Maruti Suzuki’s Shashank Srivastava calls traditional auto marketing funnel ‘dead’
Maruti Suzuki India executive Shashank Srivastava says auto retailers need to move beyond the traditional marketing funnel, signalling a shift toward updated customer-engagement models.
What happened
Maruti Suzuki India (MSIL) · Maruti Suzuki India executive Shashank Srivastava said auto retailers need to move beyond the traditional marketing funnel,
Why this matters
Prioritize partnerships or acquisitions in automotive CRM, first-party data, retail-media and journey-orchestration platforms that help dealers manage non-linear buying behavior.
What to watch
- Maruti changes dealer marketing incentives or reporting metrics away from raw lead volume.
- New CRM, CDP, WhatsApp commerce or AI customer-engagement partnerships.
- Evidence of integrated online-to-dealer test-drive, exchange and finance journeys.
- Higher digital marketing spend focused on content, communities and customer retention.
- Dealer-level rollout of unified customer profiles spanning sales and aftersales.
- Expand first-party customer data programs linking website, dealer, service and finance interactions.
- Increase localized creator, community and vernacular content tied to model discovery rather than only lead-generation campaigns.
- Deploy conversational commerce via WhatsApp and AI-assisted dealer CRM for follow-up, booking and ownership engagement.
- Rework dealer KPIs toward speed-to-contact, appointment quality, test-drive completion, repeat visits and lifecycle value.
- Use service and exchange data to target upgrade, accessory and financing offers before consumers re-enter the market.