DATSUN INDIA – A JOURNEY UNCOVERED..
Maruti Suzuki India launched its “Kitna Deti Hai” campaign amidst a naive consumer base in India,
with their proposition that fuel efficiency was the only factor of evaluation during a passenger
vehicle’s purchase is significantly being challenged in recent times. The Indian automobile market
has evolved like none other in the past decade, collectively owing to the education on automobiles
happening and the increase in production output primarily driven by penetration. While the
dominance by Maruti in the passenger vehicle business has been hard to breach, especially at the
entry level segment owing to MS 800 and Alto’s legacy, here I’d like to capture the journey of one
such brand, Datsun India, which exhibited a promising strategy stepping into India in 2013.
Nissan with a revamped focus on catering to low cost passenger vehicles re-launched the Datsun
brand in 2013, after having to phase out three decades earlier. Datsun was eyeing fast paced and
rapidly evolving markets - India, Indonesia, Russia and South Africa with a specific target of achieving
5-10% market share in India relying on Nissan’s pre-created market penetration through its locally
manufactured models - Sunny and Micra.
The insight that Datsun India carried during entry with its brand positioning and products was to
provide an affordable and reliable entry level vehicle to bridge the reality and the desire of a middle
class family to own a four wheeler. Datsun India with GO and GO+ went on to clock approximately
1500 units combined per month for close to 24 months after their introduction in 2014, while just to
give you a reference (Maruti was doing about 21000 units a month with just Alto). Post this in 2016
Datsun India came up with Redi-Go, which has been their most successful car under the tag
consistently, though sales figures were much lesser than their competitors.
The fact wasn’t that their models had reached saturation or the market wasn’t receptive but its
cousin, Renault Kwid based on the same platform was clocking figures 4.5 times that of Datsun. This
entire execution from Datsun India was at a time when the audience had delved into the transition
phase from a mileage obsessed mind-set to building a wider array of vision towards automobiles.
There were claims by the media and auto-journalists that, if the re-launch was a move depicting
anachronism, Datsun must have established its presence much earlier to go up against the legacy of
Maruti in this segment.
In 2016 the entry level segment was devoured with TATA staging its comeback offering Tiago. At this
point there was very little space for Datsun to tap into and work towards increasing its sales with
minor facelifts.
One would have expected Datsun to draw inspiration from the plethora of vehicles existing in
Renault – Nissan’s repertoire, sadly this wasn’t the case. In the background of campaigning and the
lost ground that Datsun was toiling hard to recoup, its dealer expansion was not on par with the
pace of its competitors which was to be monitored.
Moving ahead to the current scenario, In October 2018 the most recent campaign “Experience the
change” by Datsun India was rolled out; it reaches out to the millennial market with a trendsetting
attitude and technology-centric focus. Datsun has always displayed the intent to contribute to the
market. This campaign comes in plight of the deficiency in affinity that has affected the brand. It
aims to counter this with first in segment features, to solidify its positioning among consumers.
The incoming version hosts the new age Infotainment system with Android Auto technically being
the USP. Styling from the outgoing model has been tweaked to exhibit its stance as a sturdy yet
sporty announcement. The new Datsun Go exquisitely slackens tension created by its predecessor
with respect to safety and durability an apprehension that the buyer can refrain from worrying
about now, as it comes with the mandated ABS/EBD and LED DRLs etc.
The ad has garnered views owing to the fact that Datsun India has signed Aamir Khan as its Brand
Ambassador to promote the 2018 versions of Go and Go+ that come equipped with a bundle of new
features. For such a bold and renewed launch an influential artist like Aamir Khan would fit the bill.
“Experience the change” ad, of October 2018 has creatively kindled the explicit difference in
expectations of consecutive generations thereby establishing Datsun as a symbol of novelty.
At this juncture, it is for time to unveil what the future has in store for Datsun India and its parent
Nissan as well. With the BS VI norms laid out it is for them to come up with a dynamic strategy for
the experiments that haven’t turned fruitful for them previously in the Indian Market.
