A car which changed India

As we forged our way into year 2015, we are leaving behind one of the legendary cars that changed India and its auto industry. The journey of the Indian passenger car segment has been marked by model which then became milestones in their own right. The Maruti 800 which came out in 1983 broke the shackles of the License Raj and built the aspiration for the car in the minds of the Indian family. While Maruti build on the aspiration with its simplicity, Hyundai and its Santro marked the rise in aspiration of the common man to move from the necessity of mobility to the mark of driving in comfort.

In 1998, Hyundai came into the small passenger car segment with the Santro (inspired from the elegant city of Saint Tropez in the French Riviera) which was then dominated by Maruti (80% share) with the basic 800 and the Zen with a  more powerful 1000 cc engine. A new entrant in the small car segment was another Korean, the Daewoo Matiz. The rest like the Ford, Honda, Toyota were out to focus on the mid-sized saloon segment. Coming in as a challenger to the dominant force is not a mean thing; but for a car which even towards its closure in 2014 is selling up to 30,000 units a year, there has to be something special.

The first success for the Santro came from its tall boy design which was a novelty in itself. Yes, the purists claimed it looked much like its name in Korea, Atoz which sounded like an auto (rickshaw), it gave radically more head room in the cabin as against its competition. This also meant that an Indian woman could get in without much trouble of managing her saree and having to almost kneel to get inside. The other part was the fact that Santro has a better ground clearance than most in its category. And while air conditioning as a standard accessory was not available initially, the cost differential between an AC and non-AC was just a few thousand rupees.

The turning point for Santro was the 2003 launch of the Santro Zing which had the AC and power steering as a standard option. This was the major blow to have an impact of the market which Maruti was slowing losing its grip on. With no major improvements on the Zen and the delay for the tall boy Wagon R meant Santro went on to gain in leaps and bounds within no time. The only possible area where Hyundai could have lost the battles was costs. But using a single vendor approach for economies of scale and an 80% localization of suppliers, the Santro was the largest selling car within two years of its launch. Between 2003 to 2010, the Santro sold anywhere between 1,00,000 to 2,40,000 units year after year. It was the simple looking, comfortable interiors design, zippy but fuel efficient engine and the distinction that it was not a Maruti built its first base for Hyundai loyalists of today.  

In a city like Mumbai where driving might be a pain almost all throughout the day, Santro found a new lease of life in the last 5 years. The iconic black and yellow Premier Padmini was on its way out into the oblivion and there were already new contenders in the form of Maruti Wagon R, Alto, Omni, Ecco and Tata Indicab waiting to fill the gap. But the Hyundai Santro today has a dominant present as the new face of the black and yellow Mumbai Taxi. I am yet to see a cabbie who is not happy with the change to Santro. The ones who moved over directly from the Padmini to a Santro find a whole ocean of difference in the driving experience. Their most common appreciation comes in the handling and the power steering that have helped reduce their fatigue and work longer shifts. The ones who tried others and are now driving a Santro just say “yes uss se accha hai…”.

It is kind of funny that the Santro will be discontinued from the same year as the legendary Ambassador has taken its final bow. But one thing is for sure, if the Ambassador left its legacy as the car that was the one which enjoyed the decades of the Licence Raj, the Santro will be remembered for a car that established India as the global small car hub. What we will also remember is the fact that it pushed the wheels of the Indian auto towards previously perceived luxuries of power steering and air conditioning into standard specification and made our ride a little more joy. 

The KISS that works...

Advertising and Marketing Communication often is expected to do wonders like we see in fairy tales. It is like the true loves kiss that breaks the evil spell and changes the life for the prince or princess or ogre in a way only imagined. It works much the same way with brands and their consumers. Brands are constantly in the search for those loyal customers who swear by their name and will never defect to competition no matter what. For consumers, from the wide variety of options at hand, is the basic need for the brand to serve its purpose as well as satisfy the need for association at a social level.

