[blacksport]

Originally Posted by rsidd

If we can have Indian names for planes (Tejas, Kiran), missiles (Prithvi, Agni, etc), even (in the past) scooters (Chetak) and cars (Padmini), why not cars today? I think the reason is, other than Tata and Mahindra, we have no proper Indian car manufacturers. (Perhaps Thar qualifies as an Indian name?) I doubt lack of market appeal is the reason. More a lack of imagination from the makers. Why wasn't the Tata Bolt called "vajra" and Zest "utsah", for example? The same Tatas named their jewellery brand Tanishq, and it sells fine. I suspect it's just because, with cars, "nobody has ever done it"...

Those planes and missiles are named by the govt, and they can afford to do so since they don't have to sell to end consumers like us. If the day arrives where we would be buying missiles and planes from HAL and ISRO, they would start goving them better names.

Also, jewelry is a very traditional Indian product so a foreign name would never suit it. Cars on the other hand are modern products which have little Indianess in it.

[goingelectric]

Originally Posted by rsidd

Yes, Avanti is Italian for forward. Before DC, there was the Avanti Garelli moped -- remember that? Garelli being the now-defunct Italian parent.

Oh yes, the Avanti ... By the way, apart from the Mahindra Thar, is the Ashok Leyland Dost the only other Indian vehicle in production today to sport an Indian model name?

[aby]

Interesting thread. Maybe to our populace western names convey a message of premium and aspirational product.

But come to think of it, isn't western name the norm in almost all major categories.

Hell we have the likes of Van Heusen, Louis Philippe, Allen Solly, Peter England etc. in shirts.

I haven't yet seen a Balwinder Singh shirt, or a Pulok Chatterjee shirt or a Ramasubramanian Sethumadhavan brands of shirts... No offences to the people with those names.

[srishiva]

When Mahindra, Tata themselves are Indian names and we dont have problems, why would model names have problems? Its just that we haven't seen any and got used to any that we think we will resist it.

How about at least Mahindra 330 or A5 or something in that case?

[Raulspace999]

Forget about Cars, Nokia tried naming its line of Phones as Asha(Hope) which was a recipe for disaster in the Indian Market. Indian are fascinated by western names. A John looks more cooler to us than Jagannath. Most of us, prefer to do away with our Indianised names when settled abroad. Thats a shocking trend though. And just for the record Asha sold very well in other south asian and emerging markets.

[Moto$apien]

Bugging an old thread. Lets see how the new electric venture PRAVAIG fares then...



given our liking for exotic western or 'angrezi' words

But, Come to think of it, 'Maruti' nowadays is as Indian as it gets. So, every second car has an Indian Name!

On a different note, the font of the name also plays a major role in directing the subconscious to the qualities of the brand. Case in point the new Safari..which shares the font with the Fun loving Tiago.

The previous one meant Business!

Original


Storme


Gravitasafari


Welcome to the science of Typography

[SandyX]

Originally Posted by Moto$apien

Bugging an old thread. Lets see how the new electric venture PRAVAIG fares then...

One reason for my non-love towards the M brand is its local name, and the fact that it killed the retro theme going on till then. I always call that brand as Suzuki, which is not wrong since they're only a contract manufacturer selling re-branded Suzukis. Same goes for this P whatever vaporware going on. And it gets even stronger when I came across what they might call their infotainment package. It's just not cool to me.

On the other hand, I'd love names like Indraprasta, Rajadhani etc but I'd rather have them for naval ships & grand premium trains. I certainly won't be a consumer for any road vehicle brought down that way.

PS: Big fan of Suzuki Jimny.

[jkrishnakj]

I’m not surprised because we even prefer our clothing that ways. That’s why the Peter England, Van Huessen, Louis Phillipe, Monte Carlo etc..are a lot more popular. I guess it’s the fascination for the non-Indian names.

[vibbs]

First 3 points for Brand Name selection as written in the book Principles of Marketing by Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong.

1. Should suggest something about the products benefits and qualities.
2. Easy to pronounce
3. Distinctive


What do most of the car manufacturers try to promote?

European engineering
Japanese quality
American sturdiness
So on so forth.

And hence gives an idea why the fascination with foreign name. Fiat wants to show that Punto and Linea are Italian and they play that up. Tata wants to show LR pedigree hence a foreign name for Harrier.

Are the names unique?
Are they easy to pronounce? (Vento, Punto, bolt, Laura, superb, city etc etc)

Fourth point is easy translation to foreign languages.

Then it's what their research tells them about what their target consumer would like and connect with.

We speak from what we like or perceive. Companies decide based on their market research. We may not agree individually, but corporate decisions specially branding are taken based on hard facts.

Why missiles are named Indian?

They are not manufactured for consumer market. Cars are. So car manufacturers stick to what their research suggests.

Why jwellery manufacturers use traditional names like geetanjali etc.?

Again down to the product they make and value they want to sell. Tradition.

[Durango Dude]

All car's can be called 'Airavat' as they have increased in prices disproportionate to what they offer especially Audi/Volvo. The BHP/No of cylinders figures go disproportionately south as compared to the prices going disproportionately north.

[fhdowntheline]

I think more than the name its the language that's key.
Hence even if a car is sold as Punto or Sorento, people identify it as a desirable product (never mind its European meaning) based on its branding language i.e. English. Imagine if the same brand was written in Devanagari or Urdu or any Dravidian script.

[Moto$apien]

And while we were discussing, Skoda gets another car with an Indian name here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFpWRDLZ4ns

and its Brand Ambassador should be



One and Only

[fazayal]

Originally Posted by Moto$apien

And while we were discussing, Skoda gets another car with an Indian name here

Amusing to see it coming from Skoda who launched a car named LAURA in India.

Another Indian named car Avanti is in news for all the wrong reasons

[Mortis]

Let's not forget our public, almost all of us are racist to some degree. It will be just one more reason for a competent car to fail because some fellow doesn't like the name Hyundai Aurobindo because he dislikes Bengalis or another fellow doesn't like the Maruti Ramlakhan because that's a lower caste name and other crap like that

[navaneeth]

Originally Posted by Mortis

Let's not forget our public, almost all of us are racist to some degree. It will be just one more reason for a competent car to fail because some fellow doesn't like the name Hyundai Aurobindo because he dislikes Bengalis or another fellow doesn't like the Maruti Ramlakhan because that's a lower caste name and other crap like that

India is a very diverse country in terms of beliefs, languages, and everything else that's counted as a difference. Car names in English come with a guarantee that they are very unlikely to hurt the feelings of any particular community or communities. We often see communities/groups/organizations getting offended by the storylines of certain movies & books, imagine a car company going down and dealerships attacked because they chose a controversial name for their dream flagship product. Even the buyers will have to think twice before buying a car with a controversial name even if it is a perfect machine.

Wondering how much time Skoda would've spent to confirm if 'Kushaq' is a name that will be accepted by the whole nation. If Skoda did not release an explainer video, the number of people who actually understand the meaning will be very less, I might confuse it for a Czech word given the fact that I don't know a single word in the Czech language.