Can the new Brezza become Maruti Suzuki's next marketing masterstroke?

Demographics are passé while aspirations and experiences define the car buyer! Maruti Suzuki is marketing and positioning the Brezza in a way that could redefine automotive marketing in India!

The market positioning of the Maruti Suzuki Brezza will be a landmark moment in Indian automotive history. Before the Brezza, demographics used to define how cars are positioned, what the marketing strategy is and how the messaging is developed and how it plays out on the ground.

However, the market has moved on and “it’s more about meeting the aspiration of this new and young India that is defined not by demographics but by the mindset and what they want to experience,” feels Partho Banerjee, Senior Executive Officer, Maruti Suzuki. “Our research is also indicating that customers in India cannot be defined by their demographics but how they feel and what they want to experience.”

With age, geographic location, education or income not being the factors in making car purchasing decisions that they used to be before, vehicles have to be positioned and marketed in ways that define desires and experiences and across traditional demographic boundaries and segregations.

And even though the Indian consumer may be changing and not being defined by traditional demographic markers, it is not all vehicles that can be positioned in a way to appeal to a diverse demographic set that is bound together by desires for certain types of experiences and a certain lifestyle.

From the house of Maruti Suzuki, the new Brezza with likely new powrtrains and automatic gearbox may just be such a vehicle and that’s what Partho Banerjee is betting big on. “We are going to talk a very different language on the 24th,” says Maruti Suzuki’s Senior Executive Officer, talking about the launch date of the Brezza.

In a crowded market segment which often sees totally misplaced marketing strategies, it will be interesting to see if the Brezza can break traditional demographic boundaries. But with the success of the Victoris already under his belt, Partho Banerjee may well have another game changing marketing strategy up his sleeve for the Brezza. Is India game to play along?

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