Marquees carted in not just machines, but also wo/men

MUMBAI: At the Auto Expo, which concluded in Delhi on Wednesday, four-wheeled beauties simply stole the limelight and left thousands speechless. But what went largely unnoticed was the sweat and toil — to maintain their beauty — which was, most often, as exotic as the brands on display.

Several companies, mostly luxury marquee brands, went to almost unbelievable lengths to maintain their brand identity distinct, exclusive and a standardised.

Consider this: German auto giant Volkswagen specially flew down nearly 75 people from Germany for the auto show. This included, hold your breath, six cleaners. Their job was to mop the floor and clean the car. Ditto for group company Audi, which also thought it best to leave a complex thing like cleaning the car to European hands.

Martin Birkner, vice- president, marketing, Audi India, said: “We have a team that supports our exhibitions worldwide. This included cleaners. They know how to clean cars without damaging them. We got three of them from Germany for the Auto Expo. They travel with us for all our exhibitions.”

Companies began planning for Auto Expo months in advance. And luxury brands like Audi, BMW, Skoda, and Volvo Cars did nothing different in India than what they do at Tokyo, Detroit, Geneva or Frankfurt auto shows.

“We have an international standard to match and whereever people see us, they should associate us with the global identity we have created. So, everything you see here, be it the light, the television, the panels, construction material etc, all have come from Germany,” said a Volkswagen official.

Not to leave anything to chance, even the plywood used to construct the stalls was shipped. Pointing to competitor’s stall, which had air bubbles trapped in the sticker sporting the company’s logo, another official of a marquee luxury brand said such a faux paus in their stall would result in heads rolling.

As a practice, in order to standardise their operations, these companies hire event management companies to set up the stalls at motor shows across the globe. Attention to detail is so fine that even chairs where the press or visitors sit, are carted all the way from home.

While no one talks of the money spent on taking part at the Auto Expo, the final amount easily runs to a several crores of rupees. Another European car maker flew down 30 leggy beauties to stand beside with the wheeled ones for the week at a reported average cost of Rs 10 lakh.

“We do take local help also. We hired 32 hostesses for the event and they were given training to know what VW brand is all about. Then we also got about 10 product moderators from Germany who know these cars inside out. They also travel with us for every autoshow and before each show, they undergo a refresher course to keep themselves abreast of any changes the product might have undergone since the last show,” said the VW official.

Even though the global event management firm hires local hands, the execution is always under their watchful eyes. VW foreign crew included about a dozen technicians, 20 construction workers and eight people who handled the audio video!

At the stall, most of these luxury brands have created meeting rooms have a quite corner for VVIPs, press, exclusive customers, and business partners.

Even these rooms, which are nothing less than luxury apartments by themselves, are standardised with the same sofas, LCD televisions, tables and stationary, all carted from common global supplier. Even the glass, cutlery, and down to the napkins bear the company’s logo.

“Here I am not allowed to use any pen not bearing the Audi logo,” said a hostess manning the media counter at the Audi stall.

g_rabin@dnaindia.net