The Hindu Business Line : JK Tyres claim to top slot misleading: MRF

THE tussle between MRF Ltd and JK Tyres Ltd over who the No.1 manufacturer in the country is appears to have come to a head with both of them claiming the numero uno position today.

MRF today held a press conference here where it said that the Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) had upheld MRF's claim that JK Tyre's advertisement, which reads as `JK Tyre— The No.1 tyre manufacturer' was "misleading".

MRF's Executive Director (Marketing), Mr Philip Eapen, said ASCI's ruling settled the issue in favour of MRF.

A press release from MRF quotes ASCI as saying "Claim, "JK Tyre— The No.1 tyre manufacturer" was misleading, since the source mentioned was `ATMA', which in its publication cited, did not have a specific classification for "four-wheeler tyres". The claim did not appear to convey to the consumers that `Vikrant Tyres' would be clubbed with JK Tyres." (ATMA refers to the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association. MRF has also made available photostat copies of the decision of the Consumer Complaints Council, ASCI. The decision is dated October 2002).

Mr Eapen said that once ASCI sent its ruling to the media, conventionally, no media unit would accept JK's advertisement that claimed it was the No.1 tyre manufacturer.

However, when contacted by Business Line, Mr Neeraj Bhatia, General Manager (Marketing), JK Tyres, claimed that MRF was wrong because JK was indeed the largest manufacturer of four-wheeler tyres. MRF was bigger only if the 2-wheeler and 3-wheeler tyres were also counted. JK, Mr Bhatia said, did not manufacture 2W and 3W tyres.

He said that the case was far from being decided and "only yesterday I have met ASCI and given them the proof that we are right". Mr Bhatia said that JK Tyres was the largest producer of four-wheeler tyres in the period April 2001-March 2002, "which is what we have said in our advertisement".

This war between the two has been going on for some time now. In its press release MRF has said that it had raised a complaint with ASCI on July 11, 2002, but there has been similar crossing of swords before.

In November 2001, ASCI ruled in favour of MRF against a JK ad which featured the car racer, Narain Karthikeyan. MRF said that the ad implied that JK manufactured Formula car tyres, while it actually did not. In the same year, the Consumer Complaints Council also upheld another contention of MRF, objecting to JK's claim that it was the No.1 tyre manufacturer in 1999-2000.

Mr Neeraj Bhatia has said that since JK Tyres was "ahead of them in four- wheeler tyres", the company would "go ahead with the ad campaign".

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail
Comment on this article to BLFeedback@thehindu.co.in

Stories in this Section
RMG David to break ground in `promising' medium radio

JK Tyres claim to top slot misleading: MRF

Escotel launches SMS Edge for advertisers

Herbalife plans more products, launches Aloe Plus

Lindsay olives now in India