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| Sub-brands take centrestage |
| Viveat Susan Pinto / Mumbai Nov 28, 2011, 00:48 IST |
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Most automobile firms are taking a leaf out of the marketing manual of FMCG companies.
Tata Motors in recent months has been undertaking a quiet transformation. The firm’s sedan Indigo Manza is now simply labeled Manza. Ditto for the Indica Vista. The attention is clearly on the name Vista rather than Indica. The scenario is no different with the firm’s sports utility vehicle Sumo Grande. It has been renamed as Grande Dicor, while a recent new model has been termed Grande MK-II.
Here’s another example: Maruti Suzuki. Barring Maruti 800, where the Maruti name has been prominently prefixed, most other brands from the Alto to the Grand Vitara, do not use the name that aggressively. These products stand on their own.
Hyundai Motors has also attempted to play up product names in its portfolio. While mention of the Hyundai brandname can be found, it is not very prominent. The focus instead is firmly on the Santro or the i10 or the i20.
Why are firms opting to do this? And how successful are they in product branding?
The answer, explains Viren Razdan, managing director, Interbrand India, lies in the ambition that auto companies have. “Based on that you choose to either amplify a sub-brand or push it in the background,” he says.
Both Maruti and Hyundai - mostly mass-market players - have attempted to stand out in a cluttered auto environment will strongly segmented brands. The focus then on products rather than the mother brand makes ample sense. Says Arvind Saxena, senior vice-president, sales & marketing, Hyundai Motors, “When you are talking to the consumer there has to be something tangible he can associate with. Product branding helps you in that regard.”
If the Santro is the tall-boy in Hyundai’s portfolio, i10 is the quintessential small car, and i20, a mid-segment car.
Maruti, on the other hand, has opted to occupy every segment from the entry level to the mid-segment and upper mid-segment. It even has an SUV in its portfolio. Differentiating each from the other is important. As Anmol Dhar, managing director, Superbrands India, says, “When you have such a wide portfolio, you obviously need to devote some attention to them, giving them a space they need. That is why the focus on the product rather than the Maruti brand name.”
Amongst two-wheelers, the most popular users of product branding remain Bajaj Auto, which opted to do away with the company name for a more tangible three-way classification. So now the firm’s advertising dwells on either the Pulsar, Discover or Boxer, with just the monogram B indicating that it is a Bajaj product. K V Sridhar, national creative director, Leo Burnett, the creative agency of Bajaj Auto, says that the idea behind the move was to build power brands.
“In a sense, we were taking a leaf out of the marketing manual of FMCG companies. My question is why should this be restricted to the FMCG category alone? Most mature marketers will focus on a few key brands that stand for something. There’s no point that you have number of products under one umbrella. Supporting them will not be easy.”
Some brand experts, however, say mass-market players choose to focus on product brands simply because there is no badge value attached to the source or mother brand, which is the case with premium players. As Bobby Pawar, chief creative officer, Mudra Group, the agency behind the advertising for Volkswagen in India, says, “The higher you go the more important the badge becomes. So premium players will focus less on the model and more on the mother brand.”
This point is endorsed by Volkswagen’s director marketing Lutz Kothe. “Cars have limitations,” he says. “What makes them stand out is a strong umbrella brand that can hold all of them together. That umbrella for us is Volkswagen. So whether the Polo, Vento, Beatle or Passat, the Volkswagen identity will be intact.”
Volkswagen is not the only one to be speaking this language. Most premium players prefer to go with the mother brand, whether Mercedes, Audi, BMW or Rolls Royce. For all these players, the corporate name is the brand name to flaunt. There’s no question of pushing individual models or products.
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