Launch of Volkswagen Polo

Volkswagen Polo

Category- Premium Hatchback
Company- Volkswagen Das Auto

Campaign- "Launch of Polo in India"

After Beetle I was eagerly waiting for VW Polo & recently saw TVCs of the same. With Polo, VW is entering into very crowded Indian small car market & that too in premium hatchback segment which is dominated by players like Maruti Suzuki & Hyundai. In this segment Ritz & Swift represents Maruti Suzuki & i20 represents Hyundai. Also Ford has entered in this segment with Figo & Honda has entered with Jazz though it is in little higher category when we consider prices.

VW Polo is positioned as German car exclusively made for India. This is very apt positioning when you are entering into the Indian car market at this moment. Because nowadays most of the carmakers make some changes before launching their products in Indian Market, most of the times by just changing the left hand driving to right hand driving but they fail to completely match with the Indian conditions. And here is VW which fills that gap by introducing Polo, which is manufactured at Chakan near Pune, considering Indian conditions. This positioning also appeals to the emotional mind of an Indian.

Now let’s analyse the execution part of the marketing brief given by the German carmaker. The TVC part of campaign is released in four forms. All the TVCs target the sceptical nature of car buyer and try to solve their doubts in a very funny way.

The first commercial shows a sceptical car buyer testing the car's ground clearance, by placing an ostrich's egg under the car and driving over without touching it. He is soon shown being chased by the visibly angry ostrich.

The second commercial has a sceptical car buyer driving through cattle, as he tries to put the car's road handling to test. The ad again ends with the herd chasing the driver.

In the third commercial, the driver tests Polo's claim of running for 27 kilometres on one litre of diesel, as he fills the car with the exact amount of fuel. He soon runs into trouble the car stalls in a forest area, after having run for the claimed distance, as tribal people drag him away.

The fourth TVC has a sceptical car buyer testing the safety and toughness of the car, as he challenges a rhinoceros to 'bring it on'. He soon realises what a bad idea that was, and how tough the car is, as the rhino rams right into the Polo.

Each film ends with a voiceover, which says that the car has already been tested by engineers and one need not put it to any further tests.

According to me, all the four versions fulfil the expectations by focusing on product features as well as appealing the emotional quotient by showing scepticism. Further, the product features such as ground clearance, safety, road handling & mileage are really the requirements for being a successful car in the Indian conditions. But the second part i.e. emotional appeal could have been better than the current one. I feel the commercial seems rude by saying, ‘Our engineers have tested it you need not to’. We Indians don’t like rudeness, we believe in values & cultures. When you get the marketing brief saying, ‘You need to show the efficacy of German technology on Indian roads by showing the Indianness of the car’, then I think you have lots of options to choose from. I have seen one commercial for VW Polo for its launch in one of the Western Countries wherein they have demonstrated car features by fulfilling the needs of family members of different age group. And I think in India what would have been better than showing a car which fulfils the needs of the whole family by giving emotional touch to it.

Other than TVC, I have seen the promotion done by one of the dealers of VW by displaying car at various places, like I have seen it at HDFC bank during lunch hours, where some employees were briefed by the salesman about the features of the car. This is very good strategy to go to your target group to demonstrate the features of your product.

The 360-degree campaign comprises of four TV commercials in addition to innovations in print, outdoor and digital.

Maruti Suzuki Ritz

Category- Car

Segment- Premium Hatchback
Company- Maruti Suzuki

Campaign- "Why Choose?"

As usual Maruti Suzuki followed its line filling strategy of lengthening the product line by adding one more car within same product range. Line filling strategy is two edged sword, if it’s done nicely, it gives good results in terms of overall profits, but if it’s overdone, it results in self-cannibalisation & customer confusion. By introducing Ritz in premium hatchback segment where Swift is already present, Maruti Suzuki has again taken the same risk. Maruti Suzuki has been successful in converting this risk into opportunity by differentiating products which are in the same product range. And as usual it’s successful in differentiating Swift & Ritz by positioning Swift as an individualistic car & Ritz as a family car as well as by giving Ritz the sophisticated and luxury tinge.

This is all about strategies formulated within four walls but it’s very important to communicate these differential points to the target group to avoid self-cannibalisation & customer confusion. And I think Maruti Suzuki again won the battle of communication through the recent Maruti Suzuki Ritz campaign comprising TVC.
The first half of the TVC tells us about the trade-offs we do before arriving at any decision in the life and finally compromise on something. The film starts with a boy and a girl, both busy painting two walls: one with pink, and the other with blue. The voiceover says: "Pink or blue"? Second situation shows a lobby in a multi-storey, where an elevator is going up, while another is headed down. Voiceover: "Up or down"? The next vignette: A rose petal falls on a clean white bed, and an earthen pot is broken into pieces. Voiceover: "Apologise or argue"? The next shot is inside a car, where a husband is confused whether he should give time to his wife or his mother. "Wife or mother"? The following clip shows a glutton on a treadmill, while someone is relishing an orange. The voiceover: "Sweat or starve"? The last shot shows a man entering through the glass doors of an office, while another man with a smiling face comes out of it with a carton full of his belongings. The voiceover: "Quit or stick"? Second half the film shifts its focus to the Ritz, and says: "Why choose? When one car has it all: Performance and mileage, comfort and excitement, space and style."

According to me the campaign is successful in touching viewer’s emotional quotient as well as in focusing on product features. Most of the brands prefer to demonstrate product features in the first part of the campaign and then go for emotional appeal when the product is well known. In case of cars, display of the car by different angles as well as while performing is common strategy of communication but recently some of the car campaigns have directly gone for the emotional appeal rather going for display of product features, Volkswagen Beetle is one of the good examples in this category. Here Ritz has done both things and that too very effectively in the same campaign.

The only thing bothering me in this campaign is the frequency of TV commercials, it’s very less. As Ritz is in the phase of awareness it should come up with frequent ads on different TV channels. Also the campaign is going to come up with OOH & radio ads, but according to me all the medium should communicate at the same time to get place in the today’s customer’s mind who is suffering from short term memory syndrome due to bombardment of millions of ads.