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The company has two agencies on its roster currently – Leo Burnett and McCann-Erickson
After the launch of the much awaited Chevrolet Spark in April this year, General Motors (GM) is close to launching the Chevrolet Captiva, which will hit Indian roads in the first quarter of 2008. A creative pitch has been called for the new SUV.
The agencies learnt to be in the fray for the business are Leo Burnett, McCann-Erickson and FCB-Ulka. The first two are GM’s roster agencies. GM is keeping its options open in the sense that it will screen more agencies if necessary at a later stage of the pitch. Madison Media is the AoR for General Motors.
The size of the business could not be ascertained, but considering the SUV market has a niche audience, the company will look at planning its ad spends intelligently. Competition, too, has a big role to play in this. The stiffer the competition gets, the higher are the chances of a company trying different ways to woo the customer towards its product, and GM will be no different.
The soon-to-be launched Chevrolet Captiva |
The two roster agencies, Leo Burnett and McCann-Erickson, share the creative duties for GM products. Leo Burnett handles the corporate duties, the Chevrolet Tavera and Chevrolet Spark. McCann takes care of the Chevrolet Optra, SRV, Aveo and Aveo UVA. Rediffusion was also on the GM roster and was handling the corporate and creative duties for the Tavera, but these are now with Leo Burnett.
The Captiva, an SUV from the GM stable, will be positioned against the Maruti Grand Vitara, the Honda CR-V and the Hyundai Tucson. It will be priced in the range of Rs 15-20 lakh. The model is known to have done well in Europe. With 2,400cc petrol and 2,000cc diesel engines, the SUV seats five or seven. The SUV will most probably enter Indian roads on diesel with a common rail engine jointly developed by GM Powertrain and VM Motori.
GM has offerings in almost all the significant areas of the Indian car market. The Aveo is designed for the mid segment, the Tavera is a multi utility vehicle (MUV), and the recently launched Spark is a small car. The Aveo UVA, which was launched in January, is positioned against the Maruti Swift and Hyundai Getz.