Shashank Srivastava leads brand marketing and the consumer engagement efforts of India’s largest automotive company whose portfolio includes some of the most consumer-loved and established brand franchises and exciting new brands like the Ritz, SX-4 that are enamouring a new generation of Indian car buyers. Shashank Srivastava’s is a story of leading, maintaining and consolidating Maruti Suzuki’s dominance through two decades of change. Today, he is recognized as one of the key spokespersons of MSIL for Marketing and Consumer engagement and even the Industry. In this exclusive interview with India Digital Review, Shashank Srivastava discusses Maruti’s plans of leveraging digital media for their marketing goals.

How does the digital medium - both internet and mobile - figure in Maruti's plans to reach out to consumers?

Till 2008 we were not strong in digital medium. Around 2008 end we realised that it is a very big media even for automobile industry. I remember there was a report from JD Power which said that it has become the third highest referral source for any information regarding automobile purchase for the buyer. We thought it is a very important medium and our spends were very minimal. We realised the potential and since 2008 we have been increasing our spending dramatically on digital. Last year our spending was around Rs 8 crore on digital marketing and this year it is going to double. It has become very important and we have realised it. We have received very good feedback on products and on lot other things. We are certainly very happy with our investments.         

Many car manufacturers are actually resting heavily on internet as a marketing medium for their business class vehicles (especially Sedans and SUVs)? What are Maruti’s plans on these lines?

In fact, the last launch in August 2011, which was of the new Swift, was the only instance where we launched it on the web before the actual launch. Normally we announce it on the press or webcast which we were doing for the past three years. So anybody who is hooked on the internet can view our proceedings live. But this was one instance where we announced the launch including the prices before the actual announcement to the press. So, people in the digital space could have known about our launch price and time and could have seen that before we made a formal announcement to the press.

We know there are certain products like BMW in Germany, once launched their car only on the net. There was no press, print or television, but just the internet. I think we are still a little far from that situation. But with the Swift launch, we have done that and I think the trend is going to continue because the number of people who are coming to the internet has increased so dramatically and all researches show that more people are referring to internet which is over 34 per cent for any purchase decision.

Surely, it is going to be the most important medium and I would say that we are going to follow the British pattern where digital market has surpassed the other mediums. I think the day will come as the direction is very clear and we have thus realised it as marketers and we have been making our strategies and plans accordingly.                

In a category like automobile, visual brand building works the best. With newer forms on visual content such as video and apps coming up on internet, how does Maruti plan to leverage these?

If we see the new SX4 which was launched in October 2009, you could actually have a virtual test drive online on the SX4. The images of the product which is a 360 degree angle view was created virtually online. On the virtual test drive you could see the road and also take the overall view. Those things are here now and we are doing these already but we are doing it in a much smaller scale than what we will do in future.

Recently when we launched Kizashi, we had this Kizashi app for iPad and iPhone users which was was also introduced by Suzuki when they introduced Kizashi in US market. So these things are here, but, at the moment, in a smaller scale.

It is practically viable for introducing such apps for Kizashi buyers who most certainly will also be iPhone/iPad users. But for some small car buyers, it would not make much sense. So how would you penetrate in those segments?

Recently in the past one to one and a half years, we have started functioning in social media as well. So, when we say small cars, even in this segment, the referral through the usage of internet for collective information is in lakhs. These constitute the brochure downloading or price information seeking etc. So these are not interactive but rather just information seekers.

The beauty of this medium is if you are able to engage the consumer then you can actually get the output for free. So through word of mouth people talk about their satisfaction and what gives us the advantage is that through this medium we can engage the consumer in getting lot of output without getting any money spent. On the contrary, if you are not good at your services then you should also be ready for the negative publicity on these forums as well about which you can hardly do anything. So things turn both ways and one need to be confident before coming to this medium.

Actually, when we had the fan following of different small car models on a popular social networking site, we found that Ritz got the highest fan following with over 500,000, whereas Alto got 280,000 odd fans. So for smaller cars what the good thing is that these users of internet need not be from variable socio-economic structure. So, I think what is relevant to them should be offered to them.

Of course, social networking and gaming are a one small part and other things like mobile are also there. Like recently, we bagged the Global Award in Mobile Marketing for Eeco at San Francisco last year. Therefore, if you have a relevant connect with the consumers then the campaign will be successful for sure.  

What answers do you seek from your digital advertising agencies and digital media partners while promoting your brand on internet?

Ignitee is our digital agency. They do all the work for us which includes building website, organizing campaigns, ORMs (Online Reputation Management), optimisation, solutions etc. On terms of innovations the important thing about digital marketing is that the consumer has to be engaged as it is not a one way flow like a Print or a Television but it also where people can reply. I think that is where the innovation has to come in, with how you engage a consumer is a key and a basic thing in digital marketing. Rather than number what I feel that we should grapple more about its effectiveness than just statistics.    

People are speaking about mobile being a great medium for brand communication, but still very less amounts are spent on this medium. What’s your take on this?

We have to progress in these lines as a nation and also when I say this I mean the same for Maruti Suzuki which isn’t so forward in the mobile marketing. When I got into mobile marketing, we got a great success with Eeco where we did a FIFA contest which got us very good leads from people who wanted to buy.

So obviously the medium has a great potential, but we realised that we are just modifying our sites for WAP which was just one part. But it has to evolve beyond this which consumers can find useful and interactive.  There is no point of pushing something and then coming to a point where we get into a ‘spam’ image. I have not found the key to avoid this spam, but the day any marketer finds the key, he/she will be at a huge advantage over competitors which I believe has the maximum potential.        

Internet is said to be a measurable medium. But have we overdone the measurement quotient and made this medium hard to understand for brand marketers? What’s your take on this?

I don’t believe that. Actually I feel while it may be misleading in some ways but marketers love it because you can measure all your investments. It is very difficult in print and even on TV, it is slightly difficult. There are frequency figures but these are based on sampling measures which can be erroneous. On digital, there are actual figures in terms of lakhs, thousands and millions which could be misleading but is definitely required. But I would love to have an additional impact or effectiveness index built-in which also lets us know what is the effectiveness and what is being thought about the brand is finally.      

How do you see your marketing objectives aligning with what digital media offers in the future?

I think this medium in India is in the process of development and also across the world. We will find new technology coming in, making it the most effective medium. Even today the amount of feedback which helps me to modify my product is more in the digital space than anywhere else. But what information one gets from the chat in the cyber space is more effective than any other medium.

Also if we look at the demand of the product, this medium is also more open and effective than any other medium. I can see no way it can get small but will certainly grow multi-fold in a very short period of time. May be in India it will happen a little later but overall it will grow as a top medium very soon.

Compiled by Ezra John