MARKETING
Taking A Web Drive
Blogs are now a part of internet strategies of auto companies
VISHAL KRISHNA
13 Feb 2009
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ALL-WHEEL BLOG: Harish Kumar, Shrawan Raja and Clement David are intense auto bloggers
(Pic by Dominick Xavier) |
While Chennai sleeps, 22-year-old shrawan Raja is awake blogging. In his dimly lit room, he collates information on the auto industry from over 50 blogs and his network of friends around the world, and then posts it on his Web domain. “Anyone can write about cars. But there are not many of us who analyse the science behind the design and the mechanics,” says Raja, who is an automobile engineering student at Hindustan College in Chennai during the day.
His ability to explain the merits and demerits of engineering applications in cars makes him one of the forerunners among a new stream of bloggers who write in the interest of the consumer. But more than the consumer, it is the car companies that are taking note of the writing of Raja and his community. Blogs have become part of Indian auto companies’ larger Web strategy. Companies such as Mahindra and Mahindra (M&M), Fiat and Hyundai follow customer thoughts floating on the internet. Says Vivek Nayer, senior vice-president of M&M in Mumbai, “Two years ago, none of us would have worried about the internet. But now, spending for the Web has gone up from almost nothing to 5 per cent of the total marketing spends for an automobile company.”
More Than Words
Shrawan’s blog, indianautosblog.com, draws close to 100,000 surfers a month. Such scale of response has made car makers view the Web as a source of knowledge to plan pre-marketing campaigns.
The idea to launch internet campaigns came from a Mumbai-based firm called Fractal Analytics. Fractal has for years collated customer credit information, and made sense of financial behaviour of customers for banks. In 2006, it decided to track writing on blogs. Says CEO Srikanth Velamakanni, “We ran a few variables of customer preferences in blogs, for a television company, through our statistical formulae. We realised that this information was more valuable than market research.”
Velamakanni says the information helped Mirc Electronics, the Mumbai-based maker of Onida televisions, design a new flat screen television. “Blogs and the Web in general are still to be utilised to their full potential by any sector in India,” he says.
Now, a number of auto companies see the 56 million internet users — mostly in the age-group 18-35 — in the country as potential buyers or influencers. “Car campaigns abroad are targeted significantly towards network and lifestyle platforms,” says Manas Dewan, the spokesperson for Mercedes India.
In India, the recent pre-market campaigns of the Fiat Linea and the Mahindra Xylo have set the ball rolling for future events. From mini ad-films in blogs, to photographs of parts of the cars, to interviews with the designers, the companies were able to generate a lot of curiosity among online consumers.
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