Maruti unveils Versa; ad campaign to break on Oct 26

Versa, Maruti’s first multi-purpose luxury vehicle, was unveiled by one of the brand ambassadors Amitabh Bachchan in the capital yesterday

The countdown is over! Versa, Maruti's first multi-purpose luxury vehicle (MPV), was unveiled by one of the brand ambassadors Amitabh Bachchan in the capital yesterday. Versa did get its share of attention once the brand ambassador, Amitabh Bachchan (his son and the other brand ambassador Abhishek was absent because of a film shoot in Ooty), made his exit.

Versa comes in three variants - DX, DX 2 and SDX. While DX and DX 2 are eight seaters, SDX is a seven seater. The variants are priced at Rs 5,15,000, Rs 5,45,000 and Rs 5,80,000 respectively. Currently, Versa is available in six colours, some metallic and the others non-metallic (while ‘ruby red', and ‘superior white' are the non-metallic colours, ‘starlite silver', ‘pearl silver', ‘mystic blue' and ‘exotique green' are the metallic ones).

Talking about the features of Versa, Jagdish Khattar, managing director, Maruti, said, "Versa is the first MPV in India. In keeping with its brand name, it offers both space and style. The versatile characters of the car range from driving pleasure, easy manoeuvre, spacious interiors to safety and flexibility. Versa is, in fact, positioned as ‘Two luxury cars. In one.'"

The car targets the B segment (Santro, Alto, Matiz) car owners or those who want to upgrade from MUVs (multi-utility vehicles). Maruti officials claim Versa has no direct competition in the marketplace. According to industry veterans, the nearest competitors would be Qualis and Bolero - though they would compete with Versa on different parameters.

With an investment of Rs 300-400 crore in the manufacturing of Versa, Maruti has set a sales target of 1,000 Versa cars per month. However, the car will be available at only 127 select dealer outlets across the country. Versa will be launched in Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai and Ahemdabad today (October 25). Versa will be taken to 12 more cities including Kolkata, Pune, Lucknow, Jaipur and Indore very soon.

Much of the hoopla around Versa will be created when the ad campaign breaks on Friday (October 26, 2001) across all TV channels and national dailies. While the company officials refused to talk about the ad spends earmarked for the Versa campaign, Junzo Sugimori, director, marketing & sales, Maruti, said, "We have calculated the ad spends on a per-car basis. The ad spends per car would range between Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,000. Over the next two to three months, we are estimating that the spend per car will be in the range of Rs 8,000 to Rs 9,000."

The campaign constitutes a series of ads (created by ad agency Lintas) that will run for 60 days. Talking about the TV commercial, Ravi G Bhatia, general manager, marketing said, "The basic communication plank is that you get two-cars-in-one. And that is why there are two brand ambassadors. The idea is to communicate the features, comforts and usage situations, through a verbal banter between Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan." Amitabh Bachchan, on his part, said his decision to endorse Versa was based on two reasons. "First, to be associated with a truly national car and, second, to be with Abhishek."

Maruti's decision to be associated with Big B could be different though. Overall, the car market recorded a 7 per cent de-growth in the first six months of the current year. The company is hoping the father-son duo will weave their magic on the prospective consumers and spark sales in a dull market.

© agencyfaqs! 2001