A face to sell the tall car – Maruti Suzuki

Maruti Suzuki is one of India's leading automobile manufacturers and the market leader in the car segment, both in terms of volume of vehicles sold and revenue earned. Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL) was established in February 1981, though the actual production commenced in 1983 with the Maruti 800, based on the Suzuki Alto kitty car which at the time was the only modern car available in India, its' only competitors- the Hindustan Ambassador and Premier Padmini were both around 25 years out of date at that point. Through 2004, Maruti has produced over 5 Million vehicles. Maruti are sold in India and various several other countries, depending upon export orders.

                              Who does not know the fact that Maruti Suzuki , which sells every second car being sold in the country has been ruling the Indian hatchback  market for years now. Due to this fact company started its Indian journey with the popular Maruti 800 back in 1983 .Now Maruti has eight products in hatchback kitty and it covers hole domestic market. It is not to say that Maruti has been able to define clear segment within the hatchback segment and industry watcher’s claim that this clear segmentation has been reason behind Maruti’s Indian success story.

Be it the iconic zen ,the tall-boyish wagon-R, the sporty swift ,all of them have been able to create a segment for themselves in the Indian hatchback market .The case with A-Star was no different .In fact , at the time of the launch of A-star ,a car targeted at the urban youth ,Maruti roped in Farhan Akhtar for its ‘stop @ nothing’ campaign 2008.Notable ,A-Star was able to gain from the star power and subsequently its volume grew very quickly. The A-Star currently sells around 3,000-3,500 units per month. Very few might remember but this is not the first time that Maruti is using a brand ambassador to endorse its product .Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan were the brand ambassador of the very forgettable Versa (Maruti’s multi utility vehicle which launched in 2001). Versa could not capture on first mover’s advantage despite being the first MUV to be launched in India. Even  the presence of the heavy weight Bachchan duo, could not save the product , as its unclear positioning and hefty price tag led to its downfall. Maruti once again is banking  on the star power of southern superstar R.Madhavan will be face of wagon-R, as his personality gels very well with the attributes of the products ,” because Wagon-R’s creative agency will soon be launching an ad campaign featuring the actor with the tag line ‘smart ideas lead the world’. The Indian automotive industry has been associated with the Bollywood for a long time now .While Sharukh Khan has been able to wave his magical wand around Hyundai ,Amir played to perfection the role of a sweet boy next door driving  in the family car Innova. What’s more, within four years of its launch Santro became the second largest selling car in India, convincingly displacing Maruti’Zen . Now that’s what we call effective use of celeb to multiply brand promise. However, the market leader Maruti except for a few occasions has steered clear of roping in a brand ambassador .So the million dollar question remains why Maruti has roped in Madhavan now and why for a best seller like wagon-R? Does Maruti Suzuli actually need a brand ambassador to endorse its products when many believe that its brand equity is strong enough to pull volumes straight away? Because company has made a definite attempt to change its position from people’s car market to a more radical and technologically advanced carmaker in the the consumer’s mind .However ,barring A-Star the rest were bereft of any brand ambassadors are required to create a new category ,as, with them being associated to a particular brand; changes are that the product will gain initial volumes easily. We  did the same with A-Star , as it was aiming to create a new category in hatchback market. But then , one can always put a question on Maruti’s move to rope in Madhavan for wagon-R as it is almost a decade old brand in the country.   

In fact the company is also planning out aggressive BTL activities in the southern parts of the country to bank more volumes and believed then these attemptswill only make the market leader much stronger in southern domestic market.