Twitter, a good medium to engage customers, say automakers

When Maruti Suzuki India launched a Twitter handle for its Swift model, the company wouldn’t have thought that the same medium will also expose it to consumer onslaught.

Recently, when Swift failed in a crash test, the handle, which was meant to promote the vehicle, became an outlet for consumer criticism. According to companies, the trend to use social media will only grow going forward as many customers want to get an update on what’s happening around the brand from the word ‘go.’

Tata Motors did a three-day social bidding war, where six consumers battled it out to win a Tata Nano car by getting their followers to bid for them via tweets.

“The objective was to create brand association with the new Tata Nano Twist and its colour variants by positioning it as a possession that every 18-24 year should own,” a company spokesperson said.

“It’s important to connect with passionate people who are interested in your brand more than twice a day. Twitter gives that freedom of great frequency without making it look like intrusion,” explains Manohar Bhat, Vice-President – Marketing, Maruti.

All major automobile brands of the world have a strong presence on the platform, he said, adding that the company on the launch of the new Swift is running a Twitter campaign. The campaign has got 6,000 followers in just 21 days.

A well tailored Twitter engagement in line with the campaign communication can give a product major push in terms of visibility — not just for the campaign but the brand at hand, said Jnaneswar Sen, Senior Vice-President — Marketing & Sales, Honda Cars India.

“Twitter allows us to broadcast our message to a target audience for fuelling on-line customer engagement. Post 2014, we will see a surge in all social media platforms delivering very sophisticated and advertising friendly tools/ products,” he said.

However, he also said there would be challenges to customise these tools/ products to suit a company’s campaign objectives or the brand voice at large.

On the negative feedbacks or criticisms, the companies said that while the idea was to use social media as a two-way communication platform between the brand and its customers, most customers use this media as a platform to complaint.

“Negative feedback is inherent to all marketing platforms. Social media gives the consumer the power to raise concerns directly. It’s important to take negative comments seriously and resolve customers’ issues to maintain the brand’s reputation as a customer friendly one,” says Bhat at MSIL.

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