Now, theme launches, parties to lure car buyers

  • Aug 5, 2013
  • Views : 7031
  • 3 min read

  • By Tnn
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Car marketers are increasingly using theme parties and launch celebrations to draw more buyers to their dealerships

Ford Figo Three Year Celebration Edition

Theme weddings, did you say? That's so passe these days. The name of the game is theme car launches. Battling the worst slowdown since liberalisation, car marketers are using theme parties and launch celebrations to attract customer footfalls into their showrooms. With new launches like the Honda Amaze, Ford EcoSport, Mercedes Benz A-Class generating good bookings, the importance of celebration-marketing is now at an all-time high in Motown.

Take Ford, which used the celebration theme to create a buzz around its small car Figo, and will take up the festive theme come festival season. Vinay Piparsania, executive director, marketing, sales and service, Ford India, said, "When the Figo turned three, we co-created a special celebration edition Figo with our customers and took the celebration theme across all our dealerships. We also lit candles across dealerships as a symbolic gesture. Given that festivals play a key role in India we create a thematic ambience across dealerships that brings alive the festive spirit as well," he added. Related: Ford's limited-edition kit for the Figo

Ford isn't the only company stepping on the gas with theme-marketing. When Mercedes Benz launched the A-Class campaign, their dealerships around the country followed the night club theme complete with ambient lighting, thematic giveaways like the A-Class Pulsate wrist bands (something similar to a stamp mark before entering a night club) for the customers, DJs playing popular electronic dance music, a guest mixologist serving cocktails, mocktails and finger food. The company also ran a contest where invitees needed to upload their party picture on social networking sites like Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest. Every picture uploaded went online in an A-Class photo frame and the best picture won an A-Class for a complete year or the chance to holiday at the party destination of Ibiza.

Mercedes-Benz A-Class Pulsate theme party

Car marketers say anything that creates excitement at the showroom level is good for business these days. Mayank Pareek, Maruti Suzuki's chief operating officer (marketing and sales), said: "The whole idea is to create some excitement during a slowdown and these marketing events help build that buzz." Given that Maruti's corporate campaign ran 900 events in which 12,000 customers or potential customers participated, the reach of theme marketing cannot be ignored.

Sometimes, the 'theme marketing' may be regional with southern dealers for instance opting for a particular theme. Take Honda, which launched the Amaze earlier this year, riding on the 'fantasy' theme across all 25 showrooms in Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh. "The whole idea was to launch the car in a different way. Company officials in the south zone (Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu) selected the showrooms," said Meenakshi Krishnan, a Chennai-based event planner and designer. Krishnan who personally supervised launches for two showrooms in Chennai and provided design inputs to others added, "company officials were expecting good leads and bookings for the vehicle and they wanted the showrooms also to exhibit that look". Accordingly, she used props such as LED lighting columns, floral decor and motifs, and bead drapes to announce the arrival of the vehicle.

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