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"The Celta business model, from the vehicle itself to the sales process, comprehends a true business partnership with GM’s Chevrolet dealers in Brazil, with all sales – whether online or generated through the traditional model – facilitated by the dealership," said Fritz Henderson, GM group vice president and president of GM Latin America, Africa and West Asia. The car’s unique design, the advanced manufacturing systems of the Gravatai car plant, five distribution centres (VSCs) located throughout the country, a powerful network of 470 Chevrolet dealers and an ambitious team of GM employees are among the critical, Brazil-specific elements that have enabled the first high-volume Internet sales system of the automotive world. GM’s Internet sales strategy for the Chevrolet Celta seeks to capitalize on two key trends in Brazil: (1) the large "popular car" segment that represents nearly 70 per cent of an automotive market primarily driven by price (2) the country’s speed in adopting Internet technologies even within the demographic groups who do not own a computer. Accustomed to electronic ballots at voting booths and Internet submission of tax returns close to 90 per cent, Brazilians are comfortable with technology in their daily life. Studies show that the number of Brazilian Internet users could grow more than 350 per cent by the year 2003. In fact, among the most optimistic surveys is one which suggests that the potential of Internet use in Brazil may be higher than anticipated. Up to 14 million Brazilians are currently online, of which around six million surf the Internet from remote sites like school, cyber cafes and work. On the automotive side, automotive industry studies of new car buyers point out that 65 per cent of these have Internet access, including a significant percentage of the Celta’s target market. GMBs challenge has been to bridge the
gap between Internet use and new car buying patterns in Brazil through a
completely new sales and distribution model. |
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