Advertise or Perish!.. Ashutosh Harbola simplifies the fall of Ambassador

Hindustan Motors lost its Pole Position, Just like GM in US, to The Japanese. If it had Invested in Emotional Advertising in The Early 1980s, History could have been Written Quite Differently

Advertising in maturing markets is a question of building brand preferences. But in the growing Indian market, even recall can be a tough ask, considering the plethora of brands in the fray. This was not the case with Hindustan Motors, the pioneer of India’s automobile revolution, when it rose to prominence from the 1950s to the early 1980s. Its Ambassador (Hindustan Motor’s pioneer product) was called “The King of Indian roads” at that time, despite being one of the lesser cherished legacies of the British Raj. There was an absence of both competition and the need for innovation, either in product or in marketing terms. Today, the car and the company are just about history.

Ambassadors have been in India since 1958 with a few modifications and have been based on the Morris Oxford III of the famous Morris Motor Company. Its other claim to fame has been the manner in which politicians and bureaucrats continued to patronise it blindly until the dawn of this century, long after the public had given it a rather undignified burial (as a brand in their perception set).

That decline happened almost instantaneously in 1983, when India’s greatest automotive success story till date first came to life in the form of the Maruti 800. Till then, Hindustan Motors was on a high trajectory. Since then, Ambassadors never made a comeback. The domestic sales for passenger cars in India between April to October, 2010 was 11,05,273 units. Hindustan Motors only managed to sell 6727 units, which even constitutes Lancer and Cedia (Mitsubishi JV) and managed to export only 1 unit. Maruti, in turn, sold a whopping 6,28,378 units in the same period. It has reportedly lost some 50% of net worth in the past few years and is a key BIFR incumbent.

Could the company have spent the past quarter of a century doing anything differently? The answer is simple. Advertising! If Hindustan Motors had advertised its key product well, it could well have become an iconic brand. Anuj Gupta, Senior analyst, Angel Trade, comments, “After Maruti became a success, Hindustan Motors could have still made a comeback by choosing the right mediums of advertising and creating a niche for themselves.” Nostalgia is one of the most exhilarating marketing tools. Volkswagen’s Beetle has worked on nostalgia and consistently reinvented itself through focused advertising perception reinforcements. Hindustan Motors could even have followed even the Harley path to cult glory. Harley is a century old brand that has developed a cult following over the decades, which refuses to wilt irrespective of the competition on any given day.

Hindustan Motors could have highlighted the Indian nature of the car, and positioned it for its features, which separated it from others, like strength and durability. Vishal Oberoi, CEO Market Excel Data Matrix Pvt. Ltd, comments, “Ambassador’s case is stuck in the approach of Hindustan Motors, who have a conservative approach unlike other automobile companies in India.” In this market, you cannot create cult followings unless you develop a stellar communication strategy. Even Apple, which is a marked antithesis to Hindustan Motors in innovation, has found it hard to penetrate into India, largely because of its disdain for advertising and building an emotional connect. The lesson has come too late for Hindustan Motors, but not necessarily for the marketers of the day in India. Like in the rest of the world, even in India, advertising matters!