Susan Gordon, Business Reporter
The Audi A4, one of the models sold in Jamaica by dealer Issa Transport Group.
Audi of Latin America, whose operations include Jamaica, contributed €200 million to the €33.6 billion of group sales chalked up by the premium German automobile brand last year.
The Audi brand delivered to its customers worldwide a total of 964, 151 vehicles in year 2007, of which 3,404 were sold from the 21 countries which make up the Latin America region.
Jamaica accounted for close to two per cent of regional sales volume, with 61 units sold last year - a nine per cent increase year over year.
In its home market, Germany, Audi sold 254,014 cars in year 2007. Sales worldwide, measured in revenues, were up by 7.9 per cent.
Last week in Munich, the automaker said it was going after a bigger share of the premium market, and has set a target of 1.5 million unit deliveries by year 2015.
Plans to storm the market
The company is also projecting capital spend of €12 billion up to 2011 to back up its plans to storm the market.
According to corporate strategist at Audi headquarters in Ingoldstadt Germany, Joseph Schön, the company hopes to leverage the brand image, but will also expand its range of vehicles to add more economical models to the line.
But for the Caribbean and Latin American region, president Jüergen Deforth's focus was even more specific.
"We want to strongly focus on giving the customers an exclusive impression of the brand," said Jüergen, at an Audi press briefing in Ingolstadt.
The region has 19 markets and 31 dealers, nine of which were exclusive dealers. Targeted sales for the region was ideally 7,000 units by year 2015.
The company has not said how much of the €12 billion invest-ment would be made in the region.
Deforth said importers would be encouraged to look for social or celebrity figures to enhance the brand and focus more on events or activities which would attract the kind of buyers it wants to be seen driving its luxury vehicles.
Economical cars
Audi lays claim to about 17 per cent of the premium market in Jamaica with other German brands Benz ahead at 29 per cent and the BMW on top with 54 per cent.
Audi intends to introduce the more economical cars to this market, where the brand's starting price is J$4 million.
Asked by the Financial Gleaner if Audi would introduce cheaper vehicles to the Latin American countries and in particular Jamaica, Schön appeared to be against it, saying it could dilute the brand.
"The most important thing is to keep your brand in balance," he said.
"If you market more affordable cars the overall brand picture will tilt."
The company, he said, was not interested in marketing cheap cars.
"We focus on the more expensive cars, R8," he said.
"We will build a good customer base and then broaden your market."
This Schön said was a better strategy.
susan.gordon@gleanerjm.com