Toyota India stopped the production of Qualis
when it was having its highest market share in Indian market.
Qualis was launched in India in 2000. Qualis was at least two generation old
when it was launched in India. Qualis is Indian version of Toyota Kijang from
Indonesia. Skeptics forecasted doom for Qualis.
Those predicted failure for Qualis
had real logical reasons. First, Qualis was a dated model. Indian consumers are
aware of global trends and may not accept an outdated model. Second was the
design of Qualis. Qualis was not good looking.
But Qualis proved everyone wrong.
For Toyota, Qualis was a brand launched to test the market. Qualis was a
utility vehicle. The brand was competing with the Tata Sumo which was the
market leader in the nascent Multi-Purpose Vehicle segment.
MPV's are used by businessman and
self-employed and those who would like to take the entire family around. Sumo
was more of a commercial vehicle rather than a family one. Sensing this gap,
Qualis was launched as a family Multi-Purpose Vehicle.
Qualis was launched with much
fanfare and the launch also saw some iconic advertising. The brand was launched
with “Touch and Try" campaign which encouraged the customers to test drive
the car. The brand initially focused on Space and comfort as the main
differentiator.
Rather than the intended consumers, Qualis
began to attract taxi and tour operators. From the initial 9% market share,
Qualis dethroned Sumo and was the market leader with over 40% share.
The brand tried to bring back the
individual consumer through a series of campaigns and variants. The brand had
the following taglines "Touch the perfection " and " Live the
Qualis Life". New luxurious variants were launched to attract businessman
and individuals to buy this car. The Target group for Qualis was
businessman/self-employed people with an annual income between Rs 600,000- Rs
800,000 who travels at least 40-50 Km per day. Qualis was known for Quality
Durability and Reliability.
With Multi-Purpose Vehicle segment
taking off, competition was getting hotter for Qualis. More than Chevrolet, it
was Scorpio from Mahindra that worried Toyota most. The company felt that the
intended consumers were moving away from Qualis. Market research suggested that
consumer needs are changing and Qualis did not fit into the consumer's schemes.
Toyota had the company policy that a
model should have attained leadership position before phasing out. Qualis has
attained its saturation point. So the company had the challenge of retaining
the leadership position in the segment and also to expand the market. It wanted
to get out of the “Taxi " tag.
In 2004, Toyota announced the
phasing out of Qualis. Interestingly, the month where the phasing out was
announced saw record sales for Qualis. It’s difficult for a brand to succeed
and even more difficult for a marketer to kill a successful brand. Qualis '
death was timely and paved way for a more successful Innova.
Edited and taken from:
