[figo_mba]

Originally Posted by nkg77

Just now a friend of mine asked me whether he should go for Linea. He has booked a Swift Dezire and is frustrated with the waiting period/strike. On asking him who suggested Linea, he said he saw the Fiat's Ad "Diesel at the price of petrol". So definitely the Ad is innovative.

Yes People do see the ads but was it the offer that attracted him?

Did your friend book a Petrol Dzire or a diesel one ? Also was he planning to buy a petrol or Diesel Linea ?

I can agree that he might have seen the car from the ad and considered buying it but my point was that the campaign was not a success.

Anyways did your friend buy/book a petrol Linea ? and if he/she did id he/she get the diesel for the price of petrol ? Just Curious.

[kaks15]

Was just watching this show on star world X-Treme trail, googled about it

New Delhi, November 3, 2011: National Geographic Channel and Nissan will give television viewers an experience into the unchartered terrains of India through its new adventure reality showX-treme Trail. The 6 part series, premiering on November 5th, for the very first time, will be telecast simultaneously on National Geographic Channel, Fox Traveller, Star World and Channel V.

Here s the complete link - Nissan X-trail And National Geographic Channel Present X-treme Trail Powered By Reliance Netconnect | Nissan India

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by kaks15

Was just watching this show on star world X-Treme trail, googled about it

Hey, Is there videos of this show hosted anywhere? Unfortunately, I could not find anything so far & have been dying to watch this show.

Agree that this is a new platform which will bring a lot of attention to the product & it's capabilities!

[kaks15]

Originally Posted by swiftnfurious

Hey, Is there videos of this show hosted anywhere? Unfortunately, I could not find anything so far & have been dying to watch this show.

Agree that this is a new platform which will bring a lot of attention to the product & it's capabilities!

found this vid on youtube

Nissan X-Treme Trail Off Road Event on National Geographic Channel - YouTube

nothing more, if you find something do post it, even i saw a glimpse today, want to catch the whole series.

[suhaas307]

What about Fords continuous campaigning all over India?

I know, the Safety Drive Campaign isn't really meant to help sales, but what it does, is it gets people to visit showrooms, and in turn, check out the cars on display.

The people who visit the showrooms may not be potential customers, but their friends and relatives could be. There is nothing like word-of-mouth campaigning, and Ford seems to have jumped that band-wagon.

Apart from that, I've come across several advertisements,- not only on the telly, but also in magazines, - on Ford's exchange-your-current-car-for-a-Ford campaign, which is a brilliant idea, IMO. I think it's called 'The Ford Experience' program. It's not just with the new Fiesta. They lend their cars to prospective customers and owners (regular people) of cars that are already in the market, and encourage them to drive it and compare it with their current cars.

All-New Ford Fiesta TVC for India - YouTube

Ford Figo Customer Speak - Deepti Bhatia - YouTube

Great marketing, in my opinion!

Also, Chevrolet's marketing campaign for the Beat diesel is pretty good.

[GTO]

Maruti sure is getting onto the social media wagon. The Ritz' facebook page has over 1 million fans. That's quite an audience. Compare that to the Alto whose fan page has 4.xx lakh fans. Ritz owners were invited to submit driving experiences; the best entry won a new Ritz!

[urajkumar]

The one which grabbed my attention was the Ford "Exchange your car with a ford" since it requires a lot of conviction to take your competition head-on.

Also thier midnight sale during december month is also something which has become a regular feature now. I know lot of people who wait for December month to get best value from Ford along with gifts (My friend won a trip for 2 to Detriot & a 32 inch LCD TV when she bought a Ford Figo - More than double the bang for her buck i say)

[aravind.anand]

Originally Posted by GTO

Maruti sure is getting onto the social media wagon. The Ritz' facebook page has over 1 million fans. That's quite an audience. Compare that to the Alto whose fan page has 4.xx lakh fans. Ritz owners were invited to submit driving experiences; the best entry won a new Ritz!

