In the late eighties, The Maruti car had redefined the way we lived and worked. Particularly the latter for me as we were the battery suppliers. Suddenly, technology, scale, a new generation of customers and stiff competition, catapulted us from a manufacturing to a marketing Company.
Where S&M strategies had revolved around channel motivation alone, came the new need to understand the end user. We commissioned, for the first time, a consumer research. While many things emerged in terms of our imagery, consumer expectations etc a single term sticks to the the mind even after two and a half decades. A battery was described as a "grudge purchase". You couldn't start the car without it and never really knew when the expense of replacement would hit you. Additionally, being under the bonnet it had practically no "brag factor" and was therefore seen as a dead cost.
What we had to build a brand was this research docket and the canvas of the battery box. The Maruti car had redefined the technology and look of the battery (some of you readers might recall a black rubber battery box, which could, if required, be repaired at a local workshop). The new technology meant a white plastic container (in later years made more colourful with added pigments) which was sealed and non-repairable. This white container was like a palette on which we could write (screen print) our story.
The next question was what story ? And here is where I come to the point of this piece. Consumer knowledge needs to nestle in the marketeer's mind, be a dialogue point with the Team and the actual idea might come at a point away from the office. On one such afternoon, with my Boss away from office, I was planning to leave a little early. About the time, colleagues were packing up, my Boss charged into the office, glass shards on his shirt and a huge grin on his face. Exide Freedom, he said, "freedom from worries about your battery". His Eureka moment - on a customer visit and driving down the highway a bird hit the windscreen and his mind made this association of worry-freedom-flying bird.
We were charged with his excitement. Called up our Agency Rediffusion and asked the team to stand by for our brief. I will always remember the creative energy as we drafted and re-drafted the story and finally took it across to our Agency office. There, we had it first torn to shreds by SG (Subhabrata Ghosh) and his team. Then we built it back to something much larger than an advertising campaign. Placing the consumer at the centre, defining our promise of a tension free LSI (Light-Start-Ignition) service, we first constructed his expectations from our channel. This meant, changing the face of the dealer store from practically a garage shop to a consumer lounge, equipped with state-of-the-art service equipment. Releasing the consumer from worries meant a pro-active service call record with our dealers and desirably a computer with a customised CRM. All this might sound very elementary today but this was not so in 1988. We were on the look out for everything that was consumer friendly - including the first to tie up with Citibank and offer battery purchase on credit cards.
Thereafter, we selected a Corporate case study on Organizational transformation, well identifying the need to migrate the mind-set from manufacturing standards to consumer experience. The scale & technology came to our rescue, once again, as we needed to invest hugely in the plant on new production lines. Working from scratch, the plant teams and facilities reflected our new commitment to our consumers.
Finally, came the launch. We had this beautiful logo, with a bird in flight and a manual on model dealer stores. We had to capture the imagination of the network and show them a future "Shoppe" from a hole-in-the-wall garage shop. The battery had to move back-store and consumers would be walking into a lounge space, waiting while their battery was being attended to. We decided on a launch without the product. At Taj Hotels 4 metro properties, we had our event with a 120 square foot area model store. Dealers were given the walk-through experience of the new-age stores. On the sidelines, there are many stories to share of how we stayed up all night (the hotels could hand over the convention space only post 11 pm). When fatigue took over and we made mistakes, re-worked, dozed-off in turns, worried the Agency team and each other and needed Sujit Sanyal's humour to keep us going.
Exide Freedom, redefined the manner in which car batteries would henceforth be sold in the country. We moved on to consolidate our position in all the new generation vehicles. What's more - one by one, we upgraded the battery technology on every 2-wheeler, truck and tractor. A couple of years later Swapan Seth summarised it in a single line "India Moves on Exide".
PS : In the making of this brand, lies my personal story of meeting and marrying a Citibank-er on exactly this date (April 14).
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