Maruti: Ask and you shall receive

Wherever you go, you’ll find a Maruti service station near you. Cliched as that may sound, it’s a promise Maruti Suzuki India Ltd stands by. With close to 10 brands and more than 100 variants, Maruti Suzuki claims to have the largest service station network across India. And the company’s latest television commercial (TVC) attempts to communicate that claim.

Vinay Pant, assistant general manager, marketing research, Maruti Suzuki, says, “With 1,549 authorised service stations, ours is the largest service station network on offer. We surpass all other automobile players in this category.”

The new TVC opens on a shot of four Rajasthani men sitting at a crossroads in a desert. The next shot is of a Maruti car, with a man and his wife in it, driving along a desert road. The wife is heard telling her husband that maybe they should get the car checked out as they have a long way to go. But where would they find a service station in the desert? Seeing the four men, the husband stops the car and asks hesitantly whether there’s a Maruti service station close by. To the couple’s surprise, the four men point in four different directions. The voiceover concludes: “Jayenge aap jahan, payenge aap Maruti Suzuki service station wahan.” (Submit your opinion on this ad.)

However, the TVC seems like an extension of the earlier one in which a man finds there’s no food, but that there is a Maruti Suzuki service station in the remote mountains of Ladakh.

Parshu Narayanan, director, creative services, Capital Advertising, says, “The message is clear. It talks about the ubiquity of the Maruti service station. It talks about the presence of Maruti Suzuki service stations in the farthest and remotest corners of India.” Narayanan claims the idea is completely new.

The TVC has been produced by Shashank Chaturvedi and Vikram Kalra of Good Morning Films.