Maruti Suzuki Ritz, lives in the moment!

Maruti Suzuki Ritz has seen three major campaigns since its launch in May 2009. While the first campaign focused on romancing the car, the second campaign "Choices' brought out the sheer advantage the car has over competition in the most fiercely fought category. Together these two campaigns have helped Ritz clock in a monthly sales of over 6000 cars.

Ritz has a market share of 16.1% (2010-11 April-December) in the premium compact segment that consists of Maruti Suzuki Ritz, Maruti Suzuki Swift,Hyundai i20,Chevrolet UVA, Skoda Fabia, Fiat Punto, Honda Jazz, Ford Figo, VW Polo and Nissan Micra.

Therefore the first two campaigns were significant in establishing Ritz as a strong player in the premium A2 segment. Now Maruti felt the need to build on this foundation and provide a strong emotional connect with its core audience.

In its latest campaign, Ritz has been positioned as an ideal companion for young urban families who are essentially carefree, stylish and intelligent and who strike a perfect balance of purpose and fun. Ritz matches up to these criteria perfectly.

Ritz - Live the moment, the life philosophy at the heart of the brand, reminds viewers of life's countless moments, both small or big and all equally important which need to be experienced, loved, lived and made the most of!

Shashank Srivastava, Chief General Manager Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India speaking exclusively to Adgully said "Ritz matches up to young urban families. Much like its driver Ritz also combines practicality with loads of fun, offering consumers performance, mileage, space, and comfort in a stylish and exciting package."

The brief given was to give life and meaning to the brand's platform of "Live the Moment' so that it creates excitement in their minds. Junichi Minohara, Vice President and Executive Director, Dentsu Creative Impact told Adgully, "Having gathered sufficient momentum in terms of sales and consumer preference for Ritz, it was time to consolidate Ritz's positioning by forging a strong emotional connect with the consumers."

He further added, "'Live the Moment' combines Ritz's practicality and fun like no other car for the intelligent urban buyer who embodies the same balance in his life, and who therefore truly lives every moment. It is this personality of the car and the buyer that the campaign attempts to bring together. The campaign is all about life's myriad moments, small and big - all to be experienced, loved and lived. It is this philosophy of life that the Ritz campaign captures."

The basic objective of this campaign is to bring alive Ritz's core positioning of '"Live the Moment', in a manner that helps create a strong empathy with the consumers.

This campaign has received a positive feedback and has been the buzz on social networking sites. Srivastava further said, "We have been extremely excited about this campaign from the beginning and have always believed this as the perfect communication for Ritz given the stage of life it is in. So far we have been receiving a very positive feedback on the campaign. We interact with consumers on real time basis through social media and by other research methods. The consumer finds the situations shown in the ad very relatable and is generating the emotional connect it intended to achieve. I sure this campaign will go a long way consolidation the premium image the brand has."

He further added that the approximate spends on the entire campaign has been close to 700 to 750 Lakhs.

"A2 is not only the fastest growing segment in the country but also one of the most important segments as far as Maruti Suzuki is concerned. Ritz as you know is our second brand in this category. With Ritz in our portfolio we not only intend to dominate this segment but be in the forefront of shaping the future development of this segment. Therefore the continued success of Ritz is extremely important for the future plans of Maruti Suzuki," Srivastava stated. | By Janees Antoo [janees(at)adgully.com]