The great race

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Terence Johnsson.

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GMC's Terence Johnsson talks about his company's strategy for continued expansion and the role of retailers in making the roads safer.

A series of mergers, take-overs and collaborative arrangements, has made General Motors Corporation (GMC) the world's biggest car manufacturer employing 284,000 people worldwide.

In 2007 it sold nearly 9.3m units worldwide. Yet despite these impressive attributes, few would disagree that in this region at least the Toyota Land Cruiser is a strong rival to GMC's own products. So how can this global leviathan ensure its dominance in the Middle East market?

It seems that the processes for this are already in place. In a tête-à-tête with the President of GMC's Middle East operations, Terence Johnsson, several strategies for increasing Middle East market share come to the surface.

These revolve around the aims of engaging with the community in creative ways and cash in on the regional penchant for individualised 'bling'.

Firstly the bling. It is no secret that Arabs love their cars and they like to jazz them up. Look at the yellow Hummers heaving with extras cruising the streets.

Even diplomats can see it, as Johnsson tells me: "One of the first things an ambassador said [when we first moved into the market] was ‘here's what you need to know about the Middle East: The rulers love planes, of course they love their petroleum and they love their cars.'"

This culture has created the ideal environment for a thriving vehicle customisation business. An area which GMC happens to be quite accomplished in. "As a company we have a good heritage in SUVs that lend themselves to customisation," says Johnsson.

"The Hummer is a product that everyone likes to paint; they love to give it a new interior, they love to put lights in it. They may spend US$20,000 just on customisation." It is no conincidence that West Coast Customs have found such a strong market here.

The showrooms over here have become adept at altering various vehicles to fit the specific requests of their customers.

So why is it so popular here? Johnsson believes that it is because the modern consumer is resolute on setting themselves apart from the crowd - not merely following it as before - led from the front by an emerging class of youth with money.

"The traditional notion [of luxury] is very much a handcrafted idea, with wood and piping and leather," answers Johnsson. "And I think the new idea of these guys who are only 20 and can afford luxury may not be that same, old world idea of luxury.

The new generation is transforming the market. We feel pretty strongly that their idea of performance and luxury will be quite different to the traditional idea of luxury." Different interior layouts, high-tech fabrics and diverse colour palettes are the order of the day.

Keeping abreast of the trends in this demographic is important to secure this niche, says Johnsson. This means that designers must be kept up to date with the latest developments in the relevant regions. "We have 11 design centres around the world," he says.

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