WHEN MOTOWN'S ON A SONG
Let's face it, Indians love music. And no one knows that better than auto marketers who are using catchy tunes to create better brand recall. In short the auto industry is simply creating a song and dance about its products. ET AutoMania tracks the trend
Meenakshi Verma
ADMEN call it sonic branding. But for auto marketers, it spells emotional connect that lingers long after an ads goes off your telly. Using catchy tunes—sometimes backed by catchier lyrics, sometimes simply as a background score—has been a tried and tested formula for brand recall. With marketers in general, and auto honchos in particular, wracking their brains for the perfect formula to woo their target audience, innovative use of music is beginning to turn into advertising holy grail. Given Bollywood's formidable musical genes, using wellknown numbers as jingles not only helps cut clutter but also strikes an emotional chord with the target consumer. Since music and driving are pretty much inseperable, a catchy jingle goes a long distance in creating brand stickiness.
Also favourites, these days, are pop/rock bands who have their own following and a sharper core appeal with the younger generation. Of course current favourite Himesh Reshammiya seems to be as much a hot property in Motown these days as he is in Bollywood movies. Not one but two bike makers have picked his songs for their marketing campaign. So if it's Yamaha versus Bajaj in the marketplace, it's also Himesh versus Himesh.
Two and three wheeler major Bajaj Auto has used his song "Jhalak Dikhlaa Jaa" for the marketing campaign of the recently-launched 110 cc Platina. The song, sung for film Aksar directed Shyam Bajaj, has become a huge hit and will doubtless create a recall rub-off for the product.
On the other hand Japanese bike maker Yamaha has picked Reshammiya's "Tera Jism Odh Loon"
number from the movie Kyun Ki as the background score for one of its bike promos. Yamaha, which came out with its 125 cc Gladiator just recently, might have John Abraham as its brand ambassador but when it comes to music, the company has picked the rock band Euphoria for its
promos.
A song called "Life Rocks Bike Talks" sung by Delhi boy Dr Palash-Sen will be the background jingle for the Gladiator which is targetting youth with its macho image. Incidentally, the Gladiator was launched with a rock concert by Euphoria. "We picked Euphoria as we want our products to appeal to the young hearts. That is part of our marketing strategy and our re-oriented brand strategy as well," says Atul Gupta, associate vice president (sales & marketing), Yamaha India. If that makes you think only the bike marketers like to create a song and dance about promos, think again. The best recalled background score in Motown is still Lobo's "Baby I'd Love You To Want Me" which was used in the Tata Indica promos. It created such an amazing recall for customers that the song has now become inseperable with brand Indica. Indica wasn't the only car brand to make magic with music. Back in 2000, Ford's Josh Machine Ikon came packaged with The Josh Anthem written by Javed Akhtar and sung by Shankar Mahadevan. The latter also came out with an album of the same name with songs sung by various people. Says Tarun Khanna, general manager-marketing & product planning, Ford India: "Music plays a very important role in the life of any Indian. For instance, often the music gets famous even before the movie is released. So we simply used the concept and Javed Akhtar and Shankar Mahadevan instantly connected to our brand proposition and hence we came out with the anthem and later a music video. Encouraged by the brand recall the team of two made the same for our Fiesta launch and we came out with "GO Fida" which is doing very well too," he explains.
Korean car major Hyundai, used the same concept while launching its hot hatch Getz. Composed by Annu Malik and sung by Kunal Ganjawala the promo song for the Getz created quite a flutter at its launch. "The idea behind doing a catchy musical video campaign for Getz was to create a high impact clutterbreaking launch presence, riding on music and
dance. A special 3-minute music video was shot specifically for the launch, choreographed by Farah Khan using foreign dance artists," says Arvind Saxena, veep-sales & marketing, Hyundai. "The main marketing objective was to target the young, sporty, stylish, and trendy audience, who are trendsetters and this musical video campaign hit the right chords," he adds. Clearly jargons aside, there seems to be something in the way music connects. And marketers have a point when they say if music can make a film hit the jackpot, why can't that same recall translate into brand awareness? Given how well some of these catchy jingles are still remembered, there seems to be something about sonic branding.
Source: TOI news paper
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