Like people, brands have personalities and much alike is also the fact that the less layered and complicated the brand personality; people tend to adapt to it faster are more closely associated. This is the reason why when we plan for the branding or communication for any brand, the governing fact has to be KISS (Keep It Short n Simple). The simplicity is a key here since layers not only distort the message but increase the number of time something has to be conveyed before the right meaning comes through. Shortness- well it is possible at times and most brands do manage to talk about their personality through a phrase and in around 3 words or less.

The basic purpose of branding was to differentiate one from another and somehow each time we talk about branding opportunities or brand manuals; it somehow seems dominated by visual aids.  I will not deny that the moment I think branding, my mind starts working on use of shapes, fonts, colours and trying to figure out a unique arrangement for talking about the brands persona. One possible reason I see is that an organisation needs to have an identity to start with business and the logo becomes the first point of establishing this. Another that shapes and colours are usually easy to identify. But once the brand has reached a level where it looks to hold a unique place in the minds of its consumers, other aspects like catch word phrases or audio mnemonics make more impact.

One problem I see with visual identities is the overcrowding of the space leaving very little scope for anything innovative. Indian or multinational large corporate groups seem to have sided with blue as a colour of choice. GE, Philips, Samsung, AT&T, Infosys, Tata, Ashok Leyland are just a few examples. Close on the heels is red. Coca Cola, 3M, Honeywell, Cannon, Virgin, ESPN, LG, Mahindra are just some who make this space. Not to mention how many use a combination of Red and Blue. So unless you have a yellow like DHL or the brown of UPS; the colour palette is running out fast. For symbols, the ‘H’ can be for Honda or Hyundai; the ‘T’ can be Toyota or Tata. The call is to make a breakthrough at some level.

If we look globally, most companies have picked up on catch phrases. The simplicity being that use of small words can have multiple meanings and endless possibilities to apply across the domain.  For instance Nike- They use the swoosh and ‘N’ as the identity on the shoes, but what the brand will today stand for is - ‘Just do it’. So what would be ‘Impossible is nothing’- the biggest competitor with the 3 stripes or 3 petal flower, Adidas. So why do brands so successful in their visual look for words as a part of its identity? I feel these simple words add in value. As much it works for brands abroad, it works in India as well. Things like ‘Utterly, butterly, delicious’, ‘Fill it, shut it, forget it’, ‘Taste the thunder’, all have a unique association in our minds.

Another sense which has been successful in terms of brand association is sound. Each time we switch on or turn off a Windows based PC, we hear a sound which we are so familiar with. We know what PC has an Intel inside it even on a radio ad. Nokia sound in a unique way; so does Samsung. It works so well that major phone networks in India like Airtel, !dea, DoCoMo all have a unique mnemonic sound to identify itself. Even Britannia and the corporate house like Reliance ADAG have an audio identity.

I guess these are a few brands where I felt it was just small and simple ways where brands have done things to just stand apart and make their presence felt. I’m sure there are many more- but then again; what works in my opinion is the simplicity in messaging to represent the brand in the most unique of ways and cut down the clutter. And more often than not the KISS works.

A disaster of Nano proportions

I just saw an episode of ‘The Men who built America’ on TV where the US courts broke down the empire of Andrew Rockefeller’s Standard Oil into smaller fragments under the anti-trust law and paved the way for competitive markets to replace the oil monopoly. The same also coincided with the rise of Henry Ford and the model T becoming the first car people from the American middle class could buy. This changed the whole landscape for the automobile sector in the US in the 1900’s.

India saw a similar shift when Maruti & Suzuki launched the Maruti Suzuki 800 (the Indian version of the Suzuki Fronte) hit the Indian roads in 1983. Beating the long waiting periods and the virtual dearth of India to think beyond the Ambassador, Premier Padmini, Jeeps and an odd Standard Gazelle or Herald, Maruti 800 forged the way for the Indian middle class to realize the Car dream. The parallel progress was the 2-wheeler market which moved from the age old Bajaj 150 Super to sleeker motorcycles built most by Indo-Japanese collaborations with Suzuki, Honda, Kawasaki etc. All of a sudden, the Indian families found mobility.

