MUMBAI: ‘Maruti Wagon R‘ has been able to create the highest brand experience followed by ‘Maruti Alto‘, reveals the latest study by TNS.
At the same time, Tata Nano‘s brand experience is the lowest among the 18 brands studied. The success of Wagon R is evident from the fact that it has been able to displace ‘Hyundai Santro‘ from the top position and is able to garner a higher brand experience than the larger selling Maruti Alto.
The study findings also show that `word of mouth‘, `test drive‘ and `cars on the road‘ are among the five most influential contacts apart from TV and newspaper ads. The influence of the word of mouth has grown over last three years and that of newspaper ads has actually come down.
Still the car marketers spend a huge amount of money on full page ads in newspapers and very little is spent on buzz marketing. Predictably, the influence of manufacturer websites has grown over the years. The younger age group notices the websites more than the older age group. The influence of test drives has also shown a consistent rise. Once again the younger people seem to experience the test drives more than the older buyers.
Majority of car companies use celebrities in their advertisements. Overall influence of celebrities is low in the category but has been increasing. The older age groups notice celebrities less than the younger age groups. The influence of car test reviews on TV has been going up and they are viewed more by the younger buyers. It is understandable because a moving car shown on TV with accompanying expert comments is more interesting and informative than a press article. However, the advantage of a press article is its easy irretrievability when required. But the younger generation constantly up on the learning curve can probably do the same on the YouTube and such other internet portals.
"Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don‘t know which half" said John Wanamaker, a visionary businessman of America.
"Today, almost a hundred years later, his statement still sounds refreshingly true" says TNS Automotive SVP Pradeep Saxena. According to him, all brands build relationships with their stakeholders by creating a brand experience. If this brand experience can be quantified, then John Wanamaker could possibly get his answer.
The key challenge in measuring the brand experience is identifying a common unit to measure the effect of different media. As per Saxena, Integration - a company owned by ex-media and advertising professionals, has developed just such a unit. It is a measure called ‘Brand Experience Point‘ or BEP. It measures the quantity of brand experience created by a brand through individual contacts (media) used by it. This is a common unit, which can be used across all contacts and is amenable to all arithmetic operations.
The Contact Point Optimization (CPO for short) study of TNS uses this concept to compare the Brand Experience generated by various car brands. It is a study conducted across ten media markets amongst recent buyers and current owners of cars in addition to the intending car buyers.
