Sometime in the first quarter of 2010, a young man called Sandeep will walk into a Ford dealership with his parents and wife, and drive out in the Figo. Later that evening, he’ll text his buddy: “Hey Akash, I just bought the Figo! Coming for a drive?”

We’re not Nostradamus, but our marketing team’s little “prediction” might well turn out to be true. After all, the team has met not one, not two, but dozens of “Sandeeps” over the past few months. Our Sandeeps are in their mid-twenties, and are quintessential middle class youth. They are recently married and have earned a promotion and recognition at work. As the marketing guys put it, “Sandeep is Figo’s ideal target customer”.

Engaging these ideal customers was no mean task – the marketing team approached several Sandeeps to learn not only what they looked for in a car, but also what made them tick. They met their families, went shopping and even clubbing with them, and asked them a long list of questions. And their thorough work paid off – we now know their favourite movies (Sholay, DDLJ, Ghajini), gadgets (Apple iPod) and music (A.R. Rahman), what they do online (banking and Orkuting) and just about everything else in their lives (some want to buy a car, others a plasma TV).

What have we achieved from this exercise? For starters, we learned that the Figo’s customer, Sandeep is a complex person indeed: we figure that Sandeep is ambitious while being rooted to family values and traditions. Ford India brand manager Rahul Gautam says, “Sandeep wants to give attention to his family, spend time with his wife, and aspires to do well in his job. Interestingly, he has kept his bachelor mindset. So all this leads to some stress and tension because he feels pulled in different directions and is short of time.”

Rahul also explained the Sandeep-Figo connection to us recently. “Sandeep lives in a joint family with his parents. The Figo will be Sandeep’s exclusive space. He can use it for himself, on his way to work. He can take his wife out safely in the night, occasionally pick up relatives or friends from the airport, and take his family for weekend trips.”

Illustrating our commitment towards understanding the core customer, we invited some of the Sandeeps to New Delhi on September 23, where they met Ford Motor Company’s President and CEO Alan Mulally. Alan was quite excited to meet them just before Figo’s reveal to the world. “Thanks a lot for doing this,” he told the Sandeeps. “It’s such a big deal for Ford to compete in the centre of the Indian market and you helped.”

We just can’t wait for the Figo to hit the roads next year; nor can the Sandeeps!

Do you know a Sandeep or want to know more about him? Tell us what you think!

Tags: alan mulally, drive ford figo, ford dealership, Ford Figo, ford figo customer, Ford Figo Reveal, ford india, ford motor company, rahul gautam, sandeep-figo connection

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 10th, 2009 at 8:23 pm and is filed under Ford Figo Launch. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.