The globalization of the Indian economy in 1991 saw an avalanche of car manufacturers flood the Indian markets. Asian giants from Japan like Toyota, Honda, Mitsubishi, South Koreans with Hyundai and Daewoo and the Europeans like Peugeot, Mercedes, FIAT saw India as the hot bed. Some perished, some survived- but their success was all due to the revolution started off by Maruti; which survived every new entrant. It was only a matter of time before Indian heavy vehicle giant TATA stepped into the ring with passenger cars. Success came to TATA when the Sumo picked up in the rental segment and the Indica V2delivered in the family car.

While the affluent and middle class migrated from the small Maruti 800 to sedans from Honda, the gap between the 50K motorcycle to a 250K Maruti 800 still kept most of India in search of the 4 wheels. This was the gap which the Tata Nano was out to bridge since 2006; a car which costs just about 100K to appeal to the large volume of smaller Indian pockets. I can vouch for the excitement it created; there were so many designs floating on the net to claim to be the Indian people’s car.

The buzz was so high that the chief of the Nano team; Girish Wagh found his way into my General Awareness exam papers in MBA. Not to mention, Nano was formally launched on my birthday in 2009. People I remember spent hours to get a test drive of the new car and interest levels were so high that the car allotment had to be done through a lottery method by filling out forms through State Bank of India branches across India. It was spacious beyond imagination and gave driving comfort which small cars usually cannot offer. Yes, it was a little under powered for some; but perfect for city driving.

So why after 4 years of its launch, there are less than 800 Nano’s hitting Indian roads each month with sales dipping every month. Why is a car offering over 20kmpl not ringing the registers for TATA? Experts cite a lot of possible errors ranging from their marketing to the Singur issue. But what really is it? I feel it was a lot of factors coming together.

Promises a little too long: The initial buzz that caught the frenzy of the Indian market was the fact that Nano was going to be a car with space for a family at a price tag of INR 100K.  The initial offer from the TATA’s on the base model was just a fraction above the promised pricing. But the promise soon faded away amidst global pressures arising due to higher costs for steel. As prices went higher and reached closer to the 2^nd hand car market, Nano was o longer the 1^st choice. Why will anyone go for a car which has no frills when a decent 2^nd hand can come in the same price?

Positioning: I don’t think you need to take a lot of marketing effort for a car that is so much in buzz, positive vibe through test drives and booking rush that you had to go in for a lottery system. You can’t buy that kind of PR and buzz that Nano lost its relevance with iPod for some. Not to mention the advertising which showed even a BEST bus driver going to work in a Nano, the joy of the child when a Nano reached a far off village in Ladakh did its job of creating the awareness.

Now the demand was high, but where was this demand coming from? Was it the urban middle class looking for its 2^nd car; or it was in fact serving as the means to someone meeting his dream of 4 wheels? I believe it was more of the first and this was one area where the market started to deviate from the vision of TATA. Though the ads positioned it in one way, the market attracted was a different one.

Time to Market: So let us call this a case of a car that was wrongly positioned- but that hardly discounts the kind of interest and numbers reflected in the participation of the lottery. So was the lottery a bad idea?

Honestly, it was not the first time it was happening in India. The first Maruti 800 customer was an Indian Airlines employee who got the privilege by a lottery, while the rest with the moughals of the 80’s with money and even political power had to wait. What was different now was that there were options for the customers who did not wish to wait and try a hand with lottery. The exit barrier was low and it actually did not matter much to just let go.

Teething trouble: Once bitten, twice shy- Indian markets today are ruthless in this regard. While the world was waiting to hear how the Nano performed in the real, sporadic cases of the car catching fire sank the interests even more. ‘Nano should be offered with a fire extinguisher’ spread like a wild fire and didn’t help the cause. In any category, it takes ten times the effort to win back a customer. While the competition was cutting down prices, offering warranties and making the markets tough, the hazards of fire was damaging.

When I see the new ad from Nano with the youthful feel, all I wish for is that let this one click and the fortunes of the Nano move in the right direction. I also read that Girish Wagh after a small disappearing act is back on the job. Let the new management divert the future of this car to greater heights and away from which is closer to its name.