aims to take up to as many as 1500 dealerships in the next 3 years.

Tata Motors has tasted recent (and much-needed) success with it's Tiago hatchback. With a slew of new products in the pipeline ready to be launched, this move could very well play a major role in boosting it's sales numbers even further.


Autocar Professional

[GTO]

It's a stupid idea. Wherever Tata wants to open this kind of a showroom, no one will be willing to invest the big bucks, hence these 'virtual reality' showrooms for cheap.

The car buying business is big on the 'touch & feel' factor. The internet has empowered us with information, yet there's no substitute to seeing a car in person & test-driving it. This is even more the case for Tata which has improved its overall quality levels; that cannot be effectively communicated from screens.

Of course, the 'virtual reality' experience can work if it is as a supplement to a showroom with real cars (and not a replacement). But you just cannot have a display without cars and expect prospects to get convinced.

I remember you'd started a thread when Renault planned something similar. Here's my post from that thread :

Originally Posted by GTO

A car showroom without cars! Which dimwit came up with this idea. Let Renault come to my restaurant the next time, I'll show them pictures of food!

Seriously, the primary reason that folks visit car showrooms is to 'touch & feel' the car. It's in our culture...we love touch & feel. The buyer is usually accompanied by his family members who - collectively - experience the car.

If I want to see 'internet-enabled' pictures or videos, I'll see them on my computer. What the heck do I need to go to the showroom for??!! Not like the usually uninformed sales advisors add any value either. If I read a Team-BHP review, not only have I saved the travel time, but I also know 100X of the information the sales advisor would've shared with me. So again, why should I visit a car-less showroom?!

I'm sure the dunce who came up with this idea is all smiles because he thinks he's very 'technologically savvy & with the times'. But what he really is, is plain stupid.

And a joke

Picture Source

*Breaking News*

Buoyed by the success of its 'car showroom without a car' strategy, Renault now moves the game a level up. Introducing version 2.0 of the concept - a 'car showroom' without a car or a showroom!

Renault's grit & determination in reducing dealer overheads is admirable. Participating dealers in the innovative new showroom strategy don't have to worry about land costs, as they will be located on public property (parks & the like). There's no need for any costly 'internet-enabled' LED screens either. Dealers complained that the 55" LED TVs were expensive to procure, and ran high electricity bills as a result of keeping them on throughout the day. Renault's solution is to replace them with high-resolution photo frames. The car showroom v2.0 completely addresses dealer concerns, leaving absolutely no room for complaint.

When the French company launched its earlier car-less showrooms, it had stated that "the absence of the vehicle should not be seen as a negative trait since customers already see the car on roads before going into the showroom for a look".

The open-air showroom take this a step further. Because they are strategically placed by public roads, customers will be able to see plenty of Renault cars whizzing by at the same time that they are admiring those cars in the photo frames.

Dealers are further excited at the prospects of saving costs on the complimentary hot beverages they are forced to offer. Insider sources confirm that locations are being scouted based on their proximity to chaiwallas (tea-stands).

[shree_shell]

Okay, lets us assume they make this fancy VR showroom, and get some foot-fall. But the bigger problem is the expectations of people.

When they think of VR, they might have upped their expectations, thinking of something real-life 3D VR experience. Now, till date, even the likes of HTC Vive, Oculus, etc couldn't nail a *real-life* VR experience, with all their army of developers. How is Tata gonna succeed at it?

Apart from the alienation from the touch and feel, the customers are gonna get turned down with some cheap VR quality, thinking they have just wasted their precious hour at some stupid VR station.

Seriously? who makes such decisions?!

[The Brutailer]

VR is a cool idea IF it supplements a conventional showroom. That is, a car should be kept for touch and feel and if a person wants to know more about the car, he can go to the VR booth and experience the car in it's VR glory.

In case of cars and bikes, nothing beats checking it out in real life. Even if Team Bhp is very expansive, I would never spend big bucks on a car without driving it in real life. Same applies to this concept as well.

It shouldn't replace conventional showrooms but should rather complement them.

Right now it's nothing more than a gimmick.

[Amey Kulkarni]

Originally Posted by GTO

It's a stupid idea. Wherever Tata wants to open this kind of a showroom, no one will be willing to invest the big bucks, hence these 'virtual reality' showrooms for cheap.

The car buying business is big on the 'touch & feel' factor. The internet has empowered us with information, yet there's no substitute to seeing a car in person & test-driving it. This is even more the case for Tata which has improved its overall quality levels; that cannot be effectively communicated from screens.

Of course, the 'virtual reality' experience can work if it is as a supplement to a showroom with real cars (and not a replacement). But you just cannot have a display without cars and expect prospects to get convinced.
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I fully agree with you GTO. This is a stupid idea in regards to if Tatas are thinking to increase their market share of passenger segment by doing this.

Pandit Auto, the biggest distributor of Tatas is in a very bad shape and on the verge of shutting down and wonder what Tatas have in their mind to open up such studio to attract new customers.

The basic perception of common people has not changed and by doing this will not change as well. Tatas are on the right direction by the success of Tiago and now Hexa coming in; however, sustaining in the market for long requires a prominent vision and mission which I hope the Tatas must have learnt from a bad decade of passenger car segment by playing around with Indica/Indigo and other facelifts.

The idea of virtual reality is just an add-on bounty when people trust your brand and you know people are willing to buy your cars which sadly has not been the case with Tatas the way they expect it to be.

Cheers,
Amey

[carbhaari]

Tata Motors plans Nexa-like dealerships for premium push.

As Tata Motors looks to up its ante in the passenger car segment the Mumbai-based company is believed to be working on forming a premium line of dealerships on the lines of Nexa set up by arch-rival Maruti Suzuki.

At the launch of Hexa, Tata Motors Passenger Vehicle Business Unit President Mayank Pareek said, “We are working on it”, when asked if there will be a need for a Nexa-like dealerships for Tata’s premium products.

Source: Moneycontrol