But why give a 'New Ritz' to a Ritz owner?? Instead they should ask people to write their test drive reviews and pick a winner from amongst them!

IMHO, the time to time special editions from our manufacturers to clear their stock is by far the worst promotion idea! Badly misplaced monickers, weird colours, funny looking seat covers and what not

[kamboj]

I find Fiat's "Diesel for price of Petrol" very confused marketing offer. The offer is you buy a Petrol Linea/Punto and you might be upgraded to a Diesel Linea/Punto.

But most buyers are very clear about their Petrol/Diesel requirement. If someone has requirement of a Diesel car, he'll not gamble on purchasing a petrol car and and then hope to get lucky for upgrade to diesel one. Similarly if some has requirement of a Petrol car, upgrade to diesel car will not be of much value to him.

[prashant316]

I searched a lot but was not able to find a topic discussing the evolution of marketing strategies of the automobile sector in India.

Every single day an average consumer is exposed to atleast 400 ads per day. These ads can be in the form of TV advertisement, Print ads, Outdoor ads, Digital advertisement (computer and mobile), Radio ads, various BTL activities in mall etc. With so many advertisements hitting the consumers each day marketers like me are facing a very challenging question each day - How to make my product communication stand out from the others?

In the recent times with the increasing competition, automobile marketers are facing this dilemma more than most of the other sectors.

The above thought was triggered in my mind when I saw this article today morning:-

Now Drive a Jetta Online

Going back in time to about 5-6 years, I can only recall basic TV ads, Print ads and Outdoors to promote the launch / offer on a vehicle. But now these will just not be enough.

We all remember the famous Volkswagon TOI and HT innovative ads which shook the entire country and opened an completely new book in the Indian Marketing Innovation. Namely, The talking newspaper, the hole in a newspaper, the blue newspaper, the silver cover page. The situation is now such that with each new launch, people are waiting for the newest innovation from VW.

Then there was a recent innovation by Ford when they kept their showrooms open till late in the night for consumers to come and check out their products.

There have been many more hit and trial innovations from various companies to woo the customers. The above mentioned link is again a part of the innovations that automobile firms are taking up.

Apart from just innovation, the Indian auto companies have realized (hopefully) that just having great products wont help their market share. Even after India being perceived as a "Jugaadu Country", SERVICE MATTERS. Below is a link that I came across which reinforces my belief.

I Attend about 40 per cent of customer issues myself

In conclusion, with rising fuel prices, high interest rates and increasing competition we can expect the industry to come up with more and more different ways of wooing customers, and this just does not include innovative advertising. It will be a good few years to come in terms of the competition.

I request the fellow BHP-ians to dedicate this thread to discuss about the various marketing strategies taken up by different auto companies and to discuss their effects and individual feedbacks and how they could have done things differently.

[prashant316]

Does anyone remember this?

TATA Sierra Advertisement

This ad came out when I was 5 years old. It was the ad that hooked me into learning more about automobile advertisements and marketing.

[Zed]

I remember being captivated by the Sierra TV advert's visuals, background score and by the vehicle.

Tata motors have had a string of really good TV adverts over the years. The last that I recall is the 'reclaim your life' commercial for the Safari. I do believe that the aura of the advert generated a fair deal of footfalls in the showrooms (mine included) and one can only assume that the advert aided the sales strategy. However the showroom experience was a complete disappointment which dampened my enthusiasm generated by the TVC. A case in point that a great TV commercial and\or other form of innovative marketing is only a first step in a string of customer oriented actions that an OE needs to execute flawlessly to convert an enquiry into a sale.

That said there are certain products \ brands that will draw in footfalls and sales on the basis of market perception ( Innova is good example ) and brand value (Merc, BMW) and possibly rely less on promotions.

Other motoring promotions from the gool ol' days that come to mind -
-The Yamaha rx 100 TVC, which had a very catchy number that was 'inspired' by a popular chevy campaign from the US.
- The Suzuki shogun TVC - 'the boss'. ( I actually did end up buying a shogun )
- The Toyota qualis touch and try campaign which demonstrated that function and utility could score over design and flair even in a under developed (at that point in time) auto market.
- The 'Hamara bajaj' ad campaign.

