while specific automakers might have been ahead of the curve this was the average state of maturity for the industry at large with product planning 10by avik chattopadhyayone function that has fascinated me as a marketer in the automobile industry is product planning and i was lucky to spend some time in this role in the 1990s product planning was purely a part of the engineering and product development roles marketing really had no role to play except to accept what was in the pipeline and do its best towell market the same with the new millennium the function saw its germination in the marketing and market planning roles planners and developers started talking to each other more often more to understand and appreciate what each did concepts like segmentation and longterm product portfolios were born while specific automakers might have been ahead of the curve this was the average state of maturity for the industry at large this was product planning 10 advt the 2020s will see the onset of product planning 30with the 2010s the concepts became full grown practices with portfolio management and product life cycle strategy getting entrenched into every vehicle manufacturers marketing function handmedown plans from head quarters were not simply accepted conceiving and creating vehicles specifically for the indian customer became the order of the day and not an exception they were also exported where requirements and applications were similar this was 20the 2020s will see the onset of product planning 30this will not be the smooth evolution we have experienced for the last 20 odd years but a disruption in the process a revolution of sorts while a lot is being discussed about the new normal of automobile retailing manufacturing sourcing and marketing not much is discussed about this fascinating craft here is my take on seven specific aspects of its third avatar post covid it will become an independent function reporting directly to the country head finally getting the importance it deserves just like in other categories like fmcg and consumer durables it will be a crossfunctional team with marketing research service design product engineering development procurement and spares accessories being represented in equal measure its leadership might be on a rotational basis reinforcing the contribution of each team member the team will also coopt domain experts from outside on subjects not mastered internally like social science neurosciences consumer behaviour culture codes etc advt segmentation will have to be totally recast even if many segments of yesterday get carried over changes in requirements behaviour applications and the basic need to be mobile need to be captured the product planner has to believe that this is being done for the first time in the market with social scientists and experts on culture codes being invaluable in the process in tandem with segmentation forecasting should be part of this function as this activity too needs fresh vision forecasting has longterm implications on each activity in the entire ecosystem right from the