Maruti Suzuki-kitna deti hai

In the past two weeks, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) have been extremely busy working on corporate branding by showing their very famous “mileage-ads” amidst every Olympic event. Infact they rather chose advertisements in order to mask their lock-out hassle in Manesar plant, Haryana. On the other side, the ad which captions “kitna deti hai? (meaning: how much it gives)” attracted several millions because it points promptly onto the mindset of a typical Indian who always looks for “more value for less money”. God knows why they chose this particular ad since there are more than half a dozen ads portraying their n-number of unique features like service station availability, mileage etc. and numerous campaigns like “count-on-us” campaign, “India comes home in Maruti Suzuki” campaign etc. 

kitna deti hai-ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzW7Sxzkr1Y 

India comes home in Maruti
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbX8e4seGoY

service station ad
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EaiWDwEfMGM&feature=related 

What’s in a mileage??

Indians certainly never need an introduction about what mileage exactly is; but it is significant to note that who can be the target customer when talks about mileage. It would be undoubtedly “the middle class” which itself creates an impression that MSIL caters only to the middle class (not even upper middle class who has the potential to spend 1-1.5 million INR or even >1.5 million INR for a car); which is nothing but narrowing down their target group.

It’s quite senseless to bring mileage factor for brand association when talks about an umbrella brand like Maruti Suzuki. It’s been reported that people who buy cars worth more than 1 million (like Kizashi, Grand Vitara or even high end versions of SX-4 and Ertiga) would be more performance oriented than looking for “value-for-money” which incidentally discards mileage factor. And hence choosing one or two particular models for conveying the mileage aspect would have been a better option.

Mileage ad - in Olympics???

Another big question is the time at which they aired the ad, London Olympics; which stands for ultimate sports and sheer vigour. They could have come up with some new ads regarding their upcoming launches, or ‘Olympics-inspirational-ad’ just what HERO MOTO CORP. did or branding any sporty versions of Maruti like Swift sport, or SX-4 etc. It’s true that they are not interested in spending money for creating new ads and hence selected a cost effective way in the turbulent time, but hardly make any sense amid Olympics. Though Maruti however succeeded in not losing the brand image (due to their lockout problem) by showing their mileage ads, generally these kinds of functional ads (like toothpastes and other cosmetic products’ ads) will never be suitable on big events.

So the point is; be sure about the suitability (with regard to time and occasion) and worth of an ad before going for its official airing!!!