"The Logan will soon be renamed": Vivek Nayer, Mahindra & Mahindra

An MBA in Marketing from University of Bombay, Vivek Nayer, senior vice-president, marketing for Mahindra & Mahindra's automotive division, joined the company in August 2005. Just a while before that, he occupied senior roles in marketing at Reckitt Benckiser (UK), prior to which he was responsible for the Dettol Mega Brand in India. A marketer with over 22 years on blue chip brands and experience in the FMCG space, Nayer also has a firm grounding in sales, courtesy his time at Voltas.

Nayer is also a member of senior management councils of the Auto Division, namely the Auto Strategy Board, Auto Executive Council, the Auto Product Council and the Auto Launch Council. In conversation with Ashwini Gangal of afaqs!, this ardent traveller details the company's marketing initiatives and the recent digital high; he also speaks about the company's top car brands -- Scorpio, Bolero, Xylo and Logan -- and the communication surrounding each. Excerpts:

Edited Excerpts

Prior to 2000, Mahindra was known as the manufacturer of tough, rugged, sturdy vehicles that provided transportation solutions to consumers in small-town, semi-urban India. The start of this change happened in 2000, when the Bolero was launched; and that was the preparation for what was to come with the launch of the Scorpio in 2002. The latter took this transition to a new level.

Bolero and Scorpio were launched with the intention to appeal to the urban market; the target group was the city-dweller. Right from the product offering to the positioning to the advertising, sophistication was maintained, thus marking the turning point for Mahindra & Mahindra.

'Mahindra kahaan bana paayega' was the cynicism that the company was greeted with, when it tried to get into manufacturing an SUV with Scorpio. But because of a resolve at the top level, particularly Anand (Mahindra) and Pawan (Goenka), to invest Rs 500 crore to this effect, Mahindra's equity underwent a transformation, as the company went from being a jeep maker to a utility vehicle maker to a maker of sophisticated SUVs. Today, Mahindra means so many things to so many people.

Today, we have Club Mahindra, Tech Mahindra…there's the Satyam takeover; Mahindra's equity itself has undergone a transformation.

As far as the Scorpio is concerned, we've always aimed at making its advertisements stand out, while displaying the brand's values -- power, technology and the attitude of wanting certain things in life and settling for nothing less. One may recall its launch advertisement with the tagline, 'Nothing else will do', where a Scorpio emerges from the ground underneath a tennis court.

Then, in 2005-06, another ad that portrayed the power, attitude and style of the brand was aired -- in the film where a woman flying a chopper cleans the snow off a Scorpio that's driven by a man. The most recent ad was the one launched in April last year; it showed the Scorpio in an off-road terrain -- the desert -- for the first time.

Xylo, the MPV, has had two major campaigns. A year and a half ago, it was launched with a 10-day teaser ad film, in which a crate falls on a parked sedan and the text 'The era of sedans is over. The Xylo is coming' flashed on the screen.

The revealer film, which ran for around four weeks, was a film where the crate opens and a red Xylo comes out. This curiosity-inducing tactic worked, because unlike competing foreign brands that launched soon thereafter, such as the Volkswagen Polo, consumers didn't know what the Xylo looked like. So the awe factor was there. Of course, Xylo doesn't attempt to wipe out sedans. It is just that the car, with its style, technology and zing, is capable of targeting both a sedan and an MPV user.

The story of the Xylo was furthered with the theme campaign that emphasised the fun aspect of the brand, while positioning it as a cool, trendy vehicle. It spoke to a TG of successful social animals, who like to work hard and party harder. A month or so back, these values of the brand were reinforced in a different way.

Yes, roping him in to endorse the Xylo was a deliberate move. We didn't want to use a Bollywood celebrity; people recall the celebrity more than they do the brand. Kasbekar was thus a credible choice.

The ad weaves his real-cum-reel life role as fashion photographer with the unique features of the car -- ample leg room, rear AC, big food trays and flat bed seats. This campaign retains the brand's positioning; and the TG falls somewhere around 25-30+.

Yes. Bolero, our entry-level SUV, has a younger TG. Rather, it has two TGs -- the urban youth and people in positions of power in small towns (such as panchayat heads). The Bolero, an affordable car with a retro look, is perceived as a status symbol in small towns.

With respect to communication, Bolero was the most advertised Mahindra brand, back when it was launched. This has changed; today, the most visible brands are Scorpio and Xylo.

Bolero was launched with the 'Break Free' campaign -- aimed at youngsters who echoed that sentiment -- and was re-launched in 2006. The re-launch ad film, shot by Kunal Kapoor, utilised water scooters and showed on-screen stunts. The tagline was 'Take on anything' and it was positioned as a rough and stylish car that allows you to have a lifestyle, wherein you can take on absolutely anything.

This campaign married customer truths to Indian truths and used relatable visuals that resonate with our Indian culture. The features of space and mileage have been intertwined with some typically Indian insights and characteristics. Here, there was a significant shift from the launch campaign, where Kunal Kapoor was seen talking about the benefits of the car. This is because our attempt is to showcase that here is a brand that truly understands what India is about.

Yes, you could say that. The Logan is a French car made by Renault, but we want to convey that we understand the consumer better. Now that all controversies are over, Mahindra is fully backing Logan.

Thus, we want to give people the message that this car has been designed taking into account Indian needs and consumer insights. The Indian connect was thus crucial to this campaign, as a precursor to its rebranding.

We will rebrand the Logan by the end of 2010 to reflect its Indian-ness, and its design too will be reviewed for potential change. The Indian card will continue to prevail.

Mahindra has doubled its ad spends over the past three years. Usually, when we do a campaign for any of our brands, we look at a reach of 30-35 per cent in the concerned TG, and an OTS of about 8+, as this is required to gain the desired visibility. A noteworthy change is that today, 5-10 per cent of our ad spends is for digital innovations. Three years back, this figure was zero.

It is absolutely significant; we have upped our digital innovations in the recent past and have many more lined up for the future. This space allows us to create an emotional bonding with our consumers, generate community-building and facilitates interaction of like-minded consumers with one another. Traditional media is a one-way process that doesn't create this kind of engagement.

Our brush with digital began in a big way after the Xylo launch. Six weeks before the launch, we created a pre-launch website to create buzz around the brand, the way movies do prior to release. Tidbits of information were released on the site and this generated curiosity amongst potential consumers. Before people knew what the car looked like, the site got over 2 lakh hits! That's when we fully understood the reach of this medium.

We did this again for the new Xylo campaign a few months back. Several weeks prior to releasing the campaign on TV, we started a consumer contest on Twitter. We do a lot of online contests and voting-based activities and have used this space extensively for all our brands. Our Facebook page for Mahindra brands has over 1.5 lakh fans. As compared to competition, Mahindra is far ahead on the digital curve.

For the Scorpio, we have an online photo-sharing contest, where Scorpio users are encouraged to share pictures of their adventures with the car. Another digital venture was a video game (on zapak.com) and CD, which we launched in January 2010.

In this game, people can pick the car they want to 'drive' (Scorpio or Bolero), choose a terrain and drive away. We did this to build a relationship with youngsters who can't afford the car today, but would want to buy it in the future, thanks to this engagement with the brand. This was like a virtual 'Great Escape' (which is Mahindra's off-road adventure) experience for those who can't participate in person.

Over two million people have already played this game and we're working on something similar for the Xylo now. For Logan, we are currently running a forum where consumers have to share their own unique Indian insights, besides space and mileage.

Yes, we have taken the digital story forward for our commercial vehicles too. The Gio is an entry level four-wheeler that was launched in October 2009. It has better status connotations as against three-wheelers. Hence, the tagline was 'Jiyo naye andaaz mein, ab aapko duniya dekhegi alag nazar se'.

Besides advertising heavily on a buy-and-sell trade website, we sent out a few lakh voice SMSes to members of our TG. This was a 30-second audio message about the new product. We do similar things for Alpha and Champion, our three-wheelers.

In February 2010, we launched a new product, Maxximo, for which our salesmen used small digital players and a CD carrying five-six videos of the selling story of the product. This device was used for all customers, country-wide, in an effort to standardise the product message.

In the last four months, Logan sales have been going up month on month and grew by 70 percent last month. The base is small -- we sold 750 cars -- but it is a good sign. Our annual sales figures for Scorpio are around 40,000 units per annum; for Xylo, 35,000 units, and 70,000 units for Bolero. I'll say the road ahead looks good.