A car with ideas, a firm without

Zen or WagonR? Which car should you buy? A tough decision, given that both cars are in the same power range, and appear to satisfy similar...

Zen or WagonR? Which car should you buy? A tough decision, given that both cars are in the same power range, and appear to satisfy similar needs. Pose the question to any one of Maruti8217;s 150 dealers across the country, and chances are few of them will really have anything much to offer you, apart from the prices of various versions of these cars. And now that auto-giant Maruti Udyog has decided to slash prices of the WagonR by Rs 25,000, even the price differential between the two cars has got blurred for most old-school dealers, the real8217; difference in cars is their price and power output level. The LX version of the WagonR costs Rs 3,000 more than the Zen8217;s LX version, but the VX version of the WagonR is priced somewhere in between the two VX versions of the Zen.

This, for a car positioned as one full of ideas8217; is surely a sad indicator of things within the country8217;s auto leader. A leader, as all of us know, is the one who defines the market, sets the pace. In the case of Maruti, sadly, the reverse seems to be happening. After all, when Maruti decided to bring in Japan8217;s best-selling car, it should have ensured that this marketing-advertisement message went down to potential buyers. It should have positi-oned the WagonR as a wagon and a car8217;, a station-wagon in terms of utility but a car in terms of its compact size and city manoeuvrability, and so on forget this, the WagonR advertisements don8217;t even drive home the message that it is currently the top-selling car in Ja-pan, which is for all practical purposes, the auto country8217; of the world.

Remember the Tata Safari ad of the man driving into a river to help rescue a woman8217;s canoe? Can you associate such a positive image with any Maruti car, except for the popular 800 cc model the M800 which is strongly and well-positioned as an entry level or a first-buy car?

Sadly, Maruti didn8217;t position the WagonR firmly, and so the car full of ideas8217; left it to potential users to figure out what the car is best for. With the competition so hot, going by Maruti8217;s own figures, just a mere 10,000 people over 100 days have bothered to find out so far. Maruti then compounded its folly, by slashing the WagonR8217;s prices soon after its launch that8217;s a complete no-no in marketing terms. If this is how Maruti8217;s marketing team has failed to capitalise on a major launch, just imagine how bad things will get in the next few months.

To the uninitiated in lingua auto, like, say, the subtle differences between engine output bhps and displacement cc, Maruti8217;s next major launch, the Alto, is a virtual cr-oss between the Zen and the very old favourite, the M800. And, as it happens, the Alto is to be brought in with at least two engine variants an 800cc and a 1,000 cc that8217;s the M800 and Zen specs, in case you didn8217;t kn-ow. The Alto8217;s a real best seller internationally, but clearly needs some very special positioning. But with Maruti8217;s dealers essentially still not savvy in marketing don8217;t forget, they all came up when Maruti was a monopolist, and are really distributors8217; not salesmen8217; what the Alto will do is to completely cannibalise these two top selling models today, if not positioned properly.

Over the past couple of weeks this column has dealt with other major problems confronting Maruti such as the government8217;s role in slowing down its growth including delaying the introduction of a new engine for the M800, and now the continued procrastination over the financing of its much-needed expansion plan. These are very real problems, and unless they are sorted out, Maruti will not be able to retain even its shrunk 50-odd per cent market share. The fact that Ford will soon take over Daewoo and that Daimler-Chrysler has taken a 10-per cent stake in Hyundai also means that these Korean competitors have become that much stronger, and cash-richer.

The point, however, is that even if the government does get out of the way in Maruti, the auto giant will continue to flounder if it does not get its marketing strategy right. This is Maruti chief Jagdish Khattar8217;s real challenge, to completely re-orient his dealer network and marketing personnel to take on the rapid changes in the auto market. To cite just one example, while Maruti still offers a paltry number of colours for various models, Mahindra and Mahindra8217;s Quadro 4X4 jeep even allows you to configure your own vehicle with different types of engines and body styles/accessories on the Internet do you have a 4X4 parked in your mind, now build it in your drawing room8217;, is how the Mahindra marketing team is packaging this for potential customers.

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In a market that8217;s going to get increasingly over-crowded, and where marketing-production strategies are changing dramatically Daewoo was experimenting with producing one model in India but marketing those made elsewhere Maruti needs some radically different ideas to help it grow. Sadly, only the WagonR seems to be full of ideas right now. And even those aren8217;t being showcased.