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
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!!!
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