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Picture this: Ranbir Kapoor driving around the streets of Mumbai, lip-syncing to a 70s Hindi film song, passing the city’s famous landmarks, and enjoying a smooth drive on the empty roads. Wait. Empty roads? In Mumbai? That’s the catch. You don’t have the luxury of driving on wide, empty roads in today’s cluttered cities. So what does one do to make driving less stressful? Buy the Nissan Micra of course! That is the essence of the new television commercial (TVC) for the car, that comes with the tag-line “Drive Simpler. Live Better”.
Created by ad agency TBWA India, the ad takes a route different from conventional car ads that portray the subjects as status symbols or objects of desire. Instead of harping on the looks or all the state-of-the-art features in one go, the TVCs for this car like to take it one step at a time. “The brief given to the agency was to clearly establish the uniqueness of Nissan brands in the consumers’ minds in a clutter breaking and in a simple but memorable manner,” says Dinesh Jain, CEO, Hover Automotive India, the marketing and sales partner of Nissan Motor India Private Ltd (NMIPL).
“The hatchback segment is pretty competitive in India; so it is important to promote the product features,” says Anand Ramanathan, an analyst with KPMG. And this is precisely what sets the ads apart. Nirmalya Sen, managing director, TBWA India, says, “When the Micra was launched our campaign focused on the innovative features of the car. Now that it has been established, we want to highlight how driving the Micra can be a pleasant experience.”
NMIPL, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Nissan Motor Ltd Japan, was incorporated in India in 2005. The Micra, a late entrant in the Indian hatchback/small car segment, is the company’s first locally manufactured car and was launched in July 2010 with two TVCs that highlighted one product feature each. The company seems to be taking the same strategy forward with two new ads this year that again take up one feature at a time. But the first question that comes to mind is, is there room for new products in the crowded hatchback market in India?
“The hatchback segment has matured over the years and it’s fiercely competitive. However, it’s far from being saturated. There is room for more vehicles that enhance the value for money proposition,” says Jain of Hover Automotive India. “The uniqueness of the Micra lies in its ability to offer a product with features that are segment first, coupled with competitive pricing that sets a benchmark for the industry. There is untapped potential in the segment and we definitely are one of the formidable players here,” he adds.
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