Renault kicks off new brand identity, customer experience strategy in India

Renault India, which strengthened its commitment to the Indian market by signing an MoU with the Tamil Nadu government in CY23, to invest Rs 5,300 crore along with its alliance partner Nissan, has launched its new brand identity in India. 

The company will start rolling out the new global Renault brand identity and customer interface (CI) across its network this year, to gear for the new model launches that it has lined up between CY25 and CY27, as part of the global Renaulution strategy.

Renaulution - which outlines an additional Euro 3 billion combined investment across five emerging markets - Latin America, Morocco, Turkiye, India, and South Korea - will see Renault India introduce five new models over the next three years.

The company will launch two brand-new SUVs - a compact SUV, and a mid-size SUV - as well as the second generation models of the Kiger and Triber in the Indian market between 2025 and 2027. The carmaker also plans to introduce its first EV during this timeframe and claims to offer a high level of localisation, thereby eyeing aggressive pricing.

The new brand identity aims to rejuvenate the company's retail network in India for these upcoming products in the pipeline. While it has been using the new global Renault brand emblem in its advertisements and communications in India since CY21, Renault India will roll out the new visual identity for the network, starting Q1 CY24. 

“In CY24, we will see the physical manifestation of the new the new brand identity into the network, with the entire channel makeover getting completed by Q4 CY25,”  Sudhir Malhotra, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Renault India, said at a media event in New Delhi.

The company also announced its revamped 360-degree holistic approach to enhance customer experience with its new Disha CX digital initiative - that aims to offer a completely ‘Phygital’ experience to customers. 

The digital initiative offers several front-end features, including a virtual assistant when a potential customer logs on to the company's website, through to digital financing by virtue of a digital application that allows documentation and customer e-KYC online itself.

Disha CX is an all-encompassing digitisation of the operations - right from prospecting, to finance, to ownership cycle - as well as to the used car trade in of the vehicle,” Malhotra said. “This digital transformation is about people, processes, and services,” he added.

Renewing used car business

While having a shop-in-shop pre-owned car vertical - Renault Selection - at its existing new car showrooms, Renault India has identified the potential of the sub-domain as an additional revenue stream for its channel partners.

“The used car total industry volume (TIV) is 1.7 times the new car TIV in India, and therefore, it offers a strong additional revenue stream potential to our partners. We are therefore introducing ‘Renew’ - our updated used car programme and aligning ourselves with the global used car business vertical within the Renault Group,” explained Malhotra.

The company says that Renew is an additional business and revenue stream for its channel partners, and the new programme aims to offer benefits beyond trade in, and focus on customer delight and warranty packages on pre-owned cars. 

According to Malhotra, “Renew will also offer a seamless way for existing Renault customers to sell their cars, even without exchanging for a new Renault. With the increasing organisation of the used car market in India, here is a complete ecosystem that is being created in this space.”

“While we have offered pre-owned cars under the Renault Selection programme in the past, we are now taking it to the next level with more digital interventions with Renew,” Malhotra signed off.