Dacia unveiled the Dokker and Lodgy Stepway in Paris.
This is the last part in my Paris Auto Show 2014 series of reports: an exclusive interview with Renaud Pirel, Renault Sales & Marketing Director, Entry Range and Frédéric Favre, Dacia Press Relations Manager. I have never hidden the fact that I am a big fan of Dacia’s brand strategy, that has enabled it to go from 0 to 5 million units sold in 10 years, still posting in 2014 the fastest growth rates of any mass brand in France and Europe. Being French but living in Australia for the past 12 years, I have witnessed the Dacia adventure from the other side of the world, getting a snapshot of its popularity in France every year I came back for a visit. An experience I have described in two successive articles: France August 2012: Dacia, king of the countryside and Nice hinterland September 2013: one Dacia in every tiny village. With such astounding results in hand, what keeps Dacia management awake at night?
The Stepway variant accounts for 2/3 of all Sanderos sold in Europe, 90% in Northern Africa.
BSCB: Dacia is up 21% in France and up 35% in Europe so far this year. What’s next?
Renaud Pirel: Before I address the ‘What’s next’ question, I’d like to summarise what’s happened in the decade that the brand has been commercialised in Europe (it launched in France in June 2005) because a lot of elements that will form our future lie in our foundations. I believe the significant growth rates we have consistently achieved over that period come from our capacity to always remain in touch with our customers. The adventure started with the Logan, which wasn’t originally designed for Western European markets let alone France (BSCB note: C-segment sedans are all but dead in French sales charts). The extension of the Dacia range into other segments has always been decided based on customer feedback. The first Logan customers bought into the idea of a new, very simple car with a 3 year-warranty as an alternative to a similarly-sized 2-3 year-old used vehicle often without a manufacturer warranty beyond the few months required by law.
The 6th annual Dacia picnic attracted 14.000 Dacia owners in France last June.
On this foundation, we have managed to build the Dacia brand, a network and specific services, and an 8-model range. Understanding our customers is paramount because they are not the same customers that we were used to dealing with through Renault. They belong to the used vehicle universe, and we realised that as car manufacturers we actually didn’t have much information about this type of customers. So when we tested with the Logan their interest for this type of products, these customers were actually surprised that a car manufacturer would be willing to communicate with them, they were not used to that. So they weren’t shy in talking with us and we received a huge amount of feedback, a mine of information that we were able to utilise to grow the brand. Based on this, we rapidly launched the 7-seat Logan MCV, then the Sandero, Duster, Lodgy and Dokker.
Full interview below.
A large part of this success story in France and Europe (where we are #15 ahead of very established brands such as Kia and Seat) is due to this constant contact with our customers. We have a Dacia community who are very proud of owning a Dacia and show very high satisfaction rates for our product. This proximity with our customers means we know exactly what they expect from us: we know when is the right time to upgrade the vehicles whether it be with new engines, equipment or design. We know they expectations live, as they evolve. That’s what has enabled us to grow so fast.
BSCB: What channels do you use to listen to your customers?
RP: There are two main sources. The Dacia community, the one we invite to the Dacia picnic (BSCB note: an annual picnic complete with concerts and animations reunites Dacia owners in France since 2009). They were 14,000 last June to come with their family purely to share their Dacia experience with us and with each other, and we also keep in touch with them through Facebook (BSCB note: The Dacia France Facebook page has 242,000 fans). On top of this, we are in direct contact with our salespeople, who regularly update us when customer feedback takes a different direction, when they start hearing something that they weren’t hearing 6 months prior. We keep asking them the question you’ve just asked me, what’s next, and we rely very heavily on them to get a feel for our next product directions, such as for example, extending the Stepway line into both the Lodgy and Dokker as we are doing here at the Paris Auto Show.
BSCB: What is the ratio of Sandero Stepway in overall Sandero sales?
RP: Two thirds of all Sanderos sold in Europe are the Stepway variant, and in Morocco and Algeria 90% of Sanderos are Stepway. There is simply no competition for an off-road, adventurer-styled product at this price. It’s the equivalent in the B-segment of the Duster in the SUV segment: a unique offer.
BSCB: So. What’s next?
The rest of the interview will be published shortly.