Are Indian compact car players deviating away from the cliched "romantic" route to a more "personality-driven" approach? For one, Daewoo Motors plans to discontimue the Matiz TVC which features Lisa Ray-Sanjay Suri pair. On September 30, 2000, the Korean auto major is all set to launch a new nationwide television campaign to promote the Matiz. Created by Enterprise Nexus, the new televsion campaign includes three television commercials. As part of its brand building exercise, Daewoo Motors has recently launched an aggressive print campaign with a new tagline ``Matiz Total S.P.I.C.E.'' .Explains Enterprise Nexus director Kumar:``As an acronym, S.P.I.C.E reflects the total personality of the Matiz built in by Total Safety, Total Power, Total Innovation, Total Comfort and Total Economy. With our advertising, we want to communicate that the peppy Matiz brings zest to your lives.'' The new television campaign will also highlight the theme "Total S.P.I.C.E" in its communication.
According to Mr Kumar in the competitive arena, the need of the hour is to give a brand a distinct personality which will help brand recognition. ``It will also create an emotional bonding with the brand to strengthen the consumers' purchase decision,'' adds Kumar.
On the other hand, Tata Engineering has changed its base line from "more dreams per car"- the typical girl-meets-the-boy approach- to "more savings per car".
Tata Engineering has chalked out plans to extend the new Indica ad to the print and outdoor media. With the new ad-line - created by FCB Ulka - the company has taken the humour route to drive home the major benefit of the brand: You can save upto Rs 30,000 per year if you buy the Indica.
Says FCB-Ulka executive director MG Parameshwaran: ``To stand out in the clutter, we have avoided the cliched boy-meets-the girl-route. Instead, we have taken a humorous route to convey our message. Other players have mainly adopted the romantic route in their advertisements.''
This change in ad strategy by Tata Engineering is also considered to be a knee-jerk reaction to Maruti slashing its prices. Comments a leading automobile expert in Mumbai: ``Two months ago, Maruti had slashed down its price to woo buyers. As a fallout of this, other players are now harping on the price factor now.''
The other major players in the compact car segment include Hyndai Santro, Zen, Maruti 800 and Fiat Uno.
To cash in on the popularity of Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC), Tata Engineering plans to beam the new Indica television campaign during the KBC programme on Star TV. ``We will be beaming the new TVCs across all popular channels. We chose to air our TVC during KBC because the Indica ads also talk a lot about saving money,'' says FCB-Ulka executive director MG Parameshwaran.
The company has also taken on special sponsorship programmes on Sony. ``The company will be hosting special events with AXN channel. It has taken special film sponsorships on Zee TV too,'' informs Mr. Parameshwaran.
Further, to complement the Matiz Total S.P.I.C.E Campaign, Daewoo plans to launch a national contest where people will decide what they get from the Matiz, from their own experience, informs Mr Kumar.
Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.