Corsa & #8217;S Test Of Character

A 20-something is at his workstation. The call button on his desk phone flashes, he picks up the phone, listens and, as he breaks into a big smile, the voiceover intones "Thank you, thank you..."

He dashes out of office, misses the lift, and takes the stairs. As he pounds down, he rushes past an elderly couple. "My parents," the voiceover says. He then runs outside the building towards a cab. Before he gets to it, a stern-looking lady beats him to it "" "my teacher". He dodges the traffic as an irate pretty young thing in a car "" "my girlfriend" "" honks.

An elderly executive "" "my boss" "" looks up at him, aghast, as he jumps over his car. Next, he stands in attention, giving way to four monks "" "my god". The voiceover continues: "Without whom, I would have been... just another guy... driving just another car."

Next, he is inside the Opel showroom taking possession of his brand-new Corsa. The shot dissolves with him driving off in his new Corsa. The voiceover says: "The new look, the new feel..." Then there are two shots of the Corsa, as the voiceover signs off: "Corsa 03, enjoy the difference".

The Corsa 03 is the latest upgrade to the original Corsa launched by General Motors (GM) India in 2000. Since then the company has come out with a new Corsa variant every year: Corsa 01, 02, and now 03.

The Corsa is not exactly in the fast lane: in the C-segment (according to industry specifications, this includes cars that are 4,001 to 4,500 mm in length), of the total 89,695 cars sold in 2002, it managed to sell 7,000-odd cars.

The Hyundai Accent is the clear leader in this segment having sold over 20,000 cars in the same period. There is also competition from the Ford Ikon, the Maruti Esteem and the Honda City "" all of which are in the same segment, where the price range is between Rs 4.5 lakh and Rs 9 lakh.

Clearly, GM needs to give its sales a thrust. For this, the company had to do some serious groundwork. There was a perception that the Corsa lacked personality. With the new Corsa 03 commercial, GM is trying to give a personality to the brand, which, the company admits, was lacking all this while.

To analyse the personality dimensions of the car, GM commissioned ORG-Marg to conduct a brand tracking exercise late last year. Corsa owners were asked what they liked about the car. The responses were fuzzy: some said they liked the safety aspect, while others liked the greater control the car provided specially while driving on highways. There was nothing distinct in their perceptions.

The same research threw up another finding. Most people accepted that Corsa's strength lies in high-class German engineering, but at the same time anything German wasn't giving them a nice and warm feeling. "A personal connect was missing," says Vinay Dixit, vice president-marketing, sales and after sales, General Motors India.

Sandeep Kumar, director of Enterprise Nexus, the agency that conceptualised the ad, says, "The Corsa was not entering people's consideration. The familiarity with the brand was very low "" which was actually resulting in a certain distancing of the people from the product. They knew the car existed, but then they didn't know much about it."

The idea behind the new ad was to create a distinct image of the Corsa in people's minds. So the challenge for GM and Enterprise Nexus was to work out a strategy to change the perception "" or the lack of it "" associated with Corsa.

The ad brings out an element of "personality" vicariously "" through the personality of a young achiever, says Dixit.

What adds to the personality of the young executive here is that he is not someone who has forgotten his roots. In the voice over he is thanking people "" his parents, his teachers, his god "" and acknowledging that what he is today, is because of them.

Dixit says this comes out in two respects, "It shows a certain level of humility. He is not a guy who is brash; we didn't wanted to give that kind of positioning. We wanted the Opel customer to feel that he is a lot more evolved."

While conceptualising the ad, GM and Enterprise Nexus realised that the ad would involve a lot of human emotions and some good car shots. They wanted to hire a producer who has experience in both. They worked with Cutting Edge, a South Africa-based production house, which had done many similar commercials, including one for BMW. "The ad has an international feel," adds Dixit. It was shot in December 2002 in Cape Town.

Now let's examine the ads from some of Corsa's rival in the C-segment. Some previous ads of the Ford Ikon have focused on the power of the engine, its pick-up and manoeuvrability. The latest one plays on how it has enhanced its looks.

Similarly, Hyundai Accent ads play on the comfort of driving, space and the five-door concept in cars. Its new ad on the diesel variant says something to the effect that you'll not feel you are driving a diesel car. What's central to most ads for the C category is the highlight on some or the other feature, look and performance of the car.

The Corsa's new ad, however, does not focus on any of the car's features. Which is surprising because the Corsa 03 is an upgrade with many new enhancements "" two new head lamps, changed contours for the seats and, most notably, a multi-intelligence system that displays on screen the outside temperature, the fuel consumption, the average speed for a trip, and the rate of fuel consumption in your car (this system, the company claims, is a first in the category). But the TV ad highlights none of these features or its new looks.

As Dixit explains, "We kept the media strategy very distinct. Television is a high-impact medium, and is best for establishing the characteristic of or the basic perception of the brands. When I see the TV ad and I'm in the target segment, I should empathise with it. I don't try to capture all the information in that 30-second slot. Print is better suited here. So all the information is available on our print ads."

The television campaign was launched on January 17, 2003. The focus is on sports, news and entertainment channels like Star World and AXN, which the upcoming executives segment is likely to watch.

Will the Corsa show the character to take on its competitors?