Taking a step away from the automotive domain - the Pepsi campaign when the giant re-entered India after a long pause was really ground breaking in comparison to contemporary marketing campaigns at the time.

[prashant316]

Originally Posted by Zed

I remember being captivated by the Sierra TV advert's visuals, background score and by the vehicle.

Tata motors have had a string of really good TV adverts over the years. The last that I recall is the 'reclaim your life' commercial for the Safari. I do believe that the aura of the advert generated a fair deal of footfalls in the showrooms (mine included) and one can only assume that the advert aided the sales strategy. However the showroom experience was a complete disappointment which dampened my enthusiasm generated by the TVC. A case in point that a great TV commercial and\or other form of innovative marketing is only a first step in a string of customer oriented actions that an OE needs to execute flawlessly to convert an enquiry into a sale.

That said there are certain products \ brands that will draw in footfalls and sales on the basis of market perception ( Innova is good example ) and brand value (Merc, BMW) and possibly rely less on promotions.

Other motoring promotions from the gool ol' days that come to mind -
-The Yamaha rx 100 TVC, which had a very catchy number that was 'inspired' by a popular chevy campaign from the US.
- The Suzuki shogun TVC - 'the boss'. ( I actually did end up buying a shogun )
- The Toyota qualis touch and try campaign which demonstrated that function and utility could score over design and flair even in a under developed (at that point in time) auto market.
- The 'Hamara bajaj' ad campaign.

Taking a step away from the automotive domain - the Pepsi campaign when the giant re-entered India after a long pause was really ground breaking in comparison to contemporary marketing campaigns at the time.

My guess is that following is the Safari ad you are talking about:-

Tata Safari Dicor 2.2 - Reclaim your life - YouTube

This was one of my favorite ads that came out at that time. I especially loved the background music and am still looking for its entire song.

IMO, Tata's advertisements have carried a similar line of thought for all their products from the time of Sierra and even till today. Most of their ads showcase their cars doing rounds of stunts and running around the town. Sierra, Safari, Indica Vista, Aria, Sumo Victa all had this theme. As you correctly pointed out, the problem began in the actual product and its service.

[salilpawar1]

You will find all old ad campaigns here!

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian...dustry-16.html

[Zed]

Originally Posted by prashant316

I searched a lot but was not able to find a topic discussing the evolution of marketing strategies of the automobile sector in India.

Every single day an average consumer is exposed to atleast 400 ads per day. These ads can be in the form of TV advertisement, Print ads, Outdoor ads, Digital advertisement (computer and mobile), Radio ads, various BTL activities in mall etc. With so many advertisements hitting the consumers each day marketers like me are facing a very challenging question each day - How to make my product communication stand out from the others?


I request the fellow BHP-ians to dedicate this thread to discuss about the various marketing strategies taken up by different auto companies and to discuss their effects and individual feedbacks and how they could have done things differently.

Looks like the thread is rapidly turning into a collection point for old ad's - Im not complaining through - nothing like a spot of nostalgia on a friday afternoon.

The topic that you raise is worthy of a deep dive. I do not have much to contribute in terms of marketing strategies from the good ol days since you mention evolution. Sure - there weren't many players in the pascar, two wheeler and CV space prior to the mid 80's but one can only assume that there must have been some semblance of marketing strategies back then. On the other hand I remember my father mentioning that most vehicles had booking periods that sometimes ran into years rather than months, on account of the restrictive policies. In an environment where demand was far higher than supply perhaps there was no real need for Marketing strategies.

Was denkst du ?

I guess the boll really got rolling with the advent of Maruti in the pascar segment, the Indo-jap 100 cc bikes in the two wheeler segment and the Indo-Jap LCVs. Must have been an exciting time for marketing professionals who had the unenviable task of communicating the marketing message to, what was at the time, an under developed market.