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Old 16th February 2018, 23:31   #1
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On Hyundai's new heartwarming ad (anniversary gift)



This is an ad where a Hyundai SA sees his favourite customer, an elderly uncle from (as the number plate shows) Baroda, bring his car in to fix a persistently popping open glovebox.

While at the dealership, he starts talking on the phone and tells someone there's a "small celebration tonight".

The SA immediately has his front office staff pull up the uncle’s customer profile and figures out that today is his anniversary. So he leaves a gift in the car and calls to say that he hopes Aunty liked the gift.

Now once you’ve gone awwww, what'd you do, if you were his manager? Promote him for showing initiative in customer engagement, or fire him for breaking customer privacy based on listening to a private conversation and then accessing customer data for a non work related purpose?

The customer might even have opted in to enter his wedding date and birthday into the system just so he can get a congratulatory text message or email, or maybe some small gift - but as part of a process.

Overhearing a private conversation the customer has with someone and mining his personal data based on it, or indeed, for any non business purpose is one aspect that violates any well designed privacy policy.

Making such personal data widely available in the system, presumably without suitably dire warnings about what it is supposed to be accessed and used for, a well defined data protection policy and regular training for employees that have access to personal data .. well, that's an even more pressing matter for the company's chief privacy officer.

Of course, if this is really the situation in Hyundai India rather than someone in marketing with the foggiest idea of what a privacy policy looks like nodding enthusiastically at the ad agency that came up with this idea.

If this were in Europe, picture this :

1. The elderly customer is so happy about this kind gesture that he posts about it on facebook.

2. It goes viral

3. Viral aggregator sites like Buzzfeed scoop it up and make it even more viral as "old man visits a dealership for a glovebox, you'll never guess what happens next"

4. Someone in the press starts asking questions about just who has access to customer data and for what purpose.

5. That goes viral as well and comes to the attention of [a] Top management and [b] The national privacy and data protection regulators.

If you as the SA’s manager have just blasted the guy verbally rather than taken any formal HR and privacy policy mandated step against him, you'll be in for the high jump just as much as that well intentioned SA was.

But then we live in India, where data privacy norms still have a long way to go. So far, a data protection law is only being talked about and certain sections of the IT Act might apply at most but that is a stretch.

So it all boils down to corporate policies, I guess.

Last edited by hserus : 16th February 2018 at 23:33.
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Old 16th February 2018, 23:54   #2
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re: On Hyundai's new heartwarming ad (anniversary gift)

In that case the customer also has to be blamed. The ones who are so worried about privacy should refrain from giving away birthday and anniversary details. What about Aadhar and its dangerous vulnerabilities, where the citizens have been forced to give away biometric details? What about the tech giants like Facebook, Google, Amazon and all tracking you? If you are someone who has not enrolled for Aadhar and doesn’t use Google, Facebook, Amazon and all, then you have a point. To me this looks like a harmless advertisement, the creators wouldn’t even have thought about data breach , privacy and all. Its just a feel good one.
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Old 17th February 2018, 00:05   #3
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re: On Hyundai's new heartwarming ad (anniversary gift)

The distinction here is one you expressed - opt in.

You may opt in to give certain personal data to a portal. And if the portal misuses that data they might even face consequences. Such as today’s news : https://www.reuters.com/article/us-f...-idUSKCN1G01LG

This customer may have opted in to give Hyundai some specific personal data.

But collected for a specific purpose and to be accessed in the course of business.

Aadhaar of course relies on governmental fiat (decision making power) rather than any optin, so the analogy might not quite fit there.

But having spent time since ~ 2001 working on support issues and then on security and privacy related matters in organisations that have literally tens to hundreds of millions of customers, the ad just felt wrong to me, undeniably heart warming though it is.

As a similar but a bit grayer situation, picture this - you see a lady walk into a store you’re a salesman at to buy a product. You realise that you used to be classmates in high school, and have a pleasant conversation after the purchase formalities are done. So far so good.

Now she leaves without giving you her address or cell number. So you access her details from the customer database, turn up at her doorstep and ask her out for a coffee. What then?

Last edited by hserus : 17th February 2018 at 00:34.
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Old 17th February 2018, 00:43   #4
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re: On Hyundai's new heartwarming ad (anniversary gift)

How their system has records of marriage as in no documents or id's year or date of marriage is written or stated. And yes privacy of a customer comes first then comes the initiative of the employee.
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Old 17th February 2018, 05:50   #5
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re: On Hyundai's new heartwarming ad (anniversary gift)

Quote:
Originally Posted by revvharder View Post
How their system has records of marriage as in no documents or id's year or date of marriage is written or stated. And yes privacy of a customer comes first then comes the initiative of the employee.
May be additional data collected by dealers?

I have seen even restaurant feedback forms ask for such information so that they will invite you to come back to their place for a discounted special dinner on your anniversary

If this is standard practice anywhere in Hyundai though, it needs to be checked:
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Old 17th February 2018, 07:23   #6
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re: On Hyundai's new heartwarming ad (anniversary gift)

I think we are reading too much into the ad. Much like others, this ad too doesn't support the realities on the ground. It's purely an imagination.

If we start taking the ads so seriously, almost all ads will have to be pulled off the air.
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Old 17th February 2018, 07:39   #7
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re: On Hyundai's new heartwarming ad (anniversary gift)

There are things that are legally right and there is a different perspective if you look from whether they are morally right. And while legal rules are same for everyone, moral rules differ between people and their way of looking.
This is one of those instances where it seems morally correct. To me that's good enough.
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Old 17th February 2018, 07:42   #8
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re: On Hyundai's new heartwarming ad (anniversary gift)

What irked me the most in that advertisement was when the elderly gent was constantly diverging his attention to his malfunctioning glovebox rather than concentrating on the road ahead. Makes his driving a good contender for our Bad Driver's thread.
But then, it's an advertisement after all!

Last edited by Sherlocked : 17th February 2018 at 07:43.
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Old 17th February 2018, 08:26   #9
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Oh come on! We are making a molehill out of nothing! It is an AD. Period.

Ever seen the TUV300 AD with our own Bahubali? What do you say to that?

ADs are imaginative, and tend to pull the emotional strings of the consumers. And that is the way all ADs have been for decades, although due to customer awareness and norms ADs have become not so audacious these days.

I would be alarmed if the AD showcased a certain capability that did not exist in a car or if they exaggerated certain aspects, not this for sure, especially in this age when every .com service company seems to have your Aadhar details!
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Old 17th February 2018, 08:31   #10
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re: On Hyundai's new heartwarming ad (anniversary gift)

In a society like ours, idea of privacy is limited upto metro cities. In tier 2-3 cities, we fear our neighbours more than our parents. So, privacy is never a matter of concern unless the breach can hurt you financially or mentally.

If we look into this ad deeply, there are many subtle hints that the elderly couple lives on their own without any other family member. Even, on the occasion of their anniversary, nobody was with them for celebration.

IMO, a lone couple in their 60s will prefer getting surprise gift from their SA rather condemning him for invasion of privacy.

The bottom line is that ads are not to be taken seriously otherwise I'll have to jump out of a plane every other night to get a Thums-Up.

Cheers!!

Last edited by Ry_der : 17th February 2018 at 08:33.
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Old 17th February 2018, 08:39   #11
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re: On Hyundai's new heartwarming ad (anniversary gift)

Yes I would agree with everyone that ad's are purely imagination and misleading and are only made to lure customers. Seeing it from a layman's perspective the ad may be right but see it through technical way or the business way, people who have studied business as their subject may agree with me that the principle of authority and responsibility is being misused in the ad as the responsibility of the SA is to provide customer satisfaction but he is misusing his powers by looking in the customer's profile but on the other hand if we see all the ad's from this point of view some or the other thing may always be wrong in the ad as they are mostly made to mislead and lure people.
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Old 17th February 2018, 09:39   #12
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What a stupid advertisement!

This is such a stupid and retarded advertisement, Hyundai shot its own foot!

1) It shows a problem with the car. You don't advertise your problems Hyundai.
2) Shows that the customer is irritated by the falling glovebox. Ok.
3) The customer takes it in for fixing it and SA listens to the conversation. Probably OK, he just happened to be there and the uncle was not whispering.
4) SA pulled the customer details from their database. They already have that information with them, wedding anniversary too.
5) Someone delivers the car to their home. Uncle is seemingly happy because the problem with his Hyundai was fixed and he got it back.
6) Uncle drives his wife for a nice dinner and the glove box falls again. Uncle seems really pissed because Hyundai couldn't or did not fix the car.
7) SA pacifies him by asking if Aunty liked the gift, tells uncle he will come and fix the problem tomorrow.

What a stupid stupid stupid advertisement.

It shows a faulty car in the beginning of the advertisement and it shows the same fault still not fixed at the end, highlighting inefficient Hyundai Service. Apart from that takes the customer's time for granted. Car delivered without fixing and does not inform the customer, and says will fix tomorrow. What if he has some other program the next day?

Last edited by Sankar : 17th February 2018 at 09:40.
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Old 17th February 2018, 10:16   #13
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re: On Hyundai's new heartwarming ad (anniversary gift)

Nonsense way of advertising problem by Hyundai. It would have been better if the old man intentionally opens the glovebox to check if it has been fixed and then finds a gift lying there with anniversary wishes from Hyundai. Or simply keeping the gift on the passenger seat with a bouquet and card from Hyundai.

The core problem has to be fixed in all cases as that is the only reason the car and the old man visited the service center.

Last edited by GTO : 19th February 2018 at 09:47. Reason: typo
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Old 17th February 2018, 10:57   #14
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re: On Hyundai's new heartwarming ad (anniversary gift)

A weird ad with a creepy SA. So hyundai cars have faulty gloveboxes and their authorised service centres have people with no sense of boundaries, by the look of it.
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Old 17th February 2018, 11:49   #15
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re: On Hyundai's new heartwarming ad (anniversary gift)

Nothing heartwarming about the add. It's just nonsensical as nonsensical it can be!

Basically it says we have no regard to your privacy. We will eves-drop on your phone calls when you are at our service centers and find cheesy excuses to not fixing your car!
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