Tuesday, September 13, 2011
By Pranjal Gera
Ford starts the Age of Aggressive Ad Campaigning
Ford India has exhibited ruthless aggression in its latest advertising and marketing campaign 'swap your drive' to make people aware of its advanced technology, driving experience and superior fuel economy, making people sap their vehicles of popular rival brands such as Toyota Fortuner, Maruti Swift and Tata Indigo for one week. This has made Ford the first ever automobile manufacturer to directly name rival brands in its advertisements, previously done only in cola and FMCG products/brands. Anurag Mehrotra, Ford India's Vice President (Marketing), said that the idea behind this concept was to make people experience the Ford products' strengths by making them use the products instead of making people aware through the media.
Maruti Swift, Tata Indigo and Toyota Fortuner far outsell the Ford products- Figo, Fiesta and Endeavour in their respective segments. Toyota and Maruti Suzuki have not yet said a word on the Ford campaign and have declined to comment.
The high interest rates and fuel prices have slowed down the market in India. The sales of cars have dropped significantly in the last two months- 15.7% in July and 5.7% in August, as compared to the last year growth of 30%.
Experts have said that the aggressive ad campaign carried out by Ford, has been in fashion in Europe and USA for a long period of time. They said that this can be delightful if presented properly, but can become disgusting if done in a bad way.
Earlier this year, Bajaj Auto did similar thing when it started advertisements directly aiming at the Japanese Motor Bike Companies.
Tata Motor too joined the aggressive campaigning when it claimed its car Tata Manza to be far superior to other Japanese products.
