Getting the features package right is the biggest challenge for product planning teams.
I came across a study by Park+ Research Labs, which found that a whopping 78 percent of the 6,000 car owners they surveyed through their parking app say the top must-have feature is “ventilated seats”. Sunroof, ADAS and large screens were selected by only 11 percent, 8 percent and 3 percent of participants, respectively. Nothing pleases me more than the consumers realising what they need in Indian conditions and then demanding the same. I have always wondered at the sheer relevance of the sunroof in a largely tropical ecosystem like ours. The marketers had a terrific time selling the “premium flaunt” story, but hopefully, it has lived its life.
Ventilated seats are such a cool idea! They should have been brought in much before fitting television screens on dashboards. The Saab 9-5 was the first production vehicle to offer it way back in 1997 – of course, the heated version. The Hyundai Verna was the first non-premium vehicle to have ventilated seats in India. The immediate customer benefit was for all to see. Today, brands like Tata, Hyundai, Kia, MG, Mahindra, VW and Maruti offer this feature, albeit not across the range. There are some luxury brands that don’t yet have this feature in each product offering. What a shame!
A school friend who is back from the UAE and researching which car to buy said he was looking for one with ADAS 2. “Why?” “Because it makes the car safer.” “In India? How?” I am waiting for his call to convince me. ADAS 2 is going the sunroof way: more hype than actual benefit. While I agree that it is needed to improve active safety, especially on highways, it will be beneficial only when the entire road and traffic ecosystem is compatible. ADAS 1 is sufficient enough for the next 5-7 years in India.
The biggest feature rip-off has been the large screen on the dashboard. We really fell for this one, much more than the sunroof. Coupled with the “digital dashboard”, this has been marketed as the next new thing to flaunt. Loading it with apps, buttons and interfaces, we were made proud of moving in ‘software-on-wheels’, almost forgetting that the primary purpose of a screen is to ‘see’ something and not use it to control everything in a car. Moreover, the primary purpose of a car, too, was forgotten. We might as well have spent that money building an entertainment room at home and invited the condo over. If we were so keen to entertain people in cars, we should have focused on the rear seats and put the television screens there.
The features package is the biggest challenge for the product planning and definition team. The offering needs to be first-in-class to be marketable, immediately beneficial, worthy enough to show off and, most importantly, relevant to our applications.
Thankfully, the Indian vehicle consumer is seeing through all these fads and finally advocating features that are not only flaunt-worthy but also functionally beneficial in our operating environment.
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