Serge Touron was recently appointed as Sales and Marketing Manager of City Automobiles, the authorized distributor of Jaguar and Land Rover vehicles in Thailand. In an interview at the Bangkok International Motor Show, he discussed the company's marketing strategy for 2015, which includes launching new models, opening a new state-of-the-art facility, and participating in marketing events. He expressed optimism about the growing luxury vehicle market in Thailand and Southeast Asia.

1. InMarch,CityAutomobiles,
Jaguar Land Rover’s au-
thorised distributor and
serviceproviderinThailand,
announced the appoint-
ment of Mr. Serge Touron
as Sales and Marketing
Manager.Inhisnewrole,he
oversees the management
of sales and marketing to
cater to an increase in de-
mand for Jaguar and Lover
products in Thailand.
Afterhisappointment,ASE-
AN AutoBiz recently had a
good chance to talk to Mr.
Serge at the 36th Bangkok
International Motor Show
(BIMS),heldfromMarch25
to April 5, 2015 at Impact
Muang Thong Thani. He
shared his perspective on
the market of South-East
Asia and revealed us the
company’smarketingstrat-
egyandplansfor2015and
in the long term.
SERGETOURON
JAGUAR
JAGUARLANDROVERJAGUARLANDROVERJAGUAR
LANDROVERJAGUARLANDROVERJAGUARLANDROVERJAGUAR
JAGUARLANDROVERJAGUARLANDROVERJAGUARLANDROVERJAGUARLANDROVER
LANDROVERJAGUARLANDROVERJAGUARLANDROVERJAGUARLANDROVERJAGUARLANDROVER
SALES AND MARKETING MANAGER, CITY AUTOMOBILES
LANDROVER
INTERVIEW
By Umaporn Wiwatreungdech
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2. INTERVIEW
WITH 4 YEARS OF EXPERIENCE AT JAGUAR LAND
ROVER IN NEIGHBORING LAOS, WHAT DO YOU
THINK ABOUT THE MARKET IN THIS REGION?
Mr. Touron: The market in the region, specifically to
Thailand, I’ll give some more comments. It’s definitely a
booming region for the automotive business, especially
for the premium segment. Most of the countries in the
region experience higher and higher sales for premium
luxury vehicle, both for SUV and sedan. As regards spe-
cifically Thailand, last year’s been a difficult year for the
automotive industry in general. For the luxury segment,
the sales keep going well and the trend is going well for
the luxury in Thailand. So, the trend we have in many
countries but specifically for Thailand where there is a
high demand on luxury vehicle. It’s very important for us
as well. Thus, the company like us can position and serve
to most of the requirements of the customers for the
premium. As you’ve seen we’ve got SUV and sedan. So,
we have a wide range of luxury products for any kind of
customers or any kind of use. So, definitely, we’re very
optimistic that our Jaguar Land Rover wants to invest a
lot in Thailand and the region in general.
WHATISTHECOMPANY’SMARKETINGSTRATEGY
FOR 2015?
Mr. Touron: The company’s plan for this year is we’re
going to concentrate on one major action which will be
our customer first. So, for product, we’re going to launch
newproductsthisyear,anewLandRoverDiscoverySport
which is luxury urban family vehicle and it’s going to be
launched in May this year, and a new Jaguar XE sedan
which is a very nice car with full aluminum body sporty
refined. We’re going touch a lot of customers on this. So,
product lunch is our first target. We’re going to open a
new facility at Rama 4. It is the state-of-the-art Jaguar
Land Rover facility which sells and services everything
that Jaguar Land Rover facility should have at any place
in the world. And it is going to be opened in May as well
to serve much better our customers and we did even bet-
ter than the past. And the last thing in marketing is to
participate in two couple of events. We’re here this week
for the Bangkok International Motor Show and we’re go-
ing for the Motor Expo and couples of other events in
Thailand such as a test drive for customers and marketing
events to create the brand awareness for Jaguar Land
Rover among the Thai customers and explain that Jaguar
Land Rover in Thailand is well established. We’re a well-
structuredcompanyandcoupleofdealers.That’sourthree
objectives for the 2015 marketing plan. It’s a big year for us.
DOES THE COMPANY HAVE A PLAN TO IMPORT
THE2016JAGUARXFTOTHETHAIMARKETAFTER
ITS PREMIERE AT NEW YORK INTERNATIONAL
MOTOR SHOW 2015 IN APRIL?
Mr. Touron: The new XF is going to be launched in
this month in New York International Motor Show. So,
we plan to launch it a little bit later. The reason why is
again we come back to your question concerning the
customers. For every market, we’re to adapt the vehicle,
according to the specificity of the market such as the qual-
ity of the gasoline. So, it’ very important that an official
Jaguar Land Rover distributor in Thailand will make sure
the car fits perfectly with what is required for Thailand.
Otherwise, customers may experience some issue which
is not good for our brand and for customers. So, we’re
taking the right time. Based on our assumption, it’s going
to be next year but the car will be ready for the Thai mar-
ket. Besides, our car made in England, both Jaguar Land
Rover, but there are some modifications for the Thai
market like for any other markets. That’s again for cus-
tomer benefits.
DOES THE COMPANY PLAN TO EXPAND DEALER-
SHIP NETWORK TO OTHER PROVINCES IN THAI-
LAND?
Mr. Touron: Yes. I’ll propose it to make all our Thai
customers satisfy with Jaguar Land Rover services and
after-sale services from north to south of Thailand. So,
currently,weoperatewiththreedealers.Weplantoexpand
mostly on service. I’ll plan for the next two to three years
to expand service branch. For any customers, we have the
facility to service a car. Our major plan is expanding the
service facility.
IN YOUR OPINION, WHAT’S THE DIRECTION OF
THAILAND’S PREMIUM CAR MARKET IN 2015?
Mr.Touron:ThepremiummarketinThailandisgoing
to grow again. The main reason is, as we said before, the
Thai economy’s recovering now. This is the first point.
There’s the big offer or the wider offer of the luxury mod-
els; most of the brands develop the luxury vehicles. We’re
going to have one model for Jaguar and one model for
Land Rover. But, within the next three years, we’re going
to have five models. The reason for that is the luxury
market is growing everywhere in the world. And Thailand
is growing fast as well. So, we’re very optimistic on the
numbers for this year and even next year. That’s one of the
reasons why we decided to invest in a new facility at Rama
4. It’s the investment of 300 million baht which is a big
investment. We believe in the market; we believe in Jaguar
LandRoverinThailand.So,webelievethatthisistheright
place to be. We have to be everywhere in the world but
we also have to be in Thailand.
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3. INTERVIEW
HOW DOES JAGUAR LAND ROVER DISTINGUISH
ITSELF FROM COMPETITORS TO ATTRACT THAI
CUSTOMERS?
Mr. Touron: One of the major differences is being the
official distributor in Thailand. We provide 5-year war-
ranty or at 150,000 kilometers as a standard for all our
Jaguar Land Rover vehicles. The second thing as I men-
tionedearlierisourvehiclesarefittedfortheThaimarket.
It’s very important. Repeating on this, it’s what we usu-
ally call the initial level. If you have low quality diesel or
low quality petrol, you cannot sometimes go to the
provincesandyoudon’thavetherightcarforthecountry,
so you can damage your car. So, our company provides
again the right car for the market. And other way to dif-
ferentiate from the competition is this is specifically to
the brand is we have extremely wide of different options.
I just give you an example. The Range Rover which is our
flagship vehicle for Land Rover, you can get 18 different
exterior colors. Basically, competitors have 5-6 colors.
But,wehave18.So,canyouimaginehowmanycombina-
tions of colors in every car? It can be different from one
to another. So, that’s something very important on the
premium segment. Some customers want a premium
vehicle; they want the car that fits exactly what they like
and what they want, what kind of color they like, and
what kind of feature they like. So, that’s a big different
between Land Rover and competitors. We can customize,
according to what the customers exactly want. As an of-
ficial importer, that’s the big different between us, com-
pared to others in Thailand.
DOES JAGUAR LAND ROVER PLAN TO RESTRUC-
TURECOSTOFSPAREPARTSANDSERVICEFEES?
Mr.Touron:It’simportanttokeepinmindthatJaguar
Land Rover in Thailand use genuine parts from Jaguar
Land Rover in the UK. So, all of our parts come from the
UK factory. You can find similar parts which from re-
gional supplier; they’re cheaper, of course, but I’m not
saying they’re bad quality. I’m saying we only use original
genuine Jaguar Land Rover parts from the UK. So, that’s
the guarantee of quality for our customers, so it’s a little
bit more expensive; I fully agree but in a long term, we
also offer quality we find their way also. The second point
for the after-sales services, it is training. Training is ex-
tremely important. This is varied as well for our sales
people, our marketing people, and our technicians.
Everyone is trained, according to the Jaguar Land Rover
standard which is also for customers. A well-trained
technician provides a good job for customers. It’s simple
but sometimes we don’t see that in reality and to finish
about service, we’ve a lot of equipments. Jaguar Land
Rover needs special tools, as an official distributor, we
have all these tools available in our facility. So, vehicles
today, compared to 20 years ago, are much more elec-
tronic and complicated to fix. You need professional
people with the right equipment. Everything at our facil-
ity at Rama 4 is 100% the same as the Jaguar Land Rover
facilities in the UK and the rest of the world. This is the
guarantee for our customers as well. So, parts might more
a bit costly but in the end our customers will save money,
using the right brand for their car.
Mr. Serge Touron begins his career in France, before
moving to South-East Asia where he spent the last 15
years in business development, management, and
marketingpositionsinThailand,Cambodia,Vietnam,
andLaos.CityAutomobilesstronglybelievesMr.Serge
will be an important part of the team with his long-
standing experience and expertise and four years of
direct experience at Jaguar Land Rover in Laos, where
he successfully set up sales and marketing operations
for the two brands.
City Automobiles bested its sales targets to achieve a
total revenue of more than 199 million Baht at this year’s
36th Bangkok International Motor Show 2015. The
dealershowcaseditscompleteline-upofsportscars,sports
sedans and luxury SUVs including the Jaguar F-TYPE,
Jaguar XF, XJ, Range Rover Evoque, Range Rover, Land
Rover Defender and Freelander, with the best-seller
Evoque, the superb luxury SUVs found new homes in
Thailand following a thoroughly successful motor show
outing for the premier British auto maker. Jaguar also sold
out its XF models the best - seller, establishing the sports
saloon as a genuine alternative to mainstream brands in
the Thai market.
LAND ROVER EVOQUE BEST-SELLER AMONG AWARD-WINNING MODEL LINE-UP AT 36TH BIMS
Richard Haigh, General Manager, City Automobiles
Co. Ltd., said, “I would like to express my thanks to our
sales team who did a great job during the show days, in-
troducingnewcustomerstothesetwogreatBritishbrands
and demonstrating their exceptional knowledge and en-
thusiasm. The motor show kicks off a big year for us, as it
brings the launch of City Automobiles’ new flagship
showroom and service centre at Rama 4, and so we look
forward to growing our network of distributors which
includes Prestige Motorcars on Wireless Road, GT Cars
on Petchburi Road and GB Automobiles in Phuket. We
continue to invest in building our capacity to grow the
network further to cater to strong and increasing demand
for JLR products in Thailand.”
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