" Ideal Product and a Perfect Confusion !" - A Marketing Perspective

Maruti Suzuki recently launched another brand in the crowded Indian hatchback market. The new brand is Stingray with the tagline “MY THING EVERYTHING”

The model is being offered in a total of 3 variants - LXi, VXi and VXi with an Option Pack - and all the three variants are being powered the  1.0-Litre K10 petrol engine. The exteriors of the car can't be overlooked and . The front fascia is one part where Maruti Suzuki designers have given their best.

Stingray is targeting the younger crowd. The brand is positioned as a cool car that have it all. The ads typically is trying to convey hip & cool attribute. Watch the ad here : Stingray

The tagline of Stingray is " My thing, Everything" which in a way is trying to be everything that an young consumer needs.Stingray starts with Rs 4.09 lakh

The new trend in the market seems to be the mad rush to attract the youngsters. Tata Nano is the new entrant in the mad rush with their new " Awesomeness" campaign.

The above specification and the price really makes the product makes it a 

” Hit in the market, ” but even after few months of its launch it has really shown that much of sales .So what went wrong ?

The reason is the launch has created a hell lot of confusion in the branding of the new car. While most of the media has touted the new brand as a variant of Wagon-R , actually the company intended it as a brand separate from Wagon-R. But media killed that scheme. If you look at the campaigns and the brand micro-site, Maruti had intended to position this brand differently from Wagon-R.

“  One cannot wish away the power of association”.

The new brand looks very very similar to Wagon-R so one cannot blame for this association. Similar issue is there with Vista which was launched as a new brand but is strongly associated with Indica.

So the question comes to mind ,what if  Maruti would have launched the product as line extension of best selling car Wagon-R ?.

This would have also created a sense of satisfaction for consumers ,as Wagon-R is known for its reliability and performance .