Driving up demand

It's 11 p.m. on a Sunday night – long after most showrooms have downed shutters. But the Ford showroom at a tony South Delhi colony is buzzing with activity. The annual midnight sale of Ford is on.

As a family checks out a bright red Figo, a customer representative says, “We've booked over 40 cars today, usually we do only half of that in a weekend.”

These are tough times for automakers. Demand is sluggish with petrol prices heading far north, interest rates sky-high, and higher taxes burning deep holes in the consumers' pockets. The onus is on them to perk up interest and drive the customer into their stores.

Ford's midnight car sale (a day when showrooms are open till the clock strikes 12) is one such innovative marketing effort. This is the third year in a row that the US automaker is selling cars at unearthly hours – the difference this year is that it has advanced the date.

Usually held in December, this year, the carmaker is holding it in hot May to drum up some excitement after a rather tepid April when sales were particularly slow.

It chose a Sunday to catch buyers in a stress-free, merry mood, and to sweeten the deal, added an assured gift such as an LCD TV with every car. The usual tamasha associated with festive season marketing is woven into this promotional event. Here, prospective buyers can experience the product while having a good time. A positive, happy atmosphere is expected to increase the chances of sales.

“We saw 4-5 times more interest than on a normal weekend,” says Nigel Wark, Ford India's Executive Director - Marketing, Sales and Service. “Over 200 orders were placed in the last hour across the country.”

Ford is also cruising across India to drive brand recall. Last October, it flagged off a ‘Bharat Yatra' – a drive into semi-urban and rural pockets touching 1,000 towns across 20 States in a span of 100 days.

Rural Reach

Other carmakers too have been on a similar marketing overdrive. Take home-grown Tata Motors, which has been pushing its Nano compact deeper into the hinterland. After its unveiling in 2008 as the cheapest car with four doors, the small car had hoped to give wheels to the dreams of families but sales did not meet its king-size expectations.

So in the last couple of years two Nano Super Drives have been held where fleets of Nanos have traversed the country spreading the word.

Early May, it flagged off Kochi-based Thomas Chacko, a 62-year-old motoring enthusiast on his 25,000 km, 80-day driving expedition from Kanyakumari in the South to Khardung La (Leh) – the highest motorable road in the world.

To allay customer concerns about quality, Tata Motors has also began various “touch and feel” initiatives.

This includes display at Big Bazaar outlets, apart from the 150 Nano sales points it has started across smaller towns and villages where prospective customers can try the vehicle.

The Petrol Push

Rising petrol prices have proved a nightmare for carmakers such as Hyundai, Honda and Maruti Suzuki, which don't offer a diesel alternative to some of their models.

To counter the growing customer aversion to petrol cars, companies such as Maruti have launched big campaigns. “We have identified certain customer segments that drive less, and are educating them that a petrol car works out to be much cheaper to buy and maintain. Our data suggests that almost 26 per cent of car owners drive less than 5,000 km a year,” says Mayank Pareek, Maruti's Managing Executive Officer (Marketing & Sales).

With a sales network now covering 92 per cent of the talukas , the company has put its weight behind rural and semi-urban marketing.

About 270 niche customer segments, such as mango growers in the West, have been identified. Maruti will push specific models according to their needs.

To connect with potential new car owners, Maruti is also entering driving schools.

“Thirty per cent of pass-outs from the driving schools buy a car within three months, while 60 per cent buy within a year,” points out Pareek, explaining the company's investment in brand-building activities at these schools.

Maruti is doubling the number of driving schools it is investing in from 206 at present.

Separately, the carmaker is targeting young entrepreneurs by running campaigns – especially on social media – using the WagonR brand to invest in new business ideas/start-ups.

Image makeover

Maruti's main competitor, Hyundai, is meanwhile busy re-inventing its image. With larger models such as the Sonata, Sante Fe and the new Verna, it hopes to climb up the brand ladder to a more premium position. It wants to change current perception that it's just the maker of value hatches such as Santro and i10.

Nalin Kapoor, Group Head - Marketing, Hyundai Motor India, says the idea is to sharply position the products through newspaper innovations and digital engagements. “For the Eon (compact), our campaign underlines the value of the car at the price. Word of mouth is getting strong,” he says.

The Korean carmaker recently held an online competition for its new i20, where people were asked to post pictures of their ‘Uber Life' moments (atypical activities or adventure sports which may change one's life).

From over 7,000 entries, around 42 people were shortlisted who won prizes, while two couples were awarded a trip to Sri Lanka for the T20 Cricket World Cup final.

German muscle

But it's the Germans who drive away with top honours when it comes to innovative marketing. They have the deep pockets to invest in some disruptive marketing. Take Volkswagen. Apart from investing in cricket (IPL) and Bollywood ( Ra.One ), Volkswagen has been at the helm of marketing innovations since the parent brand entered India in 2007.

From hanging a full-size model of the Vento sedan from the roof of the DLF building during its launch near Connaught Place, to talking ads in English dailies for the Vento, the company has now set a very high bar for the competition to match.

COMMENT NOW