Maruti Suzuki’s portfolio has several small cars. That makes its task of differentiating each of these cars difficult. To bolster one of its most sturdy performers, the WagonR, which sold 135,000 last year, the country’s largest carmaker has come out with a mascot named WizeR.
WizeR is meant to represent the typical WagonR owner: “He is someone who would want a lot of engineering substance and space, for example, when choosing a car, rather than just flamboyant looks,” says Maruti Suzuki Chief General Manager (marketing) Shashank Srivastava. “We want to focus on leadership in engineering, design, space and not just volume of sale.” WizeR, he hopes, will underline the wisdom that comes with logical thinking and connect it with the street-smart and pragmatic profile of the WagonR buyer.
To build awareness for the new mascot, Maruti Suzuki has tied up with national dailies to flesh out the mascot through weekly comic strips for the next few months. It will ultimately take WizeR on to the Internet for the discerning buyer. “Our real target is to employ WizeR in the virtual world, where he will talk about the car, answer consumer queries and advise car users through webisodes, videos and so on,” informs Srivastava. TV, then, would take the backseat for WagonR — a space which will be hogged by the Ritz. Maruti Suzuki has set aside around Rs 1.5 crore for the WizeR campaign.
After a long time, a company has decided to put its money on a mascot and not a brand ambassador. Says Shrivastava: “A brand ambassador, with his many endorsements, could end up giving conflicting messages to the consumer.” Instead, he feels, a mascot, if properly established, can be unique to a brand since mascots are not often used in India. Harish Bijoor, CEO of Harish Bijoor Consults, agrees, “It is one of the very few mascots coming to the market. Mascots are not expensive and don’t have the trappings of a brand ambassador.” However, he warns that there could be a mismatch between WizeR and Maruti Suzuki’s intent to put him at par with a WagonR buyer. “ WizeR, for now, is a bit too common,